Taiwan Today

A Taiwanese drum performance group seeks to innovate upon tradition to promote percussion art as well as Taiwan in the international arena.

On December 3, 2009, Hsieh Shih, leader of the Ten Drum Art Percussion Group, received a pleasant surprise upon learning that his troupe’s work Drum Music Land had been nominated for the Best Traditional World Music Album for the Grammy Awards, the world’s biggest music award ceremony. “I was thrilled at our nomination and could hardly believe that it was true. Though we didn’t win the award at the ceremony [held on January 31 this year], the nomination was already a great honor for us,” Hsieh says. “We finally see a beam of hope amid our decade-long attempt to breathe new life into traditional drumming, rather than merely passing on the torch.”

At the heart of Drum Music Land is the Legend of Luermen—the Gate of Taiwan, a musical retelling of the local historical epic of how Chinese General Zheng Cheng-gong, better known as Koxinga, led his troops to land at Luermen in Tainan, southern Taiwan and successfully expel Dutch colonists in the 17th century. The song employs a combination of traditional Chinese and Western musical instruments including drums of all sizes, the suona horn, bamboo flute, dulcimer, xylophone, vibraphone, cello and brass instruments.

The other four pieces on the album, also composed by Hsieh, feature rural life in the work Bragging Cock; the alternation of spring, summer, autumn and winter in Rebirth of Four Seasons; and the might of natural phenomena such as thunder, rainfall and lightning in As Fast As Wind and Lightning and the ocean in Riding Winds and Breaking Waves.

Judy Wu, director of international music production at the Taipei-based Wind Music International Corp., was the producer of Drum Music Land. She says she was elated at Ten Drum’s Grammy nomination, which she sees as global recognition of the group’s outstanding achievements. “Hsieh uses musical notes to present Taiwan’s folk culture, rural life and events of historical significance, in addition to the beauty and force of nature,” Wu says. “His group’s performances are powerful—full of intensity and release—and evoke vivid images in one’s mind.”

Hsieh’s skillful utilization of both Chinese and Western instruments also creates a unique performing style for his troupe. Such a combination, however, adds to difficulties in recording, given the contrast between the two kinds of instruments with regards to timbre and volume, Wu says.

To allow for the most genuine presentation of the group’s music, Wu invited internationally acclaimed recording engineer Kavichandran Alexander, whose work includes a 1992 Grammy Award winning album, to handle recording for the CD. The Tamil engineer from Sri Lanka has been lauded for his excellence in stereo microphone recordings, a technique recognized for its ability to capture a more realistic, lifelike sound much as a live audience would hear it.

For popular music, it is common to record a performance by placing a microphone close to each instrument and then mix the resulting monaural tracks together. By contrast, stereo recordings position a pair of microphones in such a way as to capture the sound of the group as a whole.

Wu explains that stereo recording is more challenging than conventional multi-track recording for a number of reasons, one of the biggest of which is the numerous trials and adjustments necessary to position the musical instruments and microphones in order to yield the most natural balance of sounds. Moreover, as the technique is designed to capture the performance as a whole, any ambient noise at the venue will also be recorded.

Wu recalls that the recording for Drum Music Land took place in the summertime inside an old warehouse that was part of a sugar plant built during Japanese colonial rule (1895–1945). Ten Drum has made the complex in Rende Township, Tainan County, southern Taiwan its operational base since 2005.

Due to the decision to use stereo recording, the air conditioners in the warehouse could not be turned on, so the musicians had to perform in hot, humid conditions. Plus, because of the building’s lack of soundproofing, recording was brought to a halt several times by unwanted noises from outside such as vehicles passing by or airplanes flying overhead.

Nevertheless, the close collaboration of those working on the recording meant that the group was able to overcome the many technical difficulties with pleasing results, Wu says. The primary elements of the music—melody, harmony, rhythm and dynamics—are presented well on the album and approach that of a live performance, she adds.

