04 Music in my life - composing for a hymnal

A Brief Introduction to the Composer of #449 of the Taiwanese Hymn-2009

So͘ Hi-sam, born in 1945, Taiwan, some day after Japan announced its unconditional surrender. On that day as the whole family moved away from their hometown in a countryside of Chiayi, avoiding the war, back to the old city church in Kaohsiung, his mother began the contraction while waiting on the platform of Chiayi Railway Station. She was accompanied by relatives and transferred to a relative's house in the city to deliver a baby. He was then moved back to the old city within the month to reunite with the family.

The life of the third son of Rev. Tian-ming Su, the lyricist of the poem, was unstable at the outset. Not only the location of his birth, he couldn't even figure out his birthday. At that time, the Republic of China had not yet occupied Taiwan, and the Japanese system had not yet withdrawn, so he registered his birthday as October 10 in the Japanese system without supportive documentation. Reasons and evidence are lost. It may be the reason that he never seriously celebrates his birthday, and commemorates it as his mother's date suffering.

He grew up in the daily routine and environment of worship, preaching, singing hymns, cleaning the chapel, and maintaining the whole church property. He has a special love and experience for church life. At the age of six, he had a first taste of conducting a band. He immediately fell in love with conducting and secretly determined to begin to explore and hone his own method of conducting. In elementary school, he secretly determined to become a composer and conductor, and began to explore keyboard music (at that time, he could only try it on a reed organ that was pumped through the pedals).

In the third grade, he fumbled for the Silent Night” harmony, and his eldest sister opened the door to see who was playing the organ and was taken aback. In the fifth grade, he was inexplicably put on the stage by a classmate to play the organ in a music class, and popped up his own “Home Sweet Home” harmonization. I never figure out why the classmates insisted that he would play the organ.

In high school, he was recommended to be the conductor of the "Singing Team" consisting of junior high school students.

One year before graduating from high school, he expressed to his music teacher that he wanted to enter music department in college, but never had played the piano. The music teacher asked the principal to open the piano in the music classroom for him to learn piano. He was instructed by two of the three music teachers. Later, he sought guidance from well-known piano teacher, Ms. Shao Chen until she finished the university entrance examination.

During the last year of the senior high school, while the adult Sunday school teachers did not want to host a spring Vacation Bible school during the winter vacation. He obtained the authorization to hold the vacation Bible school, supported by the Sunday school faculty members who were high school students. He volunteered to write a short song every day for the five-day event.

He is a founding member of the high school piano club. Two members of the club entered the Music Department of the Normal University, and later became Music Professors of the Normal University, but he changed the Normal University Music Department to be the second choice in the college entrance exam. He also gave up the admission to study composition at the National Art College Music Department to become a student majoring in Sociology at Tunghai University, where he sang in the famous university choir for four years, managed the music library, compiled the first catalog of the collection of 500 long-play records, learned piano from Miss Juanelva Rose, a missionary teacher who has just arrived in Taiwan, signed in all the elective courses of music, and directs the university church choir. Before graduation, he was invited to be a piano teacher for the students of "non-piano major".

After serving as a social caseworker in the Taichung Family Helper of the Christian Children Fund, he directed the church choir at Linsenlu Mennonite Church and held two charity recitals sung primarily by the church choir. Before the end of the first recital, there was a sudden power outage, but the singing was undisturbed and finished singing in the darkness.

In 1975, he moved from the East Coast of the United States to study social work services and research at the Washington University in St. Louis. At the wedding of a friend in February of the following year, Letin Ho, his wife, sang his first solo work, "The Lord's Prayer".

The editorial board of the New Hymns spread the words about looking for a melody to fit the lyrics of his father's "Christ Is the Lord of Our Family" (Hymn #431, 1964), he set privately to draft several melodies based on the principles of "focusing on the voice and semantics of the original lyrics", "utilizing the characteristics of the traditional Taiwanese melody with modern harmony and accompaniment", "taking advantage of Taiwanese sound characteristics", "limit the range of sound for ordinary people, ability to read music, low singing, and make the melody easy to learn and easy to sing", "created Several new styles”. The draftw were revised several times adopting the suggestions from the Music Committee before one was selected for publication. (This is a rare case of composing for the publication of a hymnal.)

Since 2018, having re-translated several hymns, and found that many traditional hymns are worth adding new lyrics to meet the needs of contemporary worship and spirituality, and want to add some lyrics related to “theology of family” to extend the theology of the original lyrics and mood. It can be said that finding a focus of faith and interest in a lifetime of lack of direction and goals can make a full sprint in the remaining road and exert the remaining road art.

This new melody specifically takes into account the characteristics of Taiwanese pronunciation, making opportunity for some slightly more complex vowels, such as lán, ê, kóng-ōe, kau-pôe, to show up. Only nine pitches are used in the melodic range, which is easy to follow. The melody can be transposed to suit the vocalist's characteristics. Lyrics and melody are not for stirring up any excitement. Such low-singing songs can be sung as exercises for Taiwanese enunciation or warming-up, or used in the context of private spiritual practice and family gatherings. The last two words of the third sentence of each lyrics are the key points and the climax of the melody. The last sentence is a reassuring, relaxing, and satisfying conclusion. It is best to use a wide chest and abdominal resonance to make a warm and satisfying sound.

(2019/5/18: In May 2019, when putting six newly written lyrics into the score to make the first movie for sharing in a music club gathering, he adjusted a few sounds so that the short vowels are sung with shorter notes. The goal is to avoid singing short vowels for long time and lose the characteristics of the short vowels.)