By Jonathan Shin and Chan Chi Ling
Sept 2014, Singapore, Rainy. 

Lyrics
=====

We drew a house
Put pictures on the wall and tore them down 
And we drew a roof 
So blue we thought the sky was falling through 

You took my hand 
And led me up the stairs that never end 
And I could slowly see 
There’re things we’ll never have to understand 

A home for our hearts, my love 
A home for our hearts, my love 

Then I built a boat
Put up the sails and took it out to sea 
And you said, there’s more to be seen 
The compass points to a place you’ve never been 

But you stole the key 
You locked me up and said you’ll set me free 
And I could only see 
That all of this was never meant to be 

So when did we begin to turn away from all the dreams we shared
The house that rides on paperbacks and stands on stilted texts 
It’s true just what they say that love was never under obligation to end happily ever after 

Do.

So don’t beat the wall 
Hoping that it’d turn into a door 
There’s love to be found 
Everywhere if you would look around. 

A home for my heart, my love 
A home for your heart, my love.

Home For Our Hearts

"In A Capricious Mood” is a musical nod towards my favorite improviser and composer of all time: Mozart. In this composition I try (hopefully with some success!) to emulate his nature, to do what he might have done had he lived to this day. Here I employ my favourite form: the reverse theme and variations, or what I like to call "the riddle form". In all there are 8 variations of varying lengths, including a Duke Ellington quote! The solution is revealed at the very end to be none other than Paganini’s 24th Caprice.

In A Capricious Mood

Lyrics:

These days I stumble through existence in a daze
The streetlights cast unholy haloes over my head
The strings that bind my bones together 
I could only feel them slowly coming undone
So we'll erase the lines we've drawn between us
Unlearn each other's words and faces 
The end has begun

The sheets are strewn across the wasteland of my bed
The pillows still remember all the little things we've said
How dare the summer robins sing
Won't they see that bliss can be exhausting?
Well thank you very much, the sun be damned,
I'd rather be in my head counting.

Chorus:
And I'll count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
I have always thought you were my heaven
Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
I don't want to love by myself

And I count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
I wish you could find your piece of heaven 
Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
Someday I'd live with myself

Bygone are endless nights of unfettered limbs
So sweet the sound of lovers whispering their sacred hymns
Oh, the secret lies between the words
A tired pause, a heartbeat's hesitation
Yeah, the truth it fucking hurts
Someday I wonder what it's like to live in oblivion

So please forgive me if I take a holiday
This business of love is not the sort of game I'd play
The poison flowing through my veins
I can feel it turning me insane
I don't need your sympathy
I just need your help to stop the pain

Chorus:
And I'd count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
I have always thought you were my heaven
Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
I don't want to love by myself

And we'll count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
I wish you could find your piece of heaven
Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
Someday I'd live with myself

Jonathan Shin - lyrics, guitar, vocals, keys
Daniel Wong - sound engineer, good friend

Help (Original)

A little protest piece to the MacRitchie Tunnelling plans, which I played for my audition to NEC as an original composition. 

===
The prelude begins with a lulling figuration: it's the sultry heat of the Singapore tropical noon.  The first bird sings soon after... but the birds aren't alone. The birdsong interludes are interrupted by a 'human' motif, which will keep returning in even more discordant tones, culminating in a seemingly consonant crash. 

At the end, a lone bird sings for no one. 
===

Prelude - A Reaction To MacRitchie Tunneling Works

The Other Merlion and Friends (2016)

A song cycle based on five poems from "The Other Merlion and Friends" by Gwee Li Sui, published by Landmark Books in 2015.  
Music composed by Jonathan Shin.

Countertenor: Chan Wei En
Pianist & Composer: Jonathan Shin

Text: 

Children,
 beware of adults!
Beware of those who will cock a snook,
tell you they know what life is about
because they really don’t — 
 nobody does!

Yet some will tell you not to turn right
because they’ve only gone left,
not to blow a snot bubble
with fish 
 swimming in their breath!

Children,
 don’t listen to them!
Turn up the music!
 Double spread your jam!
Follow your crayon line!
 Believe in monsters,
  feel the spring in your heels!
There’s time enough to grow up,
 I feel.

Listen to nobody
   (except me)
or rather be your own adult,
wag a fat finger at yourself and shout
 “YOU LISTEN TO NOBODY!”

 And who knows?
With enough practice,
you might never need to grow.


III. Godly Advice (For The Kings And Queens Of The Future)

The Other Merlion and Friends (2016)

A song cycle based on five poems from "The Other Merlion and Friends" by Gwee Li Sui, published by Landmark Books in 2015.  
Music composed by Jonathan Shin.

