Year of Composition: 1983
*Chamber music (piano quintet)
In 1983, the Council for Cultural Affairs (now the Ministry of Culture) commissioned “Three Styles—Breath, Break, Flow,” a twenty-five-minute piano quintet piece. Li Tai-Hsiang combined Western-style melody, rhythm, and harmony with the Eastern idea of “chi” (air or breath) to formulate his idiosyncratic musical language – one that is both concrete and abstract. In Li’s own words, it is similar to “the piano version of Luogu Jing (鑼鼓經; notations for gong and drum music), which does not possess melodies but rhythmic notes, both short and long, along with tune-like phrases comprising a range of ornaments as well as up-sliding and down-sliding notes.” At the time, the creative language made the piece incredibly bold, innovative, and avant-garde. To Li, the piece, which is a continuation of “Three Chapters of Revolution” composed in 1971, has become an iconic piece in his oeuvre of modern music.
Source: Chiou, Joyce Y. Senior Musician Series, Vol. 20—Li Tai-Hsiang: The Beautiful Mistakes. Taipei City: China Times Publishing, 2002.
