Joyous Rhapsody Sharing

This was the second year that I attended Joyous Rhapsody, organized by BW Monastery’s Cultural and Arts Department and held at the monastery premise.  It was a 2 hour rhapsody of joyous voice offerings by different study groups within the monastery presented to almost a total of 1000 audience groups across 3 sessions. I had attended the 3rd and last session on Sunday 4th November 2018 with colleagues on behalf of Blossom Seeds Limited.

The Joyous Rhapsody was a spiritual musical concert that presented the underlying association to Buddhism. It provided an alternate and updated means for the modern laity to express their praises and gratitude towards the sages and wise through the various musicality of modern times. The monastery had the honour of inviting Mr Wang Zi Cheng, a renown violinist as well as concert conductor from Taiwan to participate in this year’s rhapsody. 

The performance began with different study groups within the Monastery, presenting different versions of insightful praises, singing and accompanied by some dancing for some of the praises. Mr Wang, with his pianist and drummer then took the stage for the second half of the show, displaying a repertoire of deft finesse, skillfully introducing a medley of spiritual and non-spiritual pieces in the jazz genre. What made the whole presentation enjoyable was the element of spontaneity. Each piece was not really planned prior but was played depending on the mood and response of the audience towards the earlier pieces. As such, even as the session was coming to a close, the level of anticipation from the audience continue to grow, awaiting for the next surprise.

Music has the power to heal and Joyous Rhapsody displayed a possible alternate to the representation of Buddhist music in modern times.

 Leow Pei Shan

Blossom Seeds Limited