Larry Adler and many others had managed to place the harmonica in the concert hall; Hong-Jen hoped to do nothing less than put himself and his harmonica on an equal footing with any other instrument in that exclusive arena. "I know this is a step-by-step operation," he once admitted. "It is not an overnight job."

Between recording dates and teaching in school harmonica classes he worked tirelessly, rehearsing two to three hours a day with a pianist usually his wife Hanna and daughter Jia-Lin and painstakingly adapting Chinese classic and modern composition originally written for solo instruments such as Violin, oboe, flute and Chinese instrument like erhu and guzheng .Hong-Jen was encouraged by the open-mindedness he perceived in this music. "I play sonatas by Telemann, Veracini, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann. I play a numbers of pieces by Weber, Chopin, Sarasate and Kreisler and many others, which were written to be played on violin, flute, oboe, even piano ," recalled Hong-Jen .

He began to slip these new arrangements into his recording repertoire. Within a few years the transformation was complete, and Hong-Jen's audiences heard only classical pieces by the likes of Bach, Couperin, Corelli, Rameau, Kreisler, Albeniz, Lecuona, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Of course, the Chinese album of "Butterfly Lovers Harmonica Concerto" sold millions in Mainland China and Taiwan.

Yew Honh-Jen has vast technical facility, a bulging range of colors, and his intentions are ever musical and sophisticated. In his hands the harmonica is no toy, no simple gadget for the dispensing of homespun tunes.

By - Rose Mary   

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