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so sleep alone tonight
Grace and NicoleThe pro bloggers of the 21st century Sec 4/1 2010 IJ Concert Band and IJ News Team Nicole's quote of the week; 'Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows' - Hellen Keller Grace's quote of the week; 'DISTURBING? Who am I disturbing? This is a coma ward! Don't you WANT them to wake up?' - random website You can see we're different people:D But friends forever. :) |
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This blog was opened by Grace and Nicole to accomodate our mindless musings and daily rantings.Do enjoy your stay here, and don't take what's not yours! tagboard
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The Topic To Talk Today Faith, Hope & Love Concert Pt. II Yesterday's Faith, Hope & Love Concert was a blast! It was a continuation from yesteryear's concert; Faith Hope & Love. The 2007 one was put on by St. Margaret's and us, CHIJ Secondary Toa Payoh. This year, the concert became co-educational with Catholic High School joining us to make the concert a success! We had practice in the afternoon - one after another. All 3 schools had two segments - the main band performing (they're the seniors; sec 2s, 3s, and Alumni) and the junior band performing (they're the sec 1s who just joined this year). So practice was really difficult as we had to be on time and be vigilant since any lagging would cause the whole afternoon to drag. In the end, we managed to have an hour for dinner and change. At the end, I felt really lousy because it was a long afternoon and everyone started to snap at each other because they were tired from a vigorous practice and bored from just sitting down while the other schools practiced. Not to mention everyone had mixed feelings since this is our last concert with Mr Leonard Tan, our conductor. We were looking forward to the concert but it was our last goodbye, so everyone hated and loved the concert passionately; wanting to play for Mr Tan and yet hating to as it will be a confirmation that yes, it is the last practice with him. But after dinner, everyone was energised and ready to play. The concert went on smoothly and the music was beautiful. If I had to describe each school; it'll be this way. St Marg's was FAITH, a beautiful and passionate sound. They played a song with equal parts of sadness in the chorale and such joy and happiness in the finale that they did an excellent job of stirring up the audience to give them an echoing round of applause. Their Christmas song proclaimed their faith in God and how they responded to Mr Tan also showed their faith in the conductor to respect him and appreciate his times with them. Catholic High is HOPE, a loud sound which woke everyone up. Their songs; A Postcard From Singapore and an Irish Rasphody made everyone sit up straight. The Singapore song had a simple tune of Geylang Simpaku Geylang and yet, I could not imagine an old Malay man singing it in Kampong Glam. It was not traditional, it transformed into an elegant sound of grace and shouted hope, as even while they played, you could feel their energy and zest to bring happiness to everyone, to bring joy, to show their appreciation for the conductor, like bringing hope to the world that; hey, it's not the end of the world, it's just another chapter of life. And last, CHIJ Concert Band was LOVE. As we played, I could see everyone moving to the music. The message was passed everywhere; every note we play; semiquaver or whatever; we played it with love. Each song was dedicated to special somebodys, each song was delivered with all our heart, all our soul, with one mind to make the concert the best for Mr Tan. Shenandoah was a beautiful prayer, that Shannen and Nicolette will be better. I don't know how to describe the feeling. Mr Tan said: "I hope the audience are kind and won't clap at the end until we're done". A soft song about peace transformed into a glorious proclamation softly turned into a quiet prayer, where it ended off with a round clarinet sound. It came true - no one dared to breathe or clap until the sound ended. Everyone closed her eyes; our song was done, our hard work paid off, we did it. The audience broke into a round of applause. Everyone was scared of the technical and musical demands of Little Fugue. It wasn't neat, but everyone concentrated. Tongue every note so it won't get muddy, at the end, grow loud and strong together as we say farewell to Amanda, who leaves for Australia next year. I was really proud, because we came all this way together to play a metronomical piece. Mr Tan liked the piece a lot and we're really glad we managed to play it with him. Finally, Die Feldermaus! Our song we worked 10000x hard and practiced. With only what, 3 months of seeing the score for the first time, the operetta transformed from a weird sound of piping notes here and there to a fantastic drama. It was a happy song, a strong beginning, like telling the world; IJ IS HERE. A strong beginning, how we're all united. When it transformed into an emotional piece, everyone was moving like crazy, looking at the conductor as he made expressive movements for us to follow. At the climax, everyone went sort of crazy, making a loud and joyous sound, but it was controlled so it won't get messy. Everyone was concentrating yet enjoying themselves. In the end, when everyone worked up and went fast, I was thinking: "It's the last few bars, oh my god, i can't believe it, i'm going to finish the song" and it did with a great chord. Argh, everyone stood up at the end, and it was really great. We finished Faith, Hope and Love Pt. II, our farewell concert to Mr Tan. There was a great Farewell video by the 3 schools together and I think I heard sniffles and saw tears. At the end, everyone hugged each other. It wasn't the end of school, where everyone was so incredibly sad. It was happy, everyone did it, we did it together. We persevered, we had faith, we had hope and we poured our love into music. It was, is and always be an incredible music experience. - grace, trombone player :)  :D what an Artistic picture! I got ALL of us in the picture so no complaining! :) I think it looks nice. Multi tasking now. Switching between 4 blogs ( quoted from Grace) as well as instructing my friend in the art of changing template. haha. :) School's out! Hols are in! :( Sadly, so is the economic recession, coupled with the fact that there has been an increasing number of child abuse cases in the UK of late. To top it all off, there's always the shadow of the economic crisis. Man, these are tough as well as more and more inhuman-like times. it's sad but it's life. :D on the brighter side of things, I think Channel 8 is obsessed with the peranakan culture. while leafing through the Life section, I came across not one but two TV shows dedicated to informing us of the aspects of Peranakan life. One about Food, the other a drama serial set to be likened to some long drawn saga. Yawns. :D Okay, I'll update another day. signing off as Dua Chik <3
Happy Endings
 Hello everyone! :DThe holidays are really flying by! Everyone seems to be in the relaxed mood - a big difference from the tense atmosphere in school haha. I hope you're enjoying yourself. I wish we had more outings like when we went out and took crazy pictures at every reflective surface like above. I'm very pro, could capture everyone, okay. Except Natalie wasn't there. I shall post another picture of just Natalie soon^^ haha. I wonder how everyone will be like in school next year. I think I shall switch to study mode sooner or later and attempt waking up at 6 am so next year I wouldn't go: "WHAT? IT'S NOT 7AM, ISSIT???" OK, I shall stop my ramblings now - gtg eat breakfast. :D Hugs! Make sure you go for the IJ Concert Band concert! Faith, Hope and Love Pt II Saturday, 29th November 08 7.30pm Tickets priced at $8 If you're lucky, there might be a ticket left :) Hugs, Grace HELLO! Nicole here! :D Cool blog right? Haha. Yes, partly secrets, news and a whole load of stuff is gonna be up here soon! I have lots to do! including clearing my room. I need to re-organise. I can't even find my handphone! :) LOVE! Nicole |