Concert Aftermath
Went to support a friend in West Winds performing at Esplandade for Beautiful Sunday (aka free concert for public to get in touch with arts). It was packed as usual half an hour before the concert, and I wouldn't be able to grab a my FAVOURITE seat in the gallery if not for the uncle in the red cab. So much for a free concert, but that's not the point.
After attending a few concerts a year, I realise almost every concert gives me ideas of sorts. They couldn come in the form of pieces to perform, ways of performing, attire for performing, arts outreach, etc. Yes, it sounds exaggerating, but ideas do come every now and then. Anyway, before I go on, the pieces performed by West Wind Concert Band today were:
1) 20th Century Fox Introductory Music
2) Jurassic Park
3) Moriccone's Melody from "Gabriel's Oboe"
3) Final Fantasy VII
4) Out of Africa
5) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
6) The Incredibles
Encore) High School Musical
This is probably the 2nd time they are performing movie soundtracks, with pieces like "Pirates of the Carribean", "Star Wars" and many others from previous concerts. The students of the performers (yes, some were music teachers/conductors) were out in full force, screaming in support for their idols. Teenage readers of my blog who might have been interested in a few pieces would be sad to have missed their preferred pieces today (aka High School Musical).
Missing notes and other errors aside, my mind was already thinking of what would be the Chinese Orchestra version of such a concert be like. Soundtracks from famous Chinese movies would include:
《卧虎藏龙》
《菊花台》
《英雄》
《神话》
《粱祝》
《功夫》
《江山美人》
《赤壁》
Although most students would agree that the Orchestra does need to keep up with the times and play popular pieces, it is technically not that simple. With some careful listening, one can tell that many of the soundtracks' main melody is quite monotonous, and playing it on 1 single instrument will make it very bland. Even if the whole piece is broken down and divided into various instruments for the full orchestra, the accompliment cannot hide the fact that the melody is still quite plain. Unless a music arranger/composer takes it upon himself to rearrange the entire score into one that is very rich and enrapturing, it is basically difficult to showcase the soundtracks of the above-mentioned movies. Only Kungfu Hustle's soundtracks contain mainly traditional Chinese Orchestra pieces. Having said all these, I still hope someone out there will write more soundtracks which can be/should be performed by Chinese Orchestra.
I was also observing how certain instruments were played, and noticing how a pair of cymbals were struck so as to better guide my members during practice. Talk about life long learning and applying past knowledge!
After attending a few concerts a year, I realise almost every concert gives me ideas of sorts. They couldn come in the form of pieces to perform, ways of performing, attire for performing, arts outreach, etc. Yes, it sounds exaggerating, but ideas do come every now and then. Anyway, before I go on, the pieces performed by West Wind Concert Band today were:
1) 20th Century Fox Introductory Music
2) Jurassic Park
3) Moriccone's Melody from "Gabriel's Oboe"
3) Final Fantasy VII
4) Out of Africa
5) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
6) The Incredibles
Encore) High School Musical
This is probably the 2nd time they are performing movie soundtracks, with pieces like "Pirates of the Carribean", "Star Wars" and many others from previous concerts. The students of the performers (yes, some were music teachers/conductors) were out in full force, screaming in support for their idols. Teenage readers of my blog who might have been interested in a few pieces would be sad to have missed their preferred pieces today (aka High School Musical).
Missing notes and other errors aside, my mind was already thinking of what would be the Chinese Orchestra version of such a concert be like. Soundtracks from famous Chinese movies would include:
《卧虎藏龙》
《菊花台》
《英雄》
《神话》
《粱祝》
《功夫》
《江山美人》
《赤壁》
Although most students would agree that the Orchestra does need to keep up with the times and play popular pieces, it is technically not that simple. With some careful listening, one can tell that many of the soundtracks' main melody is quite monotonous, and playing it on 1 single instrument will make it very bland. Even if the whole piece is broken down and divided into various instruments for the full orchestra, the accompliment cannot hide the fact that the melody is still quite plain. Unless a music arranger/composer takes it upon himself to rearrange the entire score into one that is very rich and enrapturing, it is basically difficult to showcase the soundtracks of the above-mentioned movies. Only Kungfu Hustle's soundtracks contain mainly traditional Chinese Orchestra pieces. Having said all these, I still hope someone out there will write more soundtracks which can be/should be performed by Chinese Orchestra.
I was also observing how certain instruments were played, and noticing how a pair of cymbals were struck so as to better guide my members during practice. Talk about life long learning and applying past knowledge!
posted by Simbul at 9:06 pm
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