Vocal and Choral Works

Works involving Chinese Instruments

Works involving Electronics

across a sea of clouds (2021) for cello solo

yet the dew remains in pale (2011-12) Orchestra

2022.10
Commissioned by Huikuan Lin and Taipei C-Camerata
Composer: Chen-Hui Jen
Pipa: Huikuan Lin
Violin: Chia-Lun Chang
Recording: Chia-Lung Huang
Mastering: Jacob David Sudol

Still mountains, still... (2022)for pipa and violin

...since it's no more a landscape (2008) Flute, Guqin, String Trio

Along Timeless Mountain Trails 《循徑山幽》
(2022) for male chorus
2 minutes Excerpt

Müller Chamber Choir / Conductor: Meng-Hsien Peng

詩題：山徑

依稀是去年的風
帶著雨後青草濕潤的氣息
迎面輕拂，我才意識到
薄霧中隱隱透出的日光
在虛實之間逐漸黯澹
如此刻對於天地生死的覺知──
					「只在此山中，雲深不知處」
淡去的足跡沿著崎嶇山徑
延伸到夢的邊界
恍然，忘卻一路汲汲營營
微醺的雲霧緩升如遠方硝煙彌漫
醉了、累了，便沉沉睡去
那些關於鐘聲與線香的記憶
曾經離地表那麼近
					「水去雲迴恨不勝」
依然逡巡，踏著積年的落葉
歸去，我們終將化作灰燼
在風雨之後回到最初的靜謐
如此刻心的時間停滯──
停滯在松針常綠的森林
在霞紅染紫的雲彩深處
山徑崎嶇

Along Timeless Mountain Trails (2022) for male chorus - Excerpt

2023.11.08 Performed by the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra
National Recital Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
Photo taken and the manuscript written at the Copland House

Program Notes

“Only a short distance have I gone astray, and I know today I am right, if yesterday was a complete mistake…” 
(Quoted from “Homeward Bound” by Tao, Yuanming, translated by Lin, Yutang)

In recent years, I have repeatedly meditated on the relationship between humans and time: What will my role and my perspective be after everything changed in time?  How do I perceive the time that has changed everything?  Following this, a number of my recent project focus on a meditation on humans and nature as well on humans’ impact on the environment with interpretations and re-interpretations of the symbols of rising water and receding nature.

towards drifting pines extends the poetic ideas of pines that I use in multiple of my previous works and re-interprets and re-orchestrates them into a new musical texture.  The title directly responds to my 2008 work, Under the Pines, reflecting a meditation in nature when time slowly passes.   Differing from the calmness and peacefulness when I composed Under the Pines, towards drifting pines reflects my resonance with Tao’s poem and conveys a spiritual state of endless drifting and internal isolation.

樂曲解說

「實迷途其未遠，覺今是而昨非……」

這幾年我常在思考人與時間的關連：在一切變遷之後，自身所處的當下是怎樣的視野與角色、在時間裡的感知又是怎樣的狀態。近來數首已完成與手上正在著筆的作品，也都陸續環繞著類似的課題，關於人與自然，以及人類對於環境的影響。因此我以「湧上的水」與「消逝的自然」，兩個與自身情感與生活經驗最位密切關連的題材，透過不同的視角來為關於時間的沉思著墨。
此曲延續多首前作關於「松樹」之樂念加以配器、整合為嶄新的音樂織體與面貌。標題《無歸之松》與自身2008年之另首絲竹樂作品《松下》相呼應，同樣在彷彿時間靜止的大自然間沉思，但今已非昔。比起當年寫作《松下》時秋意微涼、海風吹拂的愜意，《無歸之松》借用【歸去來辭】中詩人感嘆迷途之意象，以反映足跡與記憶皆漸行漸遠、飄泊無可依歸的心境。

towards drifting pines (2023) for di, sheng, pipa, daruan, zheng, erhu, and electronics

Jardin du Nord (2009) 7 Chinese Instruments - Excerpt

The Mind Of Cresent Moon (2004) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

2024.08.19 Chingyun Choir @National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
Conductor: Cheng-Pu Chang

【詩經．邶風．柏舟】
汎彼柏舟，亦汎其流。耿耿不寐，如有隱憂。微我無酒，以敖以遊。
我心匪鑒，不可以茹。亦有兄弟，不可以據。薄言往愬，逢彼之怒。
我心匪石，不可轉也。我心匪席，不可卷也。威儀棣棣，不可選也。
憂心悄悄，慍於群小。覯閔既多，受侮不少。靜言思之，寤辟有摽。
日居月諸，胡迭而微？心之憂矣，如匪澣衣。靜言思之，不能奮飛。

