Political Theme Song for Singapore Election Results-Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E Major WAB 107

The recent election results in Singapore have been termed water-shed for the ruling party People Action Party (PAP), opposition parties especially Workers Party (WP) and all voters. The outcome can mean many things to many some of which includes:

• time and tide might NOT heal everything and over time, people might NOT forget. Politics is no longer a once in 5 year event during election campaigning,

• whether there is a need to revamp the voting system especially the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system towards a system that moves us towards a more direct form of democracy,

• what messages are the voters telling both PAP and the opposition parties on the brand of democracy they want to see in Singapore not only in the future but also in the near future within reasonable bounds,

• last but not least, voters were politically emphatic about the voting scene due to the lack of choice in credible alternatives opposition parties in the past but is begining to realize that every vote counts and it starts with their own vote now that we have more credible, brave and altruistic opposition parties.

My position is not a binary one that runs along party lines of PAP or the opposition but how we as citizens of Singapore can participate more actively in the political process rather than treat it as a once in 5 year event. The fault for current state of democracy lies both with PAP as well as our political empathy in the past 30 years or so creating a vacuum of political power dominated by PAP. Perhaps the one party rule in the last 30 years by PAP has been an accidental fortune in that sense. A focused non-partisan rule could have been one of the major ingredients for our phenomenal economic and social growth achieved mainly by well tried and tested economic development model based mainly on foreign investment, regional service centers and export led of certain industrial clusters likes petrochemical, electronics, disk drive, wafer-fab, pharmaceutical and bio-technology. Leveraging our labour cost advantage, investor friendly policies and good industrial infrastructure, the unemployment problem was plugged by PM Lee Kuan Yew and his team. The foresight and gumption of the second generation leaders lead by PM Goh Chok Tong with the advantage of Lee and his team supporting Goh. The single party enabled Goh to execute a unilateral risky but calculated strategic move away from labour intensive to skill intensive by raising wages, skills and infrastructure in one bold orchestrated move and it worked again.

PM Lee Hsien Loong son of Lee Kuan Yew took over the reign from Goh. Lee jr started his reign with an unfair disadvantage having to defend nepotism right from the start. His father's generation was equated to building the hardware. Goh's dispensation built the software. Now that we have a complete solution in computer speak, Lee jr now is now charged with building the heart-ware to bring it from 3^rd world to 1^st world. Besides nepotism, Lee jr did not have a good economic and political developmental template to depend on unlike his dad and Goh. His team actually did not have the full mandate with his dad and Goh still looking over his shoulders closely most probably until recent past with his dad and Goh stepping down by exiting the cabinet formally.

Lee jr filled his team with capable technocrats that mostly graduated in the top tier of ivy leagues and I believe that most were well meaning in wanting to bring Singapore to 1^st world. Besides the unchartered water that Lee jr and his team were maneuvering into, they also had to face an aging and dwindling population as the total fertility rate headed south to reach 1.2. The technocratic team went into short term mode to cure it in a measurable manner that they knew best and with dated advice from his dad and Goh. Tax incentives and more child friendly policies were put in place to very little effect and the team sent in the crash cart and tried to revive the dying patient by immigration on a massive scale. Being a relatively young emigrant country, it was in the process of building a common identity. The mass immigration created a whole host of issues like depressing the wages of the lower strata of society and lead to a growing GINI index that accompanied good news rise in GDP. All was not exactly rosy on the domestic front for example health care cost faced by the population escalated because of a combination of aging population and public healthcare policies like mean testing. The escalating price of private housing spilled into public housing. Transport system was also facing congestion on public roads as the Electronic Road Pricing and Certificate of Entitlement meant to curtail usage and ownership respectively were not only unable to curb the congestion but lead to an increase in transportation cost overall. Public transportation was faced with sardine packed mass transit railway during peak hours mirroring the situation in Japan.

Many initiatives were put in place in the arena of heart-ware like giving the arts and cultural scene a lift and liberalizing censorship laws. These initiatives not only take relatively more time than hardware and software to show results but is also less measurable.

My reasons for choosing Bruckner as the theme song or symphony for this occasion are due to the following historical insights on this piece:

• this symphony was the piece that launched the composer Anton Bruckner career into stardom. I sincerely hope that this particular water-shed election results will lead to a right angle turn for our country as a whole,
• the second movement Adagio was used to announce 2 historically significant turning points like when Admiral Karl Dönitz announced Adolf Hitler death on 1^st May 1945 and also just before announcing his defeat in Stalingrad on 31^st January 1943. On this note, I do hope that the election results as a clarion call for danger ahead if we maintain status quo and dismiss the election results as noisy crying babies that can be easily pacified and forgotten.

