On 19th March 2010, I was treated to the annual concert of the NUS Symphony Orchestra, compliments of my secondary school senior. My senior and I were both in our school's Chinese Orchestra, I play the yangqin while she plays the double bass which in my opinion as a teenager has a better potential to make music as a career since it has a place in both chinese and western music, in fact, in many genres of western music.
Honestly speaking, I am not a fan of live concerts and I do not usually watch a Symphony Orchestra's concert. However, ever since I took up theory lessons and eventually harmony and composition, I was able to better appreciate music from a broader perspective.
Hector Belioz's Symphony Fantastique is being labelled by my harmony teacher as a "must-know" piece for composition students due to its use of the central motiff with multiple variation techniques applied. Hence, I was keen to hear it played by different orchestras.
My own interpretation of the story of the Symphony Fantastique (hopefully more people will begin to like it or try listening to it)
First Movement: Dream
Berlioz had an idea of what his dream girl would be and always daydreams about her image, which is represented by the motiff that will keep on appearing in later movements.
Second Movement: The Ball
Berlioz attended a ball (party) and there he met a lady very much like the image of his dream girl. He falls in love at first sight but they barely had the chance to interact.
Third Movement: Pastoral
In the fields, Berlioz saw a pair of horn-blowers responding to each other's blowing. He began to think of the lady he met at the ball and the image of the dream girl appears again. Berlioz think it must be a bad feeling to be lonely.
Fourth Movement: March to the Gallows
Upset about being unable to be with his dream girl, Berlioz numbs himself with opium and eventually sees himself taken away to be beheaded. Just before he was beheaded, he still thinks of the dream girl and onces more the familiar music appears. Before the melody could finish, Berlioz was "beheaded" by the suddenly and stark clashing chord and his head fell off.
Final Movement: The Witches' Sabbath
Even in the nether world, Berlioz was still thinking of the dream girl. The melody is now somewhat distorted by many decorations sounding like devils or witches haunting him. I could picture a Halloween scene here, dark and ghostly.
Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique played by the NUSSO is the first I have heard played live in a concert hall, and also the few times I attend a Formal Symphony Orchestra Concert.
Generally, hard work put in to manage the technically difficult parts is worth applauding.
The Singapore National Youth Orchestra also led by the same conductor will be playing the piece as well. I wonder if age and life stage will affect the orchestra's expressiveness on the piece?
A site of fictious posts, therefore no material on this site should be used as evidence against me or otherwise.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
The true meaning of words
Today I pondered over two pairs of words.
guide/inspire
I used to think that I was "innovative" enough to be able to see teachers as facilitators rather than knowledge-feeders. Being facilitators, a teachers job would be to GUIDE students in their learning. However, today I realise I was not exactly correct; so guide means to already have a planned path chosen by the guider, and to keep an eye on the follower such that he does not go off-track. To inspire leaves the decision to the learner, who will have to choose the path he wants to take and the path that he believes is good for himself and is what he ultimately wants. Then the inspiration comes from the inspirer (teacher) who sparks off this deep passion in the learner, to want to pursue his goal in life. To inspire, we guide in accordance to their passion, not ours.
interest/passion
We all like to do what we are interested to do. Some of us like music; what sort of music? One may like to sing but know nuts about manuscript notation and chords; another may not like music as taught in schools but is a die-hard fan who must catch every season and every episode of American's Idol and has his own version of criticism towards why a contestant should not receive the verdict as on the show; yet another student musician may play the trombone really well, but has never played in an orchestra before, thus the lack of orchestral experience to a very large extent that impedes his progress.
The point is we tend to interchangebly use the words interest and passion. An interest is like a hobby, which means a chosen liking for a particular thing or activity. Passion is being in love with something so deeply that we may get obsessed or may even claim that we will die without it. An interest can die off anytime, anywhere: you may be a coffee drinker, but one day decide you no longer like coffee and you switch to tea or even a totally caffeine-free diet. This is so true when you see the teenage boy's pair of skates chucked away in a corner to collect dust when he used to refuse to put it down at one point in time.
A passion needs nothing to sustain, and in fact fuels our lives and energizes us to perform other mandatory tasks which we may not enjoy. An interest is like a cherished liability that we do not mind spending our excess awake-ness for an exchange of momentary happiness.
guide/inspire
I used to think that I was "innovative" enough to be able to see teachers as facilitators rather than knowledge-feeders. Being facilitators, a teachers job would be to GUIDE students in their learning. However, today I realise I was not exactly correct; so guide means to already have a planned path chosen by the guider, and to keep an eye on the follower such that he does not go off-track. To inspire leaves the decision to the learner, who will have to choose the path he wants to take and the path that he believes is good for himself and is what he ultimately wants. Then the inspiration comes from the inspirer (teacher) who sparks off this deep passion in the learner, to want to pursue his goal in life. To inspire, we guide in accordance to their passion, not ours.
interest/passion
We all like to do what we are interested to do. Some of us like music; what sort of music? One may like to sing but know nuts about manuscript notation and chords; another may not like music as taught in schools but is a die-hard fan who must catch every season and every episode of American's Idol and has his own version of criticism towards why a contestant should not receive the verdict as on the show; yet another student musician may play the trombone really well, but has never played in an orchestra before, thus the lack of orchestral experience to a very large extent that impedes his progress.
