My heart is inditing......of good memories! Part II

You know you are suffering from WYCF withdrawal symptoms if you share one of the following:

1. Waking up early only to remember that there's no need to rush off to CCAB/VCH for rehearsals and/or workshops.
2. Hearing random snippets of Bob's Aesop's Fables(especially the layering of "ahhs" in <> I must have really taken to that bit).
3. Exclaiming "Persuasion, is better than Force!" & "Music, can delay, death" (and YES with those dramatic pauses in between the phrase!) to random people for no better reasons than possible impending insanity.
4. Singing Ombra Mai Fu in the shower for the past few nights and YES once again earlier tonight.
5. Humming to Ombra Mai Fu subconsciously while driving, even with heavy rock or candy pop blasting away in the background
6. "Bubbling" to Ombra Mai Fu while warming up in the morning, while driving, again.
7. Muttering random German phrases/words from the Brahms and the Schubert subconsciously.
8. Breaking into the chorus of the theme song randomly..... "What song to be, child of destiny etc..."
9. And yes, walking to the beat of "Everlasting Melody" (get it out of my head, somebody help me!!!)


IT had been an awesome and fulfilling two weeks.

I believe the World Youth Choral Festival (WYCF) 2008, brainchild of the good people (and dear friends) of the CCAB MOE holds tremendous promise and potential to become one of, if not THE major choral event in Singapore.
In time to come and with constant improvement to this project, it will gain regional and international recognition as one of the festivals to look out for.

Kudos to the MOE officials for their hardwork and their belief in choral music.

My fondest of memories were from the pre-festival camp when I worked with the SATB festival chorus. An amazing bunch of choristers from various schools in Singapore. A pity, it didn't include singers from several other schools and colleges, I believe they have missed out on something that could be life-changing or at the very least, inspirational and highly educational.

Several personal "firsts" made their way into TT's record of experiences in conducting choirs. ( I would try to exclude names here but i'm sure we all love to mention issac, don't we? =)
Here goes:
1. Someone exclaiming "OMG" in the midst of warm up with me, for reasons i have no idea of!
2. Someone telling me (for the first time) that I was making them deaf with my banging on the clavi (sorry cass and co! haha I'd remember not to in future! )
3. (CLASSIC) Someone asking me the exact question to the question that I have faciliated in answering just a second before. "what is inditing?" (Special mention here for Michael of HCI who was cool and patient with his response to that question, cheers to you dude!)

And many more..

What struck me most was the enthusiasm and passion shown towards learning the music (and the german), no doubt extremely foreign to some of them and maybe to a another group, a less preferred genre of music but nonetheless, they've shown great attitude towards mastering the pieces.

As you might know, I'm more of a fan for the contemporary, complex and the folklore inspired. However, given the task to prepare this festival choir for the pieces chosen by Eugene had forced me to move out of my comfort zone and I must admit, the personal learning was tremendous, both in preparation for the rehearsals to the actual sessions. I had to revise my German too! Something I've not done for quite some time. I was once again reminded of the diversity of music and universal appreciation for the various different forms of music. I have always been open-minded and am also a moderate towards the different forms, genre and periods of music but maybe, I've forgotten that with the passing of time. I'm very thankful for the reminder.

In such a huge group of diversity and differences in character, aptitude and learning preferences, I believe the most open minded of all would have benefitted the most. Most importantly, meaningful friendships would have been forged. No matter the differences, there is one fundamental similarity in this bunch. A passion towards making music. That's really powerful and that's what allowed many of us, including myself to click with many that I had the opportunity to interact more with.

Yes, the final performances could have been more refined and all but they were definitely not lacking in spirit and energy. Forget the wrong notes or the little glitches here and there, to me it was a smashing concert that exemplified the deeper greater meaning to music making, in stark contrast to the competitive elements many have grown to become obsessed with.

Kari ssuggested that it is hard to be a musician if you are not melanchonic. I agree to that notion to a certain extent but personally, I feel that every true musician is an overflowing pot full of emotions. Thus, the need for us to express ourselves through musical expressions. The same goes for artists, authors and poets.

Being the emotional me, I felt the surge in emotions whilst standing on stage with everybody else, singing Child of Destiny in this setting for the very last time and I felt overwhelming mixed emotions. I was really happy for everyone, who would have come out of this a better person and/or musician but I had to suppress my tears honestly, for the curtains had finally come to a close.

These experiences have bolstered my resolve and helped cement my decision to do music full time.

Live the dream.

The end of a beginning marks the beginning of a new start.

I would be missing seeing you people around, singing, rehearsing, obsessively taking photographs whenever there was an opportunity to, being silly and lame haha and yea, I guess I would even miss being "persuaded" (is better than being forced) into everlasting melody at every opportunity.

Keep the fire of music making burning strong! (it delays death you see so it's good for your health yea!)
And keep in touch.
Let's hope to meet again, sometime somewhere along our journey in music making.

Even when the North wind stops blowing to the south
The Goose's eaten and the Swansong sung
Ah! Dolente partita.

Embrace music, for it is
Lebenslust

In retrospection, while
Ombra Mai Fu

You and I
We are, a Child of Destiny
Let there be
an Everlasting melody
of Hope and Love


TT
World Youth Choral Festival 2008