Thursday, March 30, 2006

意见分歧

Hours after I blog about Alex's email, comes Domy's one which sets quite different expectations about the auditions. 2 free choice pieces and sight-reading. I wondering what's happening to the upper management. Do they even communicate before sending out mass mails??? Perhaps Chua Beng Hwee or Thumboo could send out the next email on another set of audition criteria as well... hahaha

Nontheless, I still think if they are serious about encouraging the younger members to go for the trip, the should just concentrate on the repertoire on the trip, which addresses more pertinent issues for the trip's performance itself. Knowing Domy, he must think that the juniors have played in the annual concert and assumed that they are fantastically at home with their individual parts.

Spring Overture is a tricky one to bring to Japan, percussion instruments and all. It's already quite difficult to balance between full ensemble and the chinese percussion, what's more now it's a down-sized ensemble.

Auditions for Japan Trip

Tuning? and Sight-reading? I think it's a little too tough lah. Ho Xim lah, this is an audition for a trip, don't use formal music examination assessments.

How to test for tuning? Test whether they know how to use tuner or not ah?

Test sight-reading for what???

If anything, just test them on their readiness of the chosen pieces. If they can play those WELL, it's already half a miracle.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Do.... Re Mi Ti.... La


IT has arrived!

Percussion Concert - Strings Attached

YST Conservatory's concert with Percussion and Strings was good. The first piece was played by their head of violins(or strings) Qian Zhou, which I always thought sounded like 欠揍. But that wouldn't make sense, as the dialect would become Kiang Mao or Kiang Pah. Anyway, very exotic violin concerto by Harrison, employing some compositional technique called Control Intervals.(or was it Interval Controls?) Anyway, the highlight was much on the mixture and use of unconventional percussion instruments, rather gamelan sounding and a little western comtemporary. Fusion I suppose. Almost dozed off after a while, felt like I was in a temple in Thailand. Luckily the piece made a hasty ending.

I enjoyed the 2nd piece a lot, Shchedrin's rendition of Carmen Suite. Plenty of surprises; both blending and yet offering contrast. Theme of Toreadors and Habenara was made reall interesting to listen to. Thought entr'acte and Aragonaise wasn't too much of difference, in fact I thought entr'acte didn't sound as good as the original. Loved the re-make from Les Dragons d'Alcala, fantastic change in rhythm and colour. Seems like Shchedrin forgot about Seguidilla and Gypsy Dance though, was hoping to catch these two familiar favourites.

Strings and Percussion seem to blend better in modern pieces, perhaps due to the decrease in need for harmony in parts. The 2nd piece kind of reminded me of the GENUS getup for Chinese Spring Overture, quite similar in a way. Balance between strings and percussion is quite hard to achieve. Find that the percussion cuts through too much, but yet asking them to play less would also mean losing that 'oomph' in the percussive parts. Dilemma. As with GENUS's Spring Overture too, the percussions are a little way too above the rest in the recording, which makes the sound a shade too pompous and unpolished.

My favourite mistake



废戏一部, 但真字名言.

紫青双剑合璧那一幕, 我淌出了开心的眼泪. 好动人的情节啊!

白眉: "浩然天地,正气长存!"

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

令人愤怒

Gloomy entries from Hiong Gai gai and Yen about the future of MASAK, which I still see much potential to be excavated. Alas, Alex doesn't have a blog, else he can air his views to us over cybernet as well.

To set things in perspective, Small Ensemble was formed for the Singapore Guitarist Networking event organised by Toa Payoh Guitar Club. After that performance, I thought it'd be good to keep the group going, since the feel I get when we rehearsed together was really good. On the technical aspect, the group could attempt pieces which are more challanging and need a larger number of players to bring forth greater impact in terms of sound.

Before we go into asking "when's the next practice?". We'd like to ask ourselves "what's the next piece?". Music progress in the small group is driven by the availability of scores. Without scores, what's there to rehearse?

