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Getting to Know —
Chan Yoong-Han Zhao Tian 05
Featured Composer
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Cover Story
Storytelling through Music
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Ask us Anything!
Obtaining Music Scores 18
Recent Happenings
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Editorial Team Senior Manager, Programmes Kua Li Leng Editors & Coordinators Samantha Lim Vanessa Lee Contributors Lynnette Chng Lim Lip Hua Avik Chari Wong Yi Wen
Upcoming Events
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Getting to know...
Let’s find out more about playing in chamber and orchestral settings from two SSO musicians who are familiar faces in our VCHpresents Chamber series, Yoong-Han (YH) and Zhao Tian (ZT).
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Describe yourself in a few words YH: Childish, imaginative
ZT:
Optimistic, hardworking, fun
What have you been up to in the past couple of months? YH:
The Circuit Breaker was a good time for me to re-examine my playing and check my basics, through recording myself playing.
ZT:
I also spent this time practising and discovering new repertoire. I’ve also realised how important it is to stay healthy, so now I also run and swim everyday!
Tell us what you like about performing in a chamber setting! YH:
The dynamic and intimate interactions with other musicians to find a common musical picture. With no conductor, each musician is also like a soloist with their own character and individual voice.
ZT:
During rehearsals, we discuss and try out new ways of interpreting and playing the music. There are usually powerful musical ideas that form!
Chamber music is written for small groups of two to eight musicians, providing a much more intimate experience. In comparison, the number of musicians in an orchestra can go up to 100!
What about in an orchestra? YH:
It gives us the opportunity to learn from and work with wonderful guest musicians and conductors from around the world, with whom we have bonded over our love for music and food!
ZT:
It’s also more exciting playing with so many other musicians and sharing the music with them. Because of the instrumentation, orchestral music brings out more tone colours, and delivers stronger emotions to the audience.
YH:
Ideally, an orchestra should feel like an expanded chamber group, but musicians have adapted to blending into the sound of the orchestra, and performing various interpretations of the same work.
Catch Yoong-Han and Zhao Tian in VCHpresents Chamber: Mozart’s Violet and Beethoven’s Serioso, premiering on SISTIC Live on 22 Jan!
Featured Composer
Shostakovich Dmitri Shostakovich was a brilliant Russian composer who lived most of his life under an oppressive dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. His creativity and freedom of speech through music was supressed and censored by the Soviet government but despite these obstacles, he still managed to write many wonderful works.
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Shostakovich used the musical motif, DSCH, in many of his works. This refers to the initials of his name in the German writing system: Dmitri Schostakowitsch. Using German musical conventions, E flat is called ‘Es’ and pronounced like the letter ‘S’. ‘H’ refers to the B note.
NAME: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich BORN: 25 September 1906 DIED: 9 August 1975 BIRTH PLACE: Saint Petersburg, Russia PROFESSION: Composer, Pianist
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Young Shostakovich’s Musical Talent Shostakovich started learning the piano at age 9. Displaying musical talent, he was admitted to the Petrograd Conservatory (now the Saint Petersburg Conservatory) at age 13.
The St. Petersburg Conservatory
A young Shostakovich
Upon graduation at age 19, he composed his First Symphony, his first major musical achievement that secured him as a promising young composer in Russia.
Shostakovich’s Music In the mid-1930s, Stalin attended performances of Shostakovich’s compositions and disliked them, leading to negative reviews in the newspaper of the Soviet Union Communist Party. As a result, demand for his commissions dropped and the premiere of his Fourth Symphony was withdrawn from the public.
Shostakovich then decided to keep a low profile, teaching composition at the Conservatory, and composing a conservative Fifth Symphony that helped him regain the favour of the Communist Party.
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In 1941, during the war between the Soviet Union and Germany, Shostakovich composed his Seventh Symphony. Some believed this patriotic piece that boosted the morale of the country was a representation of the people’s brave resistance to the German invaders.
In 1948, many composers including Shostakovich were perceived negatively by the Communist Party for writing music with Western influences, which were perceived as “non-Russian”. As most of his works were banned, he resorted to composing film music – a genre favoured by Stalin as it had little personal expression.
He also secretly composed other serious works, hiding them away until after Stalin’s death in 1953, when they could be published and performed.