It cannot be business as usual for PAP, opposition parties and the voters all alike and may we have a right angle turn like what Bruckner had with this symphony.

For those that like to have a deeper understanding of Anton Bruckner and Politics, there is a book "Bruckner's Symphonies-Analysis, Reception and Cultural Politics" by Prof. Julian Horton. Cambridge University Press (2004) ISBN-13 978-0-521-82354-8. I have not read the book personally but a cursory browse says it can be quite academic.

Cheers,,,,, Peter Lye


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Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

The Betrothal-Wieniawski Légende Op 17 in G minor

Henryk Wieniaswki composed this piece out of desperation as Henryk was facing objection from Isabelle Hampton's parents for them to be engaged.  It was not recorded what was the nature of their objection was clear but after hearing Légende composed by Wieniawski, her parents changed their mind and allowed the two lovers to be engaged and later marry and have children.

With such a romantic backdrop to this piece, I decided to listen more in depth into this piece and before long, I was humming it. This piece and composer was never on my radar screen of classical music but all that changed after this piece.

I am not going to mention how many versions I have as it would be embarrassing to have and not play and appreciate it. Suffice to all, it does not exceeds using all the limbs of a human being as counters.

This short piece of slightly over 7 minutes can be divided into 3 sections. Quite a rarity for such short pieces in my opinion. The orchestra or piano introduces the pieces for a few short bars before the solo violinist joins in. Perhaps the Henryk wanted to show his sadness in not being able to engage Isabelle. Before you know it, the piece launches itself from G minor to G major  whilst maintaining the motif intact. With the transition from minor to major key, the moods brightens so does the tempo. This is perhaps to convey the sweetness of his love for his daughter. The second section ends with a dramatic descending chromatic scale and bring the piece back to the original G minor key. The descend perhaps as a parallel to her parents objection and how this decision could result in a sadness for both Henryk and their daughter Isabelle conveyed in the 3 section in G minor.

I have taken a lot of liberty in interpreting this piece and if you do not agree, I can fully understand. This piece so moved me and I was trying to search for its interpretation but found very scarce information and decided to write one myself.

Some of my recommended recordings IMHO are:
1. Anne-Sophie Mutter/James Levine/Weiner Philharmoniker-Carmen Fantasy-Track 2-DG

2. Itzhak Perlman/Lawrence Foster/The Abbey Road Ensemble-A la Carte-Track 8-EMI

3.Gil Shaham/Lasrence Foster/London Symphony Orchestra-Wieniawski Violin Concerto 1 & 3,
Sarasate, Zigeunrwisen-Track 7-DG

Guys, perhaps this could add to our bag of tricks to get the girl of our dreams or to dream on.

Cheers,,,, Pete aka http://lkypeter.blogspot.com

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Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Channel Classics-Making of a SACD

I came across this video produced by Channel Classics on how a SACD recording is made and was totally surprised that the storage drive used is a Western Digital external disk storage.

Do look out for it at 4:37 into the 20 minutes video and you can see it.

BTW, Channel Classics is one of the labels on my list of better recording quality and perhaps we audiophiles have taken things too far in our purist sound.

No pun intended. Just an observation. I am also using Western Digital drives on my MacMini as well at home. So comforting.

Cheers,,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

George Whitefield Chadwick-Suite symphonique in E flat

What prompted me listen to this piece was because I suddenly realized that I know two Chadwicks;an American lady from Chicago that used to work in Singapore and British gentleman that used to work in Hong Kong. No further details as I do not have their permission but some of my closer friends who read this would know who I am referring to or at least one of them. I was looking through my library of CDs and I have put aside those that I have not even listened at all in one corner and I sometimes wonder I am still buying CDs when I have quite a number in this corner. I think I have been stricken with the disease of collectivism if ever there is such a word.

For some reason, I have two CDs from pieces composed by Chadwick and both of them have not even been unwrapped yet. I could not even remember when and why I have bought them. Perhaps because of the recording label Reference Records reputation for good recording. Although I consider myself to be more of a music person as opposed to a sound person as I think that the music comes first. With good music, you will need good recording as well as good system to play them to enjoy it. Some of my friends are from the other camp that puts the sound system and recording above the music. There is no right or wrong but a matter of taste and preference.



