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Selected Works
Heat Death (2023) - 8'00
(premiered by Wet Ink Ensemble)
for Cello, Percussion
Recording
With Art
Concert
Heat Death is one of the hypotheses of cosmic eschatology. It states that the universe will ultimately enter an eternal resting state after reaching maximum entropy. When I first heard about the concept, It reminded me of the chaotic beginning of a romantic relationship, which slowly fades as infatuation gives way to reality. I designed a musical drama for an ensemble that portrays a relationship between two adults who fall into a state of infatuation with each other. Much like the kinetic energy of the universe, their initial passion is not infinitely sustainable. Eventually, their rapture gives way to habits and routine, and the passion fades into nothingness.
Troglodyte (2024) - 9'00
Project: Still Warm
Collaborator: Heejo Kim
Collaboration Confleunce
(Exhibited at Area 405)
for Flute, Clarinet,
2 Percussions, Violin and Violoncello
Recording
With Art
In composing this piece, I took inspiration from Plato's commentary on "the effect of [experience] or lack of it on our nature" in The Republic. I am specifically referring to the Allegory of the cave from The Republic, 514a-520a book VII. I believe every individual lives in a cave of their own making, the construction of which is influenced by the pressures of expectation, culture, and individual desire. Much like the prisoners Plato describes, we perceive shadows cast by the light of those influences, and our limited consciousness accepts them as truth. Many of those shadows are terrifying, and we live in fear of things without knowing what they are. The longer we accept our position, the more difficult it is to reject complacency and seek out the nature of the shadows. By seeking to observe the objects casting the shadows directly, we discover that most of those objects are inconsequential, some may be beautiful, and some are truly terrifying. The difference now is that we have let go of baseless fear, found new joy, and only fear the things worth being afraid of.
Macguffin(2016) - 5'00
for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, 2 Percussions, 2 Cellos
Score and Recording
A MacGuffin is a film term that generalizes events, situations, characters or props which make the audience suspicious or tense by stimulating their curiosity despite being totally unrelated to the main flow of the film, and is a sort of trick device that keeps the audience from following the plot. The composer wrote the piece by borrowing this concept, and the piece is progressed by likening the trumpet to a MacGuffin. The trumpet seems important as if continuing to develop presence, but the main flow is in fact elsewhere. Gaze and device, expansion, and the ‘bokeh’ effect of the photography and image have been applied, with the greatest feature being that the textures are described in extreme detail according to each role. The trumpet moves as if it is central but in fact it alone is disorderly, whereas the others are organic. The organic feigns chance to seem disorderly but stands upright alone and in fact excludes the disorderly MacGuffin in order to make it stand out.
Synthetic Ocean(2020) - 8'12"
(premiered by Clarinetist
Heather Roche)
for Clarinet and Electronics
Recording
We call the gigantic pile of plastic stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean the plastic vortex. As well as other marine pollutions, plastic pollution shows its serious impacts on the marine ecosystem, especially on its creatures. You might see the videos of a sea turtle having a plastic straw removed from its nose and of the seagulls' guts being filled with the small pieces of plastics. This piece, Synthetic Ocean is composed inspired by these videos and several documentaries regarding plastic ocean pollution, such as A Plastic Ocean and The Mermaids' Tears: Oceans of Plastic. As these documentaries are showing microplastics have made the ocean toxic, and how those are consumed by the marine creatures, so threatens their lives, the pieces as well is depicting the poisoned (polluted) ocean, and the dead organism as well as the plastic vortex made by human and the Pacific Ocean current together. The composer depicts the soundscape through the symbolic sounds which the composer selected based on the contents of the piece to fit the big and small themes of the music and builds the structure of the piece along with the shape of the vortex.
