My Father's Love for Chinese Music Inspired Me to Research on Music Boxes (Taiwan)
Hao-Chi Chiang
My Father's Love for Chinese Music Inspired Me to Research on Music Boxes (Taiwan)
Hao-Chi Chiang
Hi, I’m Hao-Chi Chiang (You can call me Leo). I’m really curious about music research, so I bought a Muro Box to study it for my master’s thesis. I am currently studying at the Institute of Musicology in the National Taiwan University, majoring in Zhongruan and minoring in Sanxian (both are traditional Chinese musical instruments). I have participated in solo performances and various competitions in Taiwan and other countries, and have won the first prizes and gold awards many times. I was also invited to perform at the concert in the Presidential Palace.
In June 2023, I will fly to South Korea to present my research in the AAS-in-Asia Conference. The title of my research paper is —From Music Box to the Internet of Things: The Embodied Memory and Innovation of Muro Box.
Why I love music?
I was born into a musical family, and my father graduated from the Institute of Ethnomusicology, Tainan National University of the Arts. Therefore, I have been influenced by music since I was a child, and followed my father’s footsteps to learn about music and explore the world together. With the encouragement and support of my parents, I chose the music path I love and want.
“Learning is boundless, but diligence is the only way to go.” This has always been my father’s advice to the younger generation. With the support of my family and the guidance of my mentors, my world view has been expanded, and I have become more curious about the world. I found that the contribution of playing the string instruments is quite limited in terms of the enrichment of my soul and the music world. With the support of my father, I decided to follow his spirit and footsteps in research and apply for the Graduate Institute of Musicology.
Continuing the traditional field has always been what I keep reminding myself of despite my current study being full of texts.That is, I hope that my performing skills will not be degraded by the bombardment of theoretical knowledge, so I am still active on the stage. Immersed in words, it also made me rethink the meaning of music at all levels, and even more often pay attention to the soundscape from all directions, and dig out more about the relationship between music and people, culture, body, environment, etc.
Why did I choose to study the Muro Box?
At first, I signed up for the AAS seminar, because the publication of the paper must include one of preservation, memory, and documentation. In the process of exploring the topic, I found that Muro Box is quite suitable for the topic. What is more attractive is that Muro Box has the same mechanical music box structure, but its operation is completely different. It inherits the tradition and at the same time innovates the technology by becoming a memory carrier that can be “customized” for users. In addition, paying attention to people’s body, mind and soul has always been the field I want to study, and through the Muro Box, I have the opportunity to dig into it to achieve the interdisciplinary ideal of musicology.
I also think that Muro Box is suitable for music therapy, especially because it can play scores and connect to midi keyboards to break the limitation of traditional music box movement. It creates more and more interactivity and music media, so I feel that it has great potential! Interestingly, I referenced more psychology articles than musicology articles in my thesis!
Using this seminar as a medium, what I want to do is to expand the attention of Taiwanese scholars in international academic media. This unique music box(Muro Box) will be brought to meet scholars from all over the world, and through listening and experiencing the Muro Box, their user’s senses can be sublimated to different levels.
How I Used My Muro Box at Home
I remember not long after I bought the Muro Box, I used the random play mode to listen to the popular song in the app, and I accidentally heard the music box playing the famous Japanese music (おおきなのっぽの古時計= The Large Ancient Clock) that my grandpa loved to listen to and sing during his lifetime. Since I wasn’t ready to face the sadness of losing him at that time, I had to quickly play the next song to stop thinking of him.
Later, I compiled a playlist of my favorite melodies. With that playlist, I can listen to it for a long time, and it ranges from Japanese songs to current Western and Chinese pop songs.
I found that I love old-fashioned music more because the sound of a music box is more suitable with this style. I found that I can’t listen to these melodies when I am reading, otherwise I will hum along in my heart or want to gaze at the rolling cylinder of the Muro Box. Its mechanical movement is too attractive for me!
I usually listen to the Muro Box melodies when doing house chores, such as cleaning the house and cooking. 😂 I can’t even listen to classical music, because I will always analyze the arrangement of chords and notes in my head, hahaha~
What Amazed Me the Most about Muro Box
What impresses me the most is that Muro Box can integrate with the user community. Users can exchange scores and experience sounds and music from all over the world through the Internet. The music box not only transcends the limitation of a single piece of music, but even crosses the national borders and music genres.
From my personal experience, I have used notation software to write solo music, which happens to be suitable for simple fine-tuning and then transplanted to the Muro Box for performance. At the same time, this arrangement software also has related communities to exchange and share scores. The community of Muro Boxwill be a very convenient, familiar and quick transition process.
When the score I wrote before can be played on the Muro Box, a sense of accomplishment and excitement arises spontaneously. I believe that many groups who are already arrangers or composers will be very fascinated by this instrument! Perhaps in the future, the Muro Box team can consider cooperating with notation software to record relevant melody databases, provide music range limitations and suggestions for arranging music, and make it an option for musical instruments, which should achieve a good marketing effect.
My Suggestions for Promoting the Muro Box
I have participated in a Muro Box cylinder assembly course at the Taichung Music Box Museum, which was a great experience, and it can be very satisfying for those who like to DIY. I also heard that many music professional players have also transplanted a lot of songs on the Muro Box. I think that for reaching out to those who are interested in music, the Muro Box team can consider holding lectures on campus. Invite teachers to introduce the skills in music arrangement and music performance. Holding some small-scale demo shows and other activities should also be a good way to expand the market of music fans!
