What happens when a musician encounters Tzu Chi? Mr Lee talked about Tzu Chi music and how music can be used to inspire the human spirit. (Picture provided by Tzu Chi Taiwan Archive Team)
Look with your ears and listen with your eyes.
Mr Rio Lee’s songs are so richly layered in complexity, texture and depth that to experience his music is to witness the unfolding of rich visual imagery and partake in the eternal dialogue between man and nature.
One example is The Eternal Angke River (永远的红溪河) which has a melody as smooth and winding as a river. Flowing from 1976 to 2002, Angke River is an epitome of the heavy urban development of Jakarta. Part of The Eternal Angke River is about pollution, both of the river and of the human heart.
“On the day the recording of the song was completed, I suddenly thought about the rivers in my own hometown, Keelung River and Tamshui River (now in New Taipei district), and I wondered why I wrote about a river in Indonesia instead. I realized that it might be because the topic is not yet relevant to Taipei. The inspiration for this song could only have arisen from Tzu Chi, which abounds with such stories.”
The Angke River in Jakarta, Indonesia was a river swollen with wastes and devastating in its effect on poverty-stricken areas. It brought floods, diseases and endless suffering to the Indonesians living in the area. After a major flood in 2002, the local Tzu Chi chapter began collaborating with Jakarta’s municipality to help the people through five ways: water channeling, water purification, sanitization, free clinics and a housing project.
“This is an important event in mankind’s history,” Mr Lee thought, and penned his feelings and beliefs in The Eternal Angke River with poignant lines as “leave behind a clear river stream for our children”.
Winding paths around mountains
For nearly 30 years, Mr Lee produced many famous hits for popular singers like Pan Yueh Yun, Cai Qin, Wang Jie and Leehom Wang. Through the years, his music constantly reflected the hopes and frustrations of a rapidly changing Taiwanese society. In 1985, together with more than 60 singers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, he took to the stage with the song Tomorrow Will Be Better (明天会更好) in a charity concert to pray for love and world peace.
Mr Lee first encountered Tzu Chi in 1995. The first Tzu Chi song he wrote was the school song for Tzu Chi University. He even found a manufacturer to replicate the song in a thousand cassette tapes for the first batch of medical graduates.
Thereafter, he wrote numerous Tzu Chi classics such as The Hospital in the Field (田中央的大病院) and Winding Paths Around Mountains (盘山过岭) for the university, Love in the World (爱洒人间) and Love and Care (爱与关怀), and musical renditions of sutras such as Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (清净.大爱.无量义) and Water Repentance Sutra (法譬如水).
The song Winding Paths Around Mountains (盘山过岭) marks one of the milestones in his career. The nine verses of this Min-nan song recounted how Master Cheng Yen and her followers built the first Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan.
As Mr Lee was not with them on that arduous journey, it was not easy for him to express the experience through his lyrics. The first version of the song that he presented to Master Cheng Yen was clinically constructed with Tzu Chi platitudes. Master Cheng Yen did not comment on his work. Instead, she related details of the past to him, such as the environment she and her followers were in, the problems they encountered in searching for a piece of land, the difficulties in fundraising, and the deep joy of success when the hospital was finally built.
On his way back to Taipei, the musician looked out of the window at the undulating landscape of Hualien and was struck with the Min-nan phrase “to wind around the mountains”.
“Yes! That’s it! With a mountain in one’s way, the road to get medical help is daunting. It is the hopeless feeling of having to cross a mountain to get there!”
Mr Lee also recalled an incident in his youth. Deep in the middle of the night, villagers tore a door down in order to make a stretcher for a sick man and to bring him to a doctor that was a hill away. This prompted him to pen the line: “To save his life, we carried him forth in the dark.”
He then remembered that he was once led to a construction site by a Tzu Chi volunteer. He felt the anticipation and passion in the volunteer’s voice when he pointed to designated parcels of land and said, “We’re going to build a hospital here,” and “We’re going to build a school there.” The emotional sincerity in the volunteer’s words inspired Mr Lee to use the language of Tzu Chi volunteers to write songs for them.
And so, he painted pictures of the past with gentle melodies and his lyrical retelling of history indeed created a great resonance in its audience.
“When I presented the re-written song to Master Cheng Yen, she smiled and said, ‘You have expressed in a single line what I have done for 15 years.’” She was referring to how for 15 years before the establishment of the hospital, she would travel to remote villages with medical personnel every fortnight to provide the needy with medical relief. The essence of 15 years was encapsulated in this line of the song: “Twice a week for 15 winters; the heart’s deepest desire was to build a hospital.”
