{"id":1102,"date":"2013-05-03T13:54:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T04:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/?p=1102"},"modified":"2019-08-28T14:29:04","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T00:29:04","slug":"mass-migration-premiere-in-gimhae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/mass-migration-premiere-in-gimhae\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Mass Migration&#8221; premiere in Gimhae"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last night I was to Gimhae, Korea for the premiere of a new piece commissioned and performed by the Gimhae Gayageum Orchestra. The ensemble, whose director is gayageum soloist and Seoul National University professor Yi Ji-young, is made up of 23 players plus 2 percussionists. For most recent pieces and arrangements the performers play on 25-string gayageums, making for a grand total of 575 strings of goodness. I\u2019ve always been attracted to groups of like-minded instruments, and this one may very well be my favorite. The homogeneity of the ensemble allows for some complex textures and all-around cool sounds.<\/p>\n<p>The concert featured a wide variety of performances, from \u201cgayageum byungchang\u201d (in which the performers sing and play) to a court dance. Highlights included the performance of Busan-based composer Park Sun Young\u2019s \u201cOutfocusing Love\u201d and a performance of Hwang Byungki\u2019s duo, arranged for gayageum and voice and performed by Yi Ji-young and Ahn Jeong-Ah.<\/p>\n<p>My contribution to the evening was \u201cMass Migration\u201d (the Korean title is \u201c\uc0c8\ub4e4\uc758 \ube44\ud589\u201d, translating to \u201cBirds in Flight\u201d), for the full orchestra and percussion. The inspiration for the piece comes from the movements of large flocks of birds as they travel South in autumn. These birds create fascinating patterns and shapes as they follow each other in looping paths that seem almost musical. Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"European Starlings Flock Art 2.\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tofsrud\/4170641701\/in\/faves-53966979@N00\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2704\/4170641701_9f32673909_z.jpg\" alt=\"European Starlings Flock Art 2.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>To create the effect of a large flock gathering and moving together, I asked that the performers begin and end the piece by playing with chopsticks on the strings, which creates a soft, haunting tone. What impressed me about this group \u2013 besides their fantastic performance \u2013 was their willingness and enthusiasm to try something new. Though their instrument has a long history and a wide repertoire, groups like these are still happy to explore new possibilities. So was the audience, who gave the piece a great response without a grumble to be heard. (Though perhaps I just didn\u2019t hear the grumbling.)<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Prof. Song Hyejin for some of the photos from the day\u2019s rehearsals and the evening concert, and thanks to the Gimhae Gayageum Orchestra for the great performance.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243;][vc_gallery el_id=&#8221;gallery-110975&#8243; medias=&#8221;1108,1109,1110,1111,1112,1113,1114,1115&#8243; gutter_size=&#8221;3&#8243; screen_lg=&#8221;1000&#8243; screen_md=&#8221;600&#8243; screen_sm=&#8221;480&#8243; single_overlay_opacity=&#8221;50&#8243; single_padding=&#8221;2&#8243; single_border=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last night I was to Gimhae, Korea for the premiere of a new piece commissioned and performed by the Gimhae [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81978,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions\/81978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomas-osborne.com\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}