Biography

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黃竹街17﹣19號深崇閣3樓F室, Hong Kong
沈凜聰為樹仁大學基督徒團契詩班指揮和教會樂圃樂團助理指揮,香港中文大學音樂文學碩士畢業。沈君畢業於浸會大學音樂系,主修聲樂,早年於同校歷史系畢業,又考獲英國聖三一音樂學院LTCL演唱文憑。為專注聲樂,他曾求學於許耀聲、胡永正、陳晃相和饒嵐等前輩;又向劉永生、林思漢、文承伯(Dr. John Winzenburg)、趙伯承及官美如諸君習指揮。 他過去曾擔任浸會大學基督徒樂隊任隊長及歌手;亦曾任浸會大學基督徒詩班的副指揮,並隨團到南京和台灣等地作音樂交流、獨唱演出和服事。2008年沈君加入浸會大學合唱團,以其廣闊的音域演唱巴哈卡塔塔六十一之男高音及男低音之獨唱。2010年他與黃卓兒小姐合辦”Eros, Philios, Agape”聲樂音樂會。他於2011年初夏隨浸會大學室樂合唱團(Cantoria Hong Kong)於北京天津巡迴演出中獨唱。2013年4月於教會樂圃主辦之聲樂獨唱會”Voce”演出,憑清亮而多變的音色和具詩意的演繹獲各方稱許。他個人曾獲邀在多個場合獨唱和指揮獻唱,包括香港聖詩頌唱會、香港大學基督徒詩班年度音樂會、浸會大學基督徒詩班五十周年音樂會等大型音樂會演唱多首名作,包括韓德爾的《彌賽亞》Every Valley Shall Be Exalted、Why Do the Nations So Furiously Raged Together、海頓的《創世紀》The Heavens Are Telling;亦曾參與歌劇《風流寡婦》及《蕭紅》的演出。 蒙神恩待與各方人士抬愛,沈君已為近三十個組織提供合唱、聲樂和指揮訓練。沈君希望盡用神所賜的聲音和士人氣節,實踐「匡正社會風氣,廣傳福音真理」的抱負。

2013年6月1日 星期六

Two songs from John Rutter

I would like to show two songs from John Rutter by the choirs I conduct :)


2013.04.24 UC Choir Music Concert_5.Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind




Hong Kong Shue Yan University HKSKH St. Matthias' Church eveningconcert---A Clare Benediction


2013年5月3日 星期五

養聲


養聲之選
我們用歌聲服事上帝,我們的美聲豈可變爛聲?呼吸系統的健康影響著發聲的質素。鼻、喉、咽、舌、口無論任何一個部位不適都會令發聲困難,音質沙啞。身體要好好調理、聲帶也要好好保養。除蜜糖、枇杷膏及中醫感冒藥等等,以下也是很好的養聲之選!



無花果
        無花果很可口,味甘、性平,不但能治咽喉痛,還可以開胃和止泄痢。是日常保養聲帶的食療佳品。蒸熟鮮無花果後即食,或加入南杏、雪梨、雪耳一同煲或燉,功效很好。
價錢:$40 - $80磅
購買地點:中醫藥舖、海味舖、國貨公司有售


羅漢果
        有時我們「咳到甩肺」,久咳未癒,羅漢果是一好選擇。它可清熱潤肺,用於肺火燥咳,咽痛失音。它的果肉啡色呈海綿狀,不甚悅目,然而內裡約有14%糖份,味甘可口。可簡單地浸泡在水中飲用,也可直接食用。
價錢:$1 - $10 一個
購買地點:中醫藥舖、海味舖、國貨公司有售


清音丸
清音丸是一自明朝流傳的古方,清熱利咽,生津潤喉。味甘,微苦,如龍眼般大小。如此大顆的煉密丸須噙化(含著)服用。筆者以清音丸為演出之終極武器。有次筆者考唱歌,本身喉嚨已因練習過多而腫脹,難以發力,然而在考試五分鐘前服用清音丸,聲帶回復約七成狀態。但當然它不是神藥,只能有潤喉和使氣流通順的果效。濕熱的人服用效果不彰。
價錢:約$26一盒
購買地點:各大藥房、國貨公司



