Tuesday Night New Music: Wu, Xu, Kim, Alvarado, Yang, Sang, Hayden, Li, Lanning

Zining Wu | Koharubiyori (小春日和) (2023)

Ziang Yin, piano
Fixed media

Yangfan Xu | Uplifting Melodies of the Summer Wind (2023)

K. J. McDonald, violin
Jonah Kernis, cello
Bairun Liu, piano

Program note

Uplifting Melodies of the Summer Wind is a one-movement piano trio commissioned by the Impulse New Music Festival 2023. The music is inspired by a personal memory between me and my neighbor’s dog Bernie who passed away in the summer of 2022.
        Bernie is a corgi and lab mix. I thought he was the most adorable-looking dog when I first saw him. I met Bernie on Christmas Eve in 2020. I was dogsitting him for a week. The moment I woke up the next morning and saw his big smile, I knew it was the best Christmas gift I’d ever received. I enjoy dogsitting him more than anything. He was fun, chill, and a real gentleman. We went to Central Park every day and Bernie acted like a real puppy when he saw a grassland though he was already a senior. In the summer of 2021, Bernie’s joint pain got worse and he no longer enjoyed long walks, especially on a hot summer day. It was on July 5th, I took him on an evening stroll and he was finally feeling like walking. We went to Central Park again, his top one favorite spot in NYC, and we watched the sunset quietly standing next to each other. Everything I felt was the gentle wind and the sound of a heavily breathing dog, my favorite dog. And I knew I would never see a sunset more beautiful than that.                                                                                 
–  Yangfan Xu

Dohyun Kim | The Sun and the Moon (2023)

Subee Kim, flute

Program note

This piece was written for Subee Kim and duration is 10 minutes. From her childhood, she fondly recalls her father’s recitation of a traditional Korean folk tale, “The Sun and the Moon.” However, her father’s narrations often concluded in the middle of the tale, leaving her yearning for the story’s completion. Collaborating with Subee Kim, I undertook the task of transcribing the first half, rooted in the authentic folk narrative, and subsequently crafted the latter portion based on our imagined interpretations.
        The original tale starts with the introduction of a mother, a brother, and a sister. Threatening tiger encounters the mother and says, “If you offer me a rice cake, I shall spare you,” while initiating a chase. Despite her attempts to flee, the mother encounters the tiger two more times, ultimately meeting a grim fate in the jaws of the relentless predator. The tiger, now targeting the children, employs the same demand, “If you provide a rice cake, I shall refrain from devouring you!” and thus embarks on a pursuit. This is the moment at which Subee’s father’s narrations often left off, motivating her to continue the story with her own narration.
       In our rendition, the sister uncovers the truth: the tiger was merely a product of her brother’s protective deception, a symbolic tiger made up by her brother to teach her about the harsh realities of the world. While this revelation initially sends the sister into a state of hysteria, she eventually finds inner peace and embarks on a journey to live life on her own terms.
        In composing The Sun and The Moon, I sought to capture the essence of this beautiful tale through both traditional and contemporary musical elements. I used a range of extended techniques, including playing and singing, pitch bending, multiphonics, air sounds, and lip trembling. Air sounds and lip trembling evoke the timbral nuances of traditional Korean instrument Daegeum infusing the piece with the spirit of Korean folklore. The piece opens a portal to the past, inviting the listener to embark on a musical adventure through a cherished Korean fairy tale.
– Dohyun Kim

Genie Alvarado | Hate to Return (2023)

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Amelia Kazazaian, flute

Program note

Hate to Return (2023), written for solo flute in three movements, explores feelings of being overwhelmed, and all nuances involved. In my former high school, my classmates loved to talk. Chatter would fill every corner of the school and at any hour of the day, one could never catch a break! I found that my social battery would drain quickly, and often found myself overwhelmed by all the constant noise. I wrote this piece to reflect the experience of confronting too much stimuli, and how any individual may process a similar situation.
         The title refers to the dread I experienced whenever I would have to go into one of these situations. It also references how if one manages to catch a break, whether it be through a bathroom break or an office visit, one still knows they must eventually return to the chatter.                                                       
– Genie Alvarado               

