And the lights all went out

“And the lights all went out in _________”.  

I believe that readers of my generation should have no difficulty filling in the blank. Yes, Massachusetts is one song we won’t “forget to remember”.

The year was probably 1967 or 1968; and my brothers and I spent a week of our year-end school holidays visiting my 9^th Uncle in Johore Bahru. My uncle worked as a male nurse in the general hospital and they lived in the staff quarters which were within walking distance of the hospital. We had a swell time that year playing with our cousins every day.  One activity we enjoyed tremendously was swimming and fishing at the nearby Lido Beach. The Straits of Johore at that time was very clean and teeming with fishes; and we caught many fishes.

Our uncle had a box-shape gramophone which was quite interesting. It had a wooden horizontal ‘cover’ on top which opened upwards, pretty much like a grand piano. Our cousins had some pop records and the two songs that I remember listening to over and over again during our stay were the Bee Gees’ Massachusetts and Engelbert Humperdinck’s The Last Waltz.

Another Bee Gees song that I liked was In the Morning. What I like most about this song was the strumming of the guitar at the beginning of the song. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I used to learn the guitar. Can’t remember the year, but at that time we had a family car – I think it was a Ford Taunus - and this car had a Cartridge Player. Remember the music cartridge of the 1960s? This was before audio cassettes became widespread. Anyway, we had a cartridge with In The Morning, and I used to seat in the car just to listen to this song. In the confines of the vehicle, the music was much clearer.

So sad to learn of the passing of Robin Gibb this week. Another part of our childhood “having flown”.

PS – My favourite Bee Gees song is this one. What’s yours?

My favourite love songs

As a follow up to what Peter has written earlier here, about love songs with meaningful/beautiful lyrics, I would like to share a couple of my favourites.

English songs

Off the top of my head, I can think of several; such as John Denver’s Annie’s Song and Perhaps Love, and Simon and Garfunkel’s Kathy’s Song. But if I have to name one with the most meaning lyrics I would choose Roger Whittaker’s What Love Is.

Chinese songs

But my all-time favourite is a Cantonese song titled, 恨綿綿 (han min min); performed here by Hong Kong singer Rosanne Lui. Lest my friend Peter is quick to conclude that this is another coffee house/lounge song, I would ask him to listen to Rosanne’s introduction. She explains that this song is actually adapted from a very famous violin concerto called Butterfly Lovers. What they had done was to take out the more melodious sections and added some lyrics and turned it into a beautiful love ballad.  Here it is.

The original

And now for the original. But first a little historical background.

The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto (梁祝小提琴协奏曲) is one of the most famous works of Chinese music and certainly one of the most famous outside of China. It is an orchestral adaptation of an ancient legend, the Butterfly Lovers, 梁山伯与祝英台 (the Chinese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet). Written for the western style orchestra, it features a solo violin played using some Chinese techniques.

The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto was written in 1959 by two Chinese composers, Chen Gang (陈钢) and He Zhanhao (何占豪), while they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The music did not acquire popularity until the late 1970s, when China loosened its restrictions after the Cultural Revolution. Once released from censorship, it became an embodiment of China in transition. (Source: Wikipedia)

There is another interesting background story to how this piece of music came to be composed. According to an interview with one of the composers, the instruction to compose this violin concerto came directly from the Chinese government. At that time, whenever these musicians went out to the countryside to perform, they usually played music composed by Western composers. And so Prime Minister Zhou Enlai himself instructed the musicians to compose a violin concerto which reflected the Chinese culture and heritage; and the result is this beautiful piece of music.

The first time I heard this tune was when I was a recruit in the army more than 40 years ago. One night, after the order, “Lights out!” was given at 11 pm, I continued to listen to my little transistor radio, held close to my ear in order not to disturb my bunk mates. And I heard this beautiful music.

Now, if you have 27 minutes to spare, sit back, relax, clip on your headphones, and savour this beautiful piece of music, performed here by a beautiful Japanese lady called Akiko Suwanai.

The Grand-Piano; has it been a piece of furniture or a musical instrument? (By Peter Chan)

Many years ago, I was called by Amelia because she wanted to give away a Steinway.  Was I interested?  I came by her house and was surprised to find the grand dame covered in a black cloth and parked in one corner of the house.  How did this happen?  This Indonesian mum related her sadness to me.  She bought the piano for her 9-year old daughter but she gave it up after a few piano lessons.  Mummy kept this baby grand-piano for 10 years because she was hoping her daughter would change her mind.  Mum spoke to friends and “advisors” who felt a change of the tuition teachers and music schools could re-energise her daughter.  She didn’t and so the musical instrument ended up as a piece of furniture with picture frames and chinaware placed on the piano top.

