Concert: Leong Yoon Pin - A Choral Odessey

Date/Time: 25 Aug 09, 7.30 pm

Venue: Esplanade Concert Hall

Ticket Price: Standard - S$30, S$25, S$15



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Wearing the many hats of composer, educator, and conductor, Leong Yoon Pin is mainly known for his role as composer. His compositional output include two symphonies, the tone poems Blessing the Seas, Temasekian, and Episodes in Journey to the West, the opera Bunga Mawar, the concert overture Dayong Sampan, a piano concerto, choral and other many instrumental works. But perhaps Leong is best known for his choral works, many of which were locally commissioned and performed by both amateur and professional choirs. These include the popular Street Calls, Dragon Dance, Nostalgia, Here Comes the bride and Love Quatrains.

Participating choirs
Amadeus Choral Society, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School, Common Voices, Duman High School, Hwa Chong Institution (College), NAFA Alumni, National Junior College, River Valley High School, SYC Ensemble Singers, Tanjong Katong Girls' School, The Vocal Consort and Victoria Chorale.

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Review: "FIRSTS" by Key Elements

Hi all,

The review below's done by Ching Mei from A Cappella SOUNDS.

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Upon stepping in the Esplanade Recital studio, it was pretty much a full house last night, a concert attended by friends and fans alike. I came as a supporter of local a cappella with my friend in delightful expectation of what repertoire jazz-infused a cappella group Key Elements [KE] could come up with.

As expected , KE opened with their signature jazz-tinged arranged of I'm Beginning To See The Light. However, the audience truly warmed up to KE when they mentioned their stint and the song which they could not reach pass the 1st stanza at the Hokkien Huay Kuan with a cutesy choreography. In fact, I was rather impressed with the simplistic jazz take of a familiar Hokkien classic 一人一半 Jit Lang Jit Pua as sang by Jason Ong, the songwriter-arranger of the group. Yes, that song had the audience hooting in laughter.

Not only that, the audience were amusingly prompted by the KE "girls" [ Susanna and Hui Lian] to be screaming fans when the "boys" of KE [ Vaughn, Kim Beng, Jason and Benedict] sang a classic but simple barbershop arrangement of Come Go with Me and the guys proved to be able to sound effortlessly, harmonically tight in this piece. Benedict [KE's baritone] even attempted a familiar Korean ballad I Believe from the Korean movie "My Sassy Girl", after which Jason jokingly said a greeting in Korean. The audience even had the chance to "support" KE by waving their handphone lights along with the disco ball light with the feeling of a travel back in time.

Despite the members having bouts of flu as KE mentioned during the concert, KE did their utmost best.Especially so for tenor lead Kim Beng who gave quite an impressionable lead on a pop song [ title unknown?] where he had to challenge the mezzo-soprano register of Susanna [ KE's mezzo-soprano]. I admit it was a brave feat for KE to attempt pop-rock genre and even imitating the string ensemble as they seem more comfortable and at ease singing the jazz genre. After all, they are more jazz- influenced.

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Concert: SYF 2009 (Choral Presentation)

Date/Time: 2 Jul 09, 7.30 pm

Venue: Victoria Concert Hall

Ticket Price: Standard - S$4

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The SYF 2009 Choral Presentation will showcase performances by The Australian Voices and five outstanding local school choirs who have performed well at the SYF 2009 Central Judging of Choirs in April and May: Anglican High School, Commonwealth Secondary School, Nanyang Girls’ High School, Catholic Junior College and Victoria Junior College.

The choirs will present a wide array of repertoire from different eras and cultures. This year, there will also be a combined choir consisting of representatives from schools which have been awarded the Gold award at the SYF 2009 Central Judging of Choirs. The combined choir will present the SYF 2009 Set Piece, ‘White Horses’ under the baton of the composer, Mr Stephen Leek from Australia, as well as ‘Singaporean Medley’ under the baton of Dr Zechariah Goh from Singapore.

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Sing-ing Sunday

I quite like the piece, for its harmonies.

Listening Recommendations: Britten's War Requiem

I quite like this work by Benjamin Britten. Personally, I don't listen to much classical music because I have short attention spans (I suppose many of you must feel that way too, haha).

Thing is, a good portion of this massive work - requiring two orchestras, three soloists, a boys choir and an organ - is set to English. Wilson Owen's poems were set to music, which juxtaposes the traditional Latin text, also sung in the work. The musical effects are very dramatic, as well. Church bells, church organ, boys choir singing sacred Latin text, soprano, baritone and tenor solos... You get the idea.

This work was composed relatively recently, from 1961-1962. Within five months of the first recording released over 200,000 copies were sold, a first for an album featuring contemporary classical work. The album won Britten THREE Grammy's in 1963, for Classical Album, Best Classical Performance - Choral (other than Opera) and Best Classical Composition by a Contemporary Composer.

I've embedded in this post, the recordings for the last (sixth) movement. It is (unfortunately) broken into three videos. However, they are broken according to the starts and endings of the sung text. Interestingly, I don't find the music compromised at all. So, take your time to listen to them.

OK, now go listen!

Sing-ing Sunday: Girl groups!

I just can't stop listening to (and watching) SNSD and Wonder Girls on youtube.

And there are groups who created, guess what, A CAPPELLA versions of their hits!



Gee by SNSD.

I see wonder boy dancing there HAHA.



The world-famous song Nobody by Wonder Girls.



So Hot by Wonder Girls.

Listening Recommendation: Pilgrims' Chorus by Richard Wagner

The video below is from Wagner's Tannhäuser (opera), Act 3. By the way, Wagner is famously mainly for his operas and orchestral work. He also composed some songs (solo voice with accompaniment) and choral work, although I don't think it'll ever be performed by any school choir.

By the way, the famous "Here Comes the Bride/Bridal Chorus" a song from Wagner's Lohengrin (another opera). Cool. Don't confuse that with Mendelssohn's "Wedding March", the other famous wedding tune, though.



Here's what seems to be the original, opera version with the characters singing. The recording is cut 'halfway' because, well, that would be the part where the music transits to the next song in the opera.

I like the part when the chorus sings 'Hallelujah' and especially the triumphant E-flat major chord at 3:37.

Although it's in German, I also found a translated version of it here (youtube video).