# Silenced but not silent (1)



## ABCVermonter (Jan 22, 2013)

Hi,

I am 15 years old and new to this forum. I have been very interested in learning, performing, and sharing worthy but silenced music. This desire emerged after reading conductor James Conlon's essay, titled "Recovering a Musical Heritage: The Music Suppressed by the Third Reich." In this essay, he mentioned that he programs works by suppressed composers wherever possible. I particularly like one thing he said: "by keeping alive their music…, we deny those past regimes a posthumous victory."

I would like to present the first installment of my silenced music series, Maggio Suite (1935) by 江文也 (translated as Bunya Koh in Japan, Wen-Yeh Chiang in Taiwan, and Wen-Ye Jiang in China). This music, to my ears, is unlike any piece of music I have heard. Hope you like it as well.

This solo piano composition has 3 pieces, each about 2 minutes:
I. Supperisco




II. A Mezzanotte




III. A Mezzogiorno





The composer was jailed and sent to labor camp by the right-wing nationalist government and the left-wing communist government in China. His music had been banned for 4 decades. An introduction about the tragic life of this almost unknown composer can be found in the following Wikipedia page: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiang_Wen-Ye

Although learning standard repertoire is important to me at this age, I will try my best to work on my second silenced piece soon. If you have a suppressed piano piece of any nationality that you think is musically satisfying, I would love to learn and share the music. Thank you for your suggestions.

Another favor that I would like to ask from you is that if you think anyone else may be interested in this music, please spread the words to keep the music alive and grows. Thank you very much.


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