Shostakovich’s Later Years In the last 20 years of his life, Shostakovich was ill and mortality became a common theme of his music. His Cello Concerto uses a distorted version of the DSCH motif, his Fourteenth Symphony included a song cycle based on poems about death, and his final string quartet consists of six slow movements with melancholic themes.
Catch Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 performed in the digital concert Ng Pei-Sian plays Shostakovich, premiering on SISTIC Live on 8 Jan!
Cover Story
THROUGH
MUSIC
Composers seek inspiration for their music and stories are one of their favourites! These stories can come in the form of poems, plays and folklore and can be conveyed through music. In a similar way, some book authors also use music as their inspiration for their stories.
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Programme Music Have you ever listened to a piece of music and can almost picture a story in your head? That’s what programme music sets out to do – tell stories through music without the use of words. In order to evoke an image in the listener’s head, programme music are often full of dynamics and expression, conveying the emotions of the characters, and relating the happenings in the story.
Some programme music were inspired by poems, such as Paul Dukas’ L’apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), based on the 1797 poem of the same name by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice follows the events described in the poem closely, depicting a sorcerer’s lazy apprentice as he enchants a broom to carry out his chores, but eventually loses control of it as he has not acquired enough knowledge on magic!
Take a closer look at how Dukas helps listeners perceive images through sound!
A. Musical Motifs
Dotted crochet motif for magical broomsticks
B. Tone Colour The strings at the beginning play with mutes, setting a mysterious mood for the wizard and his apprentice.
D. Key
High-pitched flowing tune for magic
C. Imitation of Sounds Fiery lightning bolts and flashes onscreen are accompanied by crashing cymbals that mimic the claps of thunder, as the apprentice tries to kill the broom.
Written in F minor, a dark and lamentative key. Image credit: Walt Disney Productions
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To help young children better visualise music, Disney created Fantasia (1940) and its sequel Fantasia 2000 (1999). Both movies featured animations set to pre-existing orchestral works, and the main feature is the short film set to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice featuring Mickey Mouse.
Apart from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Fantasia also features a few other well-known programmatic music such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, nicknamed the Pastoral Symphony. Unlike The Sorcerer’s Apprentice that was based on a poem, the Pastoral Symphony was inspired by Beethoven’s frequent hikes in nature. The producers at Disney then wrote a mythological story based on the music, about centaurs and other Greek gods. In this case, the music came before the story!
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Incidental Music Another way that music can make stories even more exciting is through the use of incidental music – music that is used in a film, play or video game in the background to create or enhance the atmosphere. In 1876, Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen wrote the play Peer Gynt, loosely based on `` a Norwegian fairytale, Henrik Ibsen and asked fellow Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, to compose enough music to accompany the 90-minute story!
Even though incidental music is often forgotten and leaves little impression on the listener, Peer Gynt is an exception and is considered one of Grieg’s most popular and famous works. You might have heard of two movements from the suite before: Hall of the Mountain King and Morning Mood. Incidental music is still used to accompany plays today, though with technological advancements, it is now possible to include electronically-mixed music and sounds, instead of being limited to live music!
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Musicals & Operas Let’s not forget musicals and operas, where the storyline is conveyed through song. In these genres, a few songs are featured, interspersed by dialogue that are either sung or spoken. Unlike incidental music, where the music is less prominent, music plays a primary role in musicals and operas. One famous musical that you would have heard of is Phantom of the Opera and features music by English composer Andrew Lloyd
Music in Storybooks It is also not uncommon to read about classical music in books and works of fiction, especially if the author is someone who’s also interested in music, like Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. Deeply interested in jazz and classical music, Murakami is known for including music references in his books, like Beethoven’s Archduke Trio in
Books by Murakami
Webber. As compared to operas, musicals place a larger emphasis on the text, and the cast often have to act, sing and dance – all at the same time! Bizet’s Carmen
Opera, on the other hand, features music and songs more prominently. Bizet’s Carmen remains one of the most-loved operas! Scan the QR codes below to learn about the story and listen to the full opera.
