Sunday, March 25, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Chamber concert
Hello!
We were originally going to give these tickets away as prizes for the J1 competition, but the prize has been changed. As such, would anyone like to go for 'Simple Gifts', a chamber performance by musicians from the SSO? The repertoire is below.
ELGAR - Serenade for strings
ARVO PÄRT - Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
BRITTEN - Simple Symphony
GABRIELI - Sonata pian' e forte
HAYDN - Divertimento No. 1: Chorale St. Anthony
MOZART - Maurerische Trauermusik KV 477
MOZART - Two Marches
It's on 11 Mar, Sunday, at 5:00pm and tickets are at $5.
A quick update, the annual J1/J2 concert will be on 27/28 April, so do start thinking of pieces for that. As you're not restricted to duet items anymore, try to be more creative with this one.
We were originally going to give these tickets away as prizes for the J1 competition, but the prize has been changed. As such, would anyone like to go for 'Simple Gifts', a chamber performance by musicians from the SSO? The repertoire is below.
ELGAR - Serenade for strings
ARVO PÄRT - Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
BRITTEN - Simple Symphony
GABRIELI - Sonata pian' e forte
HAYDN - Divertimento No. 1: Chorale St. Anthony
MOZART - Maurerische Trauermusik KV 477
MOZART - Two Marches
It's on 11 Mar, Sunday, at 5:00pm and tickets are at $5.
A quick update, the annual J1/J2 concert will be on 27/28 April, so do start thinking of pieces for that. As you're not restricted to duet items anymore, try to be more creative with this one.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Geometry of Music
An intriguing article that I stumbled across while perusing the 12 Feb 2007 issue of Time Magazine!
----------------------------------------------
When you first hear them, a Gregorian chant, a Debussy prelude and a John Coltrane improvisation might seem to have almost nothing in common--except that they all include chord progressions and something you could plausibly call a melody. But music theorists have long known that there's something else that ties these disparate musical forms together. The composers of these and virtually every other style of Western music over the past millennium tend to draw from a tiny fraction of the set of all possible chords. And their chord progressions tend to be efficient, changing as few notes, by as little as possible, from one chord to the next. Exactly how one style relates to another, however, has remained a mystery--except over one brief stretch of musical history. That, says Princeton University composer Dmitri Tymoczko, "is why, no matter where you go to school, you learn almost exclusively about classical music from about 1700 to 1900. It's kind of ridiculous." But Tymoczko may have changed all that. Borrowing some of the mathematics that string theorists invented to plumb the secrets of the physical universe, he has found a way to represent the universe of all possible musical chords in graphic form. "He's not the first to try," says Yale music theorist Richard Cohn. "But he's the first to come up with a compelling answer." Tymoczko's answer, which led last summer to the first paper on music theory ever published in the journal Science, is that the cosmos of chords consists of weird, multidimensional spaces, known as orbifolds, that turn back on themselves with a twist, like the Möbius strips math teachers love to trot out to prove to students that a two-dimensional figure can have only one side. Indeed, the simplest chords, which consist of just two notes, live on an actual Möbius strip. Three-note chords reside in spaces that look like prisms--except that opposing faces connect to each other. And more complex chords inhabit spaces that are as hard to visualize as the multidimensional universes of string theory. But if you go to Tymoczko's website (music.princeton.edu/~dmitri) you can see exactly what he's getting at by looking at movies he has created to represent tunes by Chopin and, of all things, Deep Purple. In both cases, as the music progresses, one chord after another lights up in patterns that occupy a surprisingly small stretch of musical real estate. According to Tymoczko, most pieces of chord-based music tend to do the same, although they may live in a different part of the orbifold space. Indeed, any conceivable chord lies somewhere in that space, although most of them would sound screechingly harsh to human ears. The discovery is useful for at least a couple of reasons, says Tymoczko. "One is that composers have been exploring the geometrical structure of these maps since the beginning of Western music without really knowing what they were doing." It's as though you figured out your way around a city like Boston, for example, without realizing that some of your routes intersect. "If someone then showed you a map," he says, "you might say, 'Wow, I didn't realize the Safeway was close to the disco.' We can now go back and look at hundreds of years of this intuitive musical pathmaking and realize that there are some very simple principles that describe the process." That's likely to help both scholars and teachers, he argues. By showing how compositions of various styles move through his orbifold spaces, says Tymoczko, you can see how different styles of Western music relate to each other and evolve. Tymoczko's maps can also be an aid to composers, says Cohn. Most have a favorite corner in orbifold space, a set of related chord types that they tend to explore over and over in different ways. Venturing into a different part of space can be tough; you have to learn your way around a whole new auditory neighborhood. You can do that intuitively by wandering around and seeing where you get to. But with the maps, you can plot a route that you know in advance will make some sort of sense.That doesn't mean you can program a computer with Tymoczko's orbifold maps and have it spit out beautiful compositions. "I don't want to sell these maps as the royal road to composition," he warns. "They don't substitute for the hard work of learning how to move notes around." But they can help show when a new idea is promising and when it will probably lead to a dead end. "They might make an O.K. composer good," says Tymoczko, "but they won't make a good composer great."
