Sunday, June 5, 2016<\/p>\n
I begin with events featuring my music because there has been a change:<\/p>\n
The June 12, 2016, performance of Quiltings <\/em>at the Fresno Art Museum has been postponed<\/em><\/strong> to a future date, most likely August 7, 2016, at 2:00 pm. Please watch this blog for a confirming announcement soon.<\/p>\n June 19, 2016, 9:00 am, at First Presbyterian Church, 1540 M Street, Fresno, California, during the worship service: Walter Saul will perform \u201cBridalveil Falls,\u201d with the video, from Quiltings<\/em> for the offertory.<\/p>\n Texu Kim:\u00a0Monastic Sceneries<\/em><\/p>\n If there ever was an unbridgeable chasm between two different kinds of music, it would definitely be between the Gospel hymn \u201cWonderful Peace\u201d (Words by Warren D. Cornell and music by George Cooper written in 1889 for a Methodist camp meeting in Wisconsin)[1]<\/a> and the modernistic Monastic Sceneries<\/em> completed by Texu Kim in 2013 for his doctoral recital at Indiana University.[2]<\/a> This work is a marvelous reflection on Kim\u2019s own spiritual heritage, which itself seems to bridge the two worlds of Western Presbyterianism and indigenous Korean spiritualism. The work is \u201cin memory of my beloved grandmother,\u201d[3]<\/a> who prayed extensively throughout her life.<\/p>\n And yet, Kim somehow unites these two unreconcilable worlds of music by having the chamber orchestra of ten quote the tune as sung by a small group of mothers unconcerned with pitch and rhythm, and this is a perfect fit for both the modernistic and postmodern realms. The latter is well represented by the heterophonic presentation of the hymn tune, while modernism is evident in the many different tonal and timbral effects called upon, especially in the strings.<\/p>\n Speaking of modernism, Kim himself compares his second movement, \u201cIncantation,\u201d to Igor Stravinsky\u2019s Rite of Spring.<\/em> As his work emerges exactly a century after the Rite,<\/em> it would be quite natural to celebrate this epochal piece in his own writing, as many others have done. Indeed, the Rite\u2019s<\/em> unrelenting ostinatos, massed sonorities, and wildly unpredictable rhythms are woven into the fabