Music appreciation - Tchaikovsky part 2

I decided to skip The Nutcracker first, Imeem just don't obey the master.
Just for your information, i won't share about "1812" Overture despite it is 16'19 long, the piece made me fall asleep as well.
Anyone wanna help me with "1812", you're welcome.
Fine, then I'll share one of Tchaikovsky patriotic production - Slavonic March
It's commonly known as Marche Slave in French.
Personally love the tune of this piece very much, it could stuck in my mine then i'll keep humming some freaky minor tune whenever I go after listening to it.
So conductors and DMs, is there any chance we'll play this song?
The piccolo and cymbal sounded awesome! Trust my taste in music *tongue out*

In June 1876, following incidents in which Turkish soldiers killed a large number of Christian, Serbia declared war on Turkey.
Many Russians sympathized with those they considered to be their fellow Slavs and sent volunteer soldiers and aid to assist the Kingdom of Serbia.
In the ensuing struggle the Serbian army was quickly defeated by the Turks.Nikolai Rubinstein, a close friend of Tchaikovsky, asked him to compose a piece for a concert benefiting the wounded Russian volunteers.
In a burst of patriotism, Tchaikovsky composed and orchestrated what was first known as the "Serbo-Russian March" (later to be known as "Marche slave") in only five days.

The piece was premiered in on November 17, to a warm reception.
The march is highly programmatic in its form and organisation.
The first section describes the oppression of the Serbians by the Turkish.
It uses two folk songs.
The first "Come my dearest, why so sad this morning?" is played at the outset, as Tchaikovsky directs, "at the speed of a funeral march".
The second folk song is more optimistic in character. An episode follows, describing the atrocities in the Balkans, in which Tchaikovsky uses his mastery of the orchestra to build a tremendous climax, at the height of which the first folk song returns, fortissimo on the trumpets like a plangent cry for help.
The tempestuous mood subsides giving way to the second section in the relative major key, which describes the Russians rallying to help the Serbs.
This is based on a simple melody with the character of a rustic dance which is passed around the orchestra until finally it gives way to a solemn statement of the Russian national anthem "God Save the Tsar".
The third section of the piece is a repeat of Tchaikovsky's furious orchestral climax, reiterating the Serbian cry for help.
The final section describes the Russian volunteers marching to assist the Serbians.
It uses a Russian tune, this time in the tonic major key and includes another blazing rendition of "God Save the Tsar" prophesying the triumph of the Slavonic people over tyranny.
The overture finishes with a virtuoso coda for the full orchestra.he piece shares a few refrains with the 1812 Overture, with which it is frequently paired in performance.

5.3 Commemorial Meet

Thank you uncle Jeffrey for the photo ;p

SGI President Ikeda’s Message for May 3, 2008

To all our dear friends of Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM Penang Branch ) my wife and I would like to offer you our warmest congratulations on this glorious May 3, Soka Gakkai Day, which we also celebrate as Soka Gakkai Mother’s Day out of the deepest respect and appreciation for all the noble mothers of kosen-rufu.

May 3 is the New Year’s Day of the Soka Gakkai; a red-letter day in the calendar of our worldwide kosen-rufu movement. Members around the globe mark this annual milestone by taking a fresh step forward. This is the hope-filled rhythm of the SGI, and one of the important keys of our continued victory.

On this day in 1951, my mentor Josei Toda, filled with unwavering determination to dedicate his life to kosen-rufu, was inaugurated as the second president of the Soka Gakkai. He followed in the footsteps of his mentor Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the founder and first president of the Soka Gakkai who laid down his life in the cause of upholding and propagating the correct teaching of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism. Later, on this same date in 1960, I began my work as the third president of the Soka Gakkai, resolved as President Toda’s true disciple to build a path to global kosen-rufu, his cherished dream. In this way, May 3 has been the day when Soka mentors and disciples—revealing their true identities as Bodhisattvas of the Earth—have stood up to accomplish kosen-rufu, the mission entrusted to them by Nichiren Daishonin.

In the 48 years since my inauguration as third president, the foundations for worldwide kosen-rufu have been firmly secured. Today, a rich diversity of activities for peace, culture, and education based on the humanistic principles and ideals of the Daishonin’s Buddhism are being enthusiastically pursued in 190 countries and territories. I can state unequivocally that every vow I have made to my mentor I have fulfilled completely and to the letter.
Now the glorious anniversary of May 3 has arrived again. In my mind, I can picture the familiar faces of members around the world who have triumphed magnificently over all manner of hardship and adversity, and I can also hear the joyous voices of new members who are nurturing fresh faith in the Mystic Law and taking on the challenge of pioneering our movement in their countries.

