被擱置的「十二音」技術和作品：許常惠的《兵車行》（1958／1991）

The Shelved“Twelve-Tone”Technique and Work: Hsu Tsang-Houei’s Cantata Army Carts (1958/1991)

1965年，聯合報報導了許常惠的清唱劇《兵車行》，特別強調其在臺灣首度使用十二音技法的創舉。這部作品對當時積極推廣現代音樂的許常惠而言應該意義非凡。然而他從1958年開始創作，遲至1991年才完成，並於1995年首演。這長達三十年的延宕提供了一個獨特的視角，讓我們得以重新審視許常惠在接觸巴黎前衛和現代主義音樂後，如何度量和調整自己的十二音創作與臺灣社會接受度的關係。
本文使用許常惠留學巴黎期間的音樂評論和新尋獲的私人信件，重建他對現代音樂史不斷轉變的觀點，以及他所理解的十二音的多面向意義。此外，本文通過檢驗許常惠在巴黎接觸到的十二音著作及其老師若利維（AndréJolivet）的創作風格，探究許常惠所提出的「精神性」十二音，並分析《兵車行》在1958年和1991年兩個版本中，十二音運用上的異同。雖然許常惠將作品擱置的主要原因歸咎於杜甫詩歌中隱含的反戰信息，在當時臺灣戒嚴的背景下具有政治敏感性，但本文利用國史館《許常惠史料》中的檔案資料，提出了另一種觀點：儘管獲得了一定程度的媒體支持，但許常惠的十二音作品依然在音樂家和聽眾間遭遇到了阻力。這最終促使他對十二音創作方法重新進行考量。

In 1965, the United Daily News published an article on Hsu Tsang-Houei’s cantata Army Carts which highlighted his groundbreaking use of twelve-tone technique in Taiwan. The work, Army Carts, should be especially meaningful for Hsu Tsang-Houei, because he was actively promoting modern music back then. The composition of the work began in 1958, but it was not completed until 1991, and finally premiered in 1995. This thirty-year suspension offers a unique lens through which to review Hsu’s tug and pull between his use of twelve-tone composition and its reception in Taiwanese society following his training and immersion in avantgarde and modernist music in Paris.
This article cross-examines Hsu’s music criticism and newly discovered personal correspondence from his sojourn in Paris in order to reconstruct the evolution of his conception of modern music and the multifaceted meanings of twelve-tone musical vocabularies. Through analyses of the composition style of his teacher AndréJolivet, the article explores Hsu’s understanding of what he called“spiritual”twelve-tone, and further compares and contrasts his use of twelve-tone in between the two versions of Army Carts written in 1958 and 1991. While Hsu attributed the shelving of his work primarily to the politically sensitive anti-war message inherent in Du Fu’s poetry within the context of the martial law in Taiwan, this paper proposes a different perspective with evidence from archival documents of the Historical Document of Hsu Tsang-Houei housed at the Academia Historica. The author concludes that, despite the embracing support from the mass media, Hsu encountered tremendous resistance to his twelve-tone compositions from both his contemporary musicians and among his audience, which eventually prompted the composer to reassess the use of twelve-tone technique in his works.