Meandering on a Cypress Boat (2024) for 8-part a capella mixed chorus

Through a Fading Autumn (2010) 2 Huqins, Pipa, Zheng

Commissioned by Li-Teng Huang and PIPAEnsemble
Pipa: Li-Teng Huang
Cello: Joe Wan

2025.05.03 Zhongshan Auditorium, Taipei City, Taiwan

群峰層浪 (Layering waves across the mountain peaks)，給琵琶、大提琴與電子音樂
(2025)

此作品受黃立騰與琵琶雅集委託，以台北的相關地景與記憶為發想創作，於二零二五年春季完稿。

在《群峰層浪》中，我所聚焦的是環山縱走，當風吹越山嶺、層疊的群草化成一片浪濤的景象。──在我的記憶中，在山嵐與磺氣氤氳間，春夏時是滿山綠草如茵，入秋之後則披上雲霧與芒草交織成的蒼茫。在除了風聲之外只剩下寂靜的峰頂，偶爾可以望見遠方的海，一片無盡湛藍、亦是一海未知的深遂。自從十多年前搬至沼澤地帶旅居之後，山逐漸於我賦予了特殊的意義：它象徵遺世獨立的境地，象徵不斷流逝的時間與無盡憧憬，也見證了天地萬物的恆常與多變。關於山嶺群峰的記憶是美麗、感慨、深刻、並且疼痛的。我在樂曲中探索琵琶、大提琴、以及電子音樂之間的，跨越時空與文化的對話，以共構一個有機的聲景空間：如同人生的波瀾，層層疊疊推向孤寂的峰頂，推向永無止盡的未來。

Layering waves across the mountain peaks (2025) for pipa, cello, and live electronics

Performed by the Ansan City Choir (Conductor: Dr. Shin-Hwa Park)
ISCM WMD 2016 at Tongyeong City

The Poem:
Original: 
《星河坻》
月光擱淺的沙洲
我的旅途跟隨夢的腳步
找尋那些在時間裡佚失的…
或許在無邊的彼岸
或許哪也不在

依稀是芒草的季節
你說：｢明年，我們再上山去。｣
我曾迢迢趕路  穿越地表與天際
為獻整個海的思念給你
如今被霧色掏空的山仍帶有
雨後的痕跡

記憶的鐘聲交響成星河一片
我向時間祈求，渡我
渡我至夢的邊界
你所在的遠方

English:
"twilight as a drifting islet"
On an islet where the moonlight stranded
My boat drifts towards the dream
Seeking something missing in time…
Maybe in the vast distance
Or maybe nowhere

I vaguely remember it was a season of pale silver-grass
You said, “We’ll return to these mountains next year”
I traveled through the distance, through the horizon, and through the skyline
To dedicate all of my longing to you
As if the present, the mountains emptied by fog still reflect
A trace of rain

Memories ring like bells when sounds turn into galaxies,
I pray to time, to pass me through,
Pass me through the dream’s border –
The distance where you exist

Twilight As A Drifting Islet (2013) for mixed chorus in 2 groups

into silence, and keep falling (2016) cello and piano

Müller Chamber Choir (木樓合唱團) 2016 commission
"in betweem emptiness"  隨心所欲─於空之間, lyrics by Hsiao-Ching Yang (in Chinese)(based on the Heart Sutra), English Translation: Chen-Hui Jen

[English Program Notes]

This work was commissioned by the Müller Chamber Choir and supported by Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation.  

The original lyrics, written by Ms Hsiao-Ching Yang, is titled in Chinese "隨心所欲", which literally means to follow the heart flows.  The symbolism in the lyrics quotes the Buddhist scripture Heart Sutra.  I hence followed its poetic meanings and made the English title in between emptiness, representing a boundless state transcending time and space.  In the work, the chorus consists of three groups that sometimes interlace or interact with each other, to symbolize the human world and beyond.  Each part also consists of many similar but independent lines that form a rich and variable texture.  The solo singer and narrator lead the work's musical flow that interprets the poetic meaning of emptiness.  There are two passages in the lyrics quoted directly from the Heart Sutra.  For these passages, I double the sentences in Chinese with Sanskrit, as parallel existence in different pulses.   The whole piece generally follows the context of "human – transcended human" and consists of five continuous sections and two layers of poetic interpretation:  The first two sections mostly elaborate the ideas of "transcending human sensory and entering eternal state where there is no life and death", and after the pivot, the last two sections interpret a poet image of "everything is the form of emptiness".

