Sweet Rice Pie
Six Songs on Four Taiwanese Nursery Rhymes 

for voice and chamber ensemble (2005), ca. 14’

Recording available at New World Records, iTunes, and Amazon

I found these four nursery rhymes while researching Taiwanese folk music.  These rich, funny, imaginative Taiwanese texts evoke a carefree, curious childhood and have no specific melodies attached to them.  While containing a universal quality, they also exhibit a sense of humor that is distinctly Taiwanese.  Perhaps I find them so charming because of a desire to share something of my own mischievous childhood in Taiwan with my daughter Lia as she grows up in America (Lia was three years old when I wrote these).

This work is theatrical and can be performed with a lighting design, costume, and props for dramatic effect.

Sweet Rice Pie was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, and is dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky and premiered by the Empyrean Ensemble in California.

Sweet Rice Pie: Six Songs on Four Taiwanese Nursery Rhymes

I. VI.
Number one, make sweet rice pie Number two, scallion to fry
Number three, pot at a boil Number four, noodles in hot oil
Number five, soldier's leader Number six, son of beggar
Number seven, take half amount Number eight, go up the mount
Number nine, old as grand mom Number ten, strike the tam-tam

II. (mostly  hummed by voice with occasional  fragments of  the  text); V. (complete text)
Swing high, swing low
Into the hills we go
Where eggplants grow
Plenty we'll pick today
'Nough for a rice basket
Yummy to the last bit
So hot on the market
Perfect for babe's first birthday

III.
Crybaby, a chicken
Crybaby, a chicken
Hair of his half shaven
Money not his he's taken
By a tiger he's half eaten

IV.
Firefly, firefly Tea party do come by
So hot a cuppa Eat a banana
When the tea gets so cold A longan makes you bold
Flowers on the longan tree Gourd for loofa let it be
Loofa soup will lift you off So trade the gourd for chaff
Use the chaff a fire to make For nanny sweet cake will bake
And the cake will burn to black All around a fire will crack

Translated by Tao-Lin Hwang, used by permission.