Westwood Concert Band - Guest Post by Kin Wah

Westwood Concert Band

"Oh my! We are dead. 4th day! Judges are sure sleeping." This is the reaction of the band members when they received the SYF date of our judging. Indeed, we, Westwood Concert Band, was scheduled to compete on the 4th day of a 6-days Central Judging Of Concert Bands. Nevertheless, the band had put up a great performance on the stage of Singapore Conference Hall.

The set-piece was Sunrise and Safari, composed by Adam Gorb. It was divided into 2 movements: The first, Singapore Sunrise, is suitable for school bands, and is based on the Singaporean melody 'Ikan Kekek'. It's characterised by a mysterious opening with early-morning birdcalls on woodwinds before the melody takes over and rises to a climax. Night Safari is intended for slightly more advanced bands and is a depiction of Singapore's world famous Safari Park that can be visited only in the dark. The piece is a sort of jazz waltz, but with a lot of surprising sounds. All bands can choose either movement. The band, together with its director, Mr Patrick Wong, has chose to play the 2nd movement, Night Safari.

The choice-piece chosen was "The Merry Widow" (Selections For Wind Esemble). It was composed by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár in 1900, arranged by Eiji Suzuki. This piece was an overplayed song by local bands, which can be reflected by 5 others schools playing it for their SYF too. It was based on the operetta, the Merry Widow. The story is about the rich widow, Hanna Glawari, attempting to find a husband, Danilo. This piece has a cheerful and light beginning, followed by a march. Next was a build-up suspense and finally released by a waltz. Following that was a fanfare and a clarinet solo. The piece then moves on to the 2nd part, where Hanna had a misunderstanding with Danilo. It was continued by the song "Vilja". The piece then enter a mallets solo, added by the flutes then finally whole band play. This choral part ended with a mallets solo, with the winds holding onto a chord. Finally, the piece moves into the 3rd and last part of the story. It was a happy occasion and the piece ended with a lively and cheerful mood.

Due to the concert-cum-exchange trip in December 2006, the band has limited time to prepare for SYF as we only received the scores slightly before school reopens in 2007. Hence, the band decided to have practices from Monday to Saturday. Members have to set aside time on non-practices day in order for us to learn both pieces. We made our director angry occasionally as we did not do certain aspect of both piece well. Once he wanted to change the set piece 3 weeks before the competition. But the band didn't give up.

Finally, it was 12 April. The band has its final rehearsal in the morning and went off for the competition. The band received the support of the school. This adds on to the stress we have as we are the 1st aesthetic group going for SYF. However, this stress doesn't affect our performance on the stage and in fact, made us to play even better than our rehearsals.

The band then went back to the conference hall for the results. Although the standard of the competition has been brought up by a level, the band still managed to achieve a silver award. The members were practically jumping for joy. Some of them even cried. The band end off the joyous day with a "mass hugging" session with our dearest father, mr wong.

Although we didn't achieve the target of a Gold this time, we really want to thank Mdm Hidayah and Mdm Azlina for their support, the encouragement for the school, the motivating words for Mrs Chow and the teachers, support from Coral Secondary and also our ever loving father, Mr Patrick Wong. The band would like to say that without mr wong, we will not be able to achieve today's results

"If you think you can do it, you can do it." That was the sentence by our instructor which made us preserve on despite all the obstacles we faced.

Go Band, you will achieve the result you want IF only you put in effort. We are just a little bit more to Gold. With continued hardwork, you will be rewarded for it. The seniors will be supporting you both mentally and physically.

Kin Wah
EXCO Member, Westwood Concert Band (2006-2007)