Composition and Improvisation in Taiwanese American Music for K-2

A Teaching Video Deck for MTAL-470 (Dr. Candice Mattio)

by Angela Chong

May 2025

Introduction

to

Taiwan

Where is Taiwan?

Spinning Globe, illustrated by Jasmina El Bouamraoui and Karabo Poppy Moletsane, animated by Kunal Sen and Tisha Pillai. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The World

Asia

World Map, via freevectormaps.com.

World Map, via freevectormaps.com.

Taiwan

Lesson 1: Creative Listening

Let's meet American folk musician Elena Moon Park

Taiwanese Train Song: Diu Diu Deng

Welcome Canadian folk singer Ginalina

Listen to audio clip of "Taiwan Suite":

https://folkways.si.edu/northern-illinois-university-chinese-orchestra/taiwan-suite/world/music/track/smithsonian

Lesson 2: Composing Lyrics

Background photo courtesy Liao Yuan-chiao from https://edition.cnn.com/travel/gallery/alishan-railway-taiwan-photos/

Background photo courtesy Liao Yuan-chiao from https://edition.cnn.com/travel/gallery/alishan-railway-taiwan-photos/

Taiwanese Tsou Indigenous song: Yungu Yungu

Meet Angela Chong, a Taiwanese American music educator who will teach us how to sing "Yungu Yungu"

Tsou Indigenous People of Alishan Mountains

Highest peak at Alishan

Photo courtesy of Theerasak Saksritawee/www.popumon.com

Let's compose new lyrics

Ready to play?

Lesson 3: Improvisation

Hualien, Taiwan

Photo courtesy of Chanchai Phetdikhai from vecteezy.com

5000 years ago in Taiwan

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Chronological_dispersal_of_Austronesian_people_across_the_Pacific.svg

The story of the Pacific Islanders

From RH Disney, Quest for the Heart (Disney Moana): Step into Reading 3, Penguin Random House, 2016.

From RH Disney, Quest for the Heart (Disney Moana): Step into Reading 3, Penguin Random House, 2016.

From RH Disney, Quest for the Heart (Disney Moana): Step into Reading 3, Penguin Random House, 2016.

A mountain in central Taiwan

Photo courtesy of Theerasak Saksritawee/www.popumon.com