To obtain scores for a niibori quintet is definitely harder than for a guitar quartet. Besides the archive of existing pieces, if we do not actively arrange or source for materials, the death of any group is inevitable. I think we need to encourage ourselves to write for the groups we play in, and not sit back and wait for nice tunes/scores to drop from the sky. Instead of worrying whether or not the group should/would/could disband, get off your butt and do something about it!

I'm very much annoyed by people who sit back and ask themselves silly questions. I spend my nights cutting and pasting scores, arranging pieces for both MASAK and small ensemble(still owe Guitaresque the "loose canon", yes it'll come.), while others lament about the possibility of group disbanding.

WTF?

Friday, March 24, 2006

购物乐

Was shopping on eBay for a present for Snowparang, since he mis-informed me via his blog; thought he was interested in the CD but ended up not. (!!!)

Decided to get something for Hiong Gai Gai as well. Hopefully it's Hiong enough for him.

倪的大牌

What! Want to buy present for him and yet gimme big shot remarks. "I don't really like the arrangements in the CD." KNN! 耍大牌! 咒你一辈子胡不了十三幺!

The CD has already been shipped! 他妈的! Stupid snowparang! Blog incorrect information on your OWN blog!

Monday, March 20, 2006

常年会议

Heard from Shuhann that Pris was wondering why I didn't say much during the AGM. In fact, I was also quite silent (or so I thought) during the Small ensemble meeting prior to the AGM.
Well I think it has come to a point where I believe that time can be better spent on something else, and I've decided not pro-long everyone's agony.

Common pitfalls of AGMs:
1. The usual bulk of time during AGM is always spent talking about the past, and hardly anything pertaining to the future.
2. Nominees are not well prepared beforehand, constantly rejecting posts and gesticulating about how incapable/useless they are, which I seem to agree, gradually, after being innoculated about the same point, person after person.
3. Ridiculous planning, I see Marie running in and out of the DT like a frantic Maria, Zhao Jin hurrying along the elections, like Chinatown sales during Chinese New Year.
4. Elected personnels are made to sit in front of the spectators. Weird.
5. Current committee members are all seated with the audience, which in fact they should up there chairing the meeting. Everyone of them.
6. Loss of prestige to office holders; "By the way(!?!?), Priscilla is the librarian." While the rest continue to pack and stack up chairs.
7. Refreshments not catered for, expect people to sit there for hours.
8. Where's the bloody Music Director?
9. Committee members put on and give out a "get it done and over with" or "phew, I'm finally out of this" aura. Hardly surprising why everyone rejects almost everything.

Ya know, sometimes things are really strange. I particularly liked the AGM which Leo's comm got elected. Somehow, the nominees are well-prepared and very enthusiastic to take over, though the office was handed over from Shirleen's comm, which was ahem..... rather "spectacular spectacular"...

I think Zhiqiang's comm has done pretty well too, except a few phantom ones which I wonder if they could even play their concert pieces or not. There was much thought into many matters though not all matters were handled with style. Well, com'on, we're all learning.

The issues which I would potentially highlight at the AGM are:
1. Sales of the Annual Concert. had they listened to me and devoted on concerted effort to the March concert, perhaps we would have raised more funds.
2. Purchase of new instruments
3. Purchase of new scores
4. Small group management/development of juniors
5. Committee attendance for rehearsals
6. Review of the issue of quitting rates of juniors during Timeless Classics period.
7. Attendance of juniors(figures to be presented, who's monitoring?)
8. Review of the need for sectionals
9. Job scope of Section Leaders
10. Role of AC and CM
11. Downsizing of comm/New positions for comm
12. Role of tutors in the new year

向未来看齐!

倪的礼物



Was comtemplating to get this.....

but decided that a CD is of better choice, since he yearns to be in US to hear it "live".
SO DO I!!!

And yes, I've not forgotten about the FFVII medley too.

So many things to arrange and so little time....

