ROOTS / Resonance of Singapore Singers / Review

ROOTS

Resonance of Singapore Singers

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (10 September 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 September 2023 with the title "Childhood songs revived in crowd-pleasing concert".

 

The many songs we know and love from childhood, sung by our parents and loved ones, have roots in the past. Some were actually composed but many transmitted by oral traditions have been modified by deft changes of harmonies and words. Roots, a 90-minute concert by a cappella choir Resonance of Singapore (ROS) was a reminder of heritage, home and what we cherish most.

 

Led by choral conductor and former Young Artist Award recipient Toh Ban Sheng, the concert opened with Rasa Sayang in his lovely arrangement, incorporating Lenggang Kangkong as its central interlude. Both Malay songs dwelled on love and gracefulness, duly delivered by the eight-strong ensemble boosted by community-based volunteers.

 

Sounds of Nanyang, also by Toh, was a tandem of Chinese song Molihua (Jasmines) with Dayong Sampan, the latter also known as Tian Mi Mi. As before, creative harmonisations can alter the overall impact, sometimes even raising goosebumps for listeners.

 

In that respect, the highlight were the Malay songs in Peribahasa (Proverbs) by Eudenice Palaruan, with vocal accompaniments employing gamelan scales and drones to electrifying effect. Also interesting were Ikan Kekek (The Ponyfish) and Geylang Sipaku Geylang in Toh’s arrangement. Whoever knew these seemingly innocent songs in traditional pantun verse carried exhortations or admonishments. These included “mind your own business” and “do not gossip”, and so beware.

 

The 13 singers of ROS Young Artists put a gloss on Singapura (Toh again), with original Malay lyrics referencing honour and defence, being far more meaningful than the banal English version about “pretty flowers blooming for you and me”.

 

Separating sets of choral pieces were solo songs accompanied by pianist Matthew Mak. African-American spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot received a soulful reading from bass Wong Yang Kai while soprano Charmaine Tan did the honours for the American classic, Henry Bishop’s Home Sweet Home. Less well known was Home Will Forever Be Home by Sabahan Malaysian composer Sun Xiu Zhang, rendered poetically in Chinese by tenor Raymond Lee, with a gravitas qualifying it to be a proper art song.    

 

Past ROS Young Artist Riyan Ballesteros-Pattanayak displayed sensitivity in Dvorak’s Songs That My Mother Taught Me in Czech, a final chance for the boy soprano to shine before his voice breaks. The clear crowd-pleaser was sung by soprano Susanna Pua. In Aaron Copland’s humorous I Bought Me A Cat from Old American Songs, she had assistance from a delighted audience by way of calls from farmyard animals. From the same set was Ching-A-Ring Chaw, a vaudeville number from male alto Tseng Wen-Yu bringing the solo segment to a cheerful close.

 

Time passed like a flash when one is having fun, and what followed the hymn-like Appalachian song Will The Circle Be Unbroken were two perfect encores, Stephen Paulus’ reassuring The Road Home and a welcome reprise of Rasa Sayang/Lenggang Kangkong.