ENTRIES; EXITS; ARCHIVES; PROFILE made by grace

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Formal rehearsals begin for next year's concert...

The current 6-week vacation is precious - at least for the few who treasure time. Instead of spending time slacking at home or aimlessly sitting at the computer/TV screen, I have embarked on scheduling rehearsals for the 3 groups (at least) that I am involved in for next year's concert (tentative March 2006). Unlike other groups which have yet to start, I strongly want my groups to start early, especially if there's arrangements of songs (we're doing originals & covers) to be done. It would do well to include a short write-up here on my groups' progress so far.


My main group, the Fajar group (aptly named after our first rehearsal venue at Lydia's place), will be doing three pieces - "Ru Guo De Shi" (cover) and two originals (titles yet to be confirmed). Our first vacation rehearsal was a successful start, with the vocals complementing the piano, guitar and drums in the song "Ru Guo De Shi". We still have the bass guitar and dizi parts to fit in to the song. Meanwhile, we'll be arranging and "chording" the two originals.


I'm proud to be part of the Silver Chocobos - the ONLY group in class that consists almost totally of acoustic instruments (except the keyboards). The upcoming piece we're performing is the Inuyasha Medley, an original arrangement of 7 pieces from the Inuyasha OST (Original Soundtrack) 2. The arrangement for the 1st piece is not quite done yet (percussion, piano and keyboard(s) parts yet to be completed). I hope that by the end of this vacation, at least 2 pieces can be arranged and rehearsed.


My smallest group is performing "Uranus", from Gustav Holst's "The Planets". Actually - there's only two of us performing this piano duo - Wei Jie and me. We are beginning formal rehearsals this coming October. Unfortunately, we have to make do with practising on a piano and a keyboard - whose house has two pianos (well not at least those in my class)! That makes things a tad more complicated; I have yet to get used to the hard touch of the piano.


Meanwhile, I have finished revising my theory until Grade 3 and have started reviewing Grade 4. When I'm done with that, Grade 5 awaits. A few of us in class are planning to take the ABRSM Grade 5 theory exam in March 2006 - well, we have to work hard towards it, alongside schoolwork!

10:29 am *

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Concert: Enigma Variations



15 September 2005, Thursday, 7:30 PM

Victoria Concert Hall


Led by Music Director Chan Tze Law, the Conservatory Orchestra opens its third concert season with Elgar’s masterpiece, the Enigma Variations. Laurence Gargan, Principal Trumpet of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and artist faculty member at the Conservatory, is the soloist in Oskar Bohme’s rarely performed and unashamedly romantic Trumpet Concerto.


Firstly, many thanks to Tin Hee for helping Candice, Chrislyn, Boyuan, and me get FREE tickets (we saved $8) for this concert. I realised that this was the first time in many years for me in experiencing an orchestra 'live'.


The opening piece, Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky brimmed full of mystery, leaving the audience unbeknownst as to what might happen next. I particularly liked the dynamics of this piece and was astounded at the large dynamic range it featured. Laurence Gargan's solo, Trumpet Concerto in E minor, Op. 18 (Oscar Bohme) was full of affection. I noted that it was a tiring piece... Laurence drank water after every short movement. I could also see his face redden in exhaustion.


After the intermission, the highlight of the concert was Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma), Op. 36 (Edward Elgar). Having 15 variations, I saw how creative Elgar was as he wrote each variation on one of the favourite people in his life, describing each person intimately. I enjoyed this last piece the most and I'm certainly looking forward to the various concerts/masterclasses I'll be attending during the vacation.

6:52 am *

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Four-part Bach Chorale (Matthaus Passion)

This 4-part, 4-player graded exercise demanded group coordination and precision. My group did - as Michael would put it - TERRIBLE. We don't even know how to pronounce the piece we played - Ich will hier bei dir stehen. That aside, we did much better during our rehearsals than the actual performance. We have so much we need to learn - which is probably why the scheduled year-end concert was pushed back to end of Semester Two. Not that I blame my group - two of us were on keyboards (and had just started learning it a few months ago). Timothy told us to rest assured that everyone passed - I just hope we don't get too bad a grade for performance.

11:54 am *

Sunday, September 04, 2005

SP's 50th Anniversary Closing Ceremony (31 August) Performance

It was a nostalgic way to end Singapore Polytechnic's 50th anniversary celebrations. That evening gave us yet another chance to showcase our musical talents in a live performance situation to the school. It was, as usual, graded - which was rather an unfortunate circumstance, considering that everyone agreed that the PA crew that day sucked. As Timothy R put it, "everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong" and that "it was the worst PA crew he had ever seen in his entire life." Hmm. This is not the first time - the Graduation 2005 Performance PA crew were almost as bad.


My group went first - the guinea pigs that first tested the water. It was the dinner reception; so "Waltz for the Moon" probably seemed appropriate (which was probably why we went first). I was on the keyboard using the "pizzicato strings" sound and provided the bass for the team. Well, a minute before we were up, I was testing the sound of the keyboard - seemed OK; no noise/distortion whatsoever. And just through the beginning of the piece - who would have expected it but my amplifier was crackling. I tried to solve the problem with my right hand by decreasing the volume and master gain (while frantically trying to keep pace with my left hand doing the bass). But to no avail - I had to make do with the "pizzicato strings" that seemed to snap after each time I "plucked" it. In the course of all this adjustment, I missed out on several notes and almost even played a few wrong notes.


During our critique session on Friday, Michael pointed out that he had expected me to use the Yamaha portable keyboard instead of the Alesis one - because the Yamaha had the rhythm feature (WALTZ!), which I could have used! I did use it - actually - but only during the rehearsal. Gosh - I had clean forgotten that I could have used the Yamaha one instead. I was too caught up instead on whether the keyboard that I used would sound OK (no feedback, etc). My forgetfulness this time cost my group our timing - which was (quite) all over the place (but which I thought was still acceptable).


Oh well - it's over already - our next performances would be the 4-part renditions of the Bach Matthaus Chorales and the evening "classical-crossover" performance at the Vanda Room (well at least it's indoor). More others will be coming - later.


I've been practising my solo performance piece (Debussy's Reverie) and my scales (Major: C, G, D, A, E, F, Bb, Eb, Ab; Harmonic Minor: a, b, c, d, e, g) this week. I've also tried a few melodic and natural minor scales to accompany my development of the harmonic minor scales.


We also have word that (from Michael's suggestion) that the scheduled end-year DMAT concert might probably be pushed back to end of the second semester next year (somewhere around March). The reason being that most of us are not ready to perform on such a scale. Well - I agree with him - even I need more exposure to the performance setting. It's also beneficial for my Concert Publicity Committee because it means that we have slightly more time for the necessary arrangements (ticket/poster/flyer design, etc.) - but it doesn't mean I'm gonna let my committee slack through the coming October holidays.

12:23 pm *




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