Composer Hyo-shin Na and Citywinds are really an ideal match. Both have made indelible contributions to the Bay Area's musical life through the sheer quality of their work, not to mention the originality of their approaches. This weekend's concerts were a case in point. Not content simply to present new Korean works for their own ensemble, Citywinds invited Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea, leading proponents of new music on Korean instruments, to join them in a fascinating program. Na introduced the program and added three striking works of her own, including two world premieres.
Na contributed to the program as a cultural ambassador of sorts, introducing the members of CMEK and leading a demonstration of the instruments. First there were the Peopgeum and Kayageum, tabled zithers very much like the koto; the piri, a penny whistle-sized, alternately sweet and piercing double-reed; the Saenghwang, a mouth organ which, Na explained, is the only harmonic instrument of Korea; and the Taegeum, a bamboo transverse flute whose pure tone is augmented by a raspiness created by a surrounding membrane. In the hands of this ensemble's three virtuosi, the expressive and timbral character of all the instruments was varied to a remarkable degree.
Although Na has written music that is dynamic in a more conventional sense, the pieces on this program often reached their deepest intensity through a near stillness. Instruments focused on single sustained pitches for extended lengths, examining and reworking their timbres, expressive purpose, and interrelationships with the other instruments in a focused, sensitive manner. In all three of her works on the program, this approach made for fascinating listening.
Different dimensions in each pitch
Na makes a thorough examination of the musical materials at hand, searching for details and possibilities within her ideas. Her aesthetic worked ideally in Chung-Ji-Hyang, written for CMEK. The instrumentalists displayed a great ability to manipulate the attacks, intonation and colors of their instruments, finding different dimensions in each pitch, often hanging on single notes or brief figures while re-coloring the individual and collective timbres. There was a sense of this as very personal music for both composer and performers. The players exuded a palpable feeling for the shifting relationships within the ensemble, a great deal happening within an outwardly still framework.
Na added two new works inspired by poetry. For Szymborska's Muse, a musical reflection of Wislawa Szymborska's Nothing Twice, the composer employed the taegeum and piri in gradually shifting relationships, repeating the same material in new ways. Much of the interest in the piece came as the players effectively traded places, taegeum player Jeong-Seung Kim gradually moving from his raspiest tone to his purest, while Piri player Chi-wan Park's initially soft playing transitioned to the instrument's most strident voice. Some special aural touches were included, as Kim wore a beaded bracelet, shaking when he added vibrato, which serves as a specialized expressive device in this music. Na explained in her introduction that Kim is the first taegeum player to develop multiphonics on his instrument, and these formed a potent addition to the piece as it reached its conclusion.
The ensemble expanded for Akhmatova's Muse, inspired by Anna Akhmatova's poem The Muse. In keeping with the poet's account of listening to the muse, Na created a structure in which the ensemble of flute/alto flute, taegeum, oboe, piri and kayageum could respond to intense interaction with each other. The textures were among the most compelling of the day, as the two flutes and the two double reeds paired up and explored both their shared qualities and differences by holding and restating sustained pitches or short figures.
A rich soundscape
As the unpaired voice in the ensemble, kayageum player Jiyoung Yi was free to play more extended figures and sweeping lines over the sustained pitches of the winds, and displayed the expressive variety of this timbrally rich, 25-string instrument. With what seemed to be a great deal of freedom within the score, the players extended the piece a bit beyond what might have been its most concise statement, but rewarded the audience with a rich soundscape and deeply focused ensemble sense.
This unusual program also offered the opportunity to hear Korean composers who are little known here. Young-ja Lee, one of Korea's most distinguished composers, presented the world premiere of her Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon. The playing was beautifully shaped in the slow first movement, affecting a sense of unity even as the lines veered further and further apart. The following two movements were filled with inventive counterpoint, lines extended and rebalanced to create a satisfying whole.
The only work to use the full consort of Korean and Western instruments, Yun-Kyung Lee'sThread and Needle, was a brief and not terribly substantial work. Mixing Korean and Western folk songs, the work presented them, than scattered them into fragments, without finding its way to any greater musical purpose.
In the lone conventional wind quintet on the program, Citywinds brought an excellent balance and collective expression to Isang Yun's Wind Quintet of 1991, a work from the end of this esteemed composer's career. Despite the group's committed performance, this work's rapid first movement fell prey to the alternating, roundtable-discussion style of contrapuntal writing which is all to common in the wind quintet idiom and quickly grows wearying. The slow movement that ended the work, however, was compelling in its casting of the group as an orchestra of two sections, the rumbling low voices of the horn and bassoon mixing with the upper voices of flute, clarinet and oboe. The quintet dealt with the challenge of the gradually bending pitches at the work's end with great care and musicality.
(Benjamin Frandzel is a Bay Area musician and writer. In addition to writing concert music, he has collaborated with dance, theater, and visual artists, and has written about music for many publications and musical organizations. He is currently a graduate student in composition at San Francisco State University.) Click here to continue.
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