----------------------------------------------
When you first hear them, a Gregorian chant, a Debussy prelude and a John Coltrane improvisation might seem to have almost nothing in common--except that they all include chord progressions and something you could plausibly call a melody. But music theorists have long known that there's something else that ties these disparate musical forms together. The composers of these and virtually every other style of Western music over the past millennium tend to draw from a tiny fraction of the set of all possible chords. And their chord progressions tend to be efficient, changing as few notes, by as little as possible, from one chord to the next. Exactly how one style relates to another, however, has remained a mystery--except over one brief stretch of musical history. That, says Princeton University composer Dmitri Tymoczko, "is why, no matter where you go to school, you learn almost exclusively about classical music from about 1700 to 1900. It's kind of ridiculous." But Tymoczko may have changed all that. Borrowing some of the mathematics that string theorists invented to plumb the secrets of the physical universe, he has found a way to represent the universe of all possible musical chords in graphic form. "He's not the first to try," says Yale music theorist Richard Cohn. "But he's the first to come up with a compelling answer." Tymoczko's answer, which led last summer to the first paper on music theory ever published in the journal Science, is that the cosmos of chords consists of weird, multidimensional spaces, known as orbifolds, that turn back on themselves with a twist, like the Möbius strips math teachers love to trot out to prove to students that a two-dimensional figure can have only one side. Indeed, the simplest chords, which consist of just two notes, live on an actual Möbius strip. Three-note chords reside in spaces that look like prisms--except that opposing faces connect to each other. And more complex chords inhabit spaces that are as hard to visualize as the multidimensional universes of string theory. But if you go to Tymoczko's website (music.princeton.edu/~dmitri) you can see exactly what he's getting at by looking at movies he has created to represent tunes by Chopin and, of all things, Deep Purple. In both cases, as the music progresses, one chord after another lights up in patterns that occupy a surprisingly small stretch of musical real estate. According to Tymoczko, most pieces of chord-based music tend to do the same, although they may live in a different part of the orbifold space. Indeed, any conceivable chord lies somewhere in that space, although most of them would sound screechingly harsh to human ears. The discovery is useful for at least a couple of reasons, says Tymoczko. "One is that composers have been exploring the geometrical structure of these maps since the beginning of Western music without really knowing what they were doing." It's as though you figured out your way around a city like Boston, for example, without realizing that some of your routes intersect. "If someone then showed you a map," he says, "you might say, 'Wow, I didn't realize the Safeway was close to the disco.' We can now go back and look at hundreds of years of this intuitive musical pathmaking and realize that there are some very simple principles that describe the process." That's likely to help both scholars and teachers, he argues. By showing how compositions of various styles move through his orbifold spaces, says Tymoczko, you can see how different styles of Western music relate to each other and evolve. Tymoczko's maps can also be an aid to composers, says Cohn. Most have a favorite corner in orbifold space, a set of related chord types that they tend to explore over and over in different ways. Venturing into a different part of space can be tough; you have to learn your way around a whole new auditory neighborhood. You can do that intuitively by wandering around and seeing where you get to. But with the maps, you can plot a route that you know in advance will make some sort of sense.That doesn't mean you can program a computer with Tymoczko's orbifold maps and have it spit out beautiful compositions. "I don't want to sell these maps as the royal road to composition," he warns. "They don't substitute for the hard work of learning how to move notes around." But they can help show when a new idea is promising and when it will probably lead to a dead end. "They might make an O.K. composer good," says Tymoczko, "but they won't make a good composer great."
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Post-NEVER Concert
Sigh, I suppose I'll simply have to be resigned to the fact that no one will really blog here. Who knows? Maybe no one is actually READING this, and I'm blogging into a virtual-void of cyber-nothingness... Anyway, I shall still dutifully keep a regular journal-record of our ensemble's activities! I'll pass it on to a J1 who is not allergic to computers when J2 CCA activities cease.
