Miraculous beginnings
In 1986 the 48-year-old Hsiao began pursuing a master's degree in contemporary composition at UCLA under the Korean-American composer who went on to compose the music for the Seoul Olympics, B.K. Kim. His daughter, Hsiao Ya-hsin, and her husband were also classmates in the music department.
Hsiao's musical style has always been on the conservative side, so why would he even consider studying modern composition? Hsiao explains that he wanted to appreciate the perspective of 21st century composers. After all, changing times produce changes in aesthetic values, and people's conception of what constitutes beautiful melody differs from era to era. However, Professor Kim was well aware of Hsiao's romantic temperament and tender nature; his works have always abounded with vivid color and layer upon layer of beautiful, unforgettable melody. As a result, Kim reminded Hsiao that he needn't be a slave to modern music and its jarring dissonances, encouraging him instead to follow his own musical path.
It was during this period of study that Hsiao uncovered his personal style, using Taiwanese folksongs as his core material, and adding to it musical techniques from the Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, and Modern style periods. Not long after completing his MA, with solid encouragement from his friend Lin Heng-che, he composed his impressive violin concerto.
Hsiao worked like a fiend to produce the first violin concerto in Taiwanese musical history.
"My father had just passed away and my mother was bedridden by illness. My wife's business was experiencing difficulties," he recalls. He, his mother, and his children were all squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment, the children sleeping in one room, and Hsiao and his ailing mother in the other. In order to keep watch over his mother at night, Hsiao would compose practically every night into the wee hours, working on average about 16 hours every day.
In low spirits and living in the midst of poverty and illness, Hsiao suddenly felt a surge of inspiration driving him to finish this composition, which was of a larger magnitude than anything he had previously attempted. Even today, Hsiao describes its completion as "a miracle."
Going international
At first, Hsiao's concerto for violin could only be performed in a somewhat abridged format-violin with piano accompaniment. Nevertheless, when the plaintive violin slowly began to play the Taiwanese folk song "Plowing Song," the theme in the piece's section of thematic variations, audiences were invariably moved to tears. Then in 1990, Hsiao chanced to meet with a celebrated violinist who also hailed from southern Taiwan, Lin Chao-liang. Lin agreed to perform the world premiere of Hsiao's concerto.
Two years later, Hsiao's "Violin Concerto in D Major" was premiered by the San Diego Symphony under the baton of Japanese-American conductor Heiichiro Oyama with Lin Chao-feng as the featured soloist. The event marked the first time for a large, reputable American orchestra to perform the work of a Taiwanese composer. Not surprisingly, this historical performance was well received by the critics, not only propelling Hsiao to international status as a composer, but also helping to facilitate the internationalization of Taiwanese music.
Reflecting back on that performance, Hsiao is still unable to suppress his excitement. "At that concert, my work was sandwiched between pieces by Brahms and Dvorak-I was afraid that my work would be crushed beneath the weight of these two masters!" However, that night demonstrated that Hsiao's work, rich in late-Romantic flavor, was capable of rivaling the compositions of these late masters. To date, the piece has retained most-popular status within the Hsiao oeuvre.
In 1990 Hsiao additionally became the first Taiwanese to publish a cello concerto, which followed in the wake of the astonishing success of his violin concerto. Incidentally, the violin concerto was frequently performed in the San Diego Symphony's 1995 season. Hsiao's "Piano Concerto in C Minor" emerged in 1992. The piece ingeniously makes use of the Taiwanese folksong "Sorrow." At first the folksong is heard repeatedly as a low hum. Then the mood builds through melodic twists and turns, becoming more impassioned at each interval, until finally exploding into triumphant song that symbolizes Taiwan finally achieving freedom and dignity.
Live to compose
In a mere five years Hsiao had published three concertos. But in the midst of his hectic musical schedule, he was stricken with illness. On Christmas Eve in 1993 Hsiao was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured aneurysm. His condition was grave, and to make matters worse, without any medical coverage he was forced to pay a deposit fee of US$50,000. Hardly any hospital was willing to treat him. Fortunately for him, some of his Taiwanese compatriots moved quickly to raise money for his medical expenses, and arranged for the expert Japanese-American surgeon Dr. Yokoyama to perform the necessary operation. Only after a ten-hour procedure were they able to deliver Hsiao from Death's thorny grip.
When illness reared its ugly ahead, Hsiao was in the midst of composing his "1947 Overture" to memorialize the February 28 Incident. As the pain flared up in his chest, he could only think, "Please Lord, let me finish my work."After receiving treatment, he saw to it that no single day went unproductive. In 1995 his "1947 Overture" debuted in Oakland, California. Once again, his work featured Taiwanese folksongs, transforming their melodies through phases of poignant beauty, passion, and stateliness, achieving tremendous effect throughout.
In recent years, though in less then optimal physical condition, Hsiao, driven by the motto "live to compose," has continued to write, producing such works as "Yushan Hymn," "Ah, Formosa!" and "The Prodigal Son." He is in constant demand as a composer and performer. For a sincere chap like Hsiao, the only way to respond is with unflagging discipline. In October last year, he underwent an emergency operation to have a blood vessel removed. The procedure rendered it impossible to detect a pulse in his left wrist.
He remembers that after leaving the hospital, the first thing he did was to try to play the piano. He discovered that while his right hand was not wanting for sensitivity and strength, his left hand was completely numb. He was only able to regain the use of his left hand after a half-year of physical therapy.
Facing the music
Despite having undergone two surgical procedures, Hsiao's body still contains a number of aneurysms that are like time bombs waiting to explode. But Hsiao learned long ago how to keep an even keel about him. At present, he is living with his son, and though he is as poor as before, at least the cultural foundation that his friends at home and abroad cooperatively established provides him with a monthly stipend of NT$50,000 for his living expenses. He still makes it back to Taiwan on occasion, residing in the quiet flat he rents in Tamsui.
Chuang Chuan-hsien, who for many years has helped Hsiao enter his musical scores into a computer (and also happens to inhabit the same building that Hsiao resides in when back in Taiwan), always takes painstaking care of the composer whenever he returns to Taiwan. Chuang says wistfully that composers in other countries, such as the Scandinavian composer Sibelius, were considered to be national treasures. Accordingly, their material needs were provided for by their governments so as to allow them to concentrate on their work. Hsiao, on the other hand, has spent a lifetime toiling away to make ends meet. In recent years, Hsiao has contemplated returning to Taiwan, but has no permanent residence. And although NTNU has expressed interest in hiring him as a professor, Hsiao is unable to accept the position on account of his inability to climb stairs.
Moreover, Hsiao's fragile feet are no match for the wind in Tamsui, which can be quite heavy. Once while rushing to catch a bus to Taipei to handle some business matters, he very nearly toppled over. The exorbitant cost of printing music scores similarly hampers the circulation of Hsiao's compositions. In fact, all of the scores at the music festival held this last October at the National Concert Hall were cheaply copied and bound together in a makeshift fashion. For Chuang Chuan-hsien, as someone who reveres Hsiao-both the music and the man-the situation is difficult to bear.
After the music festival wrapped up, Hsiao made his way back to the US, his mind preoccupied with his promise to compose a piece, "Song of the Love River," for his hometown of Kaohsiung. Taiwan's foremost contemporary composer will continue to compose unabatedly, expressing in music the deep love he harbors for Taiwan.