Kusamakura(2024) - 8'24"(premiered by Pianist Jihwan Yoon)
for Piano Solo
Kusamakura is a novel written by Natsume Soseki focusing on the protagonist's appreciation of Spring and his contemplation of nature and the non-human world. Soseki observes that humans instinctually desire simplicity, spirituality, and synergy with nature, at odds with a desire for material wealth and status. In this piece, I hope to capture a particular scene in which the protagonist ventures out of the city, and rediscovers a sense of inner peace while horseback riding in the countryside. Much like the book reads as a translation of sketches to language, my intent is to translate Soseki's vivid descriptive imagery, and the Protagonist's rebalanced state of mind to melody.
Infant Goddess (2021) - 8'30"(premiered by Peabody Orchestra)
for Orchestra
Midi Recording
Acoustic Recording by
Peabody Orchestra
Somewhere on this planet, there are young girls who have been worshiped as living goddesses. Regardless of whether the girls have wanted the crown, the process of selecting the goddess itself is very tricky. Just to be considered as a candidate, the girls need to meet 32 physical conditions such as white teeth without gaps, dark eyes, long, slender arms, soft hands and feet, thighs like those of a deer, and a small and moist tongue. Only the girls who meet these 32 conditions are shifted to a hut that is full of animal carcasses and their bloodstains. The girls are made to spend a whole night inside the dark, lightless hut by themselves. Among them, the one who does not reveal her fear and who does not cry at all is finally chosen as their new living goddess. Young goddesses are asked to live in the temple. While the children who are the same age as the goddesses go to school, l earn to socialize, and improve themselves, these young goddesses are only worshiped, sitting in a sacred chair, getting strangers' kisses on their feet. They are not allowed to talk and run. All of their behaviors are interpreted revelation. They are raised not a human but goddess, however, it is only until when they have their first menstruation. Young goddesses who start to have menstruation are no longer regarded as a goddess. Once they start to have menstruation, they are no longer regarded as holy but impure. People who made them goddess, made them lose their statue of a goddess. However, they, who lived more than half of their lives as a goddess, have no ordinary lives to go back to since they've never had them. No one is trying to take responsibility for the lives of these young goddesses who are now thought to be disgraced. They cannot even dream of being married since people believe men who married the women who were once being the goddess will certainly be miserable for the rest of their lives. Some of them are also unwelcomed by their own family either. Some expelled goddesses, therefore, had no choice but to go out on the streets and sell themselves to be survived. This piece portrays the lives of those little goddesses and the soundscape surrounding them. This piece will let you feel that the beautiful temple which once embraced them, and the beautiful clothes and makeups which once covered them, was not something sublime, but it was just a beautiful mire. I also hope you feel the tranquil brutality from the music which, I believe, is the nature of the life of a living goddess.
Black River (2016) - 9'00"
for Large Ensemble
‘Black river, the Zong Massacre’, is a piece about a massacre on African slaves which occurred in the slave ship ‘Zong’. ‘Zong Massacre’ was an event in which the crew of slave ship Zong threw away 142 African slaves alive for a few days from November 29, 1781 because of overload of the ship. The composer represented symbols of the era and aligned African sounds and symbol sounds which the composer selected based on contents of the piece to fit the big and small themes of the music. The reason why the main title of the song is ‘Black river’ instead of ‘Zong Massacre’ was that the final destination of the tragedy was a river named ‘Black river’ in Jamaica. A memorial stone was set up in Jamaica in memory of Zong Massacre and this tragic event has become the theme of several modern novels, warning against human brutality.
A Kaleidoscope (2015) - 7'30"
for Woodwind Quintet
This musical piece titled 'Kaleidoscope' contains patterns and derivation as well as perspective and dispersion from various angles. With derivation and division as its main motiv, tones that match each sound compose this piece and the composer created this piece with the trait of a kaleidoscope which is characterized by 'one from multiple angles and dispersed multiples from one.' With single movement, this piece is the first part of Kaleidoscope series which will be composed of a total of 3 parts. The subtitle of first part, 'kalos' means beauty of appearance. for reference, the tern Kaleidoscope originated from Greek 'kalos(beautiful)', 'eidos(shape)' and 'skopein'(see).' Transformations of the music based on the change in symmetry, division, reflection and acute angle are the main elements of this piece which has only a single movement.
Selected Works
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