The point is we tend to interchangebly use the words interest and passion. An interest is like a hobby, which means a chosen liking for a particular thing or activity. Passion is being in love with something so deeply that we may get obsessed or may even claim that we will die without it. An interest can die off anytime, anywhere: you may be a coffee drinker, but one day decide you no longer like coffee and you switch to tea or even a totally caffeine-free diet. This is so true when you see the teenage boy's pair of skates chucked away in a corner to collect dust when he used to refuse to put it down at one point in time.
A passion needs nothing to sustain, and in fact fuels our lives and energizes us to perform other mandatory tasks which we may not enjoy. An interest is like a cherished liability that we do not mind spending our excess awake-ness for an exchange of momentary happiness.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
An Essay on Improvements (in a serious tone)
One of the guiding principles of my life is to be constantly improving; humbly seeking means for improvement.
After graduation from my first degree, I had the chance to teach. As a greenhorn at work, I fortunately met mentors and colleagues who shared their valuable teaching experiences and successful practices with me. After encounters with these passionate educators, I have come to appreciate the importance of evaluation and reflection, in particular with regards to executing a learning programme. While we plan our learning materials in line with the Bloom’s Taxonomy to equip learners with knowledge, understanding, analysis and synthesis skills, I viewed it from another perspective: the teachers are learners, learning how to teach better. In fact, we are constantly and continuously learning in life. It also helps to set a SMART* goal so as to have a direction. (*Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-scaled)
Personally I consider the purpose of evaluation and reflection to be identifying weaknesses and hence implementing improvements in future attempts. To me, it is a critical step in the cycle Plan-Execute-Assess-Evaluate, before a new one commences. It would be more effective to consider both qualitative and quantitative feedback of make a fair judgement of a situation. I would also like to view the summative assessment of a particular teaching assignment as a formative assessment of my own teaching in the long term, instead of solely a measure of effectiveness as a professional.
In my humble opinion, the well-known Kirk Patrick’s model for Evaluation and the SWOT analysis were more geared towards the corporate world, hence the need to select and adapt relevant portions of these as my relevant tools for evaluating current practices and identifying possible areas for improvement.
Improvement lies in understanding how critical functions are best performed, rather than simply measuring the outcomes. Processes can be planned to be effective and constantly adjusted to optimise performance, while outcomes can only be hoped for and we have rather little control over.
When we compare our practices with others, it is impossible to plagiarise, simply because the situations however similar are still different to a certain extent, adaptations and modifications are necessary. Furthermore, we can perceive comparative benchmarking as a form of peer-mentoring, where both ends learn and benefit from an open exchange of information and experience. Reflection is a necessity, neither a bonus nor luxury.
In conclusion, for improvements to take place, a multi-perspective evaluation is quintessential. Though a tedious process, improvements lead to satisfaction in many aspects of life.
To end, I would like to share two quotes that constantly motivate me:
1) There is no difficult child in this world, but there are numerous children with difficulties. (Hence, I should contribute to my very best to help these fellow mankind overcome their difficulties)
2) Excellence is a habit. (Taking the easy way out is a lazy choice. I need to cultivate a habit of constantly striving to be better.)
After graduation from my first degree, I had the chance to teach. As a greenhorn at work, I fortunately met mentors and colleagues who shared their valuable teaching experiences and successful practices with me. After encounters with these passionate educators, I have come to appreciate the importance of evaluation and reflection, in particular with regards to executing a learning programme. While we plan our learning materials in line with the Bloom’s Taxonomy to equip learners with knowledge, understanding, analysis and synthesis skills, I viewed it from another perspective: the teachers are learners, learning how to teach better. In fact, we are constantly and continuously learning in life. It also helps to set a SMART* goal so as to have a direction. (*Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-scaled)
Personally I consider the purpose of evaluation and reflection to be identifying weaknesses and hence implementing improvements in future attempts. To me, it is a critical step in the cycle Plan-Execute-Assess-Evaluate, before a new one commences. It would be more effective to consider both qualitative and quantitative feedback of make a fair judgement of a situation. I would also like to view the summative assessment of a particular teaching assignment as a formative assessment of my own teaching in the long term, instead of solely a measure of effectiveness as a professional.
In my humble opinion, the well-known Kirk Patrick’s model for Evaluation and the SWOT analysis were more geared towards the corporate world, hence the need to select and adapt relevant portions of these as my relevant tools for evaluating current practices and identifying possible areas for improvement.
