Composed by Jon Tho
Performed by Angeline Ng
Engineered by Ernest Foo

A meditative piece to induce the listener into a state of pensiveness and reflect on past mistakes.
The piece starts off with a series of non-functional harmony and truncated time changes to create a feeling of pandiatonicism and ambiguity. The motif is then introduced shortly after as a waltz-like figure, along with arpeggios and rubato to set the mood and character of the piece. The next section heavily utilizes modal interchange and fragmentary development to create more colours by introducing more tension and dissonances. This is then contrasted in the following section of the music where a series of semiquaver hemiolas on the R.H are layered over the sextuplets on the L.H to create a consonant watery effect. The music then enters a state of short frenzy before gradually settling down into a very sparse atmosphere. In the final section, a series of open quartal and quintals lighten up the mood and creates a feeling of hope for change. The piece ends off with a bell-like figure, reminding the listener to wake up from their meditation and move on.

Reflections - Jon Tho

Composed by Maleva Ristananda
Performed by Alex Ronoyudo
Engineered by Ernest Foo

Phantasmagoria is a sequence of real or imaginary images, like those seen in dreams. This piece illustrates someone who is unable to tell apart dreams from reality. It is about complexity within simplicity. Each performer is encouraged to play it with their own perspective on the concept.

Phantasmagoria - Maleva Ristananda

Composed by Germaine Goh
Performed by Chan Yee Shen
Engineered by Ernest Foo

36,000 ft was inspired by the incredible depth of the ocean (as suggested in the title) and how much of it still remains unexplored till this day. The piece journeys through the whole depth of the ocean - it starts confidently as heard in a declarative motif and slowly transitions into a grand feel as the proverbial diver revels in the beauty of the ocean. As the music progresses, it grows more mysterious, whimsical and eventually tense as one uncovers strange and almost alien-like creatures the deeper they go into the ocean. Finally, there is a mad struggle at the end as if the diver is wrestling with strange creatures, or perhaps starting to grow insane from being too deep and too far from known civilisation. Slow lento chords illustrate the diverʼs almost lifeless body sinking closer to bottom. A string of low left hand notes jolts away from the stillness, signalling the diverʼs final plummet down to the ocean floor.

36,000 ft - Germaine Goh

Composed by Victor Lin
Performed by Wynn Chan
Engineered by Ernest Foo

This piece starts off with an unrelated motif depicting a lady at the edge of the Tembusu Forest, drawn by its mysterious aura. As she steps deeper into the forest, many eyes watch her, scrambling to find her way out. She slows down, finally realising she would never be able to escape this enchanted forest.

Eyes Of The Tembusu Forest - Victor Lin

Composed by Sabrina Loh
Performed by Lim Jing Xian
Engineered by Ernest Foo

Moonlit Path is a piano piece written by Sabrina Loh in 2018. She was inspired by the long, secluded walks she took almost every night, from the train station to her home. The serenity and stillness of the night offered a reassuring sense of freedom which is well represented by the opening motif in the key of Eb major. She also started the piece with a major 7th chord to set the whimsical tone for the entire composition. The piece then soon fades into an ‘alla marcia’ section, capturing the playfulness of a walk home alone under the stars.

Moonlit Path - Sabrina Loh

Composed by Jazreel Low
Performed by Loh Yi Ning
Engineered by Ernest Foo

Sunset Danse features a sweet melodic line with a waltz-like bass pattern in quadruple time. As the piece progresses, the melody has more ornamentation on the higher register and features scallic and chromatic runs, depicting the setting sun over the horizon as the piece concludes on a more sombre note, repeating the introductory motif as it slows down till the end.

Sunset Danse - Jazreel Low

Composed by Elsa Mickayla
Performed by Diana Chong

This piece was inspired by Jarrod Radnich’s virtuosic piano solo medley of the soundtrack from a famous TV series, Game of Thrones. The intention was to mimic the grand sound of an orchestra in a solo piano setting. The Beautiful Creature was written based on an imaginary story of a captain who led his ship into the darkest part of the sea, where the storms were raging and waters were violent, to seek the truth about a sea creature that lived in the depths of the ocean. Some said that it was a myth, and others were convinced that any man who seek this creature will never return home. The captain and his crew went anyway, and along the way they faced a treacherous monster, whereupon the beautiful creature they sought for appeared and saved them. They never saw what she actually looked like, as the rain was pouring down on their eyes, blurring their vision. The next thing they knew, the sun was up and both creatures were gone, as if nothing ever happened.

The Captain's Beautiful Creature - Elsa Mickayla

Composed by Chan Yee Shen
Performed by Chan Yee Shen

Little Crazy Rhapsody is a fast little piece written for piano. One of the first works Yee Shen wrote in 2018, it is the fusion of his wild imagination and his compositional craft. The music is technically challenging to perform because of its driving rhythm and  swift passages. In this jazz-influenced piece, non-diatonic harmonies are utilized in functional harmonic progression to create a sophisticated sound. Hectic interweaving lines are used to create a complex texture throughout the music. Like the title suggests, it’s a little crazy rhapsody that takes the listener on a wild ride in the composer’s musical world.

Little Crazy Rhapsody - Chan Yee Shen

The Living Composers Series is a project to produce digital albums of compositions written for the LASALLE Piano Anthology. These pieces are composed by students and alumni from the composition stream of LASALLE College of the Arts, and performed by students from the classical stream. This project aims to promote these composers and their works, and bring more contemporary piano music into the world.

The Living Composers Series

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