MCI (P) No. 085/11/2019 Newsletter of the SSO Community Outreach Department
SSO.ORG.SG
May-Aug 2020
CONTENTS Cover Story Music & Folktales
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Fun Facts Music Inspired by Fairy Tales
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Fun & Games Guess the Composers!
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Getting To Know You Scott Brothers Duo
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Local Spotlight Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir
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Ask Auntie Melody
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Music Jokes Headache Zones
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Tips! Sight-reading
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Upcoming Events
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EDITORIAL TEAM Senior Manager, Programmes: Kua Li Leng Editors & Coordinators: Samantha Lim, Vanessa Lee Contributors: Lynnette Chng, Tang Ya Yun, Zachary Dominguez 2
Cover Story
Music & Folktales
Have your parents ever told you stories that were told to them by their parents? These are examples of folktales – stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. One popular folktale you might have heard of before is about the origins of the name of our country, Singapore. Legend has it that 700 years ago, Sang Nila Utama landed on the island (then called Temasek) and saw a lion. He took it as an auspicious sign and named the island ‘Singapura’, or ‘Lion City’ in Sanskrit. Many countries have their own folktales, stemming from their traditions and cultures. Join us as we explore music and folktales from around the world in this issue!
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Cover Story
Music & Folktales
One Thousand and One Nights One Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights, is a compilation of Middle Eastern folktales that were told to King Shahryar, by his advisor’s daughter, Scheherazade. This frame story is a folk tale in itself, where Scheherazade tells King Shahryar stories over many nights to prevent him from executing her.
One tale you definitely know from One Thousand and One Nights is Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, which has been adapted into many films – such as the slient film, The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Disney’s Aladdin (1992).
The many tales in One Thousand and One Nights are fantastical and imaginative, inspiring many composers to compose works based on them. The most famous of them all is the symphonic suite, Scheherazade, Op. 35 by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, completed in the year 1888. Scheherazade consists of four movements: I. The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship II. The Legend of the Kalandar Prince
III. The Young Prince and The Young Princess IV. Festival at Baghdad. The Sea.
Depiction of Scheherazade by various artists
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Rather than present narratives that are reflective of the stories, Rimsky-Korsakov intended for Scheherazade to capture the spirit and mood of the frame story, and to convey an array of fairy tale images. Throughout Scheherazade, themes representing different characters, ideas and setting in the stories are present. Here are two! King Shahryar’s Theme In the first movement, King Shahryar’s bitter nature is conveyed using the use of low strings and brasses in a broad and imposing – almost evil-sounding – theme. As he falls in love with Scheherazade towards the end, his theme returns shorter, quicker and livelier.
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Scheherazade’s Theme Scheherazade, a smart and charming woman, is represented by a graceful and tender theme played on the high register of a violin accompanied by the harp.
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Listen to SSO’s harpist Gulnara Mashurova and former concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich play Scheherazade’s theme, or catch it live on 21 August 2020 performed by the SSO!
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Cover Story
Music & Folktales
Music inspired by folktales around the world Folktales are present in countries around the world, and represent the traditions and cultures of its country of origin. Read on to learn more about works inspired by folktales around the world! Russia: Baba Yaga, Op. 56 by Anatoly Lyadov (1904) Lyadov’s Baba Yaga is a tone poem – a piece of short orchestral music that depicts or evokes the content of a non-musical work. It is based on the legend of Baba Yaga, a terrifying witch-like lady who lives deep in the forest and preys on young children. In Russia, parents tell their children the story of Baba Yaga to scare them from wandering far from home! The breathless and exhilarating music follows the Baba Yaga as she whirls through the forest, rustling the trees and whipping up the winds. The music winds down as she returns to her hut (built on chicken legs), and eventually fades into nothingness as she disappears into her hut.
Depiction of Baba Yaga and her hut
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China: The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang (1959) This beautiful and expressive work is based on a Chinese folktale about the tragic love story between Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo.
梁山伯
祝英台
Set in Ancient China, the story follows Yingtai as she falls in love with Shanbo while disguising as a man to obtain an education. Despite having feelings for each other, they remained friends due to societal pressures.
Shanbo met Yingtai one year later, only to realise she was bethrothed to someone. Heartbroken, Shanbo fell ill and passed away. During her wedding, when Yingtai’s carriage passed by Shanbo’s grave, lightning struck and the grave opened. Yingtai jumped into it and both emerged as butterflies, never to be separated.
Although it is written for a Western-style orchestra and solo violin, the Concerto is uniquely Chinese in its use of the traditional pentatonic (five-note) scale and glissandi in the solo violin part. The Concerto has also been adapted for Chinese Orchestra, featuring a solo erhu – also known as the ‘Chinese violin’.
Listen to the SSO and violinist Gil Shaham play The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto here!