Countertenor: Chan Wei En
Pianist & Composer: Jonathan Shin

Text: 

MP is coming! MP is coming!
For weeks, the banners have been proclaiming
The flyers that miss the trash bins are saying
Now she’s here and expects a welcoming
The grassroots leaders are smiling and pointing
Meanwhile, floor to floor, their helpers are running
But the doors are shut and people are hiding
Adults forbid their children from breathing
All that is heard is the knocking and screaming:
MP is coming! MP is coming!

V. Special Occasion

The Other Merlion and Friends (2016)

A song cycle based on five poems from "The Other Merlion and Friends" by Gwee Li Sui, published by Landmark Books in 2015.  
Music composed by Jonathan Shin.

Countertenor: Chan Wei En
Pianist & Composer: Jonathan Shin

Text:

Little mynah in my loo,
who through my little window flew:
will you make sure your every shot
is aimed into my toilet pot?

Will you regard my dinner mood
before you trample on my food?
Will you leave all my things alone, 
go peck on barang of your own?

Little mynah, who through my loo
into my little studio flew:
when Hokkien words are all I spout,
it means it’s high time you fly out.

II. The Visitor

L and I drink matcha. Frothy, deliciously complex matcha.

All sound sources taken from DavidsTea 'The Matcha Essentials' set and processed through Cecilia5 and Reaper64.

Matcha Made In Heaven

Performed by re:Sound
16th Oct 2019 - Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore
Leader: Ike See

Commissioned by Resound Collective

Cover Art: "untitled" (2019) by Jonathan Lim  
Instagram: whereartjon
Email: jon.lim@live.com
=======

I. Prelude
II. Ceremonial
III. Rondo 
IV. March 
V. Passacaglia
VI. Moto Perpetuo

Stamford Raffles’ 1819 arrival in a fishing settlement then known as Singapura is inspiration for this work, which chronicles two centuries of triumph against the odds. The Suite reflects on pivotal moments in our history, and celebrates our indomitable spirit.

The Prelude opens with an undulating figure, upon which a simple, innocent melody is presented. This is the music of gentle surf lapping on the shores of white sand, of a tropical dawn at the break of a momentous day that will change the course of our island’s history forever. 

The arrival of the British is depicted in the Ceremonial. The strings proudly state the theme of the Suite (a literal-musical transcription of the eponymous digits): this proclamation is interspersed with punctuations by the winds. The movement concludes with a joyous re-statement of the 1-8-1-9 theme.

The next three movements are performed without break. In Rondo, different instruments feature concerto-style in a playful re-imagination of the multiplicity of cultures and ethnicities disembarking along the Singapore River. The fall of our country is depicted in March, before the instrumentation is drastically reduced in the next movement: a solo string quartet grieves over the increasing tumult of a string orchestra’s Passacaglia. 

The 1819 Suite concludes in a triumphant Moto Perpetuo - celebrating the past, and looking to the future.

1819 Suite For Small Orchestra

Performed by Orchestra of the Music Makers
11th Jan 2019 - Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore
Conducted by Seow Yibin

OMM Goes to the Movies 3

===

Cover Art: (2019) by Jonathan Lim
Instagram: whereartjon
Email: jon.lim@live.com

===

Childhood was tedium and bore, so whenever a pasar malam rolled into our estate, unfurling its train of colors, smells, and sounds, I would be whipped into delirious, arm-pulling, muah-chee frenzy: it is these memories that inspired this composition.

While listening to this overture, I invite you to conjure a cinematic sequence: on a hot tropical night, beneath a blood moon, a bazaar shimmers into existence. A young boy darts through the crowd, consuming the market in all its glory, before having his breath taken away by the sight of a beautiful girl (represented by the melody of P. Ramlee’s Getaran Jiwa). However, their new friendship is threatened by an ominous turn that might tear them asunder. A familiar tune – at least to all conscripted Singaporeans – arises. Will darkness take root, or will their friendship triumph?

Welcome to The Night Bazaar!

===

This work is dedicated to my father.

The Night Bazaar (Concert Overture)

I wrote this in one sitting, on a less-than-busy weeknight after work.

The Minuet is mostly in 5/8 time, but you can expect lots of meter changes throughout. The piano part was not notated, so for each take I improvised a semi-new piano part. The trio is fluid in its meter as well, and in the last phrase of the trio I augment the main motive of the Minuet.  The return of the Minuet takes it back to 6/8, in what I can deem as a 'meter resolution'. 

Yawn. Such technicalities. Alien jargon. Nerdgasm.

I hope you enjoy this little ditty! Please, please, please comment so I can improve.

Would like to thank the oboist, who prefers to remain incognito, for helping me record this even on a very tight schedule!!!

Jonathan Shin

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