Kabus-Kabus Memori II

Kabus-Kabus Memori II means ‘Clouds of Memories II’. It is a collection of my solo voice and piano works. The title of this collection is the second project from the first which the latter was a project for solo piano initiated by Dr. Tham Kent Horng. In the first collection, Dr. Tham is researching and recording some of my easy piano works. In this second collection, the pieces are more wide-ranging spanning from 1994 until recently. The collection consists of 8 mainly melodic pieces which are: 1. Lagu I: Mimpi Dalam Lagu (1994 rev. 2010), 2. Lagu II (1994 rev. 2016), Lagu III: Mimpi Dalam Lagu (1998 rev. 2010), Lagu IV (1998), Lagu V: Mimpi Dalam Lagu (2008 rev. 2016), Lagu VI Tango Waltz (2015), Lagu VII Lagu Dalam Mimpi (2007 rev. 2013), Lagu VIII Sebuah Pantun Vb (2015). A brief description of the songs:
1. Lagu I Mimpi Dalam Lagu
2. Lagu III Mimpi Dalam Lagu
3. Lagu V Mimpi Dalam Lagu
These 3 pieces is a collection of short melodies and songs written in between my other major works. It is written especially for the National Choir commissioned. It consists of Lagu III was written in 1998, Lagu V in 2008, and Lagu I in 1994. The pieces also were used as Arias in my work Opera Puteri Saadong. The text is written by myself together with some input from Catriona and was written on our way to St. Ives, Cornwall, England from London. The text is about mimpi (dream) and the words are usually suggesting sounds. They can be in any order and framed within the word mimpi itself.
4. Lagu II was composed in Pittsburgh, the USA together with Lagu I both were written without any words just humming throughout. In my work Opera Puteri Saadong I inserted as one of the Aria and the words was also inserted. The version is a combination of 1994 and the words from the opera.
5. Lagu IV was composed in Hove when I was started my study and was living in a very tiny apartment near the seaside in 1998.
6. Lagu VI Tango Waltz was composed during my time at Universiti Teknologi MARA as a recreational work. This piece is an arrangement from a solo piano piece which is part of Kabus-Kabus Memori set of piano pieces and arranged for voice and piano. Tango Waltz is conceived a few years back and was revised for this collection. This is a personal piece because of my private interest in tango music and also tango dance. Waltz also something that I have a preference towards. It is quite a conventional piece with flavors indicated in the title.
7. Lagu VII Mimpi Dalam Lagu was originally conceived in my work for piano and chamber orchestra Warna Yang Bernada which was premiered in London in 2007 as part of the 50th Anniversary of Malaysian Independence organized by British Malaysian Society. Later the melody in the middle section of the piece became an Aria in my work Opera Puteri Saadong (2013-2016) which is arranged here for voice and piano.
Lagu VII Sebuah Pantun Va is the most challenging work in this collection. It was conceived and developed with my Pantun series works which started in 2002. Sebuah Pantun V was a version for voice, clarinet, cello, and piano in 2011. In 2015 I revised and arranged the work only for voice and piano which was premiered during Soundbridge Festival 2015. A new version of Sebuah Pantun V is written using gamelan numberings and numbers were transformed into sounds and notes. Pantun is a Malay traditional poem that can be in 2, 4, 6 (etc.) phrases. In four phrase pantun I am using, there are 4 short but played continuously. The sections are like the shadow (pembayang) and the meaning in pantun. For the voice, the singer should intepret the notes in ornamented ways. If in doubt improvised. Subang,