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The young ones

1. During the meet parents session last Sat, one of my ex-students(B*s**) in Sec. 2 came to look for me and popped me a strange question. Yup, the ultimate one, "What's the meaning of life?". I discussed it briefly with him and he told me that he doesn't find much happiness in himself. And he's wondering if the others are as happy as they seem. I eventually asked him to find happiness within others, he seemed a little puzzled about what I talking about though...

2. My technical class has managed to get themselves into a chalet and invited me over for BBQ. I was very glad since FOR ONCE, they were independent and could get the show running. Usually, I'm the one picking up the scraps after them, which makes me furious. The chicken wings and chicken fillet they cooked for me was really goo too! Haha, which makes me wonder if they heading to SHATEC. heh heh... I was worried about their safety though, since some of them have really bad temper and I wasn't staying overnight in the chalet; well, in case they pick a fight becuase someone "funked with their hearts". I didn't get any calls since Tuesday, so it should be fine. I hope. An very warming feeling filled me when I was there at the chalet on Tuesday night; this is the 3rd year they have been with me and I'm starting to think they are starting to grow up.

3. My cousin gets on the phone every night and talks non-stop for about an hour or so. So much so that they can spend time debating whether another person would like go out or not, or "how much is the present?" etc. real trivial stuff. She's a bright kid, but if this is going to go on, I don't think she's even going to get close to SA JC. So I've decided to be the 黑脸. My mum usually is the 白脸, or rather the indulgent spy. Soon she's going to find me a nag, probably just like her teachers in school as well. Occupational hazard eh?

4. 16 year olds still yakking away in my class. Gave them a piece of my mind this morning. Bloody hell, come for remedial class and talk and talk. Already so weak in Physics and not even taking the extra time and effort to beef up a little. Mostly all from Chinese Orchestra, acting like aunties and ah sohs from Chinatown, gesticulating every moment of their lives.

I'm suffering from a streak of back/hip-aches as I'm typing this, somehow started coming on and off after my trip to MacLeHost, now exacerbated by the bowling session with Pa and cousin, which of course influenced my choice of the title to this entry.

Perhaps I really should visit the doc soon...

长江后浪推前浪

If there's anything about Zhiqiang's comm that irks me, it has to be their communication with each other. Things like cost of AGM dinner, deadline of nominations for committee, there's always erratum after erratum. Several occasiosn, it's always a comm member sends email, and a while later Zhiqiang sends another mail and adds on with some modifications/clarifications/corrections. Considering the number of meetings the comm has had before the concert, it's really a terrible trend. Meet so many times and did not manage tie down such simple things.

On the other hand, the comm has come a long way, managing the group from PGP till CFA rennovations where completed. And not to mention managing Domy as well. They're quite a special batch, arising from the SO/PO system, which makes them currently the only exclusive batch, since the 2 sub-groups merged and the separation fizzled off. I empathise with their situation, since they wouldn't have interacted much with the seniors due to the segregation last year, and yet while being comm members, they'll need to manage and interact with the seniors and alumni. The 1.5 system definitely has allowed more of the juniors to come closer to the oldies, else how would I have known Chiok Yen's antics??? Haha.

We should also get rid of that 1.5 nonsense as well. Just reunited back as one officially, that 0.5 is utter rubbish with Domy around.

Anyway, their office is coming to an end, soon they'll put down their appointments and administrative roles. I do hope that the comm will continue to stay with GENUS in the following years, and enjoy making music together! It's their turn to 修成正果, 化身龙柱!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Passion of Maazel


Lorin Maazel's concert was great! Unfortunately, we(Wai, Junhao, Alex and myself) were seated a bit high up due to a lack of ticket budget, so the impact of the sound wasn't that great. Nonetheless, the orchestra sounded different under him, much filled with subtle nuances.



