BRIGHT MOON 明月 program June 3 2022
BRIGHT MOON 明月 program June 3 2022
BRIGHT MOON 明月 program June 3 2022
S E A S O N
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P R E S E N T E D AT
Fraserview Church
ON
June 3, 2022
Jennifer Tham
GUEST CONDUCTOR
Vancouver Chinese
Choir Association
温哥華國韻合唱團
GUEST ENSEMBLE
明
月
VA N C O U V E R C H A M B E R C H O I R
Tel: 604.738.6822 • Fax: 604.738.7832 The Vancouver Chamber Choir acknowledges that it operates and performs on the unceded Indigenous land
[email protected] belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh
www.vancouverchamberchoir.com (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are grateful for this privilege.
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VANCOUVER VANCOUVER CHAMBER CHOIR
CHAMBER CHOIR JENNIFER THAM, GUEST CONDUCTOR
sopranos VANCOUVER CHINESE CHOIR ASSOCIATION 温哥華國韻合唱團
Emily M Cheung
Beth Currie
LING LU 盧凌, CONDUCTOR
Kiyomi Hori BRYAN WONG 王浚軒, ACCOMPANIST
Siri Olesen
Krista Pederson
BRIGHT MOON 明月
altos
Dinah Ayre
Maria Golas VANCOUVER CHINESE CHOIR ASSOCIATION
Hilary Ison
Fabiana Katz
Dolores Scott Moonlight Reminiscences of Home 月之故鄉 Liu Zhuang 劉莊, Yan Sheng 延生
arr. Frank Huang 黃飛然
t e n o r s
Eric Biskupski The Black Eyebrows 黑眉毛 Xinjiang Folk Song 新彊民歌
Sam Dabrusin
arr. Guo Di Yang 郭廸揚
Tom Ellis
Eric Schwarzhoff
Rob Workman The Moon Represents My Heart 月亳代表我的心 Weng Qing Xi 翕清溪
basses arr. Jin Wei 金巍
Steven Bélanger
Paul Nash
George Roberts
VANCOUVER CHAMBER CHOIR
Wim Vermeulen
Jaime Yoon One Black Spike Jocelyn Morlock
(b. 1969)
INTERMISSION
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JENNIFER THAM,
* SINGAPORE
The Canadian Composer Series Jennifer was the Artistic Director of the Young Musicians’
h A Garden of Bells * R. Murray Schafer, Vol. 1: Early choral works including Society, the arts company responsible for the Asia South
Miniwanka, Epitaph for Moonlight, Snowforms, Gamelan, Sun, Fire, Felix’s Girls Pacific Symposium on Choral Music (2001) and its offshoots,
and A Garden of Bells. the First Aid for Choirs and Conductors Workshop Series,
h Imagining Incense* R. Murray Schafer, Vol. 3: Recent choral works including and the Kodály Seminar Asia for music pedagogues, the
Magic Songs, Three Hymns, Rain Chant, Alleluia, Beautiful Spanish Song, Imagining latter in collaboration with the Kodály Institute of the Liszt
Incense and other works. Academy of Music (Budapest, Hungary). She taught choral
h The Love that Moves the Universe * R. Murray Schafer, Vol. 4: Three pedagogy and conducting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine
outstanding major works recorded in 2018 for the composer’s 85th birthday: Arts, and has chaired and spoken on panels at conferences
the title piece for choir and orchestra, plus The Star Princess and the Waterlilies and and symposia in Singapore, Argentina, Denmark, Estonia
Narcissus and Echo. and Sweden. She was Principal Lecturer at the Lithuanian
Conductors’ Summer Academy, hosted by the Lithuanian
h Earth Chants Imant Raminsh, Vol. 2 Missa Brevis in C Minor, Earth Chants &
Choral Union and the Ministry of Culture.
smaller works.
h Due West Stephen Chatman, Vol. 2 With oboist Roger Cole and pianist Linda
For the International Federation for Choral Music, Jennifer
Lee Thomas.
co-coordinates the Asia Pacific Working Committee which
h Due East Stephen Chatman, Vol. 3 The Canadian composer’s latest pieces since organizes the Asia Pacific Choral Summit and manages the
2000. Asia Pacific Youth Choir. She represents Singapore on the
h Rise! Shine! * Music of Jon Washburn Including The Star, A Stephen Foster World Choir Council, serving on the jury at the World Choir
Medley, Chinese Melodies, Rossetti Songs, God’s Lamb, Noel Sing We!, Behold I Games since 2004, and at independent festivals in China,
build an house and Rise! Shine! Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan,
Poland and the USA since 2003.