“Although it was just a single line, when we think deeply about it, it was a momentous thing! I am glad I did not let this great story down. I did not let it go to waste,” recounted Mr Lee.
Sharing the joy
On 28 April 2012, Mr Lee visited Singapore and shared his experiences with 200 volunteers of the local Tzu Chi branch. With familiar songs and inspiring stories, he brought everyone on the journey of Tzu Chi through four decades.
The significance of Winding Paths Around Mountains is not just about a bittersweet memory of building a hospital but also about the Master’s strength of spirit: “A thousand soldiers and horses may block my path, but I will carry on.” It is also about her followers’ determination to follow her, come what may. That is why when the audience came together with one voice, singing the last line, “We will go towards the Master”, it was a tremendous moment for the music producer.
“This is the bond between master and disciples. Look! What a beautiful sight!”
Mr Lee is adept at capturing the details, image, language, and feelings between the Master and her disciples. He would capture them and let each moment settle in his heart.
“Whenever I finish a piece of music, I would put the score beside the Master’s photo. If I sense a rhythmic resonance between the Master and the music, and if I perceive that there is harmonic alignment with the Tzu Chi volunteers, then the song is right. If not, then it is not right.”
Mr Lee also shared his experience when composing music for the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings musical. One day, he had a mental block. That night, he dreamt of bowing to Master Cheng Yen but she turned away from him. He woke up in a cold sweat, went straight to his studio and picked up his guitar. At that point, the melody for the 32 words of the sutra flowed naturally out of him. “The strange thing is, the melody is not at all like my usual style.” Later, when he heard it being sung by the Tzu Chi volunteers, he was stunned. “I did write it. But it was not something I could have done.”
Lyrics determine the depth of a song. When accompanied by music, it has the ability to touch people’s hearts. Hence, Mr Lee spends a lot of effort on crafting lyrics to ensure that the words flow smoothly, then find the best melody for it. “In order for a song to be easily sung, you need many people to sing it.” That explains why he would always bear the singer in mind. His songs are not about techniques or fanfare. His songs are about going back to basics – to sing from the heart.
In Taiwan last year, nearly 30,000 volunteers rehearsed for six months for the musical adaptation of the Dharma As Water (法譬如水). Mr Lee felt extremely moved whenever he thought of the countless number of times the volunteers must practice with each other in order to deliver the extremely coordinated and deeply dignified and spiritual performance.
“I’ve always felt that as long as Tzu Chi volunteers unite, anything can be done. If they want to build a Jing Si Hall here, a Jing Si Hall will be built. If they want to do something else over there, that thing will be done. That is the beauty of the strength of Tzu Chi volunteers.”
“I love this organization. I love the Master. Even when I visit overseas branches of the Tzu Chi Foundation, I would have the feeling of coming home.” Mr Lee even wrote a song for overseas volunteers, Across the Horizon (飞越地平线), to express the unity and bond between the Master and her global disciples.
Although naturally endowed with musical talent, Mr Lee said, “It is nothing to boast about. Instead, we should affirm and admire those who work hard.” He humbly commented that he was unable to contribute in the same way that other Tzu Chi volunteers do, raising funds, providing disaster relief, and managing events. To him, writing songs for Tzu Chi was just one other way for him to contribute as one of the volunteers.
So what happens when a musician encounters Tzu Chi?
He’d make the effort to shrink his ego again and again. He’d use his sensitivity and perceptiveness to follow in the Master’s footsteps and to identify with the disciples’ determination to follow those footsteps. Then he’d use his music to bring even more people together.
There is no song so full that there is no room to breathe. May all singers and musicians continue to weave the spirit of universal love into the score of their lives.
Mr Rio Lee sharing on his 40 years of music creation. (Photo by Alvin Tan)
On 28 April 2012, Mr Lee visited Tzu Chi Singapore to share his experiences with 200 volunteers. (Photo by Alvin Tan)
The Singapore volunteers opened the talk by performing the prologue of Dharma As Water musical, which speaks about karmic cause and effect. (Photo by Pua Phoo Toong)
“I love this organization. I love the Master. Even when I visit overseas branches of the Tzu Chi Foundation, I have the feeling of coming home,” said Mr Lee. (Photo by Pua Phoo Toong)
During the talk, Mr Lee not only shared his inspiration for his songs but also led the audience to sing along. The atmosphere was light-hearted and joyous. (Photo by Alvin Tan)
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