Projects 2017 vol I
All music composed / arranged by Tze Toh
1. Cartier Women's Initiative Awards 2017 / "live" Victoria Concert Hall
An amazingly beautiful and almost surreal experience composing and performing for this event. The music was created based on the theme of "dreams" and beginning of "journeys". The opening theme sets up the thematic material for the actual awards cue, which is played after the winner from each continent is announced. The music was composed specifically to utilize the grand sound of the VCH pipe organ along with an orchestration with live soloists. In particular the music is written such that it allows the (+octave lower stops) pedals to fully felt and heard "live", while the strings' melodic parts are written higher up. The saxophone is added to bring a sense of contemporaryism and romanticism to the music.
Details / musicians: Loraine Muthiah (organ), Tze (piano), Christina Zhou (violin I), Pearl Yim (violin II), Teo Boon Chye (sax). Recorded with ZOOM recorder during rehearsal/soundcheck at Victoria Concert Hall.
2. Toyota (Asia Pacific) Safety video - 15 sec cutdown / Fox Cable
One of my favourite projects of last year, with a wonderful story line and directed by film maker Daniel Yam. The 30sec is a more concise version of the same message. For the full story and emotional journey, check out the full original 2min version below:
Details / musicians: Christina Zhou (violin), Benjamin Wong (viola), Martin Peh (additional strings). Recorded at tHjs studio by Jeff Wong
3. Music wedding of Jonathan Charles and Charissa Chng
Every couple has a unique love story of their own. The greatest challenge of writing a wedding march-in piece is always to fully understand the trials and tribulations that each couple went through and to put that into melody, words. It's always almost an impossible task to compress a story of 6-10 years into 1-2minutes :) That's why I always think weddings are possibly the hardest projects to write for, especially when you attempt to imagine the couple's world, and try to understand and feel what they went through, and get as close to their experiences as possible.
This particular story is interesting as the groom Jonathan is a musician colleague and dear friend and an amazing tenor. Hence the music was written with his voice in mind, and drew inspiration from the music of Puccini. The orchestration is slightly more "classical" than I would usually do, but I felt that it fitted their story perfectly as well - I could almost imagine the scenes of a Prince and a Princess separated by vast lands... (haha).
Details / musician : Jonathan Charles Tay (tenor), lyrics by Jonathan and Tze.
4. Singapore Heritage Festival 2017 - for live performance at Asian Civilizations Museum
"Port" from The River, the vessel and the Lion-heart.
A collection of short music stories about Sir Stamford Raffles and the Singapore River.
The name is self-explanatory. I love the idea of visualizing a subject before composing, and in this case, the scene plays out in my head as I wrote. It was created with a sense of tension - beneath the seemingly surface of success, perhaps there's something we missed, longed for. It's often hard for past to be reconciled with the present in the name of progress. That's a question that a society, a country always faces.
3. SAP video 30secs / 2mins
Original score for SAP video. The music juxtapositions traditional philosophy with modern technology - the idea of achieving success through a combination of ancient Chinese battle strategy, courage utilizing modern software/technology. The choice of percussion instruments and digital sounds combine to form this sonic tapestry of past and present. Notice the difference in arrangement (with strings added) in the 15 sec trailer, to create even greater sense of momentum as a teaser trailer.