“Encore! Encore! Bravo! Bravo!” these were the echoing sound coupled with thunderous applause that had filled the National Chung Cheng Music Hall, Taipei, in the evening of March 1, 7:30 P.M. The occasion was “Taiwan Suite Night” and the jam-packed auditorium with a capacity of 1,500 seats made 3 organizers including Dr. Hsieh Chao-chung, the music composer, Dr. Yeh Shao-kuo, the producer, and Mr. Liao Yung-lai, the lyricist, feel that they had not spent their effort in vain.

Amidst the deafening applause, let us remind you that there are other lyrists whose contributions are just as great and invaluable as Mr. Liao, the former Mayor of Taichung Hsien. And their honorable names are: Wallace Norkam (an aboriginal), Tu Yeh, Lu Han-hsiu, Yang Tu (they are all poets of distinction today.) Their compositions were transformed into a variety of forms, be they musical, rhythmical, or theatrical but, couched in the myriad expressions is the constant theme that remains unchanged: “Love for one’s homeland is most precious and we shall never change!”

The first half of the concert consisted of songs and ditties and Prof. Lee Pei-yu, the pianist, played for all the compositions. One of them entitled “My Wishes---for the 9/21 Earthquake and Its Aftermath” speaks out the undeterred determination of a great people---the Taiwanese people as Yang Tu, the poet, put it, “If I had to die a thousand times, I would choose to die here, on this earth, in this land.” How admirably heroic!

The finale was the presentation of the “Taiwan Suite”, a symphonic composition juxtaposed with a singing chorus from National Chia Yi University and National Chung Cheng University. The four soloists accompanied by the string and the brass ensemble suggest the four-season weather change as well as the landscape mutations which, as one can imagine, is overwhelmingly beautiful. In the end, Dr. Hsieh, who is teaching core-courses at TKU, told us, “It’s a pleasant thing that the audience have expressed their assent to the artist’s work. Even though he/she suffered a lot of pain, but eventually, his/her pain paid off, and it’s worth it.”