The Christmas Recordings
h A Dylan Thomas Christmas * The Vancouver Chamber Choir’s signature
performance of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, read by Welsh actor Russell Roberts
with special carol settings by Jon Washburn.
h A World Christmas Carols and seasonal songs of many lands from guitarist
and arranger Ed Henderson, the Worldfest Ensemble and the Vancouver Chamber
Choir with Jon Washburn conducting.
h The Miracle of Christmas Christmas music with a colourful Central and
South American flavour played by the ensemble Ancient Cultures with several
tracks featuring the Vancouver Chamber Choir.
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VA N C O U V E R C H I N E S E C H O I R A S S O C I A T I O N
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P R O G R A M N O T E S , T E X T S & T R A N SL AT I O N S
BRIGHT MOON 明月
As a guest from Singapore - in front of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, on the lands of the Coast Salish nations - tonight’s music brings
me home. Old Chinese texts in a Western idiom, in Mandarin, dialect and mother tongue, weave soundscapes of place, familiar yet fluid.
BRIGHT MOON 明月is a capsule collection of music of the overseas Chinese, beginning with Chen Yi’s meditation on loneliness and
longing, Three Poems from the Song Dynasty. The title is drawn from the third poem where the moon connects the poet to his brother,
whom he has not seen in five years. A symbol for family and reunion, the moon has a special place in Chinese poetry and in the hearts of
overseas Chinese whose “great fortune dreams” have brought them far from home. Homesick while studying in Canada, Steve Ho writes
Moonlight Lullaby, a quodlibet of Cantonese folk lullaby and Blue Moon—the moon seen from both east and west.
The traditional and modern jostle together in Austin Yip’s Cik Cuk Ding Ding, on Hong Kong Island. A mother tongue is revived through
the music of Edgar Macapili, The Mountains Sing in the Indigenous language of the Siraya people of Taiwan. Both Zechariah Goh’s The
Happiness of Fish and Nan-Chang Nien’s I Am Flying are playful contemplations on the joy of being, at one with ourselves, at home
everywhere.
Liu Zhuang 劉莊, Yan Sheng 延生, arr. Frank Huang 黃飛然
Moonlight Reminiscences of Home 月之故鄉
The moon and its reflection on the water remind the composer of his faraway homeland.
眉毛生成是黑的,不用綠黛畫假眉。 The eyebrows are black, and you don’t need to draw false eyebrows.
我的心中時刻想念你呀,(加乃) 想你想得昏迷迷。 I always think of you, (my sweetheart) dazed by your beauty.
百靈鳥在歌唱,花園裡百花齊放。 The larks are singing, flowers are blooming in the garden.
我的心中時刻想念你呀,(加乃) 這樣的時光我才看見你, You are always in my mind, (my sweetheart) this is the only moment
亞厦…………. I can see you,
我的心中多麽快樂,這樣的時光才能看見你。 Yasha………….
你的眉毛黑又細,你的眼晴更美麗, I feel so happy that I can see you in my mind.
你的人兒愛你在心裡,(加乃) 今生今世不分離。 Your eyebrows are black and fine, your eyes are so beautiful,
你的那愛情像白玉,我情願犧牲為了你, Sweetheart, I love you with all my heart, (sweetheart) you will never
等到葡萄成熟了,你的喜上還要加喜, be apart from my life.
啦…………. Your love is like a white jade, I would rather sacrifice for you,
我們的愛情甜似蜜,海枯石爛永不移。 You will have more joy when the grapes have ripened.
冬不拉彈起來,(嘿!) 情歌唱起來,(嘿!) La………….
亞厦亞厦亞厦松…………. Our love is sweet as honey, till the seas run dry and the rocks crumble
單等那葡萄成熟,我騎著駿馬迎親去! Dombra playing, (Hey!) Love song singing, (Hey!)
亞厦! Yasha Yasha Yasha sōng………….
Just waiting for the grapes to ripen, I will ride a horse to see you and
propose you to marry me! Yasha!
