i sincerely hope she don't mean what the title of this clip suggested
The wife came from KL, Malaysia to Singapore when she was about 14 years old in the 1980's. Now a "pink IC" holder (a citizen of Singapore). We were at Hong Lim Park.
The brother-in-law, also a "pink IC" holder now, served in the Air-Field Defence squadron.
They are truly converted Singaporeans, defending the Singaporean core.
However, one is not certain about the very recent newly converted PRCs. But if you are, kindlyplease forgive me, forthe "pink IC" holders from the PRC, who really feel in their hearts that they truly belong and are in sync with the Singaporean core, i say welcome to this small but big-hearted* family.
*Why i say we Singaporeans are big hearted? Time and time again we believe in our government and forgive them, for a decade plus and we keep believing in them that they have the people in their hearts. Singaporeans are very welcoming of foreigners, we should know, having live through the 80's and 90's when the immigration numbers were much manageable.
George Gershwin wrote the tone poem - An American in Paris in 1928. He first visited Paris in 1923 and was immediately charmed by the city, thus the idea of writing a musical composition took root. It was his subsequent visit in '28 that he finally found time to work on this project. Gershwin's scored for four car horns to reflect the noisy traffic of the French capital. Inspired from the busy street of the "city of lights", this was how he might have heard during his brief sojourned in Paris.
And in Gershwin's hands ...
Piano roll recording cut in 1933.
Roll editor artist: Frank Milne
Gershwin plays Gershwin
The Piano Rolls
Epitome in the artistry of transposing not only musical notations onto paino rolls, Milne incorporated the dynamics, invoking the full soronity and live performance presence of an orchestra. For Gershwin's An American in Paris, he worked on two paino rolls creating a "4-hand" performance. For his mastery, we have a record for posterity how a work was to be played as intended by the composer, circa pre-phonograph.
Commissioned from the New York Philharmonic, Gershwin wrote his composition in piano and arranged the score for a full symphonic orchestra (he does not usually orchestrate his own compositions). In addition to the standard instruments of a symphony orchestra, he scored An American in Paris for the saxophones, celesta and of course, the automobile air horns !
Antique automobile horns, that is. The technical term for this "instrument" is the air horn.
Full orchestration:
Violin 1st
Violin 2nd
Viola
Double Bass
C Piccolo ~ 01
C Flutes ~ 02
C Oboe ~ 02
F Cor Anglais ~ 01
B flat Clarinet ~ 02
B flat Bass Clarinet ~ 01
C Bassoons ~ 02
E flat Alto Saxophone ~ 01
B flat Tenor Saxophone ~ 01
E flat Baritone Saxophone ~ 01
F Horns ~ 04
B flat Trumpet ~ 03
B flat Trombones ~ 03
E flat Tuba ~ 01
Percussion Timpani
Percussion Snare Drum
Percussion Concert Bass Drum
Percussion Triangle
Percussion Wood Block
Percussion Cymbals
Percussion Tom-Toms
Percussion Xylophone
Percussion Glockenspiel
Percussion Celesta
Taxi Air Horns ~ 04
Gershwin brought back some Parisian taxi horns for the NewYork premiere of An American in Paris on the 13 December 1928 at the Carnegie Hall with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic.
The original programme note: "My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere ..." and when the tone poem moves into the blues tempo ~ Andante ma con ritmo deciso, "...our American friend ... has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness ... nostalgia is not a fatal disease ..." the American visitor "... once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life ... the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant ..."
Andre Previn with the London Symphony
80 years on, here with the New York Philharmonic, under the baton of Lorin Maazel, performing a symphonic tone poem of An American in Paris by George Gershwin. This time, not in Carnegie hall, but a 14-hour distance by flight away across the pacific - Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea !
An American in Paris has become a standard repertoire with orchestras around the world and especially for touring American orchestras. For an establishment like the NY Phil on "National Service" to North Korea, the symphonic tone poem at over 15 minutes, is a "very important piece" declared George's father.
Lorin Maazel conducting the New York Philharmonic
at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater in Pyongyang, North Korea,
on Tuesday, 26 February 2008.
Or was it An American in Pyongyang ...
A delight to see the 'Taxi Horns" in operation. You can just imagine the camera crew referring to the conductor score during the live filming, cool job :-)
Music diplomacy over realpolitik ?
The Korean folk song - Arirang. A very important piece, Morris Gershwin would agree.
The song 恭喜恭喜 (Gong Xi Gong Xi) was composed by the chinese popular song writer - Chen Gexin ( 陳歌辛 ) in 1945 in Shanghai. He pened the lyrics as well.
恭喜恭喜 in chinese (mandarin) literally means - "Congratulations, Congratulations". In the context of this song when played during the Chinese Lunar New Year, the intent could mean "Wishing You Happiness and Prosperity".
恭喜恭喜 is a house hold tune played during the lunar new year together with a few other favourite numbers, much like the christmas music "Jingle bells", "Silent night", "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire", and some other christmas songs must have for the festive season.
This song was originally composed and written to celebrate the end of the second world war, for China it meant the defeat of the Japanese Imperial Forces occupation. Incidentally, the mandarin title happened to be a common lunar new year greeting and the lyrics of the song is about celebrating the arrival of the spring season, it quickly became associated with the lunar new year celebrations and remain exclusively a part of the season's musical canon.
An early popular recording of the song sung by Yao Li ( 姚莉 ) and her brothe Yao Min ( 姚敏 )
A prolific composer of popular tunes, one of Chen Gexin's well known song - 玫瑰玫瑰我愛你 ( Rose, Rose, I Love You), was adapted and sung by Frankie Laine in 1951.
Baby Boomers (circa 1966) marching in Singapore's National Day Parade [Link]
The only people talking sense are opposition members like NCMP Mrs Lina Chiam who pointed out that soiled White Paper is based on a very unique event in human history, namely, the Baby Boomer phenomenon."Given that this is a unique event in history and is transient in nature, albeit for 10 years or longer, is it wise to plan for a country’s population and infrastructure based on this event?"[Link]
He asked, “Can the children of citizens keep their PR?”
“Hello, I’m a new citizen. My son’s PR is up for renewal. Is there a problem? Will the Govt force my son to turn into citizen?”
He added, “I wish my son will keep his Chinese citizenship.” [Link]
2nd generation of Permanent Residence need to serve NS ! Gowd forbid!
Don't worry, there is always a way out ...
There is always a way out for us Foreign Talents :-)
“Relax, Govt won’t force your son to convert to citizen. But of course, he will need to do NS when he reaches NS age. At that time, there will be an invitation letter. There is no coercion*, however. Just don’t sign and submit.”
Renounce your son's PR, no worries, can still come back to Singapore on social visit pass. Can even find job here as a foreign talent.
* As for born and bred Singaporean whom do not heed the call for NS, they will face jail time and will not be eligible to be hired in all government jobs. And also will not be eligible for further education scholarships.
So don't worry, come! Welcome to Singapore, there is always a way out for you guys :-)
- Another foreign talent loving parent asking how to avoid NS for his son [Link]
Don't worry lah, Singapore government takes good care of their own. Sompah !