“Were they not Bodhisattvas of the Earth, they could not chant the daimoku” (WND-1, 385), declares the Daishonin. As these words indicate, each of you is most assuredly a Bodhisattva of the Earth. It is therefore crucial that you deeply realize this, your true and most fundamental identity, and, based on chanting daimoku infused with a great vow, courageously engage in the work of kosen-rufu in harmonious unity with your fellow members.
I call out to you: Embark on fresh challenges, with a totally rejuvenated spirit! Be lions, and triumph as lions! Together let’s dedicate our lives to the great vow and grand vision of kosen-rufu!

The SGI is always advancing with a vibrant and youthful life-force. The brilliance and majesty of this unstoppable and ever-victorious dynamism is the treasure of our organization, which President Toda called “Soka Gakkai Buddha.”

The time is ripe. This moment and the place where you are right now is what matters. When committed disciples rise into action with a self-reliant spirit, the sure flame of Soka will burn and spread brightly from where they are, from that very moment. I hope all of you, our members everywhere, will stand up with a vigorous, youthful spirit.

The new, second act of kosen-rufu has begun. The Daishonin urges us: “Strengthen your resolve more than ever” (WND-1, 615) and “Summon up the great power of faith more than ever” (WND-1, 1000). Taking his impassioned cry to heart, let us make our way together on the grand and infinite stage of kosen-rufu with spirited resolve and courageous faith.
My wife and I are praying with all our hearts for the good health, long life, and happiness of each one of you.


Daisaku Ikeda, SGI President
Kaneko Ikeda

May 3, 2008



Guat : Dear all YBs, please read Sensei's message to us with heart, and pledge from the bottom of our heart to fight with all our might and fulfill Sensei's hope on us, as youth, as YB.

5.3纪念贺词

敬爱的马来西亚创价学会的各位，迎来了喜气洋洋、光荣的「5月3日──创价学会日」，以及向伟大的创价母亲们上尊敬和感谢的「创价学会母亲节」，在此送上由衷的祝贺。

5月3日是创价学会的元旦，是世界广宣流布的节日。全球同志一同庆祝这一天，共同踏出崭新的前进一步。这是SGI的希望节奏，胜利法则。

1951年5月3日，恩师户田城圣先生继承了贯彻「死身弘法」的先师牧口先生的遗志，以为广宣流布奉献一生此义无反顾的决意就任第二代会长。之後，於1960年同一天，我作为户田先生的不二嫡传弟子，为了达成恩师的遗训──开辟世界广布之道，就任第三代会长展开奋斗。创价师弟为了实现大圣人嘱咐的广宣流布，以「我乃地涌菩萨」的自觉、「发迹显本」挺身奋起的日子，就是5月3日。

以来四十八星霜，以佛法的人本主义为基调的多姿多彩的和平、文化和教育运动，如今正於一百九十个国家和地区明朗愉快地扩展，世界广宣流布的基础已经打稳了。我如实地达成了对恩师立下的誓言。

在这满载荣耀的5月3日，我脑海不禁浮现於世界各地跨越一切苦难，赢取了胜利人生的难忘同志的笑脸。与此同时，我也听见刚播下的妙法种子开始萌芽、於草创期挑战的新同志的欢声。

「皆是地涌菩萨之出现，若不然，题目难唱也。」（御书1430页）诚如此大圣人的教示，人人皆是不折不扣的地涌菩萨。重要的是要自觉这本地的使命，以新的「誓愿祈求」为根本，展开满怀勇气的「异体同心的实践」。

我热切地呼吁：「同志们！犹如脱胎换骨一样，开始崭新的奋斗吧！」「要成为师子！如师子一样连战连胜！」「一同毅然地为壮阔的广宣流布大愿活到底吧！」

SGI是个永远以朝气蓬勃的生命向前迈进的团体。永远前进不息、赢取胜利的无穷无尽的生命威光和威德，正就是恩师户田先生所说的「创价学会佛」──我们SGI具备的尊贵财宝。

