To celebrate our nation’s 59th birthday, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) held its annual National Day Concert (NDC) on 11th August 2024. This year’s concert featured three winning pieces from the SSO’s Call for Composition, distinct from previous years where commissioned music was mostly performed. The theme this year was “Legacy and Future” and presented older music from Singaporean and Singapore-based composers besides the winning pieces. This year’s NDC not only showcases the diversity in sound of Singaporean composers across time, but also displays the range of writing heard today.
The concert programme
Multiculturalism is a key element in the composers' works throughout the program. We see this incorporation of cultural elements in the earlier pieces like Giocoso – Largamente (1979) by Leong Yoon Pin, and Tapestries I - Time Dances (ca. 2006) by Eric Watson. Such influences relate to the concept of the "Singapore sound" in our musical history. Watson mentions the weaving of “Nanyang and Singapore history” in Tapestries I (originally his first Chinese orchestra piece). Leong’s Giocoso – Largamente (1979), the third movement of his Second Symphony, uses Yunnan folk themes and rhythms. Multiculturalism also influences composers today, as seen in Emily Koh’s homemade recipe: nasi ulam and Gu Wei’s Illuminating the skies.
A notable difference in compositional approach throughout the programme is the usage of musical quotation. Leong quotes a Yunnan folk theme in full, letting it be performed in full phrases in Giocoso – Largamente. Lee Jinjun on the other hand, sometimes presents his quotations in fragments or shorter phrases, such as the opening of our National Anthem in the trombones at the end of his piece Sing! (2012), originally written for wind band for the Singapore Wind Symphony’s concert series in 2012. The usage of these quotations have very different effects. Leong’s quotation in full phrases invokes cultural familiarity in his music, whereas Lee’s quotation appears to be used in a humorous and iconic fashion to end his piece.
A variety of tonal language was also displayed across the programme. Scales and modes from other cultures such as Bhairav raga in Illuminating the skies and the Pelog scale hinted at homemade recipe: nasi ulam can be heard throughout the concert. Some pieces also featured a range of dissonance in their writing, such as in the “recapitulation” of the melody in homemade recipe: nasi ulam. Similar to the use of quotations, the different treatment of tonality aims to achieve different effects in the composer’s music.
The programme also shows the range of styles that Singaporean and Singapore-based composers are writing today, reflecting the diversity and innovation that contributes to the Singaporean sound. Seen across the three pieces selected from the Call for Compositions (the first of its kind for the SSO), some composers draw inspiration from folk tunes and lore, such as Lim Han Quan ideating with the narrative of Sang Nila Utama in Our Story: Passage Through Time. Felicia Teng used a nonmusical idea and morphed it into a musical (rhythmic) one using morse code, seen in her Red Dot Dreaming.
The three composers each take a different approach to orchestration, using the orchestra in a variety of ways to realise their music. Lim uses the orchestra to develop his two motifs, “harmonised and orchestrated in different shapes and forms. We hear this in the opening of Our Story: Passage Through Time, as it is first introduced and passed around the strings, before a wash of chords that ultimately settle on C sharp major. Teng uses a motif derived loosely from the morse code of “people” (.--. . --- .--. .-.. .), introducing it as a rhythm but orchestrated disjunctly amongst the brasses. Some rhythmic cells repeated throughout the orchestra also appear to have been derived from this motif. Gu also makes use of orchestral layers and instrumental combinatorics in Illuminating the skies. A shimmering layer was formed with the mid and upper strings using harmonic trills and an articulated harmonic with fast bow speed. For Gu, he also subtly adds solo wind instruments to double the xylophone’s melody, whose mode is a derivative of the Bhairav raga, making the sound more rounded and warm. Whilst all the composers utilised the different sounds that the orchestra can provide, we perceive distinctive different treatment and organisation across the three pieces.
In conclusion, The National Day Concert 2024 showcases a wide range of Singaporean music, spanning across both past and present works. The most reliable answer to what defines the “Singapore sound” is simply whatever Singaporean composers create. While the concert might be a good opportunity to reflect on how far we have come in our musical journey, there is more to the “Singaporean sound" to listen for than what this programme has to offer. Looking forward, we should aim to champion the sounds of Singaporean composers and let them be heard.
Joel Tan
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