Looks a bit like Jack Nicholson

Overture to Romeo and Juliet was fantastic, what I thought was the best piece for the night. Beautifully crafted and the tragedy/conflict not as harshly put forth. Recordings/Concerts which I've attended previously love to bring sorrow to grieve and conflict to confrontation. Maazel had a finer touch to it, keeping the music within human realms and not overblowing it into "War of the Worlds". Pompous french horn though.

The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto had plenty of good tunes and virtuosic moments. Looked like the violinist breezed through it, quite the feel I like. As usual, with the lack of woodwind participation, I'm already biased to giving the piece lower points!

Pictures at an exhibition was straightforward and simple. I really liked some of the brass chords, esp. at the Great Gate of Kiev; superb tone and balance, unlike the usual blasting from recordings.

After a few listening to Jin Ta and Evgueni's tone, have to say I really prefer the latter's. Jin Ta's is awfully sweet and Galway-ish, not so in the sense of vibrato but just the sound itself. I think the sound makes a good flute solo, cuts through quite clearly, but doesn't really blend well with orchestral sound. Evgueni's tone is clear and very european. Basic rich tone with great musical ideas. Wonderful for solos in orchestral works.

Monday, March 13, 2006

演后感

I must say this is one of those concerts I feel rather hyped-up after. Could be because I was participating in 2 small groups and conducted in 2 pieces too. Hahaha. Though I was running in and out of stage during the first half, it was kinda fun.

My deepest apologies to my dear 三弦 player. Incidentally, I did notice you were tuning the instrument with Edwin. And, incidentally I did not notice you were picking up the Alto! Oops! Started without your glorious pianissississimo tremolo... heh heh... indirectly also startled Mel as well.

Yangyang displayed what would happen if he went into a trance or twilight zone. Things will slow down inevitably. Nonetheless, flawlessly executed, much the small ensemble's surprise and consent too! Quasi Cadenza!

Moh decided that Allegro in Farandole shall not be Andantino on stage. Alto players' eyes dilated for a while and conceeded to his tyrannic offer, the relentless pedal D note, he hummed on the contrabass silently.

Handel was as rehearsed. Perfected actually. Sheepish tone in the later movements from the guitar orchestra. Long and weary feel. Fatigue perhaps.

Duet was fine from backstage, till the end. It sounded like someone missed or was confused as the piece ended quite abruptly, incongruent to the title "Things that we do". Nonetheless a short dessert style piece for the audience after the interval break.

I liked the piece by Daren's group, Pain. I've played Xenosaga too, and I like the gameplay, the story and the music too. They presented it in combo band fashion, was quite refreshing to hear it from backstage.

春节序曲 had to be one of the best pieces in the evening. Nicely placed as the last piece for the night, I thought it roused lots of excitement and gave the audience a new aural sensations, using guitar to portray oriental works. As usual I want to hiss about the Alto's tremelo in the Andante section, sickeningly accelerated without remorse during tremolo, an obvious trait of unpolished music understanding/technique.

Met up with Ruijian, Buk Lan and Kennedy after the concert. I was happy that some of my school people came to attend the concert. (on their own interest, I did not pester them to get tickets) Saw quite many long lost alumni during supper; Sherrie said she might want to come back and join in the Small Ensemble, TMC said that he'll join to guest conduct, jokingly I hope he meant. Daokui also manged to whizz SiewLi back home before meeting us at King Albert for Macs, what a pleasant surprise! Vehicles do miracles!

战前

Saturday was a very long day. I had to meet students' parents in the morning from 10am till 1 plus, on a endless chatter about how their child can do better in school, behavioural problems, encouragements, that sort. I wanted to leave school by 1pm and get to UCC but turns out quite impossible. Met Hiong Gai Gai for lunch before we proceeded to UCC for concert rehearsal. Domy was doing Handel, the cue-ins and all that directing he insisted on doing from his 1st alto solo. Felt that the ensemble was quite disinterested in getting the piece together neatly for him, and so it sounded that way for concert as well. That sluggish sound and sheepish accompaniment.

