A Study of The First Local Jazz Band“Kupa Orchestra”in Taiwan

• Main Authors: HSU, TING-WEI, 許庭瑋
• Other Authors: CHEN, WEI-YANG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/epc8y5

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 音樂學系碩士班 === 106 === Jazz began in the late nineteenth century. Jazz in Taiwan not only can be traced back to Taiwan under Japanese rule but has greatly influenced the development of people’s life style and music in Taiwan. The First Local Jazz Band, Kupa Orchestra – one of the first big bands in Taiwan, was founded by Hsieh Teng Hui (1912-1994) in 1953 based on a jazz band structure. This study focused on the Kupa Orchestra, hereafter Kupa, that plays non-local indigenous music for over 60 years. Through learning the philosophy for Kupa’s business development and the history of the band, this study analyzed how Kupa’s jazz music mingled with the local culture throughout the band’s development, trying to understand the development western pop music in Taiwan and its influence on the music of Taiwan from an aspect that hadn’t been closely studied in the past, and hopefully suggest a future direction for Taiwan’s Jazz Orchestra. Due to the short on details regarding the history and development of Kupa, there hasn’t been a thorough study on Kupa though there were articles briefly introducing Kupa from time to time in the past. Basically, an overall and complete understanding to Kupa was missing. To overcome this shortage, the majority of the data used for this study was collected via interview with Kupa’s teachers and members on five subjects, hoping to be able to unfold the history of the band since its beginning. Information collected from the literature was taken as supplemental to help clarify and verify the information received from the interview and to fill the data gap as necessary. In this study, both the hardship that Kupa experienced during its formation and a great success that Kupa had reached in Taiwan’s music market were observed. It’s decline in popularity or being marginalized in the music market in recent years was also noticed. It is shown in this study that Kupa’s history is closely correlated with the integration of jazz into people’s lives in Taiwan in the past 60+ years. On the one hand, music educators can learn a lot from its founder’s passion and philosophy in managing the band. On the other hand, lacking a mechanism for sustainable management shall be the greatest risk factor of Kupa’s future. Through this study on Kupa’s history, we’ve not only affirmed the contribution from Kupa in promoting jazz music in Taiwan's music history but also provided a reference to those who study the development of jazz in Taiwan.