Verses

The title for this concerto alludes to the inspiration for its composition. “Verses” refers to the Korean poems (sijo) that inspired each movement. Each of these poems shares the common theme of water, and the piece is meant to evoke water in all its forms, from calm rippling surfaces to frozen landscapes to intense churning waves. Below I’ve excerpted the sections of the poems that inspired this work (The poems were originally written in Chinese, though these are English translations):

Lost among flowers, the boat returns late,
Expecting the moon, it drifts slowly down the shoals.
Though I am drunk, I still drop a line:
The boat moves on, but not my dream.
-Song Ik-pil

How wonderful, notes drawn out and released,
How pleasant, reaping waves of sound.
-Sin Sukchu

The springtime mountain is on fire;
buds are burning unopened.
Enough water is at hand
to vanquish the headland blaze.
But smokeless embers in my heart
rage beyond all water.
-Kim Tongnyon

The first movement begins with a bit of celebration before moving into driving passages which are at times meant to imitate the sounds of oars pushing through water.

The second movement provides a sharp contrast to the first, with long tones flowing in and out of each other.

The final movement begins with an intense rippling, which builds into a raging tide of waves before moving back to the celebratory mood from the beginning of the movement.

Verses was originally composed for Korean traditional orchestra, was subsequently revised for Western orchestra in 2015 and for chamber orchestra in 2017.

The work is available in 3 versions:

1.) Gugak orchestra

2.) Western orchestra (2-2-2-2, 4-2-2-0, Timp, 2 perc, strings)

3.) Western chamber orchestra (fl, ob, 2 cl, bsn, 2hn, tpt, 2 perc, strings)