Music the way it is

I miss NY choir, not for all the reasons everyone else had missed theirs. Not for the perfection of music and music only-- that happened only a few times, always ever in a combined choir, the most recent one (already a few years ago) being the combined concert with Amadeus, where the music just rings in your head, the voices, the sound, the way it blends and mingles and settles, the way the notes walked, danced, twirled, took on a life of their own, formed tangible shapes in the concert hall.

Would I have been happy being part of a choir like that? It had ever always been temporal, the experience. An exhilarating burst of colour, a memory to remember. But one that lasts...?

Was talking to Sheena the other day about SN choir last time, and something that she said struck a chord.

"There's a distinct difference between striving for the best.. and trying to maintain your top position... the former being more fulfilling."

How true =)

Which is why SN and NY choir had held so very much meaning even after all these years. All the talk of gold choirs at the recent SYF this May, and about techniques and vocal excellence. "But how does your conductor conduct your choir?" Wai Lun had asked. I said I didn't remember =S

It wasn't the technicalities and stylistics that stuck. I remembered practices, certainly. I remembered horrific chord clashes, I remember pracs repeating the same material over and over again. I remembered my depressed soloists during Cadenza, struggling to sound better, the humongous efforts they put in just to get certain things correct. I remember the alto-drama that had all my altos in tears, I remembered my dear sop SL and secretary sobbing in the pavilion the same day because only so few of us could get the song right and she didn't know what to do with us anymore. I remembered, oh, a very memorable moment when my dear bass SL threw a tantrum and refused to teach, and I lugged him back to the piano and stood glaring at the guys in despair for quarter an hour. I remember days when my dear SC and VP were so stressed up that they glowered with stony silence, and the choir, picking up on the vibes, remained subdued for the day.

Bad memories? Not quite-- for how very dear they are still, every tense episode, every struggling moment. My dear altos were closer-knit than any other group I know, and the antics my Sops come up with to tickle their SL to delight still leaves the linger of a smile. The girls had built up a support system in time, that they would reach out automatically to one another to help, that for every tear shed together they would laugh as hard barely minutes later over some silly nonsense joke. And our guys've gotta be the most hilarious and outspoken lot altogether, and very nice individuals on top of that, as well. If there is one thing I could say about these guys that the best choirs would need extra effort to match up to, it is, very simply, that NY choir guys are naturally spontaneous, very sporting people, with an instinct for having fun on stage in a way that's very infectious =)

And so I had cried for the silver then for a number of reasons, one of which was that I felt the choir deserved something more for all the work put in... if they'd heard us from the beginning, listen to how we'd to start from scratch, again and again, commit songs to memory note by note, in careful patterns. The patience of my SLs and SC, the genuine effort put in by the choir, the energy of my conductor in getting it all together, and the efforts of my ever beloved committee, of whom I'm deeply proud of. Who never for once generated that kind of politics I've known of in other places. Skills and techniques? I remembered Miss Ong most acutely for the way she makes us feel better about ourselves, the way she could talk to the guys in their most troubled moments where I hadn't the ability to help, the way she goes "Rubbish, Charmaine, of course you can sing that", and I do.

On random rare days I pick up my autograph book and it floods back in a rush, these memories. The Cadenza CD, which I haven't touched for ages, holds the best ever musical I've ever watched, despite cringe-worthy zao sia moments. I still feel like laughing when I recall our sole four basses, arms over shoulders, singing "we got sun-light-on-the-sand, we got moon-light-on-the-sea, we got man-goes-and-ba-na-nas we can pick-right-off-a-tree" in the most miserable ah beng moans, hahahaha. And the time the guys were supposed to pretend-stumble on stage, and they all really happily tumbled into a huge heap with a loud WOOOO-OH!!! Priceless.

My brother and even my mum (who's been to so many of my performances!) had the deepest impression of this one. As have I. And how we have all grown, indeed. Till now when the girls meet up (and it's hardly frequent, what with everyone in different schools, pending graduation into the working world...) we still connect as we did before, and talk non stop for ages, haha.

Somehow, this is, above everything else, what truly matters. The people, the people, the people.

I wondered, with a start, without all our imperfections, whether all these would have mattered as much, meant as much. Strangely enough, upon hindsight, pitchiness, tone-deafness, short-term memories, all the countless obstacles to overcome, the efforts put in to make it work, the eventual feeling of everything coming together, little by little, but ever so much ultimately... It taught me to be humble first, and then it taught me love, and respect, for a choir remarkable in so many ways... More than pitch perfection, flawless rhythm, stunning individual talents.

It's all in the heart, after all. A bigness of heart that made music the way it is to be felt, through people... more deeply fulfilling than any other song in the world.

Anniversary

Okay, I be good, I publicise, as requested.



________________

NYJC 30th Anniversary

Dear NYJCians,

To mark this happy occasion, we will be publishing a souvenir magazine that contains photos, well wishes and achievements of graduated NYJCians, who are now in established careers. We would like to feature you in this magazine and are inviting you to contribute your photographs and details.

Please complete and email the attached template which should include a photograph (high resolution, jpg format/formal or informal shots; group shots are welcome) to nyjcmag@gmail.com by 9 February 2007.

We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

____________________



O woe is me!

I is not yet(!) in an established career, and therefore cannot send well-wishes for the anniversary, alas. And then hor, I cannot forward to my peers also cos they also not in established careers yet, so no achievement photos to send, mah. So I put the notice here, just in case some successful old boy/girl google for NY and find this, (EH YOU!) then can make their contributions.

Then for the rest of us who are unmentioned with regards to the important event, please continue to forward it to likelier sources, hor.





PS. It is strangely comforting to find that things have not changed, and that administrative handlings that had Shell and me shrieking in sheer disbelief back then are still the way they are. The buildings have been reconstructed, the students have changed, some dear teachers have left for other places, but the school's language utilisation remain endearingly infruiating =) How annoying, but how very nostalgic. =)

Man. I miss NY.