Yes, I want to blog about our recent combined concert with the piano ensembles of NJC, VJC and RJC. To all performers who may be reading this, GREAT JOB! And may all of us continue to scale and attain new heights of musicality!
I have the emcee script here:
(It should give you a good picture of what went on last night.)
(From Backstage before performance)
Y: We kindly request that you turn off all handphones and beeping devices before the concert commences. Thank you for your cooperation.
---------------------------------------------
C: Ladies and Gentlemen, a very good evening to all.
Y: Welcome to NEVER, a collaborative effort and joint concert by National, Victoria and Raffles Junior Colleges’ Piano Ensembles
C: I am C from VJC
Y: I am Y from RJC and we shall be your hosts for tonight.
C: Before the performances begin, let us briefly tell you about the 3 piano ensembles. Victoria Junior College was the first college in Singapore to set up a piano ensemble in 2003. This was followed by Raffles Junior College in 2004, and National Junior college in 2006.
Y: This collaborative effort between piano ensembles of different JCs is not the first. A joint piano ensemble competition, Vivace, was previously organized by VJC and RJC two years ago.
C: Tonight, you can expect an exciting and exotic repertoire of piano duos and duets spanning mostly the Romantic and Contemporary eras.
Y: That said, let us now whet your appetite by beginning the evening with Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2, performed by Angela and Huei Li from NJC.
C: The Russian Composer composed this work in Italy in early 1901. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
--------Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2---------
C: Thank you Angela and Huei Li! And now, let us move on to the Brazilian composer, Villa-Lobos.
Y: Heitor Villa Lobos composed the Bachianas Brasileiras, a series of 9 suites written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945. Each represents a fusion between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Brazilian folk tunes.
C: Tonight, you will be listening to the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, which will be played by Cheng Long and Huang Kai from RJC.
Y: Following that, we will be featuring Dolly Op. 56 “Berceuse” by French composer Gabriel Faure, performed by Anqing from RJC and Michelle from NJC.
C: The Dolly Suite is a set of 6 short character pieces for piano duet. Faure dedicated them to his lover, with whom he shared a brief relationship. “Berceuse” is a peaceful nursery song, which displays charm and harmonic transparency, while maintaining a somewhat child-like naïveté.
Y: Once again, Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 by Villa-Lobos and Faure’s Dolly Suite Op. 56, “Berceuse”
--------Villas-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 --------
--------Faure: Dolly Op. 56: “Berceuse”---------
C: And now, we have a series of sprightly dances for you. Firstly, the Norweigian Dances composed by Edward Grieg, performed by Shirong and Jun Ting from Raffles Junior College.
Y: These dances are filled with achingly beautiful tunes set to supple chromatic harmonies. The joyously festive tunes ride above the cheerful rhythms and an occasional frightening tune with skittering harmonies. Following that will be Brahm’s Hungarian Dance No. 1, brought to you by Xin Wei and Hui Qi from RJC as well.
C: Brahms was first exposed to Hungarian Gypsy music in as early as 1850. He wrote 4 volumes of 21 Hungarian Dances that were completed by 1868. This first dance in G minor, spiked with a hint of folk-flavour, is taken from the first volume.
Y: Enjoy the dances!
------- Grieg: Norweigian Dances ---------
--------Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1---------
Y: After that performance of joyous and festive dance music, let us listen to some French impressionistic music from the early twentieth century. Yan Qin and Xin Yu from NJC will perform Debussy’s Petite Suite.
C: The simple lyricism of the Petite Suite is designed to entertain and delight. Cortège reminds the listener of a festival parade, a marching band processing past in an exhilarating rush of musical pageantry. This is followed by a Minuet of sheer musical beauty and magic.
--------Debussy: Petite Suite ---------
Y: Thank you, Yan Qin and Xin Yu. Next, we will have a Concerto for 2 pianos composed by Grace Ho, a member of the Raffles Piano Ensemble. This will be performed by Grace and Clarissa, from VJC.
C: Grace explains that part of her inspiration for the Concerto came from Rachmaninoff. The other part of it sprung out of her sheer imagination!
--------Grace Ho: Concerto for 2 Pianos---------
C: We shall now revert to Impressionistic music once again, with a solo performance by Nicolson Ng from RJC, presenting Debussy, The Isle of Joy.
