DaliBingBong (Songs of Childhood)

“Bing Bong Check” is a childhood “hand-clapping meets scissors-paper-stone” game that I grew up with. Children would start the game by reciting “Bing Bong (x3) Check”. The pair then continues with “Bing Bong Tap Tap/Sorry Bing Bong Check” and increases in speed with the game coming to an end when someone makes a mistake in recitation or movement. DaliBingBong was premiered on 12 November 2022 at Victoria Concert Hall by EVOKX and conductor Terrence Toh.

Deus Omnipotens

The 2021 Choral Composers Seminar Singapore gave me an opportunity to write (another crazy) ‘exorcism song’ for the 13-strong professional choral ensemble, the Renaissance Singers led by Maestro Toh Ban Sheng. I am also grateful to Prof. Eudenice Palaruan for his input and advice in the construction of this piece!

八阵图 Eight Trigrams

Dubbed as a “choral opera” by colleagues, this 3-movement work employs the ideas of diametric opposites (e.g. yin and yang), symbolisms of water, idealistic dreams versus reality etc. are central to the creation of this piece.  Associations, mirrors, allusions are also used in the creation of this work.  This work pays homage to Singaporean composer Leong Yoon Pin and quotes his “Invitation to Wine”. The work seeks to create an atmosphere of timelessness and communicate the intense sense of regret and unresolved ambition of both poet and protagonist.

Qixi Festival Theme Song

The Qixi Festival Theme Song is a jingle that is commissioned by Lynn WONG. The song employs the use of Artificial Intelligence in coming up with preliminary ideas for the Chinese lyrics as we had only 3 weeks to compose, arrange, produce and record the whole work. The work has reached out to more than 10,000 visitors over 2 days at Singapore’s Chinatown!

排排坐 (Sitting in a Row) (SA/TB/SATB, Pno)

Traditionally, ‘authentic’ folk rhymes and music, sees many variants as a result of oral tradition being passed on and distilled through time. The Cantonese and Chinese text used here seem to indicate that this is a uniquely Singaporean version. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Cantonese rhyme is far older – some of the members in my senior’s choir thanked me for evoking their childhood memories of their grandmothers teaching them this rhyme. I thought it was really interesting, the parallels between the Cantonese rhyme vis-a-vis the Mandarin rhyme that I grew up with. This work is commissioned by Ms. Lynn Wong as a theme song/jingle for her Ho Yeah Festival, an event promoting Cantonese and Hakka culture.

你是我的家 You Are My Home (SA/SATB Pno)

Commissioned by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education Filial Piety Teaching Resource Centre. Melody and arrangement by Albert TAY, text by 金曲獎Golden Melody Award winner, lyricist WANG Zhong Yan (王中言). Golden Melody Award winning producer 吳蒙惠 Vikung RULJADENG helped record and assisted with the production of the original music video.

心经 Heart Sutra

Written as a gift for Pop and Jazz Choir YAZERS, this work was written at their request for a choral or a cappella work that is inspired by Japanese monk Kanho YUKUSHIJI’s Heart Sutra. It turned out to be (and still remains) one of the most difficult assignments I’ve received – the Heart Sutra text was such a dense work of literature that despite months of extensive research, re-reading and study, it remains a mystery to me. Yukushiji’s fantastic composition was minimalism at its finest and made it (near) impossible to add or subtract anything to it. Perhaps this work is more accurately described as a “transcription plus” rather than an arrangement or composition, but it remains one of my most intellectually stimulating exercise to date. 

相思 Longing

“A lone poet in Tang Dynasty robes sits calmly in a bamboo forest, composing the first two lines of the poetry as a light veil of rain starts to fall around him. He starts playing the 古琴 (guqin :an ancient zither) restlessly in a bid to find peace and inspiration to finish his work. As his thoughts begin to wander to his loved one faraway, the music starts to get more agitated – eventually as the rain comes to a stop, so too does his quiet ruminations come to an end as he completes the poem.”

