MAN-CHIANG-HUNG

Based on an ancient Chinese Tsu melody, MAN-CHIANG-HUNG (meaning "all red the river") was associated with a patriotic poem written by General Yueh-Fei. In 1980 the Chinese scholar and musician I-to Loh (b. Tamsui, Taipei, Taiwan, 1936) arranged this popular melody into a hymn tune for publication in Hymns from the Four Winds (1983).

Pentatonic and built on several melodic patterns, MAN-CHIANG-HUNG should be sung in unison with rather light accompaniment, perhaps with plucked strings. Other instruments such as flutes could play some delicate variations and grace notes on the unison melody. The subtle interplay of motives, dissonances, and open chords in the Oriental harmonization are characteristic and should not be westernized with triadic chords.

A world-renowned scholar and hymn composer, I-to Loh has contributed greatly to the development of non-Western hymnody. Not content to let Asian and African churches continue to imitate European and North American hymns, he has encouraged the development of indigenous church music in his travels to many different countries. Loh received his theological training at Tainan Theological College in Taiwan, studied composition at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and in 1982 he received a Ph.D. in music from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is professor of church music and ethnomusicology at the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music in Manila and at Tainan Theological College. In addition to the well-known Hymns from the Four Winds (1983), he has edited hymn collections such as New Songs of Asian Cities (1972), African Songs of Worship (1987), Asian Songs of Worship (1988), and Sound the Bamboo (1990). A composer of tunes for over sixty hymns and anthems, Loh is also the author of Teach Us to Praise: In Search of Contextualized Church Music (1988).

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Timeline

• Scores
• Audio

Page Scans

Hymn on One License

View Page

Sound the Bamboo: CCA Hymnal 2000 (2000), p.80