Y: The piece was inspired by Jean Antoine Watteau’s painting of an island off the coast of Greece. Debussy’s interpretation pushes beyond Watteau’s work to create an animated, bubbly mood, full of revelry and joy. After Debussy, Barnabas and Zhong Kun from VJC will bring you Saint Saens’ “The Carnival of Animals”
C: Camille Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals is a set of character pieces, each meant to describe a particular animal, usually by mimicking the sounds it makes or by characterizing the way it moves or carries itself.
Y: “The Swan” is warm and expressive, evoking the gliding grace of the contemplative swimming bird.
C: The “Finale”, however, is a merry closing, recapitulating snippets from many of the previous movements with suggestions of the lion, fossils, wild asses, hens and cocks, kangaroos and cuckoos.
--------Debussy: The Isle of Joy---------
--------Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals---------
C: That was a grand and splendid close to the first half of our concert. We will now be having an intermission and the concert will resume in 15 minutes time. Thank you.
--------INTERMISSION---------
Y: Welcome back! To kick-start the second half of the concert tonight, we will be having a relay performance by the VJC piano ensemble. They will be bringing you Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants, Nos. 7-12.
C: Jeux d’enfants when literally translated from French, means “Play of the Child.” This piano duet is more about children than for children to play. It’s a suite of dozen miniatures, each a minute or two long, evoking the simple games and interests of very young children.
Y: Yes, so let us welcome Man Ying, Xin Ying, Barnabas, Clarissa, Darren, Weishan, Timothy, Terence from VJC piano ensemble.
--------Bizet: Jeux d’enfants: 7-12---------
Y: The next segment of the concert will feature exciting works spanning across a time period from the Classical to Contemporary Era.
C: Firstly, Mu Feng from NJC and Sharon from RJC will present the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata in D, K381.
Y: This is followed by a contemporary song in jazz style by American Composer George Gershwin “I Got Rhythm”, brought to you by Manying and Clarissa from VJC.
C: It was composed in 1930 with the lyrics by Ira Gershwin, the older brother of the composer himself. “I Got Rhythm” is a song number in their musical “Girl Crazy” and it has been sung by many jazz singers.
Y: After that, Shin Bin and Tania from RJC will be presenting “The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” and “Russian Dance” from the “Nutcracker Suite” by Tchaikovsky, both popular and familiar classical works! So, do relax and enjoy!
--------Mozart: Sonata in D---------
--------Gershwin: I Got Rhythm---------
--------Tchaikovsky: “Nutcracker Suite” and “Russian Nights”---------
Y: Now we will have Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream played by Schezn and Angela from NJC
C: This is probably the most well-known of all works by Mendelssohn written for Shakespearean Comedy. The Scherzo appropriately introduces the fairy-world of Act Two with rapid, running passages. This is contrast to the Nocturne, which evokes a dreamy feel.
--------Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream ---------
C: Thank you Schezn and Angela! And now, we shall have the ever-popular work by Grieg - the Peer Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King, played by Anqing from RJC and Michelle from NJC.
Y: A fantasy story written in verse, Peer Gynt tells of his adventure when he sneaks into the Mountain King’s castle. The piece describes how Peer attempts to escape from the King and his trolls after having insulted a princess. And finally, to round off the night, we will have Milhaud’s Scaramouche, another colourful piece with an amusing character.
C: Scaramouche is one of the iconic characters in the Punch and Judy puppet shows. During the performances, Punch frequently strikes Scaramouche, causing his head to fall off his shoulders.
Y: This work is a suite for Saxophone and Cabaret Orchestra that was later transcribed for 2 pianos.
--------Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King ---------
--------Milhaud: Scaramouche ---------
Y: We have now come to the end of the concert. All the piano ensemble members would like to acknowledge and thank the following teachers for their care and invaluable guidance throughout our preparations and rehearsals. They are: Mr Gooi Tah Choe, Ms June Tan, Mrs Audrey Soh and Mr Seow Aik Keong.
C: We greatly appreciate your support of this concert and we hope that you have enjoyed the delightful range of music in different styles and character that were showcased.
C and Y: Goodnight and may the MUSIC be with you…
--------------------------------------------------------------
For evaluative comments about the performance, you may look at Ivana's poem! It's artfully and thoughtfully crafted:
Kudos for a wonderful concert today
The players were much in their prime
There are too many nice things to say
The performance was simply sublime
Cheng Long and Huang Kai began to enthrall
With a Cantilena, its melody still small
The bass gently creeping, the voice sadly singing
An aria which sweet mem'ries recall.