Photo 1: Grand Piano in an $8 million show flat in Singapore

All I needed to do was to pay for the transport and the piano tuning charges and I would receive a cool $80,000 grand-piano?   Yes you heard me right.  This Steinway was worth $80,000 when purchased brand new, same as what you pay for the COE in 1995.  When I approached friends and friends of friends, many said they had no space at home for a “big toy” or their children were clamouring for the other “must have” possessions.  You can well understand Amelia’s predicament to find a suitable recipient when she advertised and a caller asked whether Amelia would pick up the charges for transport. 

Photo 2: Not Soi Cowboy but Bangkok’s Mr. Piano at the Twin Tower Hotel

I politely declined because I already had one, albeit of a lesser brand-name at a fraction of the price of a Steinway.  I recommended the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts because LaSalle College of the Arts already had one too many.  Story ended!   

Fast Forward.  In a hotel music lounge, I am reminded of the story of Amelia as well as the time when as an undergraduate, I “moonlighted” as a hotel lounge pianist – the last one time before graduation at the Singapore Hyatt.

 

Photo 3: Miss Elegance on the Yamaha at the Conrad Hotel

There are many reasons I have great affinity for a music lounge – a suitable business meeting venue, privacy or that quite moments.  I enjoy when musicians are able to take on Pachelbel’s Canon in D or Frank Sinatra’s Mack the Knife.  It’s simply fantastic when a musician can oblige with a Waltzing Matilda or a Jackie Cheung standard the moment you step into the piano lounge.  It goes without saying every good pianist must be able to do any genre not associated with his preference.  After many decades of inactivity and with much encouragement from my Michelle, my son’s gf I tried this: 

Photo 4: Shangri-la Makati’s lobby lounge.  This emotive rendition of “Because of a Flower” adequately describes the Shangri-la ambience  .

A grand-piano is not confined to the music lounge but can be found in shopping malls and restaurants - like this “TPL look alike” texting   Beside the house you can find grand-pianos in churches.  Chun See tells me his church owns a Yamaha.

There are many brands of grand pianos out there, e.g. Steinway, Yamaha, Kawai, Petrof, Schimmel, or Bosendorfer.  Piano size matters, depending whether it is played by a solo pianist or a group (pop or ensemble).  5/6 star hotels would like the grand if possible but smaller hotels prefer the baby grand.  The first Bosendorfer in a Singapore hotel was at the Marco Polo in 1976 and the oldest Steinway concert grand in this country was at the Victoria Theater - both of which I had the pleasure to work with. 

Photo 5: Marina Mandarin Hotel’s Mr. Maestro   

Bangkok, Manila and Hong Kong are my favourite cities for lounge music.  Some of the best places the Manila Hotel, Manila Pen and the Shangri-la in the Philippines.  The Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel for afternoon tea and music is also a delightful place. 

In Bangkok, good music can be found at the Queen’s Park Imperial Palace and Hotel Lebua at State Tower. 

Not too long ago I took a tour of our Singapore’s entertainment backyard and found some great places.  Do you know Tan Tock Seng Hospital has a white grand-piano and there’s one over at the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands?  As the saying goes, in sickness and health there’s always a grand-piano somewhere.  

Sound of distant thunder

This morning, I woke up to the sweet sound of distant thunder. After a day of sweltering heat and a night of suffocating humidity, this sound was (pardon the cliché), music to my ears. It reminded me of a piece of Chinese classical music that I used to enjoy. The title was; 旱天雷, or Thunder in Dry Season. This piece was in my first Chinese Classical LP record by (I think) the Singapore Chinese Orchestra which I bought in 1969.

旱天雷, as you can probably guess from the title, depicts the excitement and elation which farmers felt when they heard the distant rumblings of thunder during a time of drought. I believe this piece originated in Guangzhou in Southern China; and we used to know it by its Cantonese name, “Hon Tin Loi”. Here’s a version performed by the China Broadcasting Traditional Orchestra (中国广播民族乐团). Please listen to the end to see the sudden switch in mood brought on, no doubt, by the thunder.

Interestingly, this tune was also used to accompany the programmes by the famous Redifussion story-teller, Lee Dai Sor. I remember there was a very funny Cantonese song version titled; “Ping kor wah ngor sor” – "Who says I am stupid?" Maybe that was how Lee Dai Sor got his nickname of Big Fool Lee.