After returning home from the office, I wanted something refreshing. This drew me to the unexplored part of my CD collection. Of the two Chadwick CDs that I saw, the one with the more graphic cover caught my attention proving that I am still a normal male Homo Sapien. I then sunk myself into my so called listening position or sweet spot and spin the CD and started to read the cover note of the CD. I was expecting it to be a neo-classical era as I have not come across this composer but it surprised me that he lived 1854-1931 and that the piece in question was composed at the turn of the century around 1907. When I meant neo-classical, my reference was mainly to composers that are still living today or born after 1900 although that is not quite right technically speaking.

The piece comes in four movements as with most symphonic works although I understand that Chadwick himself has avoided the label Symphony like poison and this could be the reason why it was named in that manner but after listening to the piece a few times, it really fits squarely into the classic symphonic template not only because of the 4 movements but also the order and choice of movements. It starts with a fairly energetic Allegro molto animoto that ends on a fairly percussion centered ending. It then makes way for a very lyrical Romanza in the second movement. I could not put my finger on a term but my heart just went jelly from the very first note of this movement to the last note. The second movement is awesomely sentimental and moving. I played it repeatedly a few times and it is my favorite movement.

After all the lyricism of the second movement, the third movement is a scherzo like Intermezzo e Humoreske like a good joke after all that sentimentality. Another signature of this movement is the transition into and out of the odd time signature of 5/4 and Chadwick did this not once but twice. My modern re-collection of this time signature goes to the song Take Five but the entire piece only have one time signature. This says very much about the creativity and living on unchartered water for the composer as this was done in 1907 and not in recent past where almost anything and everything that makes a sound can be music. After the joke, it is back to serious matter and the composer takes us to a rhythmic and grandiose finale befitting of the piece. The finale is like a full bodied red wine and it makes good and extensive use of a large orchestra and there is little time out for most members of the orchestra.

If you have 36 minutes to spare, this is a great piece of music not to be missed and I wonder why it is not as popular as it deserve and it is to me like uncovering a rare gem. Enjoy.

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 3 Op. 72 / 79: Unfinished Business

(c) Wikipedia

Tchaikovsky died in 1893 under questionable circumstances. Some attribute it to cholera and others to committing sucide through taking poison. Whatever the circumstances surrounding his death, he definitely left some unfinished business. He started writing his third Piano Concerto in 1892 and till the time of his death, he has only finished the first movement in Allegro brillante leaving the remaining two movements in Andante and Finale unfinished. However, he signed off "The end. God be thanked." at the end of the original manuscript of the first movement which seems inconsistent with a composer that have another two more movements to write. As a speculation consistent with the suicide theory surrounding his death, it could be that life was becoming so unbearable that he could no longer bear to live to finish the remaining two movements before bidding goodbye to this world. Tchaikovsky did not lead a very regular live as there were rumours about his homosexuality as well as his marriage to Antonina Miliukova supposedly as a cover for his homosexuality.

Taneyev attempted to complete the last two movements of the unfinished work by providing the orchestration to it after the death of Tchaikovsky. The completed work as published as Op 79. However at the premiere of this work on 19 January 1985 in St Petersburg, only the original first movement was played. Perhaps as a mark of respect to the original composer Tchaikovsky.

In 1956, Bogatryryev made another attempt on a different plane by creating a four movement symphony by combining the three movements of the piano concerto done by Taneyev with a Scherzo from Tchaikovsky eighteen pieces for piano Op 72. This synthesis has transformed a Piano Concerto to a Symphony and in my opinion might be far from what Tchaikovsky intended the piece to be.

I would be going to Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert with pianist Stephen Hough and conductor Zhang Xian to listen to their rendition of this controversial piece on 10th July 2009.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

JS Bach Air on G String BWV 1068

This is a classic example how the son became more famous than the father. You see, JS Bach did not compose Air on G String. The piece was taken out of the second movement of his third orchestra suite which was keyed in D major.

Somewhere along the line, someone discovered that if the this second movement were to be transposed from D major to G major, the entire piece could be played on a single G string on the violin and there comes the name Air on G String.

To bring further insult to JS Bach, Air on G String is normally played without any reference to its original composer nor his original intent.

Air on G String is an absolute lyrical piece and I would urge those that enjoy explore further by listening to the entire third orchestra suites in its original key in D major. There are only a total of 5 movements and it will be worth it.

Last but not least, I believe that G String panties which some would like to associate the piece Air on G String was furthest from JS BACH thought when he first composed it in D major. :)