The National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan is set to put on a musical called “Crossing Ridges – Appreciating the Music Story of Bunun” this weekend. The Bunun are one of the sixteen recognized indigenous groups of Taiwan.
The musical narrative will be based on a Bunun elder’s recollections of the group’s joys and sorrows through time, as they became caught in disputes with neighboring peoples and later ethnic Chinese arrivals.
The musical makes use of pasibutbut music, a polyphonic song sung by a tight circle of Bunun men.