In my imagination, in such a transcending state, our senses can feel and communicate with all directions, all time, all spaces, and all languages.  I therefore intended to reflect this imagination of multi-layered time-space with the chorus' lush sound texture.

中文樂曲解說：

此曲受木樓合唱團委託、國家藝術文化基金會補助所創作，以楊曉菁女士所作之歌詞《隨心所欲》入樂。

《隨心所欲》樂章之歌詞與意涵取材於佛典《心經》，因此我在音樂上將它詮釋成一個超越時空的自如狀態：合唱團在曲中分為時而結合或對立的三組，象徵人界與超乎人界的空間，各聲部並時而細分為各自相似但獨立的線條，以合成一個織度變化多端的整體。曲中的獨唱與獨誦角色作為帶領進入全曲織度的「主角」，詮釋對一切「空相」的體悟；而兩段引用的《心經》片段則來自不同的時空，重疊中文與梵文的相同句子，以相異的脈動同時存在。全曲大約以「人→超脫之人」之脈絡分為五個段落、兩層主要詮釋的意義：前兩段大致繞著「超越人界感官、不生不滅」為主，過了中段的樞紐，末兩段則主要演繹「一切皆空」的意象。

在我的想像中，在超越時空的狀態裡，感官能接收到來自四面八方的訊息、能在不同的時代或世界來去自如、並能理解並說出不同的語言，因此我試圖以豐富的合唱聲響織度重現這樣的「多層時空」想像。

Lyrics:

花非花，霧非霧
A flower is not a flower; the fog is not the fog.

眼不再定睛於萬象
The eyes start to see beyond all the presence,

耳聽見所有不曾的聽見
the ears then hear everything never heard.

不生不滅。不垢不淨。不增不減。
They are not born, not annihilated; not tainted, not immaculate; they do not increase, and not decrease.

不增不減。不垢不淨。不生不滅。
They do not increase, not decrease; they are not tainted, not immaculate; not born, and not annihilated.

嘴，不再嚼蠟似的苦咬，
The tongue stops tasting things as dry as dust,

鼻子懂得呼吸的韻律。
the nose starts to breathe with rhythm.

心，理解剎那即永恆
The mind understands that every moment is eternal, and

永恆即剎那。
Eternity is momentary.

大腦鬆弛了極速運轉，知了安住於當下　（註：了=瞭）
The brain relaxes from tense thoughts, being aware that

就是賞心樂事。　（註：賞心樂事出於牡丹亭遊園驚夢）
enjoying the present is bliss.

是故空中無色。無受想行識。
Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no thought, no confection, no consciousness;

無眼耳鼻舌身意。無色身香味觸法。
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no form, sound, color, taste, touch, objects; 

無眼界。乃至無意識界。無無明。亦無無明盡。乃至無老死。亦無老死盡。
No Dhatu of vision, until we come to no Dhatu of consciousness; there is no knowledge, no ignorance, until we come to there is no old age and death, no extinction of old age and death;


無苦集滅道。無智。亦無得。以無所得故。
There is no suffering, no accumulation, no annihilation, no path; there is no knowledge, no attainment, and no realization. Because there is no attainment,

無所得亦無所失。
No attainment therefore no loss.

諸法空相，諸相皆空。
All the Dharmas are characterized with emptiness, and all characteristics are in the form of emptiness.

in between emptiness (2016) for male chorus

Drifting Mountainwards (2015/17) for pipa and live electronics

Ensemble: 20° dans le noir （www.ensemble20degres.com）
Mastering: Jacob Sudol

until after the twilight (2017) for flute, accordion, cello, contrabass, and electronics