The tale of Carmen
Performance of Carmen by the SSO
Kafka on the Shore, and Janacek’s Sinfonietta in 1Q84. Liszt’s Le Mal du Pays (Homesickness) from his suites for solo piano, Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) in also featured heavily in Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage. The piece is simple yet haunting, and is used to represent the bittersweet memories of the protagonist as he navigates adulthood.
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Ask us Anything!
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The most common way to obtain music scores is to purchase them! Although composers from the baroque, classical and romantic eras have passed away, orchestras still frequently perform their work. To obtain scores by these composers, we get them from publishers and suppliers, who print and sell them – making them readily available at all times. If the works are under copyright protection, the best way to obtain them is by hiring them from the publishers themselves. In this case, they are the ones who own the copyrights, or administer them on behalf of the deceased composer’s estate. After all the paperwork has been completed, they will send them over to us by courier. The hire period is usually 2-months long, during which the scores will be distributed and used for rehearsals and concerts. The works of some living composers are available for purchase too. This is more common for movie soundtracks and arrangements of pop songs. A good example of one such composer is John Williams, known for his soundtracks from movies such as Star Wars and Harry Potter.
“Sometimes, works by lesser-known composers are no longer published if there is no demand for them. Once, I had to source for Charles Stanford’s Bible Songs that was out-of-print, and only managed to find a copy through a bookshop in India!”
Another way of obtaining music is by commissioning living composers to compose a work for you. To build Singapore’s local repertoire, the SSO frequently commissions works and arrangements by local composers, including Jewel of Srivijaya by Tony Makarome and Kampong Overture by Lee Jinjun! Scan the QR codes below to listen to them.
Kampong Overture by Lee Jinjun Jewel of Srivijaya (for Mridangam, Tabla and Orchestra) by Tony Makarome
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What’s Next? With digitisation, scores are sometimes received digitally in PDF format, instead of being couriered to us. This is convenient because we will receive the scores almost instantaneously without incurring additional shipping costs. Right now, we still have to print them out for the musicians, but we’re sure that orchestras will shift towards performing with digital scores in future! — Lim Lip Hua, Avik Chari, and Wong Yi Wen SSO Librarians
How Copyrights are determined Is the composer alive?
Yes, it is under copyright.
E.g. Works by Caroline Shaw, Tan Dun, Arvo Pärt
Did the composer pass away more than 70 years ago?
There is no copyright. This is called public domain music.
E.g. Works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven
This is still under copyright.
E.g. Works by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Schöenberg
If you have a question about classical music or the workings of an orchestra, send them over to outreach@sso.org.sg, and it might be answered in the next issue of RhapSSOdy!
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Here’s how some of our audience have been enjoying the music of the SSO, as our concert halls slowly reopen up to a limited number of audience per performance!
Students from Eunoia Junior College’s Music Elective Programme enjoying President’s Young Performer Julia Tan’s performance of Sejourne’s Marimba Concerto, from the comfort of their classroom.
Audiences attending a socially-distanced live performance by a string quartet made up of SSO Musicians at Our Tampines Hub, on 22 Nov 2020
For ticketing enquiries, please contact ticketing@sso.org.sg For school programme enquiries, please contact outreach@sso.org.sg
VCHpresents Organ: A Ceremony of Carols
To Vienna and Linz with Mozart
Sun, 3 Jan 2021, 4pm and 7.30pm Victoria Concert Hall
Wed, 6 Jan 2021, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall
Ng Pei-Sian plays Shostakovich
As the Winds Blow
Fri, 8 Jan 2021, 8pm SISTIC Live
Sat, 16 Jan 2021, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall
VCHpresents Chamber: Mozart’s Violet and Beethoven’s Serioso
Light to Night Festival 2021
Fri, 22 Jan 2021, 8pm, SISTIC Live
A Gift to the Universe: Celebrating Bach III Thu, 4 Feb 2021, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall
Fri, 22 & 29 Jan 2021, 7pm & 9.30pm Sat, 23 & 30 Jan 2021, 7pm & 9.30pm Victoria Concert Hall
All SSO events are supported by the National Arts Council, and local schools are eligible for up to 50% subsidy from the Totalisator Board Arts Grant. For more information, please call us at 6602 4245 or email us at ticketing@sso.org.sg. Information correct at time of print and is subject to change without notice. Do visit sso.org.sg for updates.