Next up was sound test for small groups. Huifen and Songyi did a duet; in fact was not ready by audition about a month back, but Domy gave them all the time they needed(till concert day!) and finally agreed to having them on stage. A bad move it is. When it comes to music auditions, I feel it's either a yes or no, after audition. Meaning to say if you feel that they group should have potential to be ready by concert day, but not ready during audition, just give a yes if you are willing to take a risk and trust your judgement. Saying no, should also mean definitely no. Striking up a pact to give the players all the time they need till concert day before saying yes is ridiculous and impractical.

Just imagine, how to say "NO" to the players who've been practising that song twice as hard after audition, even if they really still can't play together? Hello to morale? To top it off, it's Huifen's group. I think unless the conductor wants to see her transform into a 冥炒炒的木乃伊, it's not exactly the best option.

Anyway, she always gets these "special offers", 见惯不怪. Wonder if it's because she's his student yah? Heh heh...

Listened to the duet during the sound check. "Something that we do", new age guitar stuff, I kept losing the melodic line, hence the phrasing and all that. Maybe just no knack for it. I mean myself.

Sound check for Guitaresque, Masak and small ensemble were rather smooth. I borrowed Moh's Alhambra, Alex borrowed Yangyang's Yamaha. The Alhambra was fantastic, a steal for $2k, the high notes were solid and the bass broad. The Yahama wasn't too bad either, but lacked a bit of character in sound, IMHO. In the end, I used YY's and Alex used Moh's instead, since Alex was doing the guitar 1 part. Greatest thanks to both of them!!! Rehearsed a bit with EXPOSE!, Raj was helping out with the sound, everything turned out ok despite cancelling our recent proposed weekday practice. Pro seah.... ha ha. Oh yes! Talking about Pro, Masak only rehearsed 3 times for Suteki!!! (Hansen was away in Thailand, eating scorpions, getting massaged)

This year we had lots of free time in the afternoon, kinda liked that. Instead of that usual rushing here and there, cleaning up of pieces, last minute changes etc.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Hmmm... which stage are we in?

保存实力

(This is the sub-article to Hiong Gai Gai's entry)

Operation Mitosis is not a project to primarily segregate the senior and junior players of the ensemble. In fact, the absense of sectionals has much contributed to the current segregation, with the juniors unable to catch up due to the lack of guidance and support.

The separation of the group is mainly to preserve the players who are still interested to make music together, but unable to reconcile the horror/disappointment during practices under Domy. My take is that either
1. there's something around to keep the alumni
2. or they are just going to go off anyway.

Might as well keep the group intact right?

I think it's a waste if we leave things be and watch the seniors all exit the group. We've come a long way, with many dedicated players. It's truly a pity to give it up.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

稀客

Liling messaged me and asked for some ideas on where to get flutes, she's thinking of starting on it. Jokingly(I suppose) she told me her budget was zero, I assumed Zhizheng is buying for her lah. Anyway, she sounds quite interested(from the messages) and hopes that it will not end up like guitar. Really makes it sound like it was such a complete catastrophe with the 6 stringed instrument. heh heh

It's quite amazing that she still keeps such keen interest in music learning. I suppose many of those GENUS alumni people out there feel similarly, but have their individual reasons/reservations.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Preparation Woes

Once again, Chiok Yen is the only prime junior who faithfully attends my extra Prime sectionals. Well, he's got quite an optimistic character so I think he'll be alright for concert, despite glitches here and there in his playing.

Ensemble was quite unusual, with this practice being the last before concert. Domy was absent, doing sound test for Rondalla (for their Saturday Fringe concert), or so he claims. So we did Handel without both soloists. Much like a scamper though. Haha =) Most of us agreed to do the 4th movement a favour and 送他上路. Can feel that everyone's a little flustered and impatient, perhaps due to concert closing in soon. Attendance was quite under expectations, many juniors were missing from practice. Has NUS work just gotten harder or what? Seems like many of the undergrads are dumped with tons of work. Quite unlike the uni days of mine. Hmmm...

