Pieces of the Sky

I. Some blind girls ask questions of the moon

II. Your illusion, sun, is to make the garden turn technicolor

III. Beneath the tender protest of the stars

IV. Singing, the Seven Maidens (Theory of the rainbow)

Written in 2009, Pieces of the Sky is my first work for a Korean traditional instrument. As I began to consider this new piece I was spending time with the poetry of Spanish writer Frederico Garcia Lorca, whose poems often conjure images of our natural surroundings. I chose to write four short pieces, each based on a fragment of Lorca’s poetry describing some facet of the sky: the moon, the sun, the stars and – poetically described as “The Seven Maidens” – a rainbow. I’ve composed these as musical poems, borrowing forms from written verse. Each is an understated exploration of the versatility and beauty of the gayageum.

These pieces are written for and dedicated to Jiyoung Yi, who gave the premiere in the summer of 2009 in Seoul.