The Crow and the Dove
Phoon Yu
Eudenice Palaruan
Margaret Chen
Ane Lagumen
Dayaw Aziel Palaruan
Elisha Jayne Siman Parungao
Erica Jayne Siman Parungao
organ choreographer percussion dancer* dancer* narrator¹
Joanna Maxene Q. Hong
PROGRAMME
Naji Hakim
J.S. Bach
Trio in D minor, BWV 583
Chelsea Chen
The Moon Lady¹ dancer* dancer*
Gu Wei
Excerpt from , Episode 1: The Yellow-Vented Bulbul The Senate of Birds
Eudenice Palaruan
The Dove and the Crow¹*
Tanets (4 mins) (6 mins) (12 mins) (2 mins) (SSO Commission/World Premiere) (28 mins)
All works performed are Singapore premieres, except for The Senate of Birds.
CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour (with no intermission)
15
JUNE 2024
Phoon Yu
organ
As an organist and composer Phoon Yu is active both in Singapore and in the United States. In Singapore, he has performed in Victoria Concert Hall, the Esplanade, and St. Andrew’s Cathedral, while in the U.S., he has performed as a solo recitalist recitalist in New York, NY; Baltimore, MD; and Winter Park, FL. Recent collaborations this year include his performance with Orlando Sings for Bach’s B Minor Mass and Fauré’s Requiem in Orlando, FL, while recent composition premieres include his cantata Dream A Granted Sky and his chamber work A Transi for The Common Maperformed by The TENG Ensemble. A Juilliard doctoral graduate, Phoon Yu is currently the Parish Organist at All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park, FL.
Dream A Granted Sky A Transi for The Common Man,
Eudenice Palaruan percussion
Eudenice Palaruan studied at the U.P. College of Music, majoring in composition and choral conducting. He further studied choral conducting at the Berliner Kirchenmusikschule, Germany, and doctor of musical arts at St. Paul University Manila Manila. He was the resident composer/arranger, and assistant choirmaster of the Philippine Madrigal Singers. For the past years, he has been the resident conductor and composer of the International Bamboo Organ Festival. With his active involvement in the choralization of Philippine and other Asian indigenous music, he premiered a significant volume of new Asian choral works.
choralization
He is currently an associate professor at the Singapore Bible College School of Church Music and the choral director of the Singapore Symphony Chorus.
Margaret Chen
narrator
Margaret Chen is curator of the Klais organ at Victoria Concert Hall. In the early 1980’s, with the encouragement of then music director, Choo Huey, she started a series of Children’s Concerts that included works like Saint-Saëns' ‘Carnival of Animals’ and Ravel’s ‘ Mother Goose Suite’. Later, this project was expanded to include productions of children’s operas like Menotti’s ‘ Help, help, the Globolinks’ and Benjamin Britten’s ‘ Noye’s Fludde’.
Today she is very happy to join the crew in presenting the concert!The
Ane Lagumen
choreographer
Emily Ann Lagumen Palaruan, fondly called Ms. Ane by her students, is a multifaceted educator, choreographer, and artist with a passion for and movement. She has extensive training in eurythmy, ballet, traditional and folk dances, modern, contemporary, liturgical dances, and creative movements. Ane studied dance at the University of the Philippines before moving to Germany to study and take her Diploma and master’s degree in Performing Arts Eurythmy from Alanus Hochschule.
She shares her expertise teaching ballet and Philippine and Southeast Asian traditional dances, arts, music, and local games at HFSE International School Singapore. dance jazz,
The Crow and the Dove
Dance is to movement as poetry is to words, or music is to sound; an arrangement of quotidian and otherwise unrelated actions, thoughts, and phenomena into a constellation imbued with meaning and purpose. As with poems and pieces, dances serve a variety of functions for the artist and the community they find themselves in. Sometimes they are done for the sake of aesthetic pleasure, but other times their cultural, historical, and religious significance forge and maintain entire communal identities through the inexorable march of time.
While many dances are specific to certain communities, many communities find representation in Naji Hakim’s (b. 1955) Tanets. Inspired by the Basque fandango – a dance of Spanish and Portuguese origin – triple and double rhythm patterns alternate with one another throughout most of the piece, supported by a bed of continuous semiquaver passages which further add to the vivacity of the piece. The work is split into three sections, with the third section reprising the first. The harmony of the piece (primarily diatonic, with some dissonant additions), its virtuosity (the piece makes use of both rapid passagework and double pedalling), and its registration reflect Hakim’s indebtedness Tanets.
The Crow and the Dove
to his education in the modern French school of thought for organ and composition. Curiously, for a piece that was written by a French composer of Lebanese descent and inspired by a Spanish/Portuguese dance, the title of the piece is in neither of these languages – but in Russian.
