Music can be healing

As it seems to be a rare affair to hear Franz Joseph Hadyn's oratorio The Creation performed live in Singapore, I decided that I would stretch myself a bit by dragging myself to the Esplanade Concert Hall this evening.

It proved that I had to literally drag myself there. I don't feel well. The nausea feeling continued to haunt me for a great part of the afternoon. It did not help that I was almost constantly coughing due to the poor air (and of course, the fact that I have yet to fully recover from the bad cough). I felt I was just mustering whatever patience that I have to prevent myself from blowing up from the irritability caused by the feeling of discomforts.

Hoping to comfort myself from the discomforts of feeling unwell, I decided to pamper myself by having dinner at ichiban boshi at the Esplanade Mall. It is a nice place to unwind, and I managed to get myself a seat that faces the Esplanade Promenade. The food is nice too. I had a dinner-set consisting of beef udon, tempura, sashimi, sushi and a red-bean pastry. I felt pleased that I have ended my dinner with a sweet pastry. Isn't it nice to end things sweet?

The dinner helped me feel a little better, and I felt ready to listen to The Creation performed live.

The hardest part to bear for tonight's concert was trying to inhibit myself from coughing. But in the context of a concert hall, this was much easier to be achieved.

Firstly, the air in the Esplanade Concert Hall was well-ventilated and not too humid. Next, with such world-class acoustics, I could hardly hear the noises from outside the concert hall. With few noise and no disturbance, I found myself better able to bear with the discomforts that often comes from inhibiting myself from coughing. But admittedly, there was one point when I had successfully inhibited myself from coughing, but I felt my entire face turning bloated. Thirdly, music can heal. It can be a joy and relief for the mind to simply focus on a nice piece of music and be temporarily relieved of one's discomforts. In addition, I have prepared myself some lozenges to soothe the throat.

Anyway, as the title of this post says it, music can be healing. I felt a sense of balance and a general relief from the discomforts (except for those points when I had to inhibit myself from coughing) during the concert.

Maybe I can't have enough of aural tests, I found myself trying to guess the chord progressions as the orchestra was playing The Creation. I am still not very competent in this. I can only say that I am fairly confident at recognising the V-I cadence. Aside from hearing out for the chord progressions, it felt fun to hear how the different instruments relate to one another.

For tonight's concert, I particularly like the recitative sections sang by the bass-baritone, Andrew Greenan. I like his deep voice. I like voices that are rich and deep.

Whenever the chorus sang, it felt uplifting. I also realised that I was fascinated when I heard the chorus singing in an undertone.

The Creation was the only programme for the two-hour concert tonight. To be able to keep me interested for two hours without me falling half-asleep, I think the performers must have played fairly well. A fairly inspiring concert.

Music, it seems to have certain healing powers.