Jackson Yang | Untitled (2023)

Anne Chao, flute
Soyeon Park, clarinet

Program note

This Piece includes three small pieces: Untitled-A, Untitled-B & Untitled-C.
– Jackson Yang

Frank Sang | In the Spartan Campaign (2023)

Preparation
Marching to War
The Last Stand

Noah Korenfeld, Alex Russell, Becca Bertekap, trombone
Jason Sato, bass trombone

Program note

The Battle of Thermopylae was a war between an alliance of Greek city states led by Sparta and the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I. It was one of the most prominent battles of the second Persian invasion of Greece and the wider Greco-Persian Wars. Under the command of Leonidas I, 300 Spartan infantries fought to their last drop of blood in order to defend their motherland. This piece is dedicated to these heroic 300 Spartan warriors who sacrificed their lives during the battle of Thermopylae. In this piece, I used 3 quotations: a short passage from Shostakovich Symphony No. 13, a Soviet march: ”В путь” (Let’s go), and the Imperial Russian march “Прощание Славянки (Farewell of Slavianka)”.                                        
– Frank Sang

Cameron Hayden | Four Canon-Duets (2023)

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Anna Ridenour, flute, piccolo
Sarah Cho, clarinet, bass clarinet

Program note

Four Canon-Duets, written in the fall of 2023, is about six minutes in duration and is scored for flute and clarinet, with the added doublings of piccolo and bass clarinet. Each movement features a specific pair of instruments drawn from these possibilities, which is unique to each individual movement. All four duets use a twelve-tone series in their construction and are treated canonically, yielding one or more canons in each duet. In the second and third duets, the canons break out of strict imitation into free counterpoint. Even when strict imitation is broken, the voices still imitate each other often, yet use the freedom to become more independent and conversational. The first and fourth duets, however, are strictly imitative throughout, taking advantage of the natural differences in the instruments showcase the same line in a different context.
– Cameron Hayden

Yunqi Li | 莲韵(Yun Lian) (2023)

Shengyu Cui, flute
Chasity Thompson, bass clarinet
Hechen Sun, cello
Bairun Liu, piano
Mingcheng Zhou, Zijian Luo, percussion
Junfei Li, drums
Changjin Ha, conductor    

Program note

Distorted quarter notes,
Twisted blank words,
Palsied white lightning,
Yesterday is coming.
Useless melodies,
Periodic dreams,
Timeless clocks,
Yesterday is coming.
Sun,
Moon,
Yesterday is coming.
Looking at the sky,
You are shining with the stars.

– Yunqi Li

Mathew Lanning | from The Exquisitely Fancy Dinner Party (2023)

III. Gigue à la Gourmet

Mathew Lanning, harpsichord
Honor Hickman, flute
Alexander Lenser, English horn
Seth Goldman, bassoon
Kearston Gonzales, Bowen Chen, violin
Nicolette Sullivan-Cozza, viola
Miruna Eynon, cello
Colby Heimburger, double bass

Program note

Professor Mathew Lanning’s Exquisitely Fancy Dinner Party has ended abruptly after a murder(ous performance) has occurred! Now the night has devolved into a perilous tarantella of mistrust and accusations.
        The third and final movement of the Fancy Dinner Party Concerto Grosso, Gigue á la Gourmet, is a furious contrapuntal jig based on the 20th century British American folk tune, The Hearse Song:

“Don’t ever laugh as the hearse goes by,
For you may be the next to die…
…Your eyes fall out and your teeth decay,
And that is the end of a perfect day.”

The composition (de-composition, if you will), features the tune along with two other melodies, which twist and snake through contrapuntal features: a triple fugue, canons, and dynamic interwoven themes that appear and disappear unexpectedly. It finishes with a virtuosic cadenza that prickles through the harpsichord like spiders through a rotting corpse.                                                                              
– Mathew Lanning