THE SINGAPOREAN COMPOSERS SERIES / Teng Ensemble / Review

 

THE SINGAPOREAN COMPOSERS SERIES 

Teng Ensemble 

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre 

Friday (24 May 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 May 2024 with the title "Audio-visual spectacle for Teng Ensemble's 20th anniversary".

For its 20th anniversary celebrations, the Teng Ensemble – renowned for its slick and funky pop concerts performed on Chinese instruments – devoted an entire concert of works by Singaporean composers. There were altogether ten pieces, each backed by the sophisticated use of audio electronics and projected moving images. All this made for an exuberant aural and visual spectacle. 

Teng Ensemble is a no-limits generator of ideas, always pushing the envelope and breaching boundaries. Whoever thought serious composers could countenance writing popular music? Or that jazz, pop and music production people would venture confidently into the classical realm? Teng Ensemble did and the results defied all expectations. 

The concert opened with Kelly Tang’s Kallang Uproar, composed for the 2010 Youth Olympics. One will not find a more upbeat work, channeling Brazilian samba and reliving Singapore’s long-gone glory days of soccer. Just five players, on pipa, sheng, cello, electric guitar and cajon (percussion), was all that was needed for just a bit of nostalgia. 

Erhu and guzheng joined in for 14-year-old composing prodigy Nathanael Koh’s Soaring, imagining an eagle’s celestial flight with the traditional sonata form coloured by a Malay kompang’s incessant beat. Just intoxicating. 

Soul Dot SG is a music production collective of three artists, whose Empowered was supposedly infused with K-pop, but sounded far more than that. Was this a fusion with Middle Eastern and Indo-Malay influences as well? 

Erhu and cello dominated the melodic lines in George Leong’s entertaining Oriental Psyche, with hip hop rhythms that radiated inner city vibes. Evan Low’s Concrete Jungle was a local variation of the traditional railway genre piece, with the rolling rhythm of MRT trains accompanied by stunning time-lapse photography. 

The concert’s third chapter entered terra incognita with the evening’s most modern sounding music. Phoon Yu’s A Transi For The Common Man opened with solo pipa, then erupting into fugue-like counterpoint (with more in common with Aaron Copland than J.S.Bach) before closing with the pipa’s return. 

Koh Cheng Jin’s A.I.Funk went even further by being an atonal passacaglia. With quasi-improvisational flourishes built on a rhythmic ground bass, it sounded surprisingly approachable. With borders between old and new, East and West, classical and pop, being irreversibly blurred, Chok Kerong’s breezy musical odyssey titled Seafarer, sandwiched between Phoon and Koh, claimed a happy middle ground. 

The final group of pieces employed the largest number of players, twelve in the case of Bang Wenfu’s The Nine Suns, a cinematic score inspired by Louis Cha’s wuxia (martial arts) novels. Heroic and pugilistic in most part, this is music of flexed muscles and stretched sinews. 

Teng’s co-founders Samuel Wong (pipa) and Yang Ji Wei (sheng) made the ensemble 14-strong, uniting three generations of musicians in Chow Junyi, Joel Nah and Wong’s Harmony. This final work shoe-horned old local and classic tunes like Jinkli Nona, Suriram, Xiao Bai Chuan (Little White Boat) and Han Tian Lei (Thunder In Drought) into a glorious symphonic summation.

For the record, the Teng Ensemble raised over 640 thousand dollars on the first evening of fund-raising. Bravissimo, and may you continue to create more Music For Good!

HEIRLOOMS / The Teng Ensemble / Review

HEIRLOOMS
The Teng Ensemble
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (11 October 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 October 2019 with the title "Chinese immigrant music given a fresh take".

What do immigrants from China do when they transplant themselves thousands of miles from their homeland to settle in Southeast Asia?  They bring along their musical cultures, mostly through oral tradition, create their own instruments, and pass these down to succeeding generations. All in the hope that younger ones will be receptive. That is how musical heritage survives, or risks being forgotten altogether.

Over four years, The Teng Ensemble has interviewed and recorded musical practitioners whose forebears arrived by sea from China’s southern provinces, namely Fujian (Hokkien), Chaozhou (Teochew) and Guangdong (Canton). Heirlooms is the 70-minute concert of music derived from these traditions, produced by Bang Wenfu and Joel Nah, accompanied by a documentary film directed by Koo Chia Meng.

Imagine the metamorphosis of music, through displacements in time and space, with the imbibing of modern popular culture, and one gets an idea of the music heard. Eight short works by New York-based Malaysia-born composer Chow JunYi were presented, each with roots in pre-existing music but transformed into something fresh out from the 21^st century.

