| Kin Bow Nay is an original composition consisting of three movements for orchestra, based on the fusion of Asian musical materials with Western instruments. This piece depicts the natural landscape painting of the "Immortal Valley" in Miaoli County, Taiwan. Kin Bow Nay means "Valley of Death" in the Atayal language, and it was the older name of "Immortal Valley." The Atayal is one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. The three movements of the piece are entitled "Valley of Death," "Reminiscence," and "Immortal Valley." These three movements focus on creating the aural and visual scenes and emotional atmospheres corresponding to the "Immortal Valley." Kin Bow Nay utilizes numerous twentieth-century and twenty-first-century compositional techniques, non-traditional notations, and nonstandard Western performance practices to enable Western classical instruments to emulate sounds of traditional Asian instruments.;The accompanying analysis of selected works composed by three Asian composers demonstrates the method of merging both Asian and Western musical language and techniques within a single piece. The pieces selected for analysis include Chou Wen-Chung's first orchestral work Landscapes, Toru Takemitsu's I Hear the Water Dreaming for flute and orchestra, and Tan Dun's Water Concerto for water percussion and orchestra.;Chou Wen-Chung's Landscapes is known for its use of pentatonic melodic patterns, and the connection between music, traditional Chinese poetry, and Chinese landscape painting. Toru Takemitsu's I Hear the Water Dreaming exhibits two of his central artistic images, "dream" and "water." In this piece, Takemitsu uses the flute to imitate sounds of the traditional Japanese bamboo flute, the Shakuhachi, and features a wide variety of timbral effects. Tan Dun's Water Concerto incorporates water sounds with the standard Western orchestra, and adds theatrical elements, such as lighting effects and body motions of the performers.;Kin Bow Nay draws on Chinese aesthetic principles, adapts Asian characteristics of scale, timbre, and articulation for Western instruments, and thus, blends features of both Asian and Western music. |
