Works for an Orchestra

Live performance video 

Score video (audio remastered by Popsick) 

Nomenclature

• Violin 1 (a~e)

• Violin 2 (a~e)

• Viola (1~4)

• Violoncello (1~4)

• Contrabass (1, 2)

commissioned by Johannes Leertouwer on behalf of SNU Ensemble Academy

Premiered in 18.NOV.2022

The title is directly drawn from Méditations sur le mystère de la sainte Trinité, but it has no connection to the original usage of the phrase. 

It started out as a reference to the communicable language of violence, and evoke an impression of destructive tendency of communication of nowadays as the theme of the concert was “Music for Strings in Times of War”.

But then I started composing with a material by myself from the past, and recomposing the material and accumulating it with Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.8, Op.110’s materials (as the piece was going to be featured alongside with my new piece), and the words became empty like husks, then the music starts to speak for itself, becoming the true communicable language.

The composition contains several references of Shostakovich. For example, a whole section created from time-stretching the beginning of the 2nd Movement of the String Quartet No.8 about 8 times longer, ending section that disassembles the “Klezmer” theme from the same piece, and several new themes derived from the piece, but not the DSCH theme. After all, I am not Mr.Shostakovich, and this is my piece.

Date of composition : (2022)

Live performance video 

Nomenclature

2(2.db.Piccolo) - 2(2.db.Eng.Hn.) - 2 - 2 / 4 - 2 - 1 - 0 / 1 / Pf. / Vn.1 - Vn.2 - Va. - Vc. - Cb.

commissioned by Artisee Kammerorchester

live on 28.JUN.2024

 Kilroy, known lexically as "the name of a mythical male figure." We have no way of knowing who he is.

 The same goes for this piece. We have no way of knowing what this piece is trying to convey. And like the contradiction of this cheerful, French-style tonal music telling the story of a person I don't even know, the music is wrapped in multiple layers of contradiction, presenting the listener with a puzzling enigma that is clear and easy to understand, yet leaves us questioning whether it even intends to tell a story.

 If anyone here knows Mr. Kilroy, please send him regards, whether he is in heaven or hell!

Date of composition : (2024)

Nomenclature

• 2 Flutes (2. db. Piccolo)

• 2 Oboes (2. db. English Horn)

• 2 Clarinets (2. db. Bass Clarinet)

• 2 Bassoons (2. db. Contrabassoon)

• 4 Horns

• 2 Trumpet

• 2 Tenor Trombone

• 1 Bass Trombone

• 1 Tuba

• 3 Percussionists

• Harpsichord (db. Celesta)

• Harp

• Viola Solo

• 6 Violins 1

• 5 Violins 2

• 4 Violas

• 4 Violoncellos

• 3 Contrabasses

composed on occasion of KCO 2026 emerging composers award - grand prize winner

 Rhetorics and practices of ornamentation in Italian baroque music has only caught my attention, and especially the styles of Arcangelo Corelli, Pietro Locatelli, and Giuseppe Tartini in instrumental music. These three composers are connected in the development of Concerto and Sonata of the early 18th century, however in their goals and artistic directions – they are very different. Especially comparing Corelli’s intricate forms and reserved attitude with virtuosity with Locatelli’s simpler forms and exploration in extreme virtuosity and corporeality, the difference is quite noticeable. Tartini in some aspect, seems like a combination between these two but the rapid and capricious change in characters and textures in his music is quite like none other.

 In compositional techniques, I tried to adapt and utilize the ancient techniques such as quasi-hoquetus voice-crossing and (h)enharmonic harmonies among many others, assimilate into my own musical language – not to make something neo-baroque, but make something new and fresh. In a way, this is my attempt in reconciliation with the music I used to like when I was young. This is where harpsichord comes in – it implies us of the seating plan of the baroque orchestra, and it questions us in relationship of past and present.

 In form, the piece is heavily based on ritornello form, which only solidified in Vivaldi’s time (which is much later than Corelli’s), trying to explore the art of return and reprises. However in contrast to the original ritornello form, this work erases the clarity of it with sections and subsections with uneven ratios and loops. The work foregrounds processes of repetition, deviation, and partial recognition. In this respect, the piece may also be understood as a condensed sonata da chiesa: it retains the formal outline of the genre while replacing its internal logic with a transformed ritornello-mechanism—one that metaphorically enacts a continuous return toward an increasingly unstable point of origin.

 “The smell of death and Italian food is in the air!”—a phrase, which evokes a tension between decay and vitality, distance and immediacy, that underlies the work as a whole.

Date of composition : (2026)

Nomenclature

• 3 Flutes (Flute - Alto Flute - Bass Flute)

• 3 Oboes (Oboe - English Horn - Bass Oboe(Heckelphone))

• 3 Clarinets (Clarinet - Clarinet - Bass Clarinet)

• 3 Bassoons (Bassoon - Bassoon - Contrabassoon)

• 4 Horns

• 2 Trumpet

• 2 Tenor Trombone

• 1 Bass Trombone

• 1 Tuba

• 3 Percussionists

• Harp

• Oboe Solo (English Horn and Bass Oboe)

• 6 Violins 1

• 5 Violins 2

• 4 Violas

• 4 Violoncellos

• 3 Contrabasses

Date of composition : (2026)

Nomenclature

• 3 Flutes 

• 3 Oboes 

• 3 Clarinets 

• 3 Bassoons 

• 4 Horns

• 2 Trumpet

• 2 Tenor Trombone

• 1 Bass Trombone

• 1 Tuba

• 3 Percussionists

• Harp

• 8 Violins 1

• 6 Violins 2

• 6 Violas

• 4 Violoncellos

• 4 Contrabasses

The immortality of the crab

Of all the immortalities, I believe in
only yours, friend crab.
    People break into your body,
plop you into boiling water,
    flush you out of house and home.
But torture and affliction
Make no apparent end of you. No...

Not you, poor despicable crab -
brief tenant in this mortal carapace
of your individuality; fleeting creature
of flesh that quails between our teeth;
Not you but others of your eternal species:
infinite crab:
    take over the beach.

-  José Emilio Pacheco

Date of composition : (2026)