ACOUSTIC SHOCK –AN ORGAN AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC SPECTACULAR
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PROGRAMME
Anne Maria Lim organ
Ben Ang electronic music producer
LARRY KING arr. ANNE MARIA LIM and BENJAMIN ANG
Fanfares to the Tongues of Fire
J.S. BACH arr. ANNE MARIA LIM and BENJAMIN ANG
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
HUGH HARRISON arr. BENJAMIN ANG
We are Singapore
DICK LEE arr. ANNE MARIA LIM and BENJAMIN ANG
Home
HUGH HARRISON arr. BENJAMIN ANG and JANE LAU Count on Me, Singapore
LOUIS VIERNE
Clair de Lune
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE / RALF HÜTTER, FLORIAN SCHNEIDER, KARL BOTOS arr. BENJAMIN ANG
Medley of Oxygène (Part IV)/Musique Non Stop 7 mins
CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour (with no intermission)
Organ
6 mins
and electronics
Organ
6 mins
and electronics
Organ and
5 mins
electronics
5
Organ and
mins
electronics
5 mins Organ and electronics
9
Organ solo
mins
Electronics
solo
Anne Maria Lim is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman school of Music, majoring in both Organ Performance and Music Theory, and a minor in Italian. She was in the organ studio of Nathan Laube and Anne Laver over the course of the degree. In the Fall of 2023, she will begin the Master of Music degree in Organ and Sacred Music at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music.
Born in Singapore, she began her music education at the age of three on the piano and soon after, started taking violin lessons. She has attained the Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music in Piano Performance, ABRSM Grade 8 Organ, and ABRSM Grade 8 Violin. Anne Maria completed her Diploma in Music (Piano Performance) at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, where she also took on Violin Performance as a second study.
In 2017, she took interest in the pipe organ and begun formal pipe organ lessons under the tutelage of Dr Evelyn Lim as an Organ Scholar of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd (Singapore). Since then, she has been an active member of the American Guild of Organists and regularly participates in organ masterclasses, working with world-renowned artists such as Olivier Latry, Isabelle Demers, Winfried Louis Robilliard, and JeanBaptiste Robin, among others. In 2022, she won the M. Louise Miller – Paul E. Knox Scholarship Competition and was awarded the Third Prize in the Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition in Organ Playing. She also performs regularly back home in Singapore, and in the United States.
Anne Maria was Music Director and Organist at St Anne’s Church in Rochester, New York. She is now Minister of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milford, Connecticut.
ANNE MARIA LIM organ
Ben Ang is an electronic musician, and half of the Singaporean synthpop duo Cosmic Armchair. The band is signed to European record label Alfa Matrix, has produced a notable body of work, including EPs, club remixes, and a fulllength album, and has performed in concert venues and clubs in Singapore, Japan, and Thailand.
Ben's primary instruments are Korg synthesizers, such as Minilogue and Monologue, which he plays alongside Ableton Live and the Ableton Push pad device. In addition to Cosmic Armchair, he also creates dance remixes
and improvised electronic music performances in his solo project Abyss Simian, and sometimes plays the organ for his church choir.
In addition to his performance work, Ben is an Ableton Certified Trainer, sharing his knowledge of electronic music production as the Principal Tutor at the NUS Electronic Music Lab and also as the Music Production Lead Instructor at Pop Studio Academy, where he has helped hundreds of students in their electronic music journeys.
www.benangmusic.com
ben.ang.music
BEN ANG electronic music producer
PROGRAMME NOTES
Welcome to our concert of pipe organ and electronic music, a unique and innovative musical collaboration that explores the possibilities of combining two very different sound worlds. In this performance, you will hear the pipe organ, one of the oldest and most majestic musical instruments, interact with electronic music, one of the most modern and versatile forms of musical expression. You will experience how the rich and complex harmonies of the organ blend with the rhythmic and timbral variety of synthesizers and samplers, creating new sonic landscapes that challenge and delight the ear.
The pipe organ and electronic music instruments have more in common than you might think. Both can create a wide variety of timbres and sounds, that cover the full range of dynamics and frequencies, by combining different individual elements: pipes (for the organ) or oscillators and samples (for electronic music). Both can be performed to a fixed repertoire or through improvisation.
However, these similarities and width of choices also create creative challenges in a combined performance – if both can play almost everything, then who should play what?
To overcome these challenges, Anna Maria Lim (organ) and Ben Ang (electronic music producer) have worked together to create a musical dialogue that respects and enhances the characteristics of each instrument. They have selected pieces that showcase the contrast and complementarity of the pipe organ and electronic music, as well as their own artistic vision and skills.
The first section consists of works that are primarily pipe organ with added electronic music.
Fanfares to the Tongues of Fire (1978) is one of the most famous works of Larry Peyton King (1932 – 1990) an American composer, organist, and teacher who was known for his innovative and experimental works for organ and electronic music. He explored the possibilities of combining the traditional and historic sound of the organ with the modern and futuristic sound of the electronic music, creating a new musical language and expression. He challenged the conventions and expectations of organ music, using unusual and creative techniques such as spatial effects, tape loops, feedback, amplification, and synthesis. This work was originally composed for solo organ, particularly to demonstrate the loud and powerful Trompeta Majestatis (trumpet) stop of the organ at the Riverside Church in New York City. It is based on the biblical story of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles as tongues of fire. For our performance, the tongues of fire and loud trumpet fanfares are
replaced by digital samples, played and manipulated in real time on the Ableton Push device.
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is derived from a chorale setting from a cantata composed by J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750) in 1723, and is one of the composer’s most well-known pieces among nonclassical audiences, often used for wedding processionals. The music’s wide popularity has led to numerous arrangements and transcriptions, from piano, organ, or classical guitar, to synthesizers. Bach was in fact one of the earliest classical composers that electronic musicians performed and recorded, and our arrangement was inspired by the 1968 Switched On Bach recording by Wendy Carlos, which was performed and recorded on the Moog synthesizer. Bach’s music is especially suitable for electronic music instruments because it has crisp, bright sonorities, terraced dynamics, and high relief of voices, which are among the most
idiomatic features of electronic music. Bach’s compositions are also highly adaptable and expressive, which allows for a wide range of interpretations and styles using electronic music instruments.
The second section consists of favourite National Day songs, to suit the season, re-interpreted for pipe organ and electronic music.
We are Singapore is a poignant song that evokes the early days of Singapore’s independence, when “there was a time when people said that Singapore won’t make it”. We recreate this feeling using digital samples of recordings of historical announcements from 1965, when Singapore was expelled from Malaysia. We also manipulate multiple and interwoven digital samples of everyday Singaporeans speaking in many languages, to evoke the multicultural and inclusive meaning of the title “We are Singapore”. The pipe organ brings the song to a rousing climax with the familiar chorus.
Home is one of the most popular and beloved national songs of Singapore, expressing the love and pride for the country and its people. The song describes the city as a place that will always stay in the heart, where dreams and hopes are nurtured, and where the river symbolizes life and continuity. Our arrangement starts gently and quietly on the pipe organ and evolves from there with digital samples of sounds recorded all around Singapore.
Count on Me, Singapore is a patriotic favourite that was composed for the National Day Parade in 1986 and expresses the unity and resilience of Singaporeans, and our commitment to building a better future for the nation. Our arrangement is built on top of a dance remix that Cosmic Armchair remixed for the SG Remixed competition.
Our third and final section features pieces that are well known pipe organ pieces or electronic music pieces.
Claire de lune is one of the twenty-four pieces from Louis Vierne’s (1870 -1937) Pièces de Fantaisie (fantasy pieces). He held the highly regarded position of organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. His music, including six impressive organ symphonies, are among the finest and most popular organ compositions of the twentieth century. This piece was influenced by the Impressionism of his day and the piece is rife with chromaticism and octatonic scales, which provide an ethereal feeling throughout.
Oxygène (Part IV)/Musique Non Stop is a medley of two landmark electronic music pieces. Oxygene was composed and released in 1977 by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre. It is one of the most well-known electronic music instrumental pieces, reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart and the top ten in the charts of several European countries The beginning of the song, featuring synthesized white noise that Jarre used to evoke wind, was so unusual that many people who bought the record tried to return it because they thought it was faulty. In this arrangement. This arrangement starts with manipulated synthesized white noise to create a soundscape before launching into the song itself. It then segues into a localised version of Kraftwerk’s 1986 number one hit Musique Non Stop, performed with digital samples of Asian voices replacing Kraftwerk’s original robotic voices.
We hope you enjoy this concert of pipe organ and electronic music, a rare and exciting opportunity to hear two musical worlds collide and collaborate. Please sit back, relax, and let your ears be surprised by this sonic adventure.
Programme notes by Anne Maria Lim and Benjamin Ang