And next came a suite played by dearest An Qing
Who then rendered a chant so menacing
She crept and she growled while the trolls at Peer scowled
And frazzled the wits out of the Mountain King
Our newest, young fledglings, they too played Grieg
Shirong and Jun Ting in their Norwegian jig,
Did merrily skip, and gambol, and leap
In two lively dances – a quick whirligig!
Then came Brahms' premier Hungarian dance
It shimmered and glittered in eventide trance
Hui Qi and Xin Wei both did greatly convey
All of its passion and fiery romance.
To Grace and her pseudo Rachmaninoff
The audience, breaths bated, not even a cough
All awed by her fingers, those virtuosic singers
And then! The applause and the cheers and hats off.
When Nicolson came on the stage all was still
In anticipation of the imminent thrill
From the piece which revealed an Elysian field
A utopia rapturous and fully tranquil.
Lastly – the duo in light blue and pink
Charmed the dear audience in less than a wink
With sugar plum fairies and Russian folk parries
Their music was assiduously in sync
Let's not forget the emcee for tonight
She who spent most of the time in spotlight
To keep us awake for our enjoyment's sake
Thank you for making the evening just right!
--------------------------------------------------
Pictures will come in later.... Anybody cares to share?
-YeoYY-
Yes, I want to blog about our recent combined concert with the piano ensembles of NJC, VJC and RJC. To all performers who may be reading this, GREAT JOB! And may all of us continue to scale and attain new heights of musicality!
I have the emcee script here:
(It should give you a good picture of what went on last night.)
(From Backstage before performance)
Y: We kindly request that you turn off all handphones and beeping devices before the concert commences. Thank you for your cooperation.
---------------------------------------------
C: Ladies and Gentlemen, a very good evening to all.
Y: Welcome to NEVER, a collaborative effort and joint concert by National, Victoria and Raffles Junior Colleges’ Piano Ensembles
C: I am C from VJC
Y: I am Y from RJC and we shall be your hosts for tonight.
C: Before the performances begin, let us briefly tell you about the 3 piano ensembles. Victoria Junior College was the first college in Singapore to set up a piano ensemble in 2003. This was followed by Raffles Junior College in 2004, and National Junior college in 2006.
Y: This collaborative effort between piano ensembles of different JCs is not the first. A joint piano ensemble competition, Vivace, was previously organized by VJC and RJC two years ago.
C: Tonight, you can expect an exciting and exotic repertoire of piano duos and duets spanning mostly the Romantic and Contemporary eras.
Y: That said, let us now whet your appetite by beginning the evening with Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2, performed by Angela and Huei Li from NJC.
C: The Russian Composer composed this work in Italy in early 1901. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
--------Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2---------
C: Thank you Angela and Huei Li! And now, let us move on to the Brazilian composer, Villa-Lobos.
Y: Heitor Villa Lobos composed the Bachianas Brasileiras, a series of 9 suites written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945. Each represents a fusion between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Brazilian folk tunes.
C: Tonight, you will be listening to the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, which will be played by Cheng Long and Huang Kai from RJC.
Y: Following that, we will be featuring Dolly Op. 56 “Berceuse” by French composer Gabriel Faure, performed by Anqing from RJC and Michelle from NJC.
C: The Dolly Suite is a set of 6 short character pieces for piano duet. Faure dedicated them to his lover, with whom he shared a brief relationship. “Berceuse” is a peaceful nursery song, which displays charm and harmonic transparency, while maintaining a somewhat child-like naïveté.
Y: Once again, Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 by Villa-Lobos and Faure’s Dolly Suite Op. 56, “Berceuse”
--------Villas-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 --------
--------Faure: Dolly Op. 56: “Berceuse”---------
C: And now, we have a series of sprightly dances for you. Firstly, the Norweigian Dances composed by Edward Grieg, performed by Shirong and Jun Ting from Raffles Junior College.
Y: These dances are filled with achingly beautiful tunes set to supple chromatic harmonies. The joyously festive tunes ride above the cheerful rhythms and an occasional frightening tune with skittering harmonies. Following that will be Brahm’s Hungarian Dance No. 1, brought to you by Xin Wei and Hui Qi from RJC as well.
C: Brahms was first exposed to Hungarian Gypsy music in as early as 1850. He wrote 4 volumes of 21 Hungarian Dances that were completed by 1868. This first dance in G minor, spiked with a hint of folk-flavour, is taken from the first volume.