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Weng Qing Xi 翕清溪, arr. Jin Wei 金巍
The Moon Represents My Heart 月亳代表我的心
This song was made famous by the Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng and is often cited as “one of the most famous and beloved Chinese songs
of all time”.
Jocelyn Morlock
One Black Spike
Vancouver-based composer Jocelyn Morlock’s One Black Spike pays homage to the thousands of Chinese men who came to Canada from
the 1880s to work on the construction of the transcontinental railroad. The last spike of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was driven one
mile east of Fort Fraser on April 7, 1914. The work tackles the opening of that railway, and was commissioned by the Canadian Music
Centre, BC Region, as one of Five Songs for BC 150.
One Black Spike has the visceral energy of a work song, driven by the repetitive rhythms of labour. Short notes in angular motion mimic
“black spikes” in the score; dissonances give off sparks like metal on metal.
Thank you to
our Concert Patrons,
Chan Sisters Foundation
Mark De Silva
Fei Wong
(in memory of Milton Wong)
James W. Wright
The Vancouver Chamber Choir
appreciates your continued support
of our performances.
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Chen Yi 陈怡
Three Poems from the Song Dynasty
Chinese American composer Chen Yi uses music as a “bridge” between people from different cultural traditions, blending traditional
Chinese aesthetics with Western musical idioms. Almost one quarter of her output is choral, making her the most significant choral
composer of the New Wave Composers of China. I first heard Three Poems from the Song Dynasty performed by a choir from Beijing in
a Hotel Vancouver ballroom in 1993, at the World Symposium on Choral Music put together by George Laverock. They were the first
Chinese choral works I’d heard that were not arrangements of folk song, and Chen Yi’s first choral composition.
Chen Yi creates a triptych of moonscapes with the texts of three of the greatest writers of ci poetry, a lyrical writing to be sung to existing
tunes with strict tonal patterns and rhyme schemes. Absence is felt throughout the work, arias of loneliness and longing sung against a
backdrop of sustained harmonies and repeated patterns drawn from southern Chinese folk song and Beijing opera. The choral textures
are often transparent; she favours the doubling of voices—perhaps from her time in forced labour during the Cultural Revolution—to
lend strength to the individual, embodying the Chinese saying, “a single bamboo easily bends”. Following Three Poems, Chen Yi did not
write another choral work for 10 years.
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Edgar L. Macapili 萬益嘉
Mururaw ta Buvukin (The Mountains Sing)
Based in Taiwan, Filipino composer Edgar Macapili has been instrumental in reviving the language of the Siraya Indigenous people of
the Tainan plains. He translates biblical texts and creates music written in the motifs of traditional Siraya songs to give the language—
dormant for 200 years—back to the tribe. The Mountains Sing translates text from Isaiah 55:12 into Siraya; Edgar gives it a folk-like setting
with hand-clasp whistles, overtone singing, and bird calls. “Ho-lak-ki-ma!” is a non-lexical chant of Siraya sung during festivals.
Ho-lak-ki-ma! Ho-lak-ki-ma!
Mururaw ta buvukin. The mountains sing.
Mururaw ta buvukin ki karay. The mountains sing (songs of) joy.
Pailigen, mururaw ta buvukin ki karay. Listen, the mountains sing (songs of) joy.
Pailigen, ruraw ki lughan ‘nein. Listen to their songs of joyous praise.
Kitaey, pararanag, puni ki rima nein. Behold, the trees, they clap their hands.
Kitaey, pararanag, puni ki rima nein. Behold, the trees, they clap their hands.
Pailigen, mururaw ta buvukin ki karay. Listen, the mountains sing (songs of) joy.
Pailigen, ruraw ki lughan ‘nein. Listen to their songs of joyous praise.
Muimid ta kawagan, mururawa! Let all life-form sing!
Muimid ta kawagan, mururawa! Let all life-form sing!
Ho-lak-ki-ma, Ho-lak-ki-ma! Ho-lak-ki-ma, Ho-lak-ki-ma!
Tamapeyringey, mariyang ka irang, lumulug imian. Great is the creator, we give our praise (to thee).
O-hoa-he! O-hoa-he!
Ka munonang ko ki darang tu vukin; While I was walking on a mountain path;
Nikitaan ta sasat ki ayam. I saw a bird.
