Why the fuck did I put 'Cendol' as the title of post #67? Well, back in my MCKK (we call her koleq, like the boat) days we have this adorable system, laundry numbers, in which everyone was given a number. It was a useful way to claim back your laundry - mark the tags or the laundry bag with the number et voilà! - but over the years it had developed into something like a nominal shorthand - "A 24! Datang depan!" - which at that tender young age did give me nightmares about being a prisoner with only a fucking number as my whole identity. Thing is, I was - is - A118, which was quite an awesome number (I turned it into a fancy schmancy 'S') and had been incorporated into numerous passwords ever since, and A67 was this great friend of mine, Za'im (with a frigging glottal stop) who's a great public speaker, a great poem declamator, and a great musician. When you're that good, there's not a lot of leeway for bitches like me to bitch about.
But I did find one. Well, not me, like a whole class. As it turned out after one especially cold night, our Mr. Perfect had a terrible case of Pseudomonas spp. rhinitis, and we being terrible mean boys called him cendol forever after. Cendol is this kind of cold drink mixed with lots of stuff but primarily with a gluten-type jelly strings, which looks like green bloated pinworms. As such it had passed down in our lingo to mean 'snot', hence Mr. Perfect's moniker, and the title of this post.
You must not blame me for sheer genius.
In another topic, the koleq orchestra team went to the SBP Wind Orchestra Competition (though I think they don't call them SBP anymore, because they're opening that shit up for practically anyone these days) this weekend and the they had just uploaded the video of their performance. I don't know how's the format these days but in my day they gave us three songs: an obligatory song, which usually emphasizes a musical aspect (like articulation, dynamics etc), a Chosen Song, and a Malay Song (which is usually composed by this fricking man named Suhaimi Yaacob, a director for SAS band, and guess who almost always turned up in the finale? Yeah, fuck that!). Video below:
I will tell you this: I'm so proud that they managed to do this after a major team crisis (that had their FB group buzzing for days) and only three weeks of proper training. The orchestra sound is so much improved - of course they have newer instruments and a larger palette to work with now, with so many sponsors KA-CHUNK!!! - especially the brass! The brass section used to be the byword for 'shithole' in our band, but the trumpets blazed like they're Leontyne Price (and you know that lady would probably live to see twenty more presidents before finally joining the choir upstairs) and the trombones, apart from two or three impolite honks, sound so sizzled up! I was confused why they're putting the tubas smack in the back of the rest of the ensemble but when you have like 4 -5 BBb tubas placement probably doesn't matter.
Apparently they're playing a suite from Die lustige Witwe (I can't help it, I love the original title more than its English counterpart - the FUCKING Merry Widow, so sterile, so sanitized. There's sex in the show, goddamnit!) and an original composition based on an old Malay song Seri Langkat. I can't tell you much because there's too much vibe in the recording to ascertain individual timbres, but I do think that Seri Langkat was better that DLW. I just want to scream "Did you listen to any recordings of Vilja at least?!!!" It's harrowing to hear one of the most beautiful lyric pieces EVER being played like a colour-by-the-numbers, but whatever. That alone is a big enough write-off in my book.
Apart from that, I do think the fast sections suffer from not being fast enough. It is an operetta, hence it must have a lively atmosphere. I do understand though that 3 weeks training is probably not enough. The fermati just before the coda were rather anemic from lack of crecscendo/swell, but there was a nice sexy trombone glissando, so that's a big plus (they do love flamboyant solos at the WOC).
The Seri Langkat is typical of my old director Mr. Rosman's style - I could listen once and label everything: Intro, Theme, Theme 2 (legato for days)+crescendo, Re-intro (mf), big Recap, Coda. His style (we called it RTM band-ryuu, because the director before that was big on symphonic-style arrangement) is tons and tons of syncopations and accents, nice (but not entirely unexpected) harmonic progressions, and lower brass chorale for days. The team actually did miles better in this song, but they have the benefit of having the composer at hand, so there's that. The trumpets especially did an awesome job. It's weird because the rest of the participants usually turn up with better Chosen Song than the Malay Song, but I think it's a good trademark move for the team.
