With the opening of the new Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, they're been holding lots of free concerts. One of the more novel ones, which I attended, was
Celebrations in Percussion.

Perhaps understandably, most of the works were from the 20th century (maybe no one had the idea of percussion ensembles before then). I didn't dislike the modern stuff as much as I thought. In fact, some of it was quite interesting (not always the same as aesthetically pleasing).

The concert opened with Steve Reich's Clapping Music (1980), which has the same idea as the Geographical Fugue - get rid of tone and rely on rhythm (and also, I would add, the timbre of the clapping). An arrangement of 3 movements from Fireworks Music was refreshing, but it was followed by 3 dances which went from okay to horrible - the last, Serge Baudo's Danse des Espirits from Trois Danses Païnnes (1955) was simply cringeworthy (not due to lack of skill, but poor material). But then, what else can we expect from a 20th century Frenchman?

The scherzo from Beethoven's 9th was a welcome change. My fellow concert goer thought it sounded too cute-sy at first, but I suppose that's inevitable when you try to imitate strings' legato with xylophones and gang (the pedal on the vibraphone helped, but still - no cigar).

David Mancini's With Joy In His Heart (1995) made me feel like I was in a school band concert. And in Jared Spears's Windstone Suite (1992), Distant Songs and Incantations had one performer chanting like a Tibetan monk.

The concert ended with 2 jazzy pieces from the 20s which, besides having the performers wear funny hats as gimmicks, also sounded exactly like they were produced by the pieces in the Nationaal Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement.


The conservatory building has a "fire command centre". I'm sure it's very useful in combating fires, but unfortunately it's located in the middle of the building, so those directing rescue efforts are doomed to sacrifice their lives in the event of a fire, trapped by the building's collapsing around them as they nobly direct fire control efforts from their room.

Many of the concerts I want to go to are on Tuesday. Which happens to be my free day. GAH. I swear this happened to me too the last semester I was in NUS. How coincidental.

There's a library in the conservatory which is open till 10pm on normal days. There's now a new place to mug during exam time!