Ka munonang ko ki darang tu vukin; While I was walking on a mountain path;
Nikitaan ta madag ki ayyaam. I saw (flocks) of birds.
Oho-oho! Oho-oho!
庄子与惠子游於濠梁之上。
庄子曰:「鲦鱼出游从容,是鱼之乐也。」
惠子曰:「子非鱼,安知鱼之乐?」
庄子曰:「子非我,安知我不知鱼之乐?」
惠子曰:「我非子,固不知子矣;子固非鱼也,子之不知鱼之乐,全矣。」
庄子曰:「请循其本。子曰『汝安知鱼乐』云者,既已知吾知之而问我,我知之濠上也。」
Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the dam of the Hao Waterfall when Zhuangzi said,
“See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That’s what fish really enjoy!”
Huizi said, “You’re not a fish — how do you know what fish enjoy?”
Zhuangzi said, “You’re not me, so how do you know I don’t know what fish enjoy?”
Huizi said, “I’m not you, so I certainly don’t know what you know. On the other hand, you’re certainly not a fish
— so that still proves you don’t know what fish enjoy!”
Zhuangzi said, “Let’s go back to your original question, please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy
— so you already knew I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao.”
(translated by Burton Watson)
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Austin Yip 葉浩堃
Cik Cuk Ding Ding 彳亍叮叮
A few years ago, I heard an all-girl version of Hong Kong composer Austin Yip’s Cik Cuk Ding Ding fill a concert hall in Singapore, and
tucked it away in my “must-do” folder for future performances. For our concert tonight, Austin made a mixed chamber choir version of
the bustling nightlife along the touristic tram route. The green Ding Ding trams run from east to west along Victoria Harbour on Hong
Kong Island, passing high fashion malls and tourist attractions. The sounds of walking (“cik cuk”) and tram bells (“ding ding”) create
a soundscape of the bustling nightlife among the skyscrapers, the spectacle of old and new sounding through a musical lens, the time
capsule of the Ding Ding tram.
Follow us online
@vanchamberchoir
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Steve Ho 何崇志
Moonlight Lullaby 藍色月光光
Hong Kong composer Steve Ho arranged Moonlight Lullaby for children’s choir while a doctoral candidate at the University of British
Columbia. In his own words, “the arrangement was born out of my homesickness for HK while studying in Canada—hence the same
moon watched from both sides (East and West).” The piece is a jazzy quodlibet of the traditional Cantonese lullaby 月光光 (Bright Moon)
and the ballad Blue Moon, the moon of the composer’s childhood seen on foreign soil. He wrote the 9-part a cappella version for the Brio
Singers in Hong Kong.
月光光 照地堂
Bright Moon, shining on the ground
蝦仔你乖乖瞓落床
Little Shrimp, be good and go to bed to sleep
聽朝阿媽要捕魚蝦咯
Tomorrow morning, Mother has to catch fish and shrimps
阿嫲織網要織到天光 啊
Grandmother has to weave a net till dawn
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for
You heard me saying a prayer for
Someone I really could care for
(Music and lyrics by Edward W. Roman)
獨在異鄉作異客,
I am a stranger in a foreign land alone,
逢佳節思親,
I miss my relatives during the festival,
我舉頭觀天,
I raise my head to look at the sky,
遙路遠,
the distance is far away,
望故鄉月圓
the full moon in my hometown
(Steve Ho)
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W I T H O U R T H A N K S
The Vancouver Chamber Choir is pleased to thank and acknowledge our Corporate and Individual Sponsors and Donors as well as the
Foundations and Government Agencies who, through their leadership and financial support, make it possible for the Vancouver Chamber
Choir to present outstanding high-quality performances of choral music and deliver award-winning education and community programs.
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$ 10,000 - $14,999 | London Drugs | Tong & Geraldine Louie Family Foundation
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Brown
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Mike & Kathy Gallagher | Gramercy Developments Ltd. | Janis Hamilton* | Heathcliff Foundation | Don & Pat Hudson* | Catherine Imrie & Jay Biskupski | The McLean
Foundation | F.K. Morrow Foundation | Music BC | Rita Nash* | Drs. Katherine Paton & Jeff Beckman* | Quails’ Gate | Dr. Robert Rothwell* | SOCAN Foundation*|
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Wright | James W. Wright
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