Carmen Perpetuum
For string orchestra 15’ (2017)
Published by Universal Edition.
Program Note
Taking its title from the beginning of Ovid’s ”Metamorphoses,” Carmen Perpetuum, or ”unbroken song,” unfolds into two contrasting sections. The first section introduces a somewhat meditative character in a moderate tempo, gradually increasing in intensity, followed by a fast and unceasing motto perpetuo section. In the beginning, a melodic-harmonic line serves as the underpinning for the entire piece, accumulating the musical energy throughout the first section of the composition to eventually produce something new and highly energetic at the end. The musical material employed in the piece was initially featured in the first movement from Two Canons for organ solo (2007, rev. 2017). However, what unites the piece musically is a constantly recurring melody, spiral-like canons embracing the cantus firmus that, to quote Gabrielle Starr in her book Feeling Beauty (2013), becomes ”a song never-ending in its transformation and evolution” (146). This concept of a never-ending song is deeply rooted in the ancient Greek and Roman cultures, symbolizing the eternal nature of music.
Angel Antiphons
For chamber orchestra
(1-1-1-1, 1-1-0-0, timp, perc(1), hp, strings) 8’ (2015)
Score available at Universal Edition.
Program Note
The work can best be described as a joyous celebration of life and music. The musical material, consisting of two contrasting ideas, propels the spiral-like form whose formal and structural framework reveals ceremonial and ritual-like sections on one end and more fluid and exuberant ones on the other. The slower sections in the piece elaborate on a short melodic fragment taken from Britten's anthem for mixed choir and organ Antiphon, composed in 1956.
Cantabilamente
For orchestra (3-3-3-3, 4-3-3-3, timp, perc(3), hp, strings) 13’
Program Note
Cantabilamente takes its title and musical material from a fragment of glagolitic chant from the Island of Hvar in Croatia. Known as a unique collection of folk melodies intended as religious lamentations, the glagolitic chant offers a particular type of musical material suggestive of contemplative musical space. The piece begins and ends with a prologue and epilogue that unfolds a litany of melodic iterations. This process suggests a ritual-like structure whereby the ensuing presentation of musical material embodies a procession-like experience comprised of the continuous transformations of orchestral textures and instrumental colors. The transparent overtones of lament coalesce into the resonance of emotional intensity, ranging from the dark and expressive sustained lines, opaque and suspended at times, to the bright and solemn exuberance of the dense sonorities.
Cord[echo]es
For violin and orchestra (2-2-2-2, 2, 3, 2, 1, timp, perc(3), vln, strings 15’
Program Note
Cord[echo]es is a ritual-like, ceremonial concerto for violin and chamber orchestra based on Bach’s Chaconne in d minor from Partita no. 2 for solo violin, BWV 1004. The piece is based on a continuous process of gradual transformation from a significantly modified manifestations of Bach’s chaconne to its brief quotation in the cadenza. The form of the concerto can best be described as a spiral: the prologue and epilogue that open and close the work enclose the reinstatements (commentaries and couplets) of the two contrasting sections that unfold and move the music forward.
Qualia
Sinfonia concertante for organ, harp, timpani and strings 15’
Published by Universal Edition.
Program Note
As a sinfonia concertante for organ, string orchestra, harp, and timpani, Qualia takes as inspiration the notion of our inner sense perceptions, also known as 'qualia,' a term used in the philosophy and psychology of to allude to discrete instances and qualities of conscious awareness, emotion, and experience. Envisioned as an organ concerto, Qualia is a musical representation of introspective affective states reflected through a dynamic array of evocative harmonies, melodies, rhythms, and textures.
Suizen
Symphonic evocation for shakuhachi flute and orchestra (2-2-2-2, 2-2-2-1, timp, perc(3), hp, shak. fl, strings) 9’
Published by Universal Edition.
Program Note
Influenced by traditional Asian religious practices and music performance, this evocation for shakuhachi and orchestra is inspired by ‘suizen’ — a blowing meditation; suizen is known as a form of Zen practice characterized by the ritual of playing the shakuhachi bamboo flute (a Japanese end-blown flute) as a means of achieving a state of self-realization. Suizen may be best described as a tone poem for orchestra — a sound image of the moments of inner reflection and musical experience. The instrumentation enhances this experience whereby the oscillations of harmonies, melodies, and rhythms resemble one’s breathing – the experience suggested in the opening and closing sections of the work.
Suizen received the 2011 Seattle Symphony Composition Prize "Celebrate Asia Festival."
Performances
- Seattle Symphony Orchestra; Stilian Kirov, conductor; Hanz Araki, shakuhachi flute. Celebrate Asia Festival. Benaroya Hall, Seattle Symphony, Seattle, WA