神游上河 Woanderings

神游 (shen you) can be described as an out-of-body experience, a form of ‘mental visitation’ of a place – in this case, stepping into the painting. 上河 (shang he), is an allusion to the painting 清明上河图 (“Qing Ming Shang He Tu”, roughly translated as “A Picture of the Upstream during Qingming Festival”), hence the English title “Woanderings” (Wonderings x Wanderings). The painting is a unique, priceless work of art measuring 1152cm wide and 35.6 cm in height and is the primary inspiration for this work with its contrasting scenes of royal palace tranquility and bustling city scenes. The painting is to be shown during the performance in a “scrolling manner” (from right to left as is typical of traditional Chinese paintings). “Bian zhong” (ancient Chinese bronze bells) music also informs some of the soundworld in this work.
Commissioned by Baba Damien LIM for the Ministry of Bellz, this is an unusual “song without words” for mixed choir, handbell choir and percussion.

安平追想曲 (Reminiscences of An Ping)

Reminiscences of An Ping was an arrangement commissioned by Professor Julian SU. The work was premiered by the combined choirs of Formosa Singers & Schola Cantorum Singapore on 15 August 2017 at the Victoria Concert Hall (Singapore) conducted by Albert Tay. This extended version was recorded during the Asian Cities Choral Exchange on 10 June 2018 (Sun)

Laudate Dominum

Taken from Psalm 116 (117), this work is specially written for the Methodist Girls School (Secondary) Choir. The ecstatic, euphoric joy in this piece is inspired by the coming of my first child. Notably, Laudate Dominum was featured at the 2015 Europa Cantat and has since been performed by numerous award-winning choirs from around the world in various festivals or competitions. This latest revision and SATB arrangement is specially made for 天⽣歌⼿ Natus Cantorum (Taiwan) for the 2015 inaugural Asian Cities Choral Exchange and was premiered by on 24 December 2015 at ⼤東⽂化藝術中⼼演藝廳. Written at a time when I was studying with Leong Yoon Pin, the work is informed by organum, Bach-ian counterpoint, Indian ragas and a dash of Guns & Roses!

觅幽兰 Orchid of the Valley

Specially arranged for YAZERS pop and jazz choir, this was one of the very first arrangements that I wrote for them. The piece is kept simple, accessible and is predominantly in SAB format with the occasional divisi for tenors.

Elegy

With the passing of Lee Kuan Yew on the 23 March 2015, we lost one of Singapore’s greatest. “Elegy” was sparked by this event and completed on the same day.

Adapted from the text of stoic philosopher Epictetus (c.a. 55- c.a.135), the music alludes to references ranging from Gustav Holst’s Jupiter, Sir Cecil Spring Rice’s ‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’ to Gregorian chant (Dies Irae). Numerology also influenced the composition of this work.

小白菜 Little Cabbage

This Chinese folksong from Hebei stood out from a huge body of Chinese folksongs by virtue of its unusual 5/4 meter. I was particularly attracted by the beautiful melancholic, parlando descending melodies that set the mood for the tragic tale of a daughter’s ill treatment after the loss of her mother when she was 2 or 3 years old. The stage is set in a traditionally feudal society where boys are greatly favoured over girls, with the father remarrying and the stepmother bearing him a son after a few years. The young daughter’s longing and hopes of meeting her own mother in her dreams is perhaps her only solace.
Out of the original 7 stanzas, I have chosen the first and last two of these to set to music as I felt these 3 stanzas are the most poetic and holds the essence of this folksong. I would like to thank Dr. Zechariah Goh for being the spark and supervisor for this work.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Dedicated to Dr. László Norbert Nemes and the staff & students of the Kecskemét Kodály Intézet.
Solo may be attempted by vocalist, small group of sopranos or played on an instrument, e.g. clarinet, flute, violin.

Prayer for Peace

“Prayer for Peace” is a special parting gift written for mentor Jennifer Tham, manager Albert Yeo and the many friends and fellow singers of the SYC Ensemble Singers as I leave Singapore for further studies at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music in fall, 2011. Prayer for Peace was premiered by the SYC Ensemble Singers under the direction of Jennifer Tham on 30 August 2014 at SOTA Concert Hall (Singapore).