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Cover Story
Music & Folktales Singapore: The Sisters’ Islands by Wang Chenwei (2009) Close to home, the Sisters’ Islands are two islands located at the south of Singapore, right below Sentosa. Wang Chenwei’s symphonic poem follows the storyline of the legend about how the islands were formed. The Sisters’ Islands is about two close-knit sisters, Minah and Linah. One day, Linah was abducted and forced to marry a pirate. Upset and desperate, Minah swam after the pirates in a storm. Seeing this, Linah jumped into the sea to join Minah, and they both drowned. After the storm subsided the next day, the villagers discovered two islands that emerged from the sea. These islands are now known as the Sisters’ Islands. Chenwei very cleverly made use of tone colour and orchestral textures to portray the mood of the story. Here’s how he portrayed the difference between a calm and stormy sea!
calm sea
stormy sea
- Deep and broad theme played by the horn
- Ominous theme played by the brasses
- Accompanied by a backdrop of wave-like ornamentations that represent the glistening sea
- Accompanied by drums rolls on the timpani and rapid woodwind scales to convey a sense of urgency
Be transported into the legend with the SSO performing The Sisters’ Islands at the 2018 National Day Concert!
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Fun Facts
Music Inspired by Fairy Tales Did you know that fairy tales are also considered folktales? These stories have elements such as spells, fairies, princesses, talking animals, and they usually have a happy ending. Find out in this section if any composers have written a piece of music to your favourite fairy tale!
The fairy tale La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) was adapted from film to opera in 1946. Composer Philip Glass replaced the original soundtrack and voices of the actors, replacing it with opera and voices of the singers.
In American composer Seymour Barab’s most internationally performed comic fairy tale opera, Little Red Riding Hood, he included a prologue where the singer playing the wolf does his make-up in front of the audience. This reassures children that the wolf is just a man in costume and nothing to be afraid of!
Cinderella was a popular fairy tale amongst composers! Rossini, Prokofiev and Coates composed with their own techniques and style that made each work a very different experience – a ballet, an opera with singing and acting, or an orchestral performance.
All three ballets that Tchaikovsky composed were based on fairy tales – Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.
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Fun & Games
Guess the Composers! Composers sure led interesting lives - try to guess who they are based on these fun facts about them! • He owned ear trumpets (olden-day hearing aids). • He composed while he was deaf as he maintained his perfect pitch. • He wrote nine symphonies in total!
He is _ _ E _ _ _ V _ N.
• He was good friends with fellow Classical-era composer, Haydn. • He’s often portrayed in a white wig and red frock coat. • He sometimes jokingly signed off his letters as GNAGFLOW TRAZOM. (Hint: an anagram of his name!)
He is _ _ Z _ R _ .
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• His manuscripts had stains from his chemistry experiments. • He was knighted by King Edward VII in 1904, making him a ‘Sir’. • He was featured on the back of £20 notes in the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2010.
He is E _ G _ _ .
Two of the above composer’s best-known compositions are The Enigma Variations and his Cello Concerto. Scan the QR codes to listen to the Singapore National Youth Orchestra perform them!
The Enigma Variations
Cello Concerto
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Answers: Beethoven, Mozart, Elgar
Getting To Know You
Scott Brothers Duo
Jonathan Scott (JS) & Tom Scott (TS) Organ & Piano Telling stories: the multi-talented brothers from Machester share more about their creative process and their concert, The Composer & The Mouse What was the inspiration behind The Composer & The Mouse? TS: I wanted to create a new animated film that brings the past to life through classical music. This film does that as it follows a hapless 18th-Century composer who finds his musical style with the accidental help of a mouse. How was The Composer & The Mouse created? TS: After the story was conceptualised, I drew all the characters and sets by hand, and it was brought to life through animation! The music was composed at the same time, inspired by famous works, to bring out the moods in the story. Music is actually a great universal language, so since there is no dialogue, it’s a really important part of the storytelling.
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National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)
Having travelled the world and playing on many pipe organs, what is a particularly memorable one? JS: Last year, I played a concert on the new organ in Weiwuying, a performing arts centre in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This is the biggest organ in Asia and was made by the same maker who made the organ in the Victoria Concert Hall. It has 12 keyboards, three pedalboards, two computers and over 300 different stops! What got you started on making videos about the organs you have played on? JS: The organ is an instrument that people don’t always understand. It’s really exciting to be able to show people different organs from around the world and inspire them to want to hear the organ in real life, or even want to learn to play it! What is your favourite piece of music that is inspired by a folktale? TS & JS: Definitely Ravel’s Mother Goose suite! It contains music inspired by lots of fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and Beauty and the Beast.
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Local Spotlight:
Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir Every Saturday, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall comes alive with the chattering and singing of children aged between 9 and 18, who are there for choir rehearsals. They are from the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir (SSCC), a leading children’s choir in Singapore, and the only one that performs with the SSO! Formed in June 2006, the SSCC aims to cultivate the love for classical music and choral singing amongst children – all of this with hope of introducing and welcoming more to Singapore’s choral scene. Many of these children go on to join the Singapore Symphony Youth Choir (SSYC), or maybe even the Singapore Symphony Chorus (SSC) in future.
SSCC and SSYC performing in Song Bridges, May 2019
The SSCC is led by Choirmaster Mrs Wong Lai Foon, under whom the choir has grown and performed not only in Singapore, but in France and Kuala Lumpur too! The Choir performs a wide spectrum of repertoire, ranging from cantatas such as Orff’s Carmina Burana to 21st Century works by local composers Kelly Tang and Zechariah Goh.
Can choristers act? You bet! Scan the code to see them in action as French soldiers, performing Avec la garde montante from Bizet’s Carmen!
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Before joining the choir, some members first attended The SSCC Experience, a day-long programme filled with vocal and musicianship workshops. Hear more from Loy Sheng Rui (SR) and Emma Goh (E), who share about their journey! What encouraged you to join The SSCC Experience? SR: I wanted to join the choir, but also wanted to first experience what it was like to be an SSCC chorister. What did you enjoy the most about The SSCC Experience? E: I was quite excited as it was my first time in the Victoria Concert Hall. It’s bigger than I imagined! SR: It was fun making new friends. I also got the chance to sing in an actual recital at the end of the day, which was scary‌but also really exciting.
Sheng Rui preparing for an upcoming concert
Did The SSCC Experience help you see what life would be like as an SSCC chorister? E: Yes! I could see how they warmed up, and how they practised, which is similar to how things are done in actual SSCC rehearsals. Share one memorable experience as an SSCC chorister! E: Definitely the recording of the national anthem in 2019. It was my first time singing in the Esplanade Concert Hall!
Emma (leftmost) and friends during rehearsal break!
For more information about The SSCC Experience, visit sso.org.sg/choral/sscc-experience.
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Ask Auntie Melody Are all classical music performed acoustic? – Sara Dear Sara, Most classical works before the 21st Century were meant to be performed acoustic - meaning that electrical amplification is seldom used, and the sound produced depends on the player and the venue’s sound properties. However, more composers are now innovating and combining classical music with electronic music - created by instruments such as synthesisers, and drum machines! Why can I find Mozart’s score online, but not Aaron Copland’s? – Daryl Dear Daryl, In Singapore, the copyright protection term ends 70 years after the composer’s death. This is when his or her work will be added to the public domain, meaning no one owns the copyright to them and everyone is free to use them without obtaining permission. This happens on 1st January of every year - also Public Domain Day!
Music Score
©
Mozart passed away in 1791 while Copland in 1990, meaning his work will likely only enter the public domain in 2061. The easiest way to check if a work is on the public domain is to check the Petrucci Library, commonly known as IMSLP.
Email your burning questions about music to outreach@sso.org.sg
If your question is featured, you will win a gift. Winners will be notified by email.
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All questions are subject to editing for clarity.
Music Jokes
Headache Zones
Credits: musicnotes
Migraine
Hypertension
Stress
Listening to an out-of-tune instrument
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Tips!
Sight-reading Do you struggle with sight-reading? Here are tips to tackle some common problems!
Problem: Overlooked Accidentals
Problem: Co-ordination
Tip: Before you start, look at the key signature and play the scale and arpeggio. This would help you be familiar with the key. Of course, you would have to know your scales well!
Tip: Keyboardists have the additional challenge of co-ordinating the left hand and right hand. Look out for patterns in one hand (for example an arpeggio in the left hand) so you can focus on the other hand.
G
C
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C
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Problem: Spatial Awareness
Problem: Reading Ledger Lines
Tip: Familiarise yourself with where the keys are on your instruments, so you can keep your eyes on the music. If you make a mistake while practising, stop and feel your way back to the correct notes without looking at the keys.
Tip: Remember how the C and G notes on every octave look like on the score, and use them as a landmark to figure out the neighbouring notes.
Upcoming Events JUL
AUG
SEP
Lunchtime Concert Fri, 10 Jul 2020, 12.30pm Victoria Concert Hall
SSO National Day Concert Sat, 15 Aug 2020, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall
The SSCC Experience Mon & Tue, 7 & 8 Sep 2020, 9am onwards Victoria Concert Hall
Forty-ssimo: Garden of Voices Sat, 22 Aug 2020, 6pm Bayfront Pavilion, Gardens by the Bay Symphony in the Gardens: Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony Sat, 11 Jul 2020, 6.15pm Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage, Singapore Botanic Gardens
SEP
Concert for Children: Symphonic Sorcery – The Music of Harry Potter Sat, 5 Sep 2020, 11am & 2pm Esplanade Concert Hall
Forty-ssimo: The Welcome Celebration! Sun, 27 Sep 2020, 4pm Victoria Concert Hall
OCT SSO Pops: The Music of Hans Zimmer Thu, 1 Oct 2020, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall
Pre-registration on www.sso.org.sg. Programmes subject to change. Please check our website for updated information. All SSO events are supported by the National Arts Council, and local schools are eligible for up to 50% claim/subsidy from the Totalisator Board Arts Grant. For more information, please call us at 6602 4200 or email us at corporate@sso.org.sg.
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Enjoying SSO’s Symphony in the Gardens at Gardens by the Bay, Mar 2020