西瓜霜
西瓜別名「寒瓜」,顧名思義,其瓜瓤(瓜肉)性寒,夏日消暑良品。西瓜汁可治口瘡(飛滋),但是因為是生冷食物,進食過多會傷脾。感冒亦不宜進食。
然而西瓜霜以西瓜皮入藥,口、舌、唇內生瘡,以致喉嚨痛都可治療。因加入黃蓮及其他藥材,故味咸、甜、微苦而辛涼。西瓜霜乃噴劑,直接噴在瘡上或喉痛部位便可。
價錢:約$20支
購買地點:超級市場、國貨公司有售
            

參考資料:
1.      三金西瓜霜網頁:http://www.sanjin.com.cn/site1/products/cpylb/03/13104.shtml(瀏覽日期:2011年2月7日)。
2.      醫學百科 – 清音丸,http://big5.wiki8.com/qingyinwan_45258/#11,(瀏覽日期:2011年2月7日)。
3.      維基百科:www.wikipedia.org(瀏覽日期:2011年2月7日)。
4.      田建華編:《本草綱目彩色圖集(精編珍藏版)》,(河北,河北科技出版社,2007年)。

2011年12月4日 星期日

The Development of Cantonese Christian Choral Music


1       The Development of CCCM
1.1       Origin in mainland China
The contextualization of Chinese hymn was long discussed and practiced and the CCCM develops from this trend. Although written Chinese has been unified since Qin Dynasty (秦朝), there are huge differences people’s dialects. Nowadays in China, there are eight systems of dialects and Cantonese is one of the dialects used in south-east China, especially in Hong Kong. Therefore in 1807, since Robert Morrison from London missionary launched the first Protestant mission to China[1], the hymns imported by missionaries were set in different dialects.

The first Chinese hymn book, “Yang Xin Shen Shi” (養心神詩) was published in 1818, which was translated from the English hymn book to Chinese (mandarin)[2]. Other than that, many different dialect hymn books were written. For example, the “Gospel Hymns” (福音聖詩,1903) written in Cantonese published by China Baptist Publication Society the “Sacred Songs with Tunes” (聖詩樂譜,1906) written in Fuzhou dialect published by the American Board of Missions[3]. Setting hymns in different dialects was common in this period.

However, due to the unification and modernization of China, the Mandarin movement was launched in the early 20th century. The dialect hymns started to decline. Hymn books in mandarin like Hymns of Praise to the Lord (頌主聖詩, 1915),Hymns of universal Praises (普天頌讚 1922) and Heavenly People Choruses (天人短歌, 1937), were published and used by major churches. The church in Hong Kong seemed to follow the trend although people in Hong Kong speak different dialects like Cantonese, Fujian (福建話), Kejia (客家) under the colonial rule. For convenience, those churches like TsungTsin Mission (崇真會) of Hong Kong (Also known as Basal Mission, 巴色會) whose major language used to be Kejia[4], and the Methodist Church whose major language is Cantonese[5], sang the hymns with Mandarin texts in their own dialects.[6] Other than traditional hymn book, in Christian secondary schools, many of the students sang in English.[7] There is no great awareness for Christian composers and lyricists to fit Cantonese into Christian choral music.

1.2       Development of CCCM in Hong Kong
In late 1970s, Cantonese folk hymns started to spread in churches because of the Hong Kong popularity of Cantonese songs. However there was not any publication on CCCM. The first cassette on Cantonese Christian music “How can it be forgotten” was produced by Dr. Alvin Yee-shing Chan (陳以誠) and Wong Ming-chiu (黃明照) in 1980. In 1982 Hong Kong Association of Christian Music Ministry (ACM) was established and published “齊唱新歌”. It includes CCCM sung by Hong Kong Baptist University Christian Choir.

Since then, many organizations involved in CCCM like Hong Kong Sacred Music Service (香港聖樂服務社). In 1990s Chinese Christian Literature Council (文藝出版社) started publishing a series of anthems “A Selection of Anthems”. In 2000s, Hosanna Chanters (浩聲讚祂詠團) and Musicall (教會樂圃樂圃) under the support of Hong Kong Sacred Music Service were established. They translate, compose, published and perform CCCM frequently in Hong Kong.