Of course there's some spliced notes, some honks (clarinets and trombones I see YOU) but I don't care, I love the songs, I love the performance, I would have killed a child to be performing on that stage with them, but I'm here and they're there, and I hope they had the time of their lives on that stage, and most importantly GO INTO THE FINALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE: They didn't made it. They got silver, which means 'so long, suckers'.
But I did find one. Well, not me, like a whole class. As it turned out after one especially cold night, our Mr. Perfect had a terrible case of Pseudomonas spp. rhinitis, and we being terrible mean boys called him cendol forever after. Cendol is this kind of cold drink mixed with lots of stuff but primarily with a gluten-type jelly strings, which looks like green bloated pinworms. As such it had passed down in our lingo to mean 'snot', hence Mr. Perfect's moniker, and the title of this post.
 |
| ... Barf. |
You must not blame me for sheer genius.
In another topic, the koleq orchestra team went to the SBP Wind Orchestra Competition (though I think they don't call them SBP anymore, because they're opening that shit up for practically anyone these days) this weekend and the they had just uploaded the video of their performance. I don't know how's the format these days but in my day they gave us three songs: an obligatory song, which usually emphasizes a musical aspect (like articulation, dynamics etc), a Chosen Song, and a Malay Song (which is usually composed by this fricking man named Suhaimi Yaacob, a director for SAS band, and guess who almost always turned up in the finale? Yeah, fuck that!). Video below:
I will tell you this: I'm so proud that they managed to do this after a major team crisis (that had their FB group buzzing for days) and only three weeks of proper training. The orchestra sound is so much improved - of course they have newer instruments and a larger palette to work with now, with so many sponsors KA-CHUNK!!! - especially the brass! The brass section used to be the byword for 'shithole' in our band, but the trumpets blazed like they're Leontyne Price (and you know that lady would probably live to see twenty more presidents before finally joining the choir upstairs) and the trombones, apart from two or three impolite honks, sound so sizzled up! I was confused why they're putting the tubas smack in the back of the rest of the ensemble but when you have like 4 -5 BBb tubas placement probably doesn't matter.
Apparently they're playing a suite from Die lustige Witwe (I can't help it, I love the original title more than its English counterpart - the FUCKING Merry Widow, so sterile, so sanitized. There's sex in the show, goddamnit!) and an original composition based on an old Malay song Seri Langkat. I can't tell you much because there's too much vibe in the recording to ascertain individual timbres, but I do think that Seri Langkat was better that DLW. I just want to scream "Did you listen to any recordings of Vilja at least?!!!" It's harrowing to hear one of the most beautiful lyric pieces EVER being played like a colour-by-the-numbers, but whatever. That alone is a big enough write-off in my book.
Apart from that, I do think the fast sections suffer from not being fast enough. It is an operetta, hence it must have a lively atmosphere. I do understand though that 3 weeks training is probably not enough. The fermati just before the coda were rather anemic from lack of crecscendo/swell, but there was a nice sexy trombone glissando, so that's a big plus (they do love flamboyant solos at the WOC).
The Seri Langkat is typical of my old director Mr. Rosman's style - I could listen once and label everything: Intro, Theme, Theme 2 (legato for days)+crescendo, Re-intro (mf), big Recap, Coda. His style (we called it RTM band-ryuu, because the director before that was big on symphonic-style arrangement) is tons and tons of syncopations and accents, nice (but not entirely unexpected) harmonic progressions, and lower brass chorale for days. The team actually did miles better in this song, but they have the benefit of having the composer at hand, so there's that. The trumpets especially did an awesome job. It's weird because the rest of the participants usually turn up with better Chosen Song than the Malay Song, but I think it's a good trademark move for the team.
Of course there's some spliced notes, some honks (clarinets and trombones I see YOU) but I don't care, I love the songs, I love the performance, I would have killed a child to be performing on that stage with them, but I'm here and they're there, and I hope they had the time of their lives on that stage, and most importantly GO INTO THE FINALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE: They didn't made it. They got silver, which means 'so long, suckers'.
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