Ming-Hsiu Yen: Songs of Flowers, for Female Voice, Viola & Piano: I. Silvergrass

Ming-Hsiu Yen 顏名秀: Songs of Flowers, for Female Voice, Viola & Piano 《花語》: I. Silvergrass〈菅芒花〉 Viola: Youming Chen 陳猶明 Mezzo-soprano: I-Chiao Shih 石易巧 Piano: Vera H.P. Hsu 許惠品 Barnes Hall, Cornell University Sep. 13, 2026 Audio file courtesy of Cornell Music Department. Post-production, video editing and audio mixing: Phil Chang. Ming-Hsiu Yen’s Songs of Flowers, for Female Voice, Viola, and Piano, similarly weaves together vocal inflections in Hoklo with melodic gestures rooted in distinctly Taiwanese modes of expression. The work was conceived as a companion piece to the Brahms songs, inviting listeners to hear how a contemporary Taiwanese composer reimagines the same intimate chamber vocal medium through a fundamentally different linguistic and cultural lens. Silvergrass, a plant commonly seen across Taiwan in early autumn, evokes solitude and melancholy as it sways in the wind. The folk song, composed by Yu-hsien Teng with lyrics by Bing-ding Hsu during the Japanese colonial period, uses the white, scentless flower as a metaphor for resignation in the face of life’s hardships.