2016.10.17 Performed by Accordant Commons: Stephanie Aston, Tany Ling, and Argenta Walther

Composer's Guild

In Fading Colors of Autumn Hills (2016) for three female voices

Under the Pines (2008) 7 Chinese instruments

2018.05.12 First Performance by the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra

From Fading Mountains (2017-18) for Erhu, Pipa, Zheng, and Electronics

Returning Pinewards (2018) for zheng solo

Müller Chamber Choir
Conductor: Peng, Meng-Hsien

自我實現──惟形之微

唵嘛呢叭咪吽
我的心睜開了眼
我看到了善
也看到了惡
我看到了苦
也看到了樂
善惡苦樂開出了花朵
片片花瓣又隨風飄落
原來花朵不是我
善惡苦樂不是我
沒有了我
只有真實的自由
唵嘛呢叭咪吽

【樂曲解說】

此曲受木樓合唱團之委託，由李陳福老師作詞，樂曲完成於2018年九月。

原詞架構藉始末之六字大明咒祈求聽見自我內心的聲音，以尋求內在之覺醒。對我而言這是個非常抽象且極具挑戰的過程：曲中不斷重覆的字句「善惡苦樂」迫使我深入內心去思考人生所經歷的點滴，譬如美好或是火樹銀花的曾經，以及眾多不可言喻的醜惡與苦悶等等。「我」的想法為何、「我」在人世與時間洪流中的角色定位為何、「我」的內在本質又為何……都是在思考如何用音樂具象化表達「自我實現」的概念之前，需要試圖釐清的項目，同時也是每個人生來世上所面臨的課題。

在曲中我使用許多層聲音來表述如此一個內在與外在紛歧的「我」的本體：在整體而言分為三組、多聲部的男聲合唱織體中，以男中音獨誦作為外在的、男高音獨唱作為內在的「我」的主要角色，並各自加入迴聲、延遲等呼應，與合唱共構成獨特而超脫的時空，以呈現如此深入尋求並體悟的過程。我將六字大明咒唱誦發音的聲韻頻譜加以分析，轉化為合唱著色的聲部，並拆解中文歌詞中重要的聲母與韻母，加以延長或重覆等，以求打破梵文經咒、中文語調、語音與聲響、以及音色之間的界限，一切在整體音樂組織中融合，進而展現「無我」、「內在及萬物本為無形」之思想境界。

Program Notes

The Müller Chamber Choir, commissions this work with the text by Alf Li, as one of the works for the ensemble's large project "Oriental Prayers and Wishes".
The text is about seeking to hear and to awaken one's inner voices, through the Sanskrit mantra of Om mani padme hum at the beginning and the end. This abstract idea to me was an extremely challenging process: the repeating words "virtue" (shàn), "evil" (oè), "agony" (kŭ), "ecstasy" (lè) forced me to think into my deeper thoughts and experiences, such as glimpse of beautiful memories, and many wordless sorrow and ferocity. I thought again and again before planning how to musically interpret such profound ideas in this work: what is my mind, what is my role in the time in the mankind world, as well as what is the essence of myself... while these are also topics for everyone.
In this piece I represent an inner and outer conflicting "self" with multilayered voices in generally three groups with divisions. A solo baritone speech and a solo tenor singing reflect the outer aspect and the inner aspect of self, each echoed and responded by the chorus and form such unique aura that unravels the process of seeking and awakening. I analyzed the sound spectrum of the mantra chanting and deconstruct the consonants and vowels in the original Chinese text, color the choral texture, and integrate the Sanskrit mantra, Chinese language, speech, sound, and timbre in a liminal space, as a reflection of "selfless" and "everything is essentially formless".

as though formless inside (2018) for Male Chorus

Piano/Electronics: Chen-Hui Jen

	Still in the days of my aging, I shall do so for you –
	play the piano, see you to the ship bound for
		Byzantium
	with music close to fading. Silence
	here is beyond all summits
-	Yang Mu "Propositions of Temporality"
English translation by Wen-chi Li and Colin Bramwell

The piece's title evokes Yang Mu's poem "Propositions of Temporality."  After I wrote into silence, and keep falling four years ago, this composition is another work where I seek a state of silence.  Specifically, I drew a particular interest and made an intimate connection to the concept of "silence" in the poem – the ultimate moment after all the waves of a lifetime.  I have been repeatedly thinking about this idea in the last few years to make up a specific part of myself from the past – to awaken and hear those inner voices.  To realize this goal, I created a musical texture full of many symbols such as ocean waves, distant bells, and fading traces on the water, to aurally send myself to both an initial and the final state of silence.

