My Choir Songs  在合唱团学的歌曲

Flying Free - My Choir Story

When I first came to Singapore, Extracurricular Activity in the secondary school meant to me nothing more than Mathematics Olympiad, Physics Competition Team and other disciplines that brought the academic excellence to a higher level. Back in those days, flamboyant activities like choir or dancing were merely personal hobbies in northern China, which were too extravagant for the school to lavish any resource in. Every teacher was working himself/herself feverishly for better exam statistics. As such I had grown a natural contempt over these activities.

It all changed when I enrolled in the Commonwealth Secondary School in Singapore. Here I saw the bustling and blooming of all sorts of fanciful activities with unfaltering school support - the Band, the Red-cross, the Girl guides, the Robotics, the Chinese and the Indian Dancing, and above all, the Choir, which was and is by far the largest and the most dominant activity group in the school. In fact it is so strong that every student whose voice sounds better than a hyena was required to join the choir (or at least give it a try). I was no exception. I remembered all I did for the entrance exam is to say "Ahh" twice and then I was passed. The whole process took barely 3 seconds.

And so there I was, standing in the Bass with another 100 plus schoolmates, wearing a drowsy look and thinking that this hogwash was going to be a total waste of time. The first chorus I learnt was Rhythm of Life, and indeed it utterly changed my rhythm of life. As the music and the mellifluous voice of the choir flew in the air, my heart and soul was utterly enthralled! I could feel the very essence of heaven earth empowering me from within. It is totally awe-some! The sensation of watching a Star's live show is nothing compared to this. In the choir, you are your own star and you are everyone else's star. This is the power of an entity! This is the potency of the unity! This is the puissance of eternity!

The choir showed me a completely different horizon in my life. I was not just singing, I was living through the songs and embracing the spirits within--Shakespeare‘s It was a Lover and His Lass carried me over a jubilant spring full of love and passion; the manga chorus of Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid walked me through two beautiful and romantic stories; Take These Wings unveiled the tiny lives around me. It was as if the light of our life journey had been passed through the prism of songs and charmed me with the vibrancy of the kaleidoscope. With this new comprehension of life comes my inspiration of creation. In the first CD published by the school, I contributed the song Let There be New Light. Being someone without much fundamentals of music, I had to write the song in numerical musical notation and then passed it to the professional to be converted to notes and arranged to a proper score.

Our kapellmeister Nelson Kwei (hereafter referred as fattie Kwei in recognition of his "massive" achievement) is a state-of-the-art creation of his parents. He is one-of-its-kind in Singapore musical club and often pops out during the News-at-night both on local and international channels. To be honest, the vocal quality of each individual in our choir is really moderate to the very ground level--and well below the average of internationally renowned school choirs. No one in the choir was born with the voice of Sarah Brightman or Luciano Pavarotti. But fattie Kwei displayed his extreme mastery of chorus leadership. He fine-tuned everything from top to bottom to make sure that our capacity is maximized and our voices joint in the best tonal harmony. Under his leadership, the choir shined with dazzling glamour--we had (and still have) SYF Gold Medal every year, We were the only school choir honored to sing carols for the President and the public in the Orchard Road; We sang in international operas such as the Phantom of the Opera and Aida; We held concerts and operas in Victoria Concert Hall; we received the gold medal in the International School Choirs Competition in Austria; and in 1998 we published our first CD with all the songs and music written by ourselves.

After graduation from secondary school and enrollment in Junior College, I started to join other clubs and interest groups to explore more wonders life has to offer. Yet my chorus connection is never lost. Due to some lovely coincidences, fattie Kwei is also the kapellmeister in Victoria Junior College and National University of Singapore. Whenever there is a school concert, there is me. As I close my eyes and listen to the angelic melody, I could hear myself singing the song - the“One song born in the heart, longing to be set free. Ringing out with joy into the open sky, lifting all with the melody, and my mind fly through the greenery of trees and over the depth of the ocean to the faraway place - "a place I call my own, Where I can stand by the sea. And look beyond the things I've known; And dream that I might be free"...