Y: Enjoy the dances!
------- Grieg: Norweigian Dances ---------
--------Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1---------
Y: After that performance of joyous and festive dance music, let us listen to some French impressionistic music from the early twentieth century. Yan Qin and Xin Yu from NJC will perform Debussy’s Petite Suite.
C: The simple lyricism of the Petite Suite is designed to entertain and delight. Cortège reminds the listener of a festival parade, a marching band processing past in an exhilarating rush of musical pageantry. This is followed by a Minuet of sheer musical beauty and magic.
--------Debussy: Petite Suite ---------
Y: Thank you, Yan Qin and Xin Yu. Next, we will have a Concerto for 2 pianos composed by Grace Ho, a member of the Raffles Piano Ensemble. This will be performed by Grace and Clarissa, from VJC.
C: Grace explains that part of her inspiration for the Concerto came from Rachmaninoff. The other part of it sprung out of her sheer imagination!
--------Grace Ho: Concerto for 2 Pianos---------
C: We shall now revert to Impressionistic music once again, with a solo performance by Nicolson Ng from RJC, presenting Debussy, The Isle of Joy.
Y: The piece was inspired by Jean Antoine Watteau’s painting of an island off the coast of Greece. Debussy’s interpretation pushes beyond Watteau’s work to create an animated, bubbly mood, full of revelry and joy. After Debussy, Barnabas and Zhong Kun from VJC will bring you Saint Saens’ “The Carnival of Animals”
C: Camille Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals is a set of character pieces, each meant to describe a particular animal, usually by mimicking the sounds it makes or by characterizing the way it moves or carries itself.
Y: “The Swan” is warm and expressive, evoking the gliding grace of the contemplative swimming bird.
C: The “Finale”, however, is a merry closing, recapitulating snippets from many of the previous movements with suggestions of the lion, fossils, wild asses, hens and cocks, kangaroos and cuckoos.
--------Debussy: The Isle of Joy---------
--------Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals---------
C: That was a grand and splendid close to the first half of our concert. We will now be having an intermission and the concert will resume in 15 minutes time. Thank you.
--------INTERMISSION---------
Y: Welcome back! To kick-start the second half of the concert tonight, we will be having a relay performance by the VJC piano ensemble. They will be bringing you Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants, Nos. 7-12.
C: Jeux d’enfants when literally translated from French, means “Play of the Child.” This piano duet is more about children than for children to play. It’s a suite of dozen miniatures, each a minute or two long, evoking the simple games and interests of very young children.
Y: Yes, so let us welcome Man Ying, Xin Ying, Barnabas, Clarissa, Darren, Weishan, Timothy, Terence from VJC piano ensemble.
--------Bizet: Jeux d’enfants: 7-12---------
Y: The next segment of the concert will feature exciting works spanning across a time period from the Classical to Contemporary Era.
C: Firstly, Mu Feng from NJC and Sharon from RJC will present the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata in D, K381.
Y: This is followed by a contemporary song in jazz style by American Composer George Gershwin “I Got Rhythm”, brought to you by Manying and Clarissa from VJC.
C: It was composed in 1930 with the lyrics by Ira Gershwin, the older brother of the composer himself. “I Got Rhythm” is a song number in their musical “Girl Crazy” and it has been sung by many jazz singers.
Y: After that, Shin Bin and Tania from RJC will be presenting “The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” and “Russian Dance” from the “Nutcracker Suite” by Tchaikovsky, both popular and familiar classical works! So, do relax and enjoy!
--------Mozart: Sonata in D---------
--------Gershwin: I Got Rhythm---------
--------Tchaikovsky: “Nutcracker Suite” and “Russian Nights”---------
Y: Now we will have Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream played by Schezn and Angela from NJC
C: This is probably the most well-known of all works by Mendelssohn written for Shakespearean Comedy. The Scherzo appropriately introduces the fairy-world of Act Two with rapid, running passages. This is contrast to the Nocturne, which evokes a dreamy feel.
--------Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream ---------
C: Thank you Schezn and Angela! And now, we shall have the ever-popular work by Grieg - the Peer Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King, played by Anqing from RJC and Michelle from NJC.
Y: A fantasy story written in verse, Peer Gynt tells of his adventure when he sneaks into the Mountain King’s castle. The piece describes how Peer attempts to escape from the King and his trolls after having insulted a princess. And finally, to round off the night, we will have Milhaud’s Scaramouche, another colourful piece with an amusing character.
