Abstract
Lu Yen (1930-2008) is one of the most important composer and educator in Taiwan. He was dedicated to composing in his entire life and immersed his life into music. Lu’s music is diverse in its style and abundant in its quantity. As time goes by, the style and features in his music were different from each stage of life. In this paper, the author focuses on chamber music String Quartet: A Flower on A Rainy Night (1987) by Lu Yen as the core of the study. The main research method based on the literature review and the analysis of Lu Yen’s manuscript, to investigate the background and education of Lu Yen, and to explore his mindset and technique within his music, then further apply to my composition.
The String Quartet: A Flower on A Rainy Night is a chamber music written in the middle period of Lu Yen’s life. With the combination of the thought of oriental philosophy, this piece expresses the individual and unique musical language of the composer. Based on the process of the literature review and music analysis, this composition was constructed on the “dualism” structure through the melody of A Flower on A Rainy Night with the concepts between familiar and unfamiliar. Furthermore, the pitch structure, rhythm, timbre, texture in this composition also reviewed the mode of creative compositional exploration of the composer.
The Evoked Memory is a chamber music for pipa and string quartet. Through the melody of Chinese folk song "jasmine", this composition takes "memory" as the major idea, to illustrate the antagonism and integrity between two characters. Meanwhile, the author explores things with different aspects of the "dualism" concept. This is a self-composition which is completed after the analysis of Lu Yen’s chamber music String Quartet: A Flower on A Rainy Night. With the understanding and internalization of the composing technique and the idea from the composer Lu Yen, it makes the author enhance the personal music thought and initiates the innovation and breakthrough in the further composition.