偶在合唱团学的第一首音乐叫Rhythm of Life (生命的节奏)，那是一首节奏感无比强烈的快拍歌曲，音乐响起，4个声部各司其责，不同音阶的歌声汇合成一股让人心悸的音旋，化成一条奔腾的小河在我心中流淌，也从此改变了我的生 命节奏。在合唱团里唱歌与一个人或几个人唱歌很不一样， 这种精神的升华远远超越了看明星实况表演的感觉，这是一个团队、一个集体的统一力量，只有当每个人的心神和气势全部协调才能发挥出最强的力量，用群体的精神 叠加创造出那在天地间荡气回肠的声音。

合唱团的每一首歌不只是一段唱词，更让我身历其中，聆听着每一颗音符的低语，印证了歌曲中走过的足迹，莎士比亚的It was a Lover and His Lass带来了春天的爱情，“风中情缘”、“小人鱼”的剧场联唱让我经历了两个辗转美丽的故事，Take These Wings让我更加留意身边细小但倔强的生命，而我最喜欢的One Song和Flying Free则让我的思绪完全飞升到那天宇之上，把人生变成一幅美丽深邃而又波澜壮阔的风景线呈现在我的面前，让我更加理解生命和生活的意义。正是在这精神的天空里，我也萌生了创作音乐的念头，在学校合唱团录制第一张专辑的时候谱写了Let There be New Light。因为我没什么正规的乐理基础，当时完全用1、2、3的数字简谱写的曲子（这个习惯一直保持到今天，即使我在国立大学口琴对的时候每首曲子我都要在下面标上简谱才能演奏），然后再给合唱团的指挥Nelson Kwei (以下简称黄胖子)整合成像样的音乐，填歌词对我就没啥问题了，这首歌正是我那时候心声的再现，也只有在那样的氛围下能做出这首音乐吧。

值得一提的是我们的指挥黄胖子，他可以毫不脸红的说自己在新加坡指挥届是数一数二的人物，同时也是位知名作曲家，新加坡和国外的新闻上经常蹦出来白话几句。他跟我们校长关系特别铁，对我们的培养也特别悉心。说实话我们合唱团的个人实力一般得不能再一般了，随便拎出来一个人独唱都能把醒着的人唱睡着把睡着的人惊醒，天生音质好歌唱功底又深厚的一个都没有，而就是这样一个杂牌军被黄胖子培养成了训练有素的正规合唱团。黄胖的最大优点就是善于发挥每个人的特长，对细节掌控的非常好，如依据每个人音质和音高的不同调整站位精确到几厘米，每两音节间的停顿精确到0.1秒，有时还会依据需要对歌词做临时变声处理（亦即有些英语或拉丁语的单词不发他们正常的本音而换成别的音标，使得歌词在音乐中更加流畅），在黄胖子的带领下立才中学的合唱团每年都创造奇迹--连续数年新加坡合唱比赛第一名，圣诞节在乌节路给总统、总理、议会还有公众的1个多小时的独家献歌，负责诸多著名国际歌剧(Aida, the Phantom of the Opera等)的合唱部分，在维多利亚剧院举办音乐会、歌剧，一举夺得奥地利国际校际合唱比赛金牌，98年更是推出了我们的第一本专辑，专辑里所有歌曲和歌词都由我们自己创作。而我与胖子的缘分并没有在初中毕业后结束，非常巧合他也是维多利亚初级学院和新加坡国立大学的指挥，虽然高中后我为了开拓其他兴趣没有继续合唱团的活动，不过每次去听学校合唱团的表演心中都揣着莫名的悸动，闭上眼睛，仿佛我又一次站在了台上，又一次融入到了那天籁之音，我的精神和心灵都在那浩瀚的天穹自由飞翔。
 - “One song born in the heart, longing to be set free. Ringing out with joy into the open sky, lifting all with the melody...There is a place I call my own, Where I can stand by the sea. And look beyond the things I've known; And dream that I might be free..."