C: Scaramouche is one of the iconic characters in the Punch and Judy puppet shows. During the performances, Punch frequently strikes Scaramouche, causing his head to fall off his shoulders.
Y: This work is a suite for Saxophone and Cabaret Orchestra that was later transcribed for 2 pianos.
--------Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King ---------
--------Milhaud: Scaramouche ---------
Y: We have now come to the end of the concert. All the piano ensemble members would like to acknowledge and thank the following teachers for their care and invaluable guidance throughout our preparations and rehearsals. They are: Mr Gooi Tah Choe, Ms June Tan, Mrs Audrey Soh and Mr Seow Aik Keong.
C: We greatly appreciate your support of this concert and we hope that you have enjoyed the delightful range of music in different styles and character that were showcased.
C and Y: Goodnight and may the MUSIC be with you…
--------------------------------------------------------------
For evaluative comments about the performance, you may look at Ivana's poem! It's artfully and thoughtfully crafted:
Kudos for a wonderful concert today
The players were much in their prime
There are too many nice things to say
The performance was simply sublime
Cheng Long and Huang Kai began to enthrall
With a Cantilena, its melody still small
The bass gently creeping, the voice sadly singing
An aria which sweet mem'ries recall.
And next came a suite played by dearest An Qing
Who then rendered a chant so menacing
She crept and she growled while the trolls at Peer scowled
And frazzled the wits out of the Mountain King
Our newest, young fledglings, they too played Grieg
Shirong and Jun Ting in their Norwegian jig,
Did merrily skip, and gambol, and leap
In two lively dances – a quick whirligig!
Then came Brahms' premier Hungarian dance
It shimmered and glittered in eventide trance
Hui Qi and Xin Wei both did greatly convey
All of its passion and fiery romance.
To Grace and her pseudo Rachmaninoff
The audience, breaths bated, not even a cough
All awed by her fingers, those virtuosic singers
And then! The applause and the cheers and hats off.
When Nicolson came on the stage all was still
In anticipation of the imminent thrill
From the piece which revealed an Elysian field
A utopia rapturous and fully tranquil.
Lastly – the duo in light blue and pink
Charmed the dear audience in less than a wink
With sugar plum fairies and Russian folk parries
Their music was assiduously in sync
Let's not forget the emcee for tonight
She who spent most of the time in spotlight
To keep us awake for our enjoyment's sake
Thank you for making the evening just right!
--------------------------------------------------
Pictures will come in later.... Anybody cares to share?
-YeoYY-
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
NEV3R
I see, Mr See, that you see yourself so determined to leave a lasting legacy behind in this ensemble that you have founded! (Hahaha... Do you not See the picture?) It is most admirable, and honestly, we're very grateful to you for having started the RJPE. Thanks for the advice on the blog-template/layout design. I used a combination of dreamweaver and messing around with the HTML to design our website, but I'm sort of hoping to great effect of futility, that someone from the PE will be able to lend me a hand in designing the blog.
If anyone cares to look closely enough at the banner of the RJPE website, you may notice that the music score there is from "The Sunken Cathedral" by Debussy.
The reason why none of the current J3s have blogged is because I don't have any of their email addresses and cannot add them to the list of blog authors. Xin Wei, care to help out here?
Anyway, our KONZERT is going to be on 9 Feb and the repertoire is now available on the RJPE website. The name of the concert is NEV3R. (If you don't know how to get to our website, I very much wonder whether you've been living on Jupiter.) Even if you have been living on Jupiter, you would very much want to make a trip to our humble planet earth attend the concert since "Jupiter" from "The Planets" by Holst is going to be played as a piano duet by Shin Bin and Tania. (I know, we're infinitely inferior since the diameter of Jupiter is approx 11 times that of our miniscule planet. )
Well, I hope that there will be more blog entries from other members!
If anyone cares to look closely enough at the banner of the RJPE website, you may notice that the music score there is from "The Sunken Cathedral" by Debussy.
The reason why none of the current J3s have blogged is because I don't have any of their email addresses and cannot add them to the list of blog authors. Xin Wei, care to help out here?
Anyway, our KONZERT is going to be on 9 Feb and the repertoire is now available on the RJPE website. The name of the concert is NEV3R. (If you don't know how to get to our website, I very much wonder whether you've been living on Jupiter.) Even if you have been living on Jupiter, you would very much want to make a trip to our humble planet earth attend the concert since "Jupiter" from "The Planets" by Holst is going to be played as a piano duet by Shin Bin and Tania. (I know, we're infinitely inferior since the diameter of Jupiter is approx 11 times that of our miniscule planet. )
Well, I hope that there will be more blog entries from other members!
Monday, January 22, 2007
Hi All!
Hello everyone! If you're wondering who, (ok the j2s and above should know me but just in case got any j1s drop by) I'm J4!! old right? Hahaha.. (and not much info about myself, the other seniors can tell u more about me hehe)
This blog does look abit lonely now, eh j3s, not studying already can blog right? Unless no one's joined in writing this blog yet hmmmm but then PE is certainly a lot more lively than my time!! With every batch of people, PE gets better, livelier, and more active.. During my J1 year, we did 4 concerts, 1 musi camp for CIP and 1 busking.. which was quite a handful for a group with only that few people..
Then in my J2 year, we had 2 concerts and a competition, before the juniors took over, and then they had camps and more cips and what nots..
In my j3 year, when the current J2s have just come in, PE had such a lively concert in May!! followed by more concerts and camps and christmas parties and combined camps and blog and website and this and that and WOW!! I must say, keep it up guys! Now that we also have a semi-active alumni (that is, existing but not very active haha), i can see PE going further and further! =)
Yee Ying, if you need to do up a blog design, an easy way out is just use microsoft frontpage to do your designing. That way, you do not need to mess with any html codes (except for where you want to put your posts and your dates and all that). If you don't have frontpage, u can use macromedia dreamweaver. or microsoft word, and ask others to convert to html coding for you.. yup
-Chee Hang
This blog does look abit lonely now, eh j3s, not studying already can blog right? Unless no one's joined in writing this blog yet hmmmm but then PE is certainly a lot more lively than my time!! With every batch of people, PE gets better, livelier, and more active.. During my J1 year, we did 4 concerts, 1 musi camp for CIP and 1 busking.. which was quite a handful for a group with only that few people..
Then in my J2 year, we had 2 concerts and a competition, before the juniors took over, and then they had camps and more cips and what nots..
In my j3 year, when the current J2s have just come in, PE had such a lively concert in May!! followed by more concerts and camps and christmas parties and combined camps and blog and website and this and that and WOW!! I must say, keep it up guys! Now that we also have a semi-active alumni (that is, existing but not very active haha), i can see PE going further and further! =)
Yee Ying, if you need to do up a blog design, an easy way out is just use microsoft frontpage to do your designing. That way, you do not need to mess with any html codes (except for where you want to put your posts and your dates and all that). If you don't have frontpage, u can use macromedia dreamweaver. or microsoft word, and ask others to convert to html coding for you.. yup
-Chee Hang
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Inter-JC Piano Ensemble Workshop
Here's a picture of the masterclass conducted during the workshop today.
I had a fruitful and meaningful time! It was great... Thanks to the committee for putting in the effort to organise it. You can access the pictures at our Ensemble website in the photo gallery:
http://www.singapore100.com/rjpe/photogallery.htm
Could we have a confirmed list of repertoire for the upcoming concert posted here on the blog? *Yay!* I'm still hoping someone will help me design the template for this blog. I'm clueless about blog-layout designing.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
This is the RJPE Blog!
This blog belongs to all members of the Raffles Junior College Piano Ensemble, past and present.
Anyone and everyone can post about anything related to the ensemble. It will serve as an ideal platform for discussion about:
1) What repertoire to consider for an upcoming concert?
2) The Art of Music-making! (Woah! "Chim"...)
3) Ensemble events that have occurred (i.e. Performances, CIP, Overseas trips? etc.)
4) Any other miscellaneous issues
The tone: Light and Casual - Shouldn't be anything too serious lah. A few good pictures and words of encouragement for other members in the CCA shouldn't go amiss either ^_^
Does anyone want to volunteer to design the layout and template for this blog?
I'm really out of ideas after having done the website...
Anyone and everyone can post about anything related to the ensemble. It will serve as an ideal platform for discussion about:
1) What repertoire to consider for an upcoming concert?
2) The Art of Music-making! (Woah! "Chim"...)
3) Ensemble events that have occurred (i.e. Performances, CIP, Overseas trips? etc.)
4) Any other miscellaneous issues
The tone: Light and Casual - Shouldn't be anything too serious lah. A few good pictures and words of encouragement for other members in the CCA shouldn't go amiss either ^_^
Does anyone want to volunteer to design the layout and template for this blog?
I'm really out of ideas after having done the website...
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