Despite of the need of the churches, there is growing awareness of the CCCM as there are more and more people are willing to perform CCCM. It is a landmark that Intervarsity Music Ministry was launched in Hong Kong Baptist University ten years ago. Now there are over 400 university students in nine University Christian Choirs in each year[8]. Their repertoire is mainly CCCM. They aim at serving the community and preaching in Hong Kong, so CCCM is an easier way to access to the community. It is a huge motivation for the translation, composition of CCCM. There are many Christian music groups established in Hong Kong nowadays but there are only a few Christian organization compose and translate CCCM.




[1] Although Christianity had reached China since Tang, its influence declined after the ban of Christianity by Kangxi. Missionaries were not permitted to preach in China.
[2] 盛宣恩:《盛宣恩論文集 – 中國基督教會聖詩史》,(香港,浸信會出版社,2010年),頁6。David Sheng, A collection of Sheng Xuanen’s essay – History of Christian Hymns of China, (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist Press, 2010), p6.
[3] Ditto, p.69-72.
[4] Website of TsungTsin Mission of Hong Kong, http://www.ttm.org.hk/ (accessed in 31st March, 2011).
[5] Web site of Methodist Church of Hong Kong, http://www.methodist.org.hk/about/ (accessed in 31st March, 2011).
[6] 蔣慧民,穎調致中華講座中語,2011年3月20日。Jiang Huimin, Lecture on Yindiao Zhi Zhonghua, 20th March, 2011.
[7] Interview of Timothy Lam (林國璋), CantonCM Web site, http://video.neighbouronline.com/person/allensit/public_html/CantoCM-03.wmv, (accessed on 24th April, 2011)
[8] Internal Statistics from the Intervarsity Music Ministy Concert in 2011. 

2011年11月19日 星期六

My Final Year Project on Cantonese Christian Choral Music (CCCM) Part 1


Values of Cantonese Christian Choral Music (CCCM) – contextualization
1.1       Theological and traditional Values
CCCM has strong values on theology, tradition and accessibility. It can be explained in a term in Chinese Christianity, “Contextualization”[1]. “Contextualization” means “the result of placing in / treating as a part of something”[2]. The first “Contextualization” of Christianity is “Word becomes flesh”[3] that Jesus as a God came to the earth. He was placed in human context and preached the message of heaven.[4] Therefore the “Holy Words” should be placed in Hong Kong community and it should be accessible and bring out theological messages.

Also, Christian choral music is a heritage of Christian tradition. It can be traced back for 3000 years[5]. In Ecclesiastes 2:8 in the bible, the author describes an early choir, “I get me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.” Choir members are used to be a group of trained and devoted people[6].

Choral music in Christianity has theological functional values. First of all, in congregation, music is the modus operanti (mode of operating) for praise, thanksgiving, adoration and exhortation[7]. Secondly, lyrics and music in choral music is used for the teaching of doctrine so as the church members can be theologically and musically trained.

        In Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Music can be used to “teach and admonish” the others, and give thanks to the God. Christian music therefore delivers theological messages. Also, people should worship God with sincerity and understanding. As mentioned in Colossian 3:16, people praising God should sing in heart. CCCM in people’s mother tongue will help people directly sing in heart because it is the most accessible language for them.

Luther based on this theology and “contextualized” the Mass in Latin to German as one of his reformation of Church. The “contextualization” of music became a tradition of Protestant Churches. Luther composed “Deutches messes” (German mass) in 1526[8]. It was accessible to local German people because it was written in local vernacular language[9]. This tradition is still influencing the modern people and thus CCCM has traditional value, traced back to Luther’s theology and the Christian history.

