Taiwanese Folk Songs

• Lin composed Taiwanese Folk Songs in 2016. The work is a set of arrangements of 20^th-century Taiwanese popular songs.¹ 
• Note: the work’s title is sometimes given as “Four Taiwanese Folk Songs,” but there are five movements in one edition of the recording. 
• This work was commissioned by the Formosa Quartet, an ensemble founded in 2002 by four artists of Taiwanese descent.²

Movements 

1. Seaport Goodbye
   1.  The original 1939 folksong by Wu Cheng-jia is based on the composer’s own love affair with a Japanese woman during the war and the circumstances that led to their separation.³
2. Hengchun Folksong
   1. This folksong is from the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula of Taiwan and mixed with influences from the surrounding aboriginal tribes.⁴  
3. Dark Sky
   1. This song is based on a popular nursery rhyme usually sung in the traditional Taiwanese Hokkien dialect. It captures the lifestyle of farmers and peasants during post-war era Taiwan.⁵ 
4. Rain Night Flower
   1. The original folksong by Teng Yu-hsien was written in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. In the 1940s, it was re-written and adopted as a Japanese marching song during the war.⁶ 
5. Spring Breeze 

1. “From Hungary to Taiwan Available Worldwide Today!” The Formosa Quartet (January 4, 2019), accessed August 12, 2021, http://www.formosaquartet.com/blog/2019/1/4/from-hungary-to-taiwan-available-worldwide-today. 
2. “Formosa Quartet,” Besen Arts (March 2019), accessed August 12, 2021, http://besenarts.com/formosa/. 
3. Wei-Chieh Lin, “Wei-Chieh Lin: Taiwanese Folk Songs (2017)” in accompanying booklet, From Hungary to Taiwan performed by the Formosa Quartet, BRIDGE 9519, 2018, compact disc.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.