老去的日子裡我還為你寧馨
彈琴，送你航向拜占庭
在將盡未盡的地方中斷，靜
這裡是一切的峰頂
			─ 楊牧《時光命題》


此曲標題取自楊牧《時光命題》一詩，亦為我在繼四年前寫作的《恆墜之寂》後、另一首探討「寂靜」的作品。我特別喜愛詩中終極的「靜」的意象，在經歷人生風浪之後、凝結的那一瞬間。對我而言，這些年我總在思索，跟過去的、內在的某部分的自己和解，喚醒便聽見那些記憶深處的聲音。因此我在全曲音樂織體中大量使用如海浪、遠處的鐘、消逝的航線等象徵，企圖將自己在聽覺上送回那最初、也是最終的寂靜狀態。

Onto the Silent Peaks (2020) for piano and electronics

the original studio recording (Alto Flute: Carla Rees @UCSD)

As A Dying Haze (2011) for alto flute

Performer: Müller Chamber Choir, conducted by Meng-Hsien Peng
2020.12.09 Premiere at the National Concert Hall, Taipei (Taiwan)

《暮島之聲》
詞/曲：任真慧

遠古的山
遠古的海
遠古的旋律
環抱我們的島嶼

你聽，島嶼的呼吸
蟬噪與鳥鳴
你看那花草與森林
島上的生命、河流與潮汐
日夜歌唱我們生長的大地

大地輕輕向海底推移
遠古的冰河與沙漠
都要聽海的呼吸
時間緩緩貼近明日

明日島嶼變成了海
大地變成了海
我們的世界都變成了海
那時遠古的山變成新的島嶼
島上再也沒有我們


"Voices from the Twilight Islands" 
Poem/Music: Chen-Hui Jen

Distant mountains,
Distant oceans,
Distants melodies
Embracing our islands.

Listen – the island’s breath,
the cicadas’ noise, and the birds’ chirps.
You see flowers, grasslands, and forests –
those lives on the islands, rivers, and ocean tides
day and night singing and praising our land.

The land is tenderly pushed towards the bottom of ocean.
Distant glaciers and deserts
are all listening to the ocean’s breath.
Time is slowly flowing towards the new sun.

Tomorrow when our islands become an ocean,
the lands become an ocean,
and our whole world becomes an ocean
the distant mountains will become new islands
where we no longer breathe.


《暮島之聲》樂曲解說

此曲受木樓合唱團委託，以「人民」與「土地」為主旨，因此我選擇以自身家鄉所在的「島嶼」意象出發，譜寫《暮島之聲》之詞曲。在我所居住的亞熱帶氣候的黃昏時刻、亦即日暮之時，許多蟲鳥都出來覓食，那些聲音對我而言就是家鄉的聲音。標題中的「暮島」除象徵家鄉的島嶼之外，也藉由「島」的同音字來暗示，除了島上的我們的聲音之外，對於環境變化未來之祈禱：這幾年由於全球氣候變遷、海平線逐漸上升，許多自然景觀與人類文化都終將消逝。 我在曲中重覆大量的「呼吸」、「潮汐」、「海」等字句，以文字本身之聲響來構成島上黃昏時刻之音景，與「在島上歌唱的我們」相呼應。

Voices from the Twilight Islands – program note

The work was commissioned by the Müller Chamber Choir.  I chose the image of the island, where my hometown is located, as my intimate reflection on the topic of people and land.  The sea level has been gradually rising due to the climate change and global warming for decades.  As a result, much of nature and human culture will ultimately become extinct.  In the subtropical areas where I live, many birds and insects come out during the sunset, therefore those sounds to me is the sound of home.  In addition to the symbol of my home island, the "twilight islands" in the title also implies our voices and prayers to the future of the environment, through the homonym of the word "island" and "prayer" (IPA: [dɑʊ]) in Chinese Mandarin.  Throughout the piece I also repeat words like "breath", "tides", and "ocean" to build a soundscape of twilight islands with the phonemes, and to echo with "us, who sing on the island".

Voices from the twilight islands (2020) for male chorus

Chen-Hui Jen is a composer, poet, and pianist, whose music presents an imaginative, spiritual, and poetic space with subtlety and sophistication. She writes music works that reflect an angle of contemporary art music that integrates time, sound, color, and poetry.

Chen-Hui Jen, Composer

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