Ascent (오름)

Perhaps the most delicate request a composer can receive is to incorporate someone else’s music into his or her own work. The composer’s challenge is to respect and highlight the original music while still finding a path to self-expression. So when I was approached to write this piece, one that would incorporate Kim Mu-gil’s geomungo sanjo, I first spent a long time getting to know the sanjo, until I felt I’d nearly memorized it. I then wrote a piece that, like the sanjo form itself, accumulates energy as it goes. As the sanjo moves through various rhythmic patterns (jangdan) the orchestra becomes more and more involved, and more energized as well. The overall trajectory of the piece is one of ascent, beginning in the depths and moving higher over time.

The piece was commissioned by the Jeollabuk-do Provincial Institute for Korean Traditional Performing Arts.