来吧！现在「时机」已到。不是要等待时机，也不是要从哪里开始。不管在哪里，不管在那一瞬间，只要有「不二的弟子」奋起的话，那里必会燃起创价的和平火焰。希望全体同志亦以朝气勃勃的青年气息共同奋斗！

世界广宣流布的第二幕已经揭幕。「希愈为强盛信心」（御书1270页）、「希益出强盛之大信力」（御书1192页）让我们将此大圣人的师子吼铭记於心，秉持勇气的信心，一起於广宣流布的广阔舞台尽情奋斗吧！

最後，我和我妻子诚心祈愿全球同志愈益健康，多福多寿。

国际创价学会会长池田大作
池田香峰子
2008年5月3日

Ensemble Koschka Concert vol. 2, 11th of May 2008, sunday

Penang World Music Festival 2008

The “World Music Festival 2008 – Penang” will be a total festive concept as there will be no chairs set up in rigid formality. The whole area will be like a friendly picnic ground where people can sit or recline on the grass, walk about or join the party crowd on their feet, right in front of the stage. It will be an outdoor festival complete with the night sky, evening breezes, surrounded by green foliage and smiled upon benevolently by the old quarry cliffs of Penang Hill. By day, it is inviting and peaceful. By night, it is heady romance.

Food stalls will be set up to cater for the crowd in the evening. There will also be ample public washrooms situated at the site and mobile ones for the convenience of the audience.

Adult RM50.00
Children(3-12 yrs old) RM20.00

credit: http://www.penangworldmusicfestival.com/index.asp

Music appreciation - Tchaikovsky part 1

I am not wholeheartedly a pro-classical person.
Some classical songs are really not interesting and put you to sleep easily.
So I'll pick some composer piece that everyone would prefer.
I'll start with Tchaikovsky.
When I still a junior in KL FeiYang, I remember one of the conductors(don't remember who was it) said this :"We must listen to Tchaikovsky songs more often because we are always exposed to his compositions"
Well, Tchaikovsky compositions did pay more attention to brass part though.Ok, correct me if I'm wrong.

Full name: Peter (Pyotr) Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Birthplace: Kamsko-Votkinsk (Vyatka province),Russia
Interesting facts: He is a gay and parents are not musicians

I'll start a pretty long essay, good to read and best to remember.

Among the best known of the works he produced during little more than a quarter of a century are the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker etc.
His compositions are constant be used in Disney cartoon series.
Walts from The Sleeping Beauty was used in Disney's Sleeping Beauty.
Sang by Aurora in forest with her animal friends:
I know you~~I've danced with you in once upon a dream~~
I know you~~....I don't know any further lyric *wink*

*interesting trivia: Most Disney princesses sing with animals except for Belle from Beauty and The Beast, she sings with kitchen utensils, clock and furnitures*

As for swan lake, it's a very famous tune.
Listen to S.H.E - Remember's chorus part.

His musical talent manifested itself early, and he took piano lessons, first in Votkinsk and then in St. Petersburg, where the family moved in 1848.
Educated for a career in the civil service, he broke away to follow an inner calling to become a composer, and graduated with a silver medal from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1865.

Tchaikovsky suffered greatly from the secrecy to which his homosexuality condemned him in the society of his day, and an ill-advised marriage with a woman he hardly knew ended quickly in a nervous breakdown for him and a permanent separation for both.
A close, long-term relationship with his wealthy patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, was carried out entirely by correspondence.

Despite his depressive, self-pitying nature, he was a polyglot who traveled as far afield as the United States, where he participated in the opening of Carnegie Hall in 1891.
In 1893 he conducted a triumphant performance of his Fourth Symphony at a Royal Philharmonic concert in London and received an honorary doctorate in Cambridge.
His death, in St. Petersburg on 6 November, was probably a suicide, but the story that it was provoked by a threat to reveal his liaison with a young aristocrat has not been substantiated. Professionally, Tchaikovsky experienced both fame and reproach in his lifetime, but his enduring, worldwide popularity came only posthumously.

I can't post up all of his songs one shot, so for today we'll listen to Dance of The Reeds from The Nutcracker.
(The Nutcracker consist a lot of other compositions but my Imeem gone cuckoo, I just able to upload Dance of the Reeds.
My apology, I'll post them up in part 2 perhaps.)

It's a pretty lively piece played by 2 pianist on 2 pianos.