Aura

8 soloists and Korean traditional orchestra
(2014) 22′


Recording

Recording


included on Respect for Tradition by the Busan National Gugak Center OrchestraPurchase
Purchase

Aura

Price: $20.00
Format :

Score PDF files will be available for download immediately after purchase. If ordered, PDF parts will be sent shortly by email. Hard copies will be shipped as soon as possible.

Busan National Gugak Center Orchestra; Kwon Sung-Taek, conductor

Whenever one is asked to add to an existing masterpiece, it is an intimidating proposition. When that existing art work comes from a different culture and has its own rich and complex history, it makes the task even more daunting. How does one add anything to a masterpiece? How is one qualified to do so?

In Aura, I have incorporated the music of ajaeng master Park Dae Sung’s own sanjo. Rather than making changes to the sanjo itself, I’ve chosen instead to construct an elaborate frame around the work as one might do with a painting. Mr. Park’s music is very much at the center of the piece, and I have written music for the orchestra as my own reaction to the sanjo. After an orchestral introduction, the sanjo begins, and the orchestra comments on and echoes many of the musical statements by the soloists. Nearly all the orchestra’s music derives from the sanjo melodies themselves, creating a blurred haze around the original music, an aura that is meant as a tribute to the original work.

Aura was composed for the Busan National Gugak Orchestra and is dedicated to the members of that orchestra and their conductor, Kwon Sung-Taek, who has been visionary in his programming of new music for the orchestra.

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