1.2       Values of accessibility
CCCM is accessible to Hong Kong people and can deliver theological meaning in music to Hong Kong people more efficiently. Cantonese is the major dialect in Hong Kong. According to the census in 2006, more than 90.8% (over 6 million) of the citizens use Cantonese as their usual language[10]. The Christian choral music set in foreign language or other Chinese dialect might not be accessible in Hong Kong church. It was found unpersuasive singing those hymns because the tones do not fit the music. There are more people criticizing the music “ng ngam yɐm” (唔啱音) because they are confused with the words and cannot perceive messages from music not set in Cantonese. Therefore, Cantonese is much accessible for local churches to hold Sunday Services in Cantonese and CCCM is much accessible in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong people gradually adapted to Cantonese music since late 1960s and CCCM become more accessible for Hong Kong people. In 1969, James Wong (黃霑) became aware about the Hong Kong voices, culture and identity in popular music[11]. He as a lyricist, and some leading composers like Joseph Koo (顧家輝1933 - ), and also some famous singers like Teresa Cheung (張德蘭, 1959 - ), Josephine Siao (蕭芳芳, 1947 - ) started to work out “Hong Kong voices” in Cantonese popular music. In addition, the television broadcasting started to be more popular in this era and the Cantonese popular music became more wide spread. Cantonese theme song of “啼笑因緣” (1974) is one of the representative works composed by Joseph Koo was welcomed by Hong Kong people. The Hong Kong people are accustomed to the Cantonese songs and therefore Christian choral music set in Cantonese was more and more irresistible[12].



[1] 林治平編著:《中國基督教在中國本色化論文集》,(北京,今日中國出版社,1998),頁1。Lin Zhiping, The Essays on Chinese Christianity contextualized in China, (Beijing, Jinri Zhongguo Chubanshe, 1998), p1.
[2] Oxford online Dictionary, http://0-www.oed.com.hkbulib.hkbu.edu.hk/view/Entry/40215;jsessionid=3CEC8C19B836FBC9CA26EF1C3F983585?redirectedFrom=contextualization#eid8443358, (accessed in 30th March, 2011)
[3] John 1:1 – 14.
[4] Son Ji Y, Forces of Contextualization and Decontextualization: A Look at symbols, experiences and language, Doctoral thesis Indiana University, 2007, pv.
[5] Edited by Carl Halter and Carl Schalk, A Handbook of Church Music, (Missouri, Concordia Publishing House 1978).
[6] Paul McCommon, Music in the bible, (Atlanta, Convention Press, 1956), p.98.
[7] Ditto, p8.
[8] Story of Christian music, p.60. However, Martin Luther did not meant to abandon the Latin Mass. He just observed that the ordinary people without Latin training would not understand the Latin text. Therefore he advocated and translated the “contextualized” German hymn.
[9] Ditto.
[10] Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?tableID=140, (accessed 10th February).
[11] James Wong, Writing of Verses for Cantonese Popular Songs, Centre for Literature and Translation Lingnan College, 1997, p.4.
[12] 楊漢倫:<粵語流行曲導論>,(香港,香港特別行政區教育局,2009年),頁3-5。Yang Hon-lun, Helan, Introduction to Cantonese Popular Music, (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Education Bureau), p3-5.

2011年11月12日 星期六

聲樂短期課程

聲樂短期興趣課程
除長期課程外,本人還提供短期課期和工作坊,五人開班,詳情如下:
時期:每期共12課
時間:每課1小時
收費:每人$1800(即每課$150)
由導師預備教材。

國語時代曲班(分四期)
透過聆聽和仔細品味分析,學習和國語時代曲的國語語音和「韻味」,亦感受不同歌手演譯歌曲的風格特質。

歌曲:往事只能回味、玫瑰玫瑰我愛你、橄欖樹、春風吻上我的臉、南海姑娘…..

經典英文金曲班
英文金曲縱橫全球,不單是百老匯和迪士尼音樂,還有Beatles、Mariah Carey、Celine Dion, Josh Groban等人的的歌曲膾灸人口。學習英文金曲不單對唱歌有好處,英語能力,尤其是口語,也會相應提升。

歌曲:Yesterday, The sound of Silence, Imagine, Hero, My Heart Will Go On, O Holy Night…..

傳統/流行聖詩班
裝備教會領唱、主席在敬拜隊、敬拜小組等等的事奉。透過聲樂訓練,學習在音樂上帶出歌曲的語氣和訊息,並學習一些「過場」語和手勢指示會眾和小組音樂的流程。

歌曲:讚美之泉、ACM等機構之作品,普天頌讚、世紀頌讚。