Ten Drum’s sophisticated music is the fruit of the hard work of its members and particularly that of its leader, Hsieh Shih. The 38-year-old Hsieh says growing up at a Taoist temple run by his father meant that he has been familiar with the sound of drumbeats since birth. “I was asked to beat a drum for a ritual one day when I was 3, as the drum player was absent that day,” he recalls. “However, it wasn’t until I saw a performance by a Hong Kong percussionist at the age of 16 that I suddenly realized that playing drums was not merely a folk activity, but also a form of performing art that could earn great respect.”

In 1998, Hsieh decided to devote himself to teaching traditional Taiwanese drumming in hopes of preserving the art and making it part of people’s daily lives. He started teaching on a volunteer basis at community centers and schools in the neighborhood near his home in Tainan. The response from children, teenagers and their parents was good, especially since playing drums helps one develop a sense of rhythm and coordination, strengthens one’s muscles and overall physique, and also provides an outlet for stress and other emotions.

Hsieh then established an education center providing courses designed for different age groups. “I’m trying to promote playing drums and other percussion instruments as an exciting sport as well as a good form of recreation, so that it can be accepted by members of the general public more easily and become more popular,” he says. “Even more than that, I want to preserve and pass on traditional Taiwanese drum music, as well as create new works by drawing on Taiwanese and global cultures.”

Hsieh formed Ten Drum Art Percussion Group in March 2000 to cultivate professional percussionists and offer more drum performances in order to spur public appreciation for the music. Another of his goals in founding the group was to establish a distinctive style for Taiwanese drumming. “Only through localization can one’s creations become successful internationally,” he says. “I’m saying that because if your work doesn’t have a local touch and feature the characteristics of your homeland, how can it be unique and win the attention of the international community?”

In terms of the name of his ensemble, Hsieh explains that the Chinese character for “10,” or shi, resembles a pair of crossed drumsticks. It also symbolizes the influx of power from all directions, and the potential to unify that power.

Currently, Ten Drum consists of 20 full-time performers with an additional 80 to 100 troupe members available on an on-call basis as the troupe’s performance schedule demands. Besides giving public performances, the group also takes time to teach percussion art to about 6,000 students at more than 100 elementary and high schools nationwide.

Chen Meng-xuan, 31, has been a member of Ten Drum since 2005. Before joining the troupe, she was a high school teacher. Initially, Chen heard about the group through a drum club at her school that was led by Ten Drum members, which led her to become interested in the troupe’s activities. Later on, she went to see a formal performance by the group and was amazed by the aesthetics and smoothness of their music and motions.

“Like many other people, I used to think drum playing was a temple ritual and a simple skill,” she says. “That stereotype was reversed after I saw Ten Drum’s performance. I came to realize drum playing can actually incorporate many elements including culture, dance, drama, music, sports and education.” Chen thus decided on a career change and says she is thankful to Hsieh for accepting her application to join the group and providing her with intensive professional training to master drumming techniques.

The former high school teacher says she has since learned to play several kinds of percussion instruments as well as perform specific folk dances including Eight Generals and Song-Jiang Parade, which usually accompany traditional folk and religious ceremonies. “Drumming allows me to build a good physique and a strong will. And being able to perform on the stage and receive applause from audiences at home and abroad has brought me a great sense of achievement,” she adds. “Also, I enjoy teaching percussion art to children as that adds significance to my chosen career as a drum performer.”

Impressive Performance

Similarly, 29-year-old Xue Zhao-xiang sought to join Ten Drum after seeing a performance by the group when he was a high school student. “At that time, Ten Drum’s performance impressed me a lot because it was very different from my impression of drum playing, which was based on what I’d seen on TV or in temple rituals,” he says. “Their powerful drum music is coupled with athleticism—Kung Fu or martial arts-like choreography. All that appealed to me.”

After completing his university education and mandatory military service, Xue became a full-time member of Ten Drum. He has performed with the troupe in a number of international tours including shows in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Singapore and mainland China, and says that these travel experiences have broadened his world view greatly and enriched his life.

Meanwhile, Xue expresses admiration for the repertoire created by Hsieh, saying that it is full of primitive and energetic rhythms, but also contains references to Taiwan’s culture, history and natural environment. Hsieh, for instance, has composed a work for Sun Moon Lake, a noted scenic spot in central Taiwan, that is based on a legend of the Thao indigenous people, who live in the area. The story describes the tribe’s ancestors chasing a white deer over several mountains and discovering Arcadia, where they have lived ever since. For Alishan, another scenic attraction located in southern Taiwan, a piece by Hsieh is intended to reflect the magnificence of the high mountain’s sacred trees.

Moreover, Hsieh has developed a systematic approach to teaching that enables people of any age or who lack any prior experience to learn percussion easily. Xue hopes that within a few years, he can mainly be engaged in behind-the-scenes work and help to train more talented performers by applying Hsieh’s teaching techniques and ideals.

Ten Drum has thus far made some 700 performances, including shows at several major events, in about 50 cities in 15 countries. For example, the group performed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and the Pilsen Festival in the Czech Republic in 2009. Plus, the troupe has organized several large activities including one in 2004 that brought together 1,899 people playing 1,951 drums for 30 minutes at Tainan Municipal Stadium. The effort broke the Guinness World Record for the largest number of drummers playing at the same time by outperforming a feat registered in Japan in 1988, which saw 1,850 persons play 1,845 drums for 25 minutes.

In addition, Ten Drum has held a national drumming competition and a drum festival annually since 2004. “By organizing the competition and the festival and inviting international percussionists and composers to give master classes and lectures, we hope to introduce the beauty of percussion art to people, as well as interact and exchange with other ensembles to better our own playing skills and knowledge of other cultures,” Hsieh says. “At the same time, we try to seize every opportunity to perform overseas to let the global community know more about Taiwan’s drum culture and other aspects of life here in a comprehensive way.”

Cultural Transformation

Since renting the idle sugar refinery from Taiwan Sugar Corp. (TSC) in 2005, Ten Drum has transformed the location into a cultural village by combining drum performances with history, education and leisure activities. The whole five-hectare historic site with 16 warehouses has been open to the public since 2007. The complex houses both an indoor and an outdoor theater that can accommodate 250 and 1,500 audience members respectively, a drum museum, a classroom for trying out drumming and a drum-making factory. The cultural village also allows visitors to appreciate the beauty of the area’s natural environment by riding around the site on the old sugar trains or taking walks nearby.

Hsieh says his purpose in operating the cultural village is to promote drum music while financing the percussion group itself by giving two performances daily. He also works to invite prominent foreign performers to collaborate with Ten Drum. In 2009, for example, he invited Japanese groups Maidaiko Aska-Gumi and Taiko Nobushi, as well as South Korea’s Jin Cheon Ha Arts Company, to perform at the annual festival that has been held at the site since the group took over the operation of the complex.

Chen Rong-hua, a visitor to the cultural village, says she first heard about Ten Drum through a TV news report on the group’s Grammy nomination, which aroused her interest in visiting the cultural village to see a live performance. “They use drums of various sizes to evoke different natural sounds like waves, raindrops and thunderbolts. I could feel my heart beating in response to their stirring performance, which had remarkable energy, but gentleness as well,” she says. “Aside from drums, they use bamboo flutes, gongs, xylophones and even cellos while also incorporating martial arts and folk dances. These fusions made their performance really charming and unique.”

Looking ahead, Hsieh says he will continue to provide his group members with solid training. Ten Drum’s leader hopes to offer comprehensive guidance pertinent not only to playing different percussion instruments, but also drama, singing, visual arts, physical fitness and drum making to consolidate the drummers’ overall performing abilities.

“My lifetime goal is to explore the creativity, diversity and vitality of percussion music by integrating traditions and innovations, as well as Chinese and Western instruments,” Hsieh reiterates. “And I’ll keep on composing music based on the stories of Taiwan and strive to build Taiwan into a celebrated drum music land.”

Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw