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Thursday, June 19, 2008

11:15 AM

STANDING OVATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :]

WELL DONE NYSE (CELLOS TOO!!!)

we were great back there on the magnificent stage of the Carnegie Hall. my, how the audience cheered and applauded!!!!!!! :) it was seriously memorable, unforgettable and touching. our hard work has been paid off!!! everyone was either smiling a lot or tearing uncontrollably. even mr sze was pleased. yay... that night's concert, the conductors were invited up on stage to receive flowers. did you guys see mr sze's proud and pleased face when we all cheered and screamed for him?! kinda crazy huh, especially in that grand hall and all.... bleahs.. :X

well, we sure did not upset / disappoint our seniors' 07 as well as jiale's batch! *mel and audrey! aren't you guys glad??!

though i must say we had still been out-of-tune and some parts were not together. coughs..... wonder the audience didn't hear it. i reeeeeeeeeeeeally loved the ending, when everyone finished the piece with a drastic bow movement. it was too grand. it was perfect. me and audrey were kinda sad that it was all ending. sobs.... >.<>

btw, the jap wind band was seriously good! damn together. so disciplined. they were a large group too. the soloists were great! especially the oboe one. :] rights, was glad i managed to be the first to post about the trip. it's short lah but me love it... the NY trip had overall been great. me loved it even though we were all tired. really enjoyable......

love,
rachael :]

Friday, June 06, 2008

5:40 AM

Yo!!

Nice post, stella! hahaha i pity yr skirt): hahaha! ronald is an ugly clown.

anw, on to our playing!
the main problem is,...
our technical problems.
and to sum up the main problem of our technical problems,
INTONATION.

i'm not that concerned with phrasing or whatever, because seriously all you have to do, is to listen to the violin1s!

now, listening isn't all that hard, isit?

HAHAHA WRONG.
warning: the paragraphs below are again part of Melissa's incessant ramblings, they ARE important, mind you, but for those big busy businesswomen out there, i've highlighted the really important point that i really need you to take note of. Thank you(:

Listening is an important ensemble skill. just like watching our ~~handsome~~ conductor is. Just kidding. (Mr. Sze, please don't read this blog) Listening doesn't just involve listening, in the sense you don't allow what you hear to just pass through one ear and exit the next. Listening involves three steps: you listen, observe, and apply.

The normal "layman" audience we find, those kind that doesn't have any idea of what music is, will just listen. And after listening, their comments will be like "oh wow, si beh nice LehHhxZ! you all play very pro leh! like cd liddat! wahhhh! i very xian mu w0rHhxXz~". *cough* listeners who are more musically inclined will be able to listen and observe. Their comments may be like "That was a rather fresh interpretation, I especially liked how the cellists were able to deliver that solo passage with such meltingly beautiful tone and flawless techniques!" But what really differs us from the audience is that we do not just listen and observe, we listen, observe, and apply. Hey, we're PERFORMING the piece! SO, listen, observe, apply. For example, if we know that the v1s are having a melody that we also have in the later part of the piece (e.g. letter I of Borodin 4th), listen, take note of how they play it. Their articulation, the length of bow they use, the type of bow strokes they used, where they do their dynamic changes... and copy it. That's only if they're having that melody before we do. If we have it before they do, (e.g. Beginning of Borodin 1st), then by right they should try to copy us. But, we'll leave that to them. (:

Another thing,
WATCHING THE CONDUCTOR.

A string ensemble can't just function with, let's say, one entire violin section, or one entire viola section. We need the whole range of tones, pitch and colour from the whole of the string family to be called a string ensemble! But being a string ensemble is meaningless, we need to be a string ensemble that plays well! RIGHT? *glares* right. (oh gosh why am i talking to myself-.- must be Carnegie stress, sigh.) so, anyway! What is the most important thing an ensemble must have?

COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE ENSEMBLE.

Let's drift away from string ensembles for a while, shall we. We shall go breifly into communication within members of an orchestra. Have you all watched the Berlin Philharmonic before? Through dvds, youtube, whatever..? Well if you haven't, please do so, NOW. NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW. GOOOOO open a new internet window, type "http://youtube.com", hit enter, wait.... then type "Berlin Philharmonic" in the search thing. Now click search and wait.. AIYA WHATEVER, I'M TALKING NONSENSE. Sorry. Anywayy, yup notice that the orchestra is NEVER together with the conductor? This is what we're talking about. Unity, such that the orchestra/ensemble can totally function on its own without the conductor. Then, what's the conductor for? Well, that you'll have to find out for yrself. HOWEVER, the conductor is still the anchor of the whole ensemble. At our level, we're not ready to go without the conductor yet. And since we're all human, we have a tendency to rush/slow down, we need to watch the conductor aka Mr Sze at all times.

AIYA, i've crapped so much that i DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY.
alright, let me summarize:
1. Listen to all other sections within the ensemble. Listen, observe, apply. And provide support. remember Flounder?(:

2. Try to communicate with the other sections. Or at least watch your pretty section leader who will try harder to lead you all in on important places.(:

3. Watch Mr. Sze at all times! Everyone should have memorized their scores by now. If you haven't, start feeling guilty and do something about it right away!

Well folks, that's all for our weekly dose of "Melissa's Incessant Ramblings Which Make Sense!" Be sure to check back for next week's episode before our Majestic Departure to the World Renowned Carnegie Hall!(:

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

4:52 AM

HELLO! uh, last... monday? the NYSE cellos went to SERENE CENTRE for an afternoon of FUN AND EXCITEMENT and a dirty skirt. 1st, we ate at macdonalds where melissa bought a filet o fish student meal with a coke and stella bought a filet o fish student meal wih a sprite and weiyu bought a chicken nugget student meal upsized with a coke (?) and rachael bought a McChicken burger, alone(so lonely), and shared weiyu's upsized fries and coke. i cant remember what peining bought but i think it was an EVM? yeah. audrey skipped lunch and headed for dessert at Island Creamery! Teh-tarik and Horlicks isn't the best combination... but it seemed nice. (: ahaha. McDonalds is where melissa ae her first fry(?) (pl. fries mah.) with ICE CREAM, teh tarik and horlicks. ahaha. next we headed out to ISLAND CREAMERY for dessert. where rachael and weiyu had a ReversO each and stella had a cookies and cream and peining was tempted to buy and was on the verge of buying, but didn't buy. later on, we tried to take photos. haha. stella had an inredibly short arm and thus it was unable for her to take photos using the primary camera on her phone without cutting someone's head off. luckily, we had the UNKNOWN ISLAND CREAMERY PERSON WHO PUT ON ALOT OF MAKE-UP! who helped us take the photo. after that, stupid stella realised that she could have used the secondary camera to take photos without cutting anybody's head off. yay!

after that, we went out to find a scenic location in the small small serene centre to take photos. we settled on ronald macdonal's chair and stupid stella made another stupid mistake by hopping into ronald's lap without looking and ended up plopped into a puddle of burnt cigarettes+water that had collected in uh... uh... ronald's "place"//"little brother" of plastic. yuck. it smelt bad.

then we finally settled down to take photos with the ultimately ugly ronald macdonald.

Reported: Stella Tay! (*clapclap*)