Kelly Tang

Dr Kelly Tang’s original composition, ‘Two Overtures for Wind Band’, was commissioned for Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging of Concert Bands 2009, and performed by 172 school bands. Tang was the first Singaporean in seventeen years invited to compose for this annual competition.

This article was originally released in July 2009; we have re-organised the content and publish it today for your reading.

How does it feel like to listen to your work from each of the 172 bands which took part in SYF, as a composer and as an adjudicator? How do you find the different interpretations by the schools for the ‘Two Overtures for Wind Band’?

I particularly enjoyed hearing how each of the bands infused the set pieces with its own musical charm & artistic personality.

How do you find the different interpretations by the schools for the ‘Two Overtures for Wind Band’?

Although many band pieces are cleverly written so they sound consistent from one band to another, ‘Two Overtures for Wind Band’ was designed to provide space for individual interpretation and to let the character of the performing band shine through.

Still, it was surprising how delightfully different the overtures could sound through the creativity of the bands, as they brought out uniquely personal dimensions from a common score.

Which piece, in your opinion, is more challenging?

Overture No.2 requires greater technical facility in executing fast and agile lines and keeping them sounding synchronized during contrapuntally syncopated passages.

Overture No.1 is designed to have less rhythmic complexity and a more restricted registral range.

In fact, Overture No.1 went through several drastic phases of simplification before final publication to render it playable at the basic level. Despite its apparent simplicity, however, Overture No.1 requires considerable skill to play in a musically competent manner.

When different bands played Overture No.1, it clearly revealed distinctions in quality of phrasing, tone, expression and (especially) intonation, so it still allowed the judges to distinguish between bands of different levels of training.

What are the pieces, Overture No. 1 and No. 2, supposed to convey? Do you have a convention in your compositions? Like structure or progression?

It was revealing that the key question on the minds of most people was, “What images or stories do these set works convey?” Two Overtures for Wind Band’ provides students another way of hearing and playing music.

The set works do not depend on any extra-musical images or narratives for their meaning. Their meaning lies solely in the music. Simply put, all that the two overtures convey are themselves.

What propels both overtures is the contrapuntal interactions between the various lines. Such counterpoint generates harmonic tensions which energize the music and controls its momentum. Supported by the harmony are the melodic materials, interwoven into the harmonic tapestry.

Each of the overtures is based on a handful of main thematic motifs or ideas. Dramatic momentum is generated by the rhythmic, registral, dynamic and textural transformations which these few themes are subjected to. The themes are like characters in a story that undergo personal metamorphoses in response to changing circumstances.

Rather than a patchwork of individually conceived modules, the overtures aim at a totally integrated tapestry in which the function of the tiniest element is integrated organically within the over-arching purpose of the whole work. Each new passage grows out of the previous passage in a natural and logical fashion.

What I hope the two overtures demonstrate is that music can offer exciting meanings in and of itself. Music does not always have to be relegated to an accompanying role as a soundtrack to an image, event or narrative.

Joshua

Joshua is a social ‘freak’ who enjoys music, photography and good food. He is currently based in Melbourne doing his Bachelors Program in Information Technology Systems.

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