The original creators will not recognise these slicked-up efforts, but hopefully some of the creator spirit remains. It was only appropriate that Teng Ensemble founder Samuel Wong gave a short preamble before opening the first piece, Tracing, with his nanpa solo. Lovebirds Singing In Harmony by Zhuo Sheng Xiang and late Cultural Medallion recipient Teng Mah Seng was the basis for this flight of fantasy. One interviewee on film quipped that Nanyin music initially felt like Chinese funeral dirges, but this updated take and Xin Zao Beh, a re-imagination of Nanyin classic Eight Horses, would completely change the script.

With house-lights dimmed to near darkness, and stage-lights taking over to illuminate soloists, the romp began. Allying Wong were eight players, equally spiffy in their designer suite, plying traditional Chinese (erhu, sheng, pipa, ruan and guzheng) and modern instruments (gehu or cello, keyboard, electric guitar and electronics).

Localised versions of certain instruments were also employed, including Cantonese gaohu and qinqin, Teochew zheng and pipa, with the intent that some authenticity was being preserved. The music was amplified and with projected visuals and strobe-lights, everything took on a psychedelic edge.  

Lovers of Cantonese music will recognise Chen Peixun’s Autumn Moon Over The Calm Lake and Yan Laolie’s Han Tian Lei (Thunder In Drought) in the mash-up titled Hang Gai. There was also a nod to film music with The General's Command (a melody later used in Once Upon A Time In China) incorporated into Contemporary. Here, a recording of drums and temple gongs from the Lao Sai Tao Yuan Teochew Opera Troupe was included into the mix.

There was also a tribute to the late Yeo How Jiang, a master of Waijiang (scholar music) and Teochew music, who was recorded and immortalised in Memoir. With the final work Far From Home, using four Teochew melodies, Teng Ensemble showed that the past is still relevant, if anything to inform the future.

EIGHT / The Teng Ensemble / Review

EIGHT

The Teng Ensemble

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (28 September 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 September 2013 with the title "Catchy pop from Chinese instruments".

A pair of sold-out concerts marked the eighth anniversary of The Teng Ensemble, an eight member group playing predominantly traditional Chinese instruments. It all began with its musicians winning top prizes at the 2004 National Chinese Music Competition and a first gig at the 2009 Night Festival. 

Its philosophy was simple: to redefine Chinese instrumental music by updating it with modern technology, assimilating contemporary popular styles and the added gloss of an ultra-slick presentation.

Thousands of white chrysanthemums strewn on the floor greeted the audience, as eight young and well-groomed men trooped into position under the flicker of strobe lights. It was almost Saturday Night Fever when the octet belted out its titular number Eight, a vigorous dance dominated by electronic backing (helmed by the unseen Lim Wei) but with each instrument given moments in the spotlight.    

Founder and pipa virtuoso Samuel Wong (left) had significant solos but kept a low profile, deferring to composer-in-residence Benjamin Lim Yi (below) who doubled as guitarist and personable emcee. All his compositions and arrangements were short and catchy, with strong melodic content and the appeal of a pop song.

The simplest was the treatment of antique Chinese tune Guan Shan Yue, with just Yang Ji Wei’s sheng, Johnny Chia’s guzheng and Wong’s pipa, sounding pure and unadorned. More elaborate was the reworking of folk tune Xiao Bai Cai, with Darrel Xin’s touching erhu plaint of the little orphan girl tugging on the heartstrings amid lush accompaniment of electronica.

Both erhu and Gerald Teo’s cello starred in Contemplate, its simple variations on a ground bass resembling an Oriental version of Pachelbel’s Canon. A folksy three-note motif became the centre of Forest Trails, a bucolic and carefree jaunt in the countryside.

The music of Korean drama serials was the inspiration of Vals, a sentimental lilting dance in three-quarter time, joined by counter-tenor Phua Ee Kia’s (left) wordless vocals and Patrick Ngo’s yangqin. The unusual combo of Japanese anime music and Cuban guitarist Leo Brouwer contributed to Un Dia de Septiembre (A Day In September), a serenade with a succession of plucked strings which included Lim’s classical guitar for good measure.

A dizzying setting of Tang dynasty poem Zi Ye Ge, with the full complement of eight, closed the 80-minute concert on a boisterous dizzy high. There were two very well-received encores, Go On and He (Coming Together), pieces from past gigs which sparked a wild rush to purchase The Teng Ensemble’s debut CD recording (below) – a fitting souvenir of an entertaining evening of music-making.  