We spent quite some time on 春节序曲, ironing out percussion matters and the loose ends. For more than an hour perhaps. We skimmed through the surface of La Partida, Alex kinda facial-ly decided it was the best there was and we went on. Haha =)

During supper, the issue of the Japan trip came along and we were talking about the pieces to be played there. The group seemed to know of my dislike to let Domy do my pieces, and I feel quite bad about letting this come into the choice of repertoire for the trip. I just don't like the feeling of letting Domy sit there and have pieces prepared and served on his bed while he continues his nonsense with the group. It interferes with the interest of the ensemble, I feel it's just not right letting the vicious cycle go on and on. If he has poor choice of repertoire or concert planning, then it should surface to the CFA people, and hopefully, he changes or gets sacked.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Noc-tuned 2006

It's been years since I went for a NTU guitar ensemble(was called "club" years back) concert. Conjured enough curiosity to decide to visit them just yesterday night. Much of the reason was also I've never been to the Lee Foundation theatre at NAFA. Pris, ZhaoJin, Zhiqiang, Daren, Moh were there as well.

There wasn't much to listen to, literally. Miking was rather minimum, so the guitar sounds came forth pretty acoustically. They played some Kitaro piece, Matusri, which had some guitar knocking; completely drowning the altos and the alto cembalos tremelos in the process. Then there was that Air on G, Tomas conducted. He's gotten a bit fatter since years back, swollen to be exact. Perhaps guitar sales are really sky-rocketing eh?

Then came like 5 to 6 pieces of small groups, from Kill Bill soundtrack, schnappi the crocodile, Manha de Carnival... I was most unimpressed by their sound. Quite raw and unfocused. Lacks collaborated direction.

Interval came and I had a slight discussion with Daren. He had the most abhoration for the guitarron player, occupational hazard I guess. Moh and I were quite distraught about their sound. Looking at the booklet,we realised they only have 5 Altos, and 3 Alto Cembalos. Yes the Alto cembalos were playing the melody. Strange isn't it?
Primes? Hmmm... I think they have about 20 or so... but the sound is really unlike the numbers. Well, the pot is calling the kettle black. haha =)

We were transported to another realm of cacophony when they opened their 2nd half with vocals and keyboard. (huh?) Anyway, The keyboardist was FANTASTIC. He played with such confidence, but alas, the 20 second celestial realm was broken once the girl started to ignore A = 440 Hz. She somewhat decided at 430Hz I guess. Well, I survived through it, so did the keyboardist(God knows how...) AND Moh woke up. He slept through it!!!! Unbelievable. Must have be well trained by the SO last year.

We were greeted by many more small groups, some asking for money(2 dollar bills), some renditions of Chocobo theme from FF series and the evening finally ended with Plink Plank Plunk, a different version from Leroy Anderson's, re-arranged with a interlude in minor and a waltz. The concert ended at around 9:45p.m. We were rather grateful it did not escalate beyond 10p.m.

Overall: VERY VERY JC standard. I told Moh, VJC plays better.

Hope I'll be there for Not-tuned 2007!

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

几年前的一群疯子

青春的岁月总是充满无限的活力与疯狂.
但愿人长久, 千里共婵娟.

先诛少林,后灭武当.

狂妄.

有杀气!!!


天山童姥,威震武林.


脚踏实地.


吉他万岁!!!


曾经.

听天由命

Writing this as I’m standing behind the piano at the Activity Room. It’s Tuesday’s practice. The group is running through Handel’s Concerto last movement. I can vividly understand why Hiong Gai Gai would walk out of the DT in despair of the soloist’s performance. The solo was rather raw I must say, with little regard for the orchestra coherence. Notes go haywire at times, some wrong, some out of tempo. There was even a passage Daren was counting for him(or for the orchestra???)!!!

Spectacularly weird.