wfn.org | TCN: Musicians and academics share about national anthems and nation-building

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>2992 Edition

>June 29~July 5, 2009

Musicians and academics share about national anthems and  nation-building

>Reported by Chen Wei-jian

>Written by Lydia Ma

Who would have thought that there is a relationship between  nation-building and

music? A presentation on this topic was held on June 28 at  Taichung Presbytery’s

Liu-Yuan Church, drawing more than 300 people. The concert  featured

performances from church choirs, a men quartet from a local  church, as well as

popular Taiwanese musician Kuo Chih-yuan. People from Japan,  Brazil, India,

England, and Korea also participated by sharing their own national  anthems.

The event organized by Taichung presbytery and other Christian  organizations was

a combination of a forum and a performance. In addition to choir  performances,

musician Kuo Chih-yuan shared about his personal experiences while  composing

his famous anthem about Taiwan while Gau Sung-ming gave a lecture  on the

relationship between music and nation-building using the Czech  Republic’s

independence movement as example. Gau is also the first Taiwanese  to receive

“Friend of the Country Award” from the Czech Republic.

According to Gau, Czech composer Bedrich Smetana composed the six-

movement symphonic poem “M’a Vlast” in the 19th  century. This symphony portrays

the mountains of the Czech Republic and the country’s rich  history and was

instrumental in rallying people together. Gau encouraged having  similar music

events in the future to encourage people from different ages to  participate. He

believes events like this one can rally Taiwanese people together,  awaken their

sense of national identity, and help them compose music they can  call their own.

Taichung Presbytery’s Church and Society Secretary Rev. Sun  Ruei-yan said it was

very touching to see people from five different countries perform  their own national

anthems and speak proudly about their own countries. He also hoped  that similar

events could be held in the future to spur people to compose a  uniquely Taiwanese

>national anthem for Taiwan.

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