The Teng Ensemble's Eight
to be reviewed in these pages soon.

  

SU-ABODE / Teng Ensemble / Review

SU-ABODE
Teng Ensemble
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (4 March 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 March 2012 with the title "Moving tunes of home".

Funky chamber groups are now making their mark on the local musical scene. The Teng Ensemble, formed by seven musicians playing Chinese traditional and Western instruments and two composers, commands a loyal following with two sold-out concerts at the Esplanade Recital Studio as solid evidence.

Its latest concert had the idea of “abode”, a home or residence, as its underlying theme, with each short single-movement work on the programme based on a specific place or space of living and dwelling. With each engendered a sense of belonging, and often memories and nostalgia, aided by the visuals projected on the screen behind the players.

The titular Su (Abode) for the full ensemble by Wang Si opened the concert and set the tone for the 55-minute long concert. Over a recorded tape of synthesised sounds, the instruments began their individual threads beginning with the ensemble’s Artistic Director Samuel Wong’s pipa (above), and later passed on to his colleagues.

Unlike Occidental works bedecked with elaborate counterpoint, the quasi-Oriental pieces were more straight-forward in their thematic presentation, with the melodic line carried by pipa or Yang Jiwei’s sheng, elaborated by Patrick Ngo’s yangqin and Johnny Chia’s guzheng. Gerald Teo’s cello and Benjamin Lim Yi’s guitar provided the accompaniment.

Like popular songs, these pieces rise and build into brief climaxes before receding into a calming serenity. Mixed into these was counter-tenor Phua Ee Kia’s alternatingly soothing and ecstatic tones, usually in wordless melismata or in the case of Lim’s Dian (Palace), verses of Tang poetry. Heard on their own, the facility and savvy of atmospheric film music is rekindled.

It was the moving images that gave the music an extra dimension. For Wang’s Tang (Hall), black and white footage of 1950s and 60s Singapore provided a sobering reminder of what we have lost, and in the more rhythmic and vibrant Lou (Ballroom) by Lim, choreography from Thai Classical, ballet to breakdancing were the cues. In Lim’s Xiang (Village), the relationship between families, parents and children was inspired by the Hebei folksong Xiao Baicai (Little White Cabbage).

For the final number Wang’s Ju (Home), three members from Fortitude Percussion provided a ritualistic beat, one exposing bare chests and rippling muscles. An encore, He (Unity), one of the ensemble’s early pieces and in the same melodious idiom, gave the enthusiastic audience much to cheer about.

Teng Ensemble in Concert / Review

Teng Ensemble in Concert
University Cultural Centre Dance Studio
Saturday (6 March 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 March 2010.

Attempts to marry the disparate sounds of Western and Chinese musical instruments are not new, and the results have been variable to say the least. The public début of Teng Ensemble, a self-styled Chinese instrumental collective, at the National University of Singapore’s Arts Festival was a laudable addition to this crossover phenomenon. It may be said that chamber music is the most fertile soil for such experiments to take place.

Helmed by the Beijing-trained Singaporean pipa player Samuel Wong (left), the nucleus of the group also included Yang Jiwei’s sheng, Benjamin Lim’s guitar and Gerald Teo’s cello. These were further augmented by voice, violin and piano to make up a seven-member group, which in all honesty resembled more like a garage band.

In the six pieces on show, the sheng’s penetrating timbre and Wilson Goh’s lustrous and wide-ranging vocals had the juiciest parts, carrying most of the melodic interest. There was only one work that featured all seven musicians, Dang Yuan Ren Chang Jiu by Liang Hong Zhi, with each instrumentalist taking turn in the accompaniment.

Aside from a few decorative passages, there was precious little for the sadly under-utilised violinist Chan Yoong Han. Pianist Shane Thio’s part were also often reduced to providing plodding chords and occasional arpeggios, with the exception of Justin Hegburg’s techno-inspired Confluence where he provided the main rhythmic thrust.

The music, whether Chinese (Benjamin Lim’s He), Malay (P. Ramlee’s Getaran Jiwa) or sung in Italian (Sherman Ko’s Equinox), was never less than tuneful. The opening work, resident composer and arranger Lim’s Chang Men Yuan, a lament based on a Li Bai poem, would also easily pass for an atmospheric soundtrack to a period Chinese epic.

Wong’s uninhibitedly enthusiastic introductions to an audience mostly seated on the studio floor added to the general informality of the event. Entertaining it certainly was. While some new ground is being broken in this genre, the Teng Ensemble is encouraged to scale more heights and further explore.