Sharing the Stage with Hybridity: Guoyue as a Bridge Between Traditions

• In Event: Re-tuning Taiwan: Performing Discrepancies through Music

Abstract

As political winds have shifted in Taiwan, the national narrative that musical traditions are meant to portray has also changed. Guoyue or the national music and its instruments are still supported by the government although the pan-Chinese narrative they were designed to perpetrate has been replaced by a nativist cultural narrative. But with the existing infrastructure in the conservatories, instruments, and active heritage bearers of this tradition, the vestigial tools of the previous political climate have been repurposed to represent the more localized national identity. This paper examines a guoyue bamboo flute player and his process of fusing together a Western jazz ensemble with Taiwanese Opera (koa-á-hi; 歌仔戲) on one stage. I take the performance of this fusion jazz band as a case study that analyzes a strategy for the musical representation and creation of Taiwanese identity. Here the bamboo flute is used as a symbolic and practical musical bridge between modern Western influence and Taiwan's nativist-centered past. The bamboo flute, redesigned in the 20th century to play Western harmonies serves as both a practical link between the jazz band's harmonies and the Taiwanese Opera's unique musical flavors. The flute also acts as a symbolic link between the two traditions. The band uses performance to explore the discrepancies between Taiwan's indigenous, Chinese, and Western influences. Through rehearsal and performance observation, interviews, promotional materials, and repertoire selections, I will demonstrate how this ensemble endeavors to perform the hybridity inherent in Taiwan's musical traditions.

Author

• Ender Terwilliger, Wesleyan University