Improvement lies in understanding how critical functions are best performed, rather than simply measuring the outcomes. Processes can be planned to be effective and constantly adjusted to optimise performance, while outcomes can only be hoped for and we have rather little control over.
When we compare our practices with others, it is impossible to plagiarise, simply because the situations however similar are still different to a certain extent, adaptations and modifications are necessary. Furthermore, we can perceive comparative benchmarking as a form of peer-mentoring, where both ends learn and benefit from an open exchange of information and experience. Reflection is a necessity, neither a bonus nor luxury.
In conclusion, for improvements to take place, a multi-perspective evaluation is quintessential. Though a tedious process, improvements lead to satisfaction in many aspects of life.
To end, I would like to share two quotes that constantly motivate me:
1) There is no difficult child in this world, but there are numerous children with difficulties. (Hence, I should contribute to my very best to help these fellow mankind overcome their difficulties)
2) Excellence is a habit. (Taking the easy way out is a lazy choice. I need to cultivate a habit of constantly striving to be better.)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
On music thoughts and cultivation of culture
今天，魏老师给我上扬琴课.提到音乐的不同:不同地方的文化和地理造成音乐风格/个性/曲风不一样（例：山区高原唱山歌会用大幅度跳跃音程)；不同时代的作曲方式，乐器/科技局限,技术发展程度等,都影响被流传至今的当代音乐.今天我被点通的是:演奏/录制不同类别的音乐时,需考虑不周演奏姿势与手法，麦克风用哪一种，乐器要不要特别处理过.但最终最重要还是得清楚知道自己在做什么,想要达到什么结果，随之的一些决定都为那个最后结果而服务,才为佳.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Art and Science of Music
Anybody can say that science and art are two completely different phenomena and that there is nothing that can possibly connect them due to the fact that one represents truth and the other one represents beauty. Nevertheless, the endeavors to explain science and art in terms of truth and beauty are completely motivated. The major reason for such a division is that science has always been associated with “accuracy” or it may be even said “mathematical accuracy”, while art has been always been considered free from any objectivism and accuracy but associated with seeing the best in things and people. Art is very subjective - what seems to be gorgeous to a person turns out to be disgusting to another one. Science is super objective and any component of subjectivity can destroy science’s essence, which is accuracy. Accuracy is identical to truth and freedom of individual perception with is identical to beauty. At the same time science and art can be both interpreted as “truth”, though science is “objective truth” and art is “subjective truth”. Science dictates laws and follows them, while art disclaims all the laws and lives its own unpredictable life. Art makes the world more beautiful and science finds the truth to control the world and attempts to predict its development. Any science’s attempt to subordinate art is useless as it destroys art at the core. Art is something science cannot exist without. Science serves for the sake of mankind and art adjusts the inventions to the contemporary world.
Exploration of the world through analysis, comparison, syntheses and calculation in science faces the very same analysis, comparison, and syntheses of the outside world in art.
Art is creativity; it reflects the world and reveals reality from completely different sides. It is connected with the emotional sphere and therefore is completely irrational. Science is absolutely rational is connected with the cognitive process. Science attempts to make the reality fit certain laws creating the truth and art attempts to make the reality function spontaneously creating the beauty of spontaneity and tries to copy this spontaneity in different forms. Science obtains its core through knowledge while art obtains its essence through images formed by the process of perception.
Art and science complement each other on one hand. On the other hand they are extremely different – starting with art’s subjectivity and science’s objectivity and ending with the final product of each of the phenomenon. But what is really important is that it is a man who conducts them both and therefore they both serve humanity and its needs, either esthetic or mathematic.
These two terms are a lot different, but still they do have many common things. The paradox is that often the similarities lie inside the things that make them different. So, the suggestion that science is concerned with truth while art is concerned with beauty is quite convincing. Science and art represent the rational and the irrational, the subjective and objective components of life through truth and beauty.
Exploration of the world through analysis, comparison, syntheses and calculation in science faces the very same analysis, comparison, and syntheses of the outside world in art.
Art is creativity; it reflects the world and reveals reality from completely different sides. It is connected with the emotional sphere and therefore is completely irrational. Science is absolutely rational is connected with the cognitive process. Science attempts to make the reality fit certain laws creating the truth and art attempts to make the reality function spontaneously creating the beauty of spontaneity and tries to copy this spontaneity in different forms. Science obtains its core through knowledge while art obtains its essence through images formed by the process of perception.
Art and science complement each other on one hand. On the other hand they are extremely different – starting with art’s subjectivity and science’s objectivity and ending with the final product of each of the phenomenon. But what is really important is that it is a man who conducts them both and therefore they both serve humanity and its needs, either esthetic or mathematic.
These two terms are a lot different, but still they do have many common things. The paradox is that often the similarities lie inside the things that make them different. So, the suggestion that science is concerned with truth while art is concerned with beauty is quite convincing. Science and art represent the rational and the irrational, the subjective and objective components of life through truth and beauty.