Taiwan is an island nation known as the origin of Austronesian languages. What Island Voices presents is not only the beautiful music of Taiwan's indigenous peoples but also the linguistic cultures of Austronesians. This year, we invited the Amis Liyar Percussion Group and O-Kai Singers to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They will be the first and only indigenous group from Taiwan to perform in this festival.
The music of the Amis Liyar Percussion Group is characterized by the use of traditional musical instruments, an important pioneering move in the indigenous music scene. In old times, instruments rarely accompanied indigenous music; the volume of instruments needed to be minimal so that individual performance could take the center stage. Today, many musical instruments are lost, which makes restoring indigenous music difficult. This is what makes the Amis Liyar Percussion Group 's use of traditional instruments so important. While they challenge the limits of traditions, they at the same time spent a long time doing research on how to remake traditional bamboo instruments. By combining many kinds of percussion instruments, they will produce a vertical polyphony of many registers, and horizontal and mobile melodies. This time, in addition to percussion instruments made of bamboo, they will use rarely seen instruments such as nose flutes, bamboo filter flutes, pan flutes, bamboo month flutes, bamboo tube flutes, musical bows, and Jew's harps. When performing, members will all wear traditional costumes, thereby strengthening the vibrant percussion music and bodily expressions. They will surely bring to the audience an amazing experience.
O-Kai Singers consists of six members equipped with great voices. Their performance unaccompanied by any other sounds is slightly different from a cappella music; it actually follows the indigenous tradition of polyphonic singing. Since long time ago, indigenous people in Taiwan have always emphasized community living. When working in group or holding festivals, it was expected that all members will be in attendance. In these various occasions, diverse styles of performance have been improvised, including reading aloud poetry, single-voice singing, paired singing, concerted singing and one person leading a chorus. It is this tradition that they draw on. Another characteristic of O-Kai Singers is that they integrate indigenous music into blues; this innovation adds a new flavor to their music and allows for a fresh experience for the audience.
These two groups will perform the classics from their repertoire, including celebration songs and drinking songs from long time ago, 1960s love songs with eastern flavors, and an Amis song, "Palafang - old men's drinking song," which was used during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Combining music from mythic times before history, the Japanese colonial period, and the present, their music will make you feel like you are travel through time. Their indigenous voices will surely fulfill the audience's heart.
For further information about Island Voices, please contact Alice Chiang alice@mail.ipcf.org.tw .
