Background:
The yellow garbage truck loudly plays Beethoven’s “For Elise” with a synthetic sound when driving around the island and collecting the garbage. The function of this melody is well established since decades in the whole of Taiwan, signaling that everybody should bring their trash to the street. Nevertheless Beethoven’s melody feels very much to be in the wrong place for many people on Lanyu as well as for us artistic researchers. Therefore the idea of composing an alternative song/melody, which is closer to Taos taste, came up.
背景:
黃色的垃圾車總是用合成音樂大聲地撥放著貝多芬的「給愛麗絲」，它環繞全島、收拾垃圾，這個曲調的使用已經存在於台灣好幾十年的時間，告訴大家要將自家垃圾拿出來街上丟。然而，貝多芬的曲調對於許多蘭嶼人及本計劃成員來說在蘭嶼這個島上顯得突兀，因此有了創作一首比較適合達悟人口味新曲調的想法。
Artistic Strategy:
When composing the melody my basic idea was to start with something very similar to the beginning of Beethoven’s melody (measure 1-2 as well as measure 5-6), since the (social) function of the song should remain the same and be understood without much explanation. Nevertheless I modified Beethoven’s beginning into an (almost) pentatonic version. Measures 3 and 4 are quoting one of the love song l melodies from the Tao repertoire. Measures 7 and 8 – where the text gets rather serious – are slightly connected to the Tao’s Anood melody style, although in order to suit to the rest of the song, the relation to Anood was kept barely noticeable. In order to keep the song stylistically coherent, I did not use microtones nor the typical Anood ornamentations in this section.
Even the connection between the beginning of the song and Beethoven’s “For Elise” is probably not obvious for listeners unless they are explicitly pointed at it. The last two bars are again connected to the love song melody and provide an open end for endless repetitions.
As far as I know, there are realistic chances, that this song could be “officially” implemented into the garbage truck’s sound system on Lanyu. Interestingly another initiative by a elementory school teacher on Lanyu island, who created another garbage truck song for/with his pupils, shows, that the idea might absolutely make sense for the Tao.
作曲手法:
當創作這首曲調時，我最基本的想法就是以跟貝多芬的旋律相似的音樂做開頭(第一、二小節以及第五、六小節)，這是因為這首音樂的主要(社會)功能必須要跟原來一樣，所以要讓大家一聽就能很容易辨識它的曲調。不過，我將貝多芬音樂的開頭改成了(接近)五聲音階的模式。第三以及第四小節使用了達悟族情歌旋律的一種，第七小節跟第八小節開始變得較嚴肅的地方則是稍微連結到達悟Anood古謠曲調。雖然為了要跟之後出現的旋律不要差異太大，在這裡Anood調子會比較難辨識出來。另外，為了要將整首歌的風格保持一致，我在這邊並沒有使用微音程或是Anood經典的裝飾音。
歌曲開頭與貝多芬「給愛麗絲」的連結可能並不明顯，除非聽者有事先被告知，最後兩句又重新連結到之前沿用的達悟情歌調，讓結尾聽起來是開放式的以利可以重複不斷播放。
據我所知，實際上確實是有可能真的將這首創作曲調正式的拿來當蘭嶼的垃圾車音樂。有趣的是，有另一位國小老師也提出提案，創作出另一首垃圾車歌，這表示這個主意對於達悟人來說絕對是可行的。
Text of the song
Tao language:
Ponso namen o mavie a lalitan
manakawi o minanomana tamek
lidanan da no minakem a tao
mavonong du picavano vano vana
tayakmai mazngan a voawan
ili namen na jidanaganai
lolit na du ponso da du malaod,
oyama peni karaeraet siya
akma tarani mikasaso nakem
mamzatdu ponso ta du kalian.
Chinese:
在這島嶼男祖先由石頭中生，
在這島嶼女人以前來自竹子裡
今天我們同為達悟族人，
六個部落共同生活在蘭嶼
最重要是黃金般珍貴的人民，
部落從前一塵不染地乾淨
(台灣本島卻帶來垃圾，
進口貨造成垃圾隨處是)
島嶼卻受到外來的汙染，
這些都造成環境的破害
大家來同心協力一起加油，
幫我們救我們的島嶼
English:
On this island male ancestors came from a stone,
on this island women came from bamboo long ago.
all together we are the Tao of today.
sharing our live in six villages here,
precious are the people here, as dear as gold.
villages were clean and never full of dirt.
sticky waste of modern life - imported from outside -
should not be discarded, where it can do harm.
all should work together, let's do it, everyone!
help us to save our island here!