I dunno how am i suppose to blog about some concert so i guess i will be adopting darren's style until i find an alternative way. Lol.

Saturday

As quoted by Tong Pei, i must have "underestimated Singapore's transport system". So on my LONELY trip to SCH, thankful without getting (really) lost or something, i realised i have about an hour to spare. Kee hong , his sis and cousin were still at killiney kopitiam eating, so i wandered about looking at brochures and found out at hsinghai was going to perform on the 21 august =D hmm thats a thought... finally kee hong n co finished eating and we proceeded upstairs.

Niu2 dou4 hu3 - Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Art Ensemble
Played on 2 tang2 gu3-s by 2 guys. Impressive starter. One guy resembled a sumo wrestler and i guess he must be the "ox" of the song. The other skinny guy has strength not matching his size and played really well. I guess they must have put powder or some other stuff on their drums cos when they first hit, there was some sort of a "fog" round the drum areas.

La gua - Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Art Ensemble
Played by 4 people. Small drums of higher pitch and chopstick-like thingys are used. From what i read it's suppose to be about people chattering non-stop. At one point there were only 2 of them playing; one of them is da3-ing pai1 zi3 and the other playing 16 fen1 ying1 fu2. The beats gets faster and fast and well, the inconsistent rhythm the 2nd person is playing won him applause. I guess its even faster than my lun2 ying1. Bleah.

Persimpangan - Bukit Batok Community Club Gamelan Orkestra
This is suppose to be Malay music, but i dunno why i think its more suited to be Thai. The instruments are all gold-plated and they all sit and play. Different, but nice.

Taal-Tarang (Rhythmic waves) - Temple of Fine Arts
Tabla performance. I've always wondered how they make that bouncy sound. The youngest on there seemed to be the only one playing until his tabla were leaning over. The da3 pai1 zi3 person seemed to be on the verge of slping.

Xi4- Movement VI - SCO percussionists
3 people (including SHEN LAO SHI) playing with the xiao3 cha3. Actually i've never liked the xiao3 cha3 so... no comment. Except shen is the most ji1 dong4 one there i guess. Or becos of his botak-ness he stands out.

Yu4 feng1 xing2 - SCO and SYCO percussionists
This includes 3 shengs[onstage] and 3 suonas[hidden backstage]. This is the nicest i've heard for that night. One suona guy, the one that taught rosyth last time, was very gd and can hold his breath sooo long without faltering that the conductor even stepped down to have a walk around. Astounding. If only our sch's can play half as well.

-Interval-

Gou3 nian3 ya1 zi3 - Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Art Ensemble
Another xiao3 cha3 only song. Bleah. Antics were amusing though.

Lao2 shu3 qu3 qing1 - Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Art Ensemble
This was damn funny. One of the guys even dressed as the rodent. The way they stooped everytime they paused to the way they hit the drums like mice scattering, it was funny. Ok, take it as i dunno how to appreciate or something, but even hong ming in front of me was laughing. Haha! My juniors better pray that i dun find the score or else...

Pan' gut - Taehan Saram
Korean perforamance. Fanciful headgear with 3 of them having stuff that spin around everytime they move and 1 of them looking like a mop. Cant rmb much cos i was paying more attention to their headgear, which look on the verge of dropping out.

Xi4- excerpt - Percussion Group Cincinnati
Yet another xiao3 cha3 piece. =.= Going to go crazy liao... All i can say is there are creative uses of it.

Rebuilding Managua - Percussion Group Cincinnati
This is refreshing after loud music. Sounds like a lullaby, very soothing for me, esp after so many xiao3 cha3. It's about rebuilding after an earthquake.

Yi4 dian3 tong1 - All groups
This song ar. Rojak. The instruments dun seem to blend in with each other somehow. Sounds awkward and rather much like a last min work. But if they come in and out exactly on the dot it should sound fine.

***

Sunday

Went to watch Shi1 Cheng2 Jing1 Shi1 Si1 Zu2 Yun4 at Victoria Concert Hall. Only 1 word: BORING.

Huan1 le4 de4 ye4 wan3; Mu4 yang2 qu3; Gan3 hui4; Yang2 guan1 san1 die2; Yue4 long2
BIG mistake to put all 5 quintets together. Firstly they all sound the same, so not much stuff to type. Only can rmb Huan1 le4 de4 ye4 wan3 [the yangqin guy's qin2 zu2's head just broke off like that... wad a lovely headstart]; Mu4 yang2 qu3 [paid attention cos my fren noes how to play it]; Yue4 long2 [a da gu was placed beside the yangqin and the guy alternated the 2 instruments. Played the da gu with either his hands or qin2 zu2. Nice.].

Lan2 hua1 hua1 xu4 shi4 qu3 - Wang2 Gui4 Ying1
Naturally it sounds nice, after so many quintets. She was decked in a full, bright red dress and stands out a bit too much. Not bad, this song.

-Interval-

Gan3 shen1 ling2 - Zhen4 Shun4 Li4
Dizi solo. Cant rmb much except he was bouncing with every note he blew. Not literally.

Ba1 wang2 xie4 jia3 - Fan4 Yu3 Qing
Pipa solo. Cannot see cos the guy with the big head in front of me was blocking her whole body perfectly. Reminds me of shi2 mian4 mai2 fu2.

Chan2; Zun yu2(apparently it's suppose to mean trout in chinese); Bei3 guo2 zhi1 chun1; Tian1 shan1 zhi1 chun1
Another quintet attack. This round i can only rmb tian shan zhi chun, cos this was the song rosyth played for syf besides jing1 chu3 xiong2 feng1. Its okay... but rosyth played better. Haha. Must be cos have percussion, and therefore having a proper beat.

Shan1 Dong1 Da4 gu3 - Ding1 Huai2 Cheng2
Suona solo. Can say best among all. The suona uses the sanxian effect, as stated in the booklet. And at the end it's blown like the xiao1. Nice. To noe wads the next comment i'm gonna make pls look at the last sentence of Yu4 feng1 xing2.

Hmm. Maybe i should write more entries like this cos thanks to this, i was flipping my chinese dictionary for the past 30 min. The next concert i might go will be shen lao shi's. There, i'm sure, having seen it myself, will consist of no xiao3 cha3 solos or qian1 bian1 yi2 lv4 de quintets whatsoever. Which is a good thing, after an overdose of them.