【人物】 高約拿
｜作曲家｜
高約拿，1917年生於高雄縣阿蓮鄉農村的基督教家庭， 1940赴日留學，1945畢業於日本神學校及東京音樂學校「選科」。戰後於1946年返臺，應聘於臺灣省立臺北第一女子中學任教，是該校戰後第一位音樂教師。除了作曲之外，他忙於教學、主持廣播節目、指導雙連教會聖歌隊，加上兼差抄寫樂譜，積勞而舊疾復發，1948年以32歲英年早逝。高約拿是以西洋作曲手法寫有管絃樂作品的臺灣作曲家先驅之一，已完成的管絃作品僅有第一號交響詩〈夏天鄉村的黃昏〉，其餘如第一號交響曲〈臺灣〉，交聲曲(清唱劇)〈追念死難軍民並祈求和平〉等大規模作品皆未完成。
GAO Yue-Na was born in 1917 into a Christian family in the countryside of Alian District, Kaohsiung City. In 1941 or 1942 he went to study in Japan, and in 1945 he graduated from Nihon Theological College and the elective courses of the Tokyo School of Music. In 1946, after WWII, he returned to Taiwan and was hired to teach at Taipei First Girls’ High School. He was the school’s first music teacher after the war. In addition to composing, he was also swamped by the tasks of teaching, hosting radio shows, directing Suang Lien Presbyterian Church choir, and hand copying scores. He eventually became ill from overwork, and in 1948 he passed away at the age of only thirty-two years old. GAO was one of the very first Taiwanese composers to compose orchestral music using Western compositional techniques. There is only one complete orchestral work in his output: Symphonic Poem No. 1, The Summer Evening in the Countryside. The rest of his large-scale compositions, such as Symphony No.1, Taiwan and Symphony (Cantata), Remembering the Suffering Compatriots and Praying for Peace, are uncompleted.