 Yesterday, I posted this photo of a cloudless sky on my Facebook page with this description; Not a cloud in the sky. But with temp at 33 deg C, nobody is singing; "I'm on the top of the world". (Top of the World is a famous song by the Carpenters)

From Pierrot to Columbine

When I was in secondary school, I started to enjoy listening to English pop songs on the radio. That would be in the 1960s. One day, a relative gave us a guitar and I learned to strum a few chords; and even bought song books with lyrics and guitar chords to practise.

One of my favourites songs at that time had this line in it:


“But the joys of love are fleeting, for Pierrot and Columbine.”


For years, I had been curious to know what this line meant; but never took the trouble to do the research. I guessed the singer was talking about her lovers in different places called Pierrot and Columbine. (I thought she had sung, “from Pierrot to Columbine”) It was not until recently that I decided to Google for it and discovered the real meaning of this phrase.


Thus it was in those early days, that we often could not hear clearly, and did not understand the meaning of some lyrics of the songs we liked. Another example was a song by a group called Gerry and the Pacemakers titled, Ferry Cross the Mersey. I did not understand at that time what or where this ‘mercy’ was. Thanks to the popularity of English football clubs like Liverpool, I later knew what this ‘mercy’ meant.


With instant knowledge literally at their fingertips, today’s teenagers do not face such a problem. Which brings me to the real aim of my essay; to marvel at how much the world has changed; and how the information age has changed our lives, making obsolete some icons of our teenage years. Two recent pieces of news brought that point home powerfully. One, the demise of Kodak; and two, the news that Encyclopaedia Britannica (I used to be quite proud that I could spell this word without having to consult the dictionary) would cease to be printed.


By now you must be quite curious - some of the younger readers at least - what is the song I was referring. No need to Google for it. You have YouTube to thank for that.

The sounds of applause

If William Shakespeare was correct when he said that all the world is a stage, and men and women merely players, then guys like me, who have stood on this stage for three score years or more, would certainly have experienced the thrill of hearing the sounds of applause at one time or another in our lives.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the news of the passing of Taiwanese songbird Feng Fei Fei brought on a certain sadness even though I am not a particularly big fan of hers. If I am asked to name some of her songs, I can only come up with these three, 我是一片雲, 一顆紅豆 and this one which I really like; 掌聲響起 (Here comes the applause).

Here’s a video clip of this beautiful song. You will notice that it brought tears to the eyes of both singer and audience.

Though we are thousands of miles apart

Did you see this article titled, Time to Connect in today’s Today? It got me thinking.

“Used in moderation, digital tools can facilitate – even improve – family interaction, communication and understanding.” by Sheralyn Tay

Recently my old friend Simon Chu came back to Singapore and we had a gathering of old friends, some of whom I have not met since the 1970s. I prepared a slide show of our old photos from decades ago and we enjoyed an evening of blessed fellowship, reminiscing about “the good old days” we enjoyed swimming and snorkeling in places like Pulau Hantu, Pulau Tioman and Air Bapan.

Later, one of us posted a video of our gathering on Facebook and it generated much discussion and more nostalgia. Simon was in poetic mood and quoted the Sung dynastic poet Su Dong Po’s (蘇東坡) famous poem, 水調歌頭·丙辰中秋. This poem was turned into a beautiful song by Liang Hong Zhi (梁弘誌)  and sung by Theresa Teng in 1983. The song was titled, 但願人長久

The last stanza reads:

人有悲歡離合，
月有陰晴圓缺，
此事古難全。
但願人長久，
千里共嬋娟

People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart,
The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane,
This imperfection has been going on since the beginning of time.
May we all be blessed with longevity,
Though thousand miles apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.

The last line, 千里共嬋娟, has come to hold special meaning for me and my family lately.

It’s been more than a month since our youngest daughter left for the UK for further studies. But thanks to the magic of the internet, even though we are thousands of miles apart, we could share the beauty of the Bible together. Using Skype, we continued to have our regular Sunday evening family worship sessions. From half way around the planet, and eight hours behind us, my daughter Wan Hui could, not only participate in reading the Bible – we take turns to read, one verse at a time - she could even sing the hymns along with us, without the need of a hymnal. We just gave her the title of the hymn we wanted to sing, and within seconds she found the lyrics on the internet. However, it was difficult to sing in harmony because her voice came a fraction of a second after ours.

Recently, our Pastor has been writing about the internet; describing it as both an evil and a blessing. I guess ours was an example of the latter.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” (Psalm 103:2)