Roland Dyens

Received the 2 quartet scores by Roland Dyens - Hamsa (special request of Alex!) as well as French Pot Pourri.

Not sure if we will be trying them out immediately though, as we are targeting the Nutcracker suite for the Dec performance - gotta work on that one first. Pretty challenging! =)

Music competitions

I recently read an article about competition music - ie, where performers of an instrument pit their technical and interpretation skills against one another in front of a panel of judges. The article goes on to say that while competition is good in that it raises the expectations and pushes people to improve themselves, the pitfalls of having a competition for music include: (1) creating performers who put too much emphasis on technical perfection (read: no mistakes) rather than musical interpretations; and (2) and then stick to the tried-and-tested formulas (read: familiar pieces, familiar composers, etc).

This is something which I agree whole-heartedly. How can someone judge who is better - a guitarist who plays say, Albeniz's Asturias (leyenda) note-perfectly, superhumanly fast compared to another who plays a never-before heard composition, not necessarily demonstrating equally amazing finger dexterity but instead showing off a well-polished, well thought through musical journey of expression?

Granted, as classical guitarist we'd always favor a fuller, rounder tone compared to a thin, harsh one - but who is to say that it is not the repertoire that demands the usage of such a tonal expression? Is someone who expresses a nice warm/mellow tone throughout the song necessarily better than another who constantly changes his tonal colours throughout the piece?

Another gauge that people often rely on (to judge a guitarist's skill & technique) - his sound projection; whether he is able to fill a hall with his playing or if he is simply stroking the strings but in fact making no sound! Again, this is very subjective. While sound projection generally gives an indication of a player's right-hand technique and his level of confidence, one can alway argue that being able to control the volume dynamics whilst playing is a much more important skill to possess than having this "raw power". Well, like they alway say, "power without control is nothing".

At the end of the day, such music competitions are usually very subjective in terms of the finaly judgement. For even were the performers to play exactly the same repertoire (e.g. like a set piece) - which they often do not ; it would come down to whether the judges liked your way of presenting the song. Of course, if the technical abilities of the competitors are way apart, then the decision can be pretty clear, but often this is not the case.

In Singapore, we have the bi-annually held SYF (Singapore Youth Festival) whereby music groups representing the various Secondary schools and Junior Colleages will present their song items. These items are then judged by a panelist comprising prominent musicians from the various fields, and at the end of the competition, each team will be awarded a medal - Gold with Honors, Gold, Silver, and Certificate of Participation. I like this format of awarding a tiered awards instead of having the schools directly 'compete' with one another for 1st, 2nd, 3rd prizes, etc. On one hand, it provides the recognition and reward schools (instructor, teacher, students) for putting in the effort to prepare for the event, and on the other hand, it provides the necessary motivating factor for schools to either maintain or improve on their previous rounds' awards ratings. Obviously there are some cases where I may not have agreed with the judges' decision on the award type given to a particular school/performance, but like I said before, all music judging is subjective in the first place, so there's really little point debating "rights" and "wrongs".

Upcoming performance

Guitaresque will be performing at the Singapore Art Museum chapel on the 3rd Dec.  It is meant to be a kind of Christmas thingie, so we'll be playing mostly Xmas-related songs.  Possibly the most challenging pieces we shall be attempting will be the Nutcracker Suite, as arranged by Andrew York, formerly of the LAGQ.  Hope to see you at the SAM then!

Guitaresque Vs Xpose experience

It has been a great experience playing with Xpose in our most recent performance - 5th Sept at the Esplanade Recital Studio. I feel I've gained a new perspective of playing in such a ensemble.

To be honest, if you'd asked me 2 months ago, I would've told you that playing in Xpose was merely a watered-down experience compared to playing in Guitaresque. On one hand, I have Prime 2 (which is my current allocation in the Niibori ensemble) scores punctuated with single notes and lots of rest bars; and on the other, I am facing scores like Francis Kleyjans' Los Quatro Elementos or even the Nutcracker suite arrangement by LAGQ which tend to be littered with technically challenging chords, mazy runs and complex rhythms.

But after going through the last 2 months of rehearsals and the performance itself, I have to admit - it takes very different skills to be playing in either group.

In Guitaresque, the emphasis is clearly on individual technique and good understanding of the other 3 players' temperaments and strengths. The onus is usually on each player to do his homework, so that when we play together as a quartet, all we need to do it to put the 4 parts together. Understanding of one anothers' playing style is important, as often we instinctively know when the melody line player is going to inject his brand of expression into the music; or when the usual suspect(s) is going to give that speed-boost at the odd places. Navigating difficult passages (e.g. music which require a lot of coordinating runs, pauses, changes in tempos, etc.) require us to make eye-contact and the usual nods come in handy too. But the bottom-line remains: we play our own bit well, and we have trust in the other 3 players to do their part.

However, in a mini-ensemble like Xpose, it isn't always easy to do the same. And that's why the conductor is so important. He has to put all the different parts together to weave a complete picture - which is now made up of not 4 parts, but maybe 10 or more different parts (including percussions)! From a player's point of view, it isn't easy to always look-up a the conductor, and this spells disaster at times - especially when guitarists are struggling to hear one another amidst the powerful percussion instruments banging in the background. The other challenge is that it can be frustrating to hear 2 (or 3) "versions" of the music played on your left/right - esp. when neither seem to be following the conductor.

I admit I sometimes rush passages too, but all too often there's that niggling feeling that the whole ensemble is 'falling part' (in terms of the music we are interpreting), and I feel powerless to stop it. Whereas in a quartet, anyone of us can easily stop the playing and declared, "let's do it again, I think this part so-and-so are out with the rest of us"; doing so in an ensemble (to me) is a disrespect to the conductor. Furthermore, in a big setup it is often difficult to pin-point a particular section or player who is actually causing the problem. And because the bond between a group of 20 can never match the closeness and level of understanding that can be reached between a group of 4, oftentimes criticisms are not taken very well and sometimes feel like a finger-pointing exercise.

Regardless, it has been enlightening to perform with a group of guitarists and a great learning experience. Personally, I am certainly more inclined toward the quartet setup, but at the same time I am glad to have an opportunity to immerse myself in a larger setup as this allows for developing a different set of musician skills altogether.