Trio in D minor, BWV 583
While the Trio in D minor, BWV 583 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was probably not danced to, its duelling soprano lines – undergirded by an active bassline, is evocative of a dance duet. Like Tanets (albeit less obviously), the work is divided into three sections, with the outer sections being characterised by dotted rhythms and heavy ornamentation, and the middle section being characterised more by flowing semiquavers and a more energetic pedal part. Throughout the piece, the melody lines are often in imitation, giving one the impression of two dance partners moving in tandem with one another. Despite being one of Bach’s earlier works (it was written during his time in Weimar between 1708-1717), it can retrospectively be seen as a precursor to his more virtuosic trio sonatas (written between 1727-1731, while he was working in Leipzig), which pushed –and continue to push – the technical limits of organists.
Tanets
The Crow and the Dove
The Moon Lady The Moon Lady
Like Bach’s Trio, Chelsea Chen’s (b. 1983) The Moon Lady too evokes movement; in this case, of the dramatis personae in the myth of how Chang-E (the ‘Moon Lady’ in the title) came to ascend to and dwell in the moon. Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for their 2011 Regional Convention in Morristown, New Jersey, Chen’s work splits the story into six movements with intervening narrations, with each movement depicting a scene from the tale. Many key moments in the story are represented vividly by musical textpainting and appropriate registration. For example, in the second movement, the syncopated chords, rhythmic pedal work, and brassy registration represent the martial natures of the noble Hou Yi (Chang-E’s husband) and his villainous apprentice, Peng Meng, while the triplets, staccato dyads, and the usage of higher registrations and mixtures in the third movement represent the ‘sparkliness’ of the magical immortality-granting elixir, offered by the otherworldly Wang Mu, the Empress of Heaven. A moto perpetuo semiquaverpattern in the fourth movement represents Chang-E’s steady ascent into the heavens, which is further supplemented by rapid arpeggi, in mostly subdued registration. Many melodies – often written in a pentatonic scale – are reiterated across
The Crow and the Dove
multiple movements, creating a sense of thematic unity across the entire piece.
And finally, whereas the Dove and the Crow might be content to submit to the commands of the elder god Bathala, Gu Wei’s (b. 1991) Yellow-Vented Bulbul is an arrogant, obnoxious, and self-obsessed fellow who would absolutely not be dictated to by anyone else. Drawn from a five-webisode series about Singaporean birds entitled The Senate of Birds which featured multiple instrumentalists, composers, and dancers alongside narration – the piece (originally composed for solo clarinet) depicts the eponymous bird, who is but one of several characters in the titular senate. Gu makes use of its birdcalls (such as its staccato and gradually-ascending distress call) in the piece, which is reflected in the widespread use of detached notes and rapid arpeggio. The bird favours urban areas, and Gu represents this through a syncopated groove that depicts the bustling rhythms of the city. Originally danced to as well in the first webisode, Gu’s lively and rhythmic piece will nevertheless continue to evoke the image of a supremely self-confident bird, assertive and dominant even amongst his peers.
Notes written by Phoon Yu.
The Senate of Birds –
Yellow-Vented BulbulProgramme Notes
The Dove and the Crow
ni Kalapati at ni Uwak Alamat incidental music
The Dove and the Crowis an example of incidental music written for organ, percussion instruments, and bird whistles to accompany a performance of a Filipino children’s tale,Alamat ni Kalapati at ni Uwak,The Legend of the Dove and the Crow. The composer crafted eight short pieces based on the story’s events. Some of the melodies are quoted from traditional songs on birds, such as the Catalan folksong,El Rossinyol, and a monastic chant,Veni Creator Spiritu.
El Rossinyol May IbongKakantakanta Koyu No Tebulul
Veni Creator Spiritu Bathala T’boli
The music begins with an overture based on aT’boli songdance from the Southern Philippines,Koyu No Tebulul (Tree On A Hill). The composer assigned a traditional Tagalog melody,May IbongKakantakanta (A Bird Sings), as a motif to one of the three main characters,Bathala,the supreme god, throughout the story. Likewise, a kazoo accompanies the sound of the crow. At the same time, the ocarina and the bell embellish the sound of the cooing dove. The composition intentionally encourages audience participation. Bird whistles made of bamboo reeds are distributed to the children in the audience, who will be given the cue to play them as part of the overall soundscape.
Notes written by Eudenice Palaruan.
UPCOMING SSO ORGAN SERIES CONCERTS
Musical Souvenirs with re: mix and Jia Hwei
Sun, 21 Jul, 4pm
Victoria Concert Hall
Koh Jia Hwei
organ
Foo Say Ming
violin & conductor
A Gothic Halloween
Sun, 27 Oct, 4pm
Victoria Concert Hall
Male Chorus of the Singapore Symphony Chorus re: mix ensemble
Eudenice Palaruan
Ellissa Sayampanathan
Shane Thio
Boey Jir Shin
organ Choral Director & organ
Assistant Choral Conductor
celesta & piano
For more details, visit sso.org.sg/organ-series
The vision of the Singapore Symphony Group is to be a leading arts organisation that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence. Our mission is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated performing groups, we spread the love for music, nurture talent and enrich our diverse communities.
The SSO is a charity and not-for-profit organisation You can support us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.
