The Wind Has No Destination
for kayageum solo

by Hyo-shin Na

The Wind Has No Destination has parallels with Zbigniew Herbert's poem A Journey. The poem has seven stanzas, the first of which is:

If you set out on a journey let it be long
Wandering that seems to have no aim groping your way blindly
So you learn the roughness of the earth not only with your eyes
But by touch
So you confront the world with your skin


In a traditional setting, the player will frequently re-tune the instrument in the course of the performance, correcting subtle changes of pitch that tend to occur as the bridges shift their position slightly; in this piece the player is asked to refrain from re-tuning during the piece. The player is also asked to pluck the strings on both sides of the bridges whereas the tradition is to pluck only on the right side of the bridges.

The Wind Has No Destination was commissioned by Eunah Kwak and was given its first performance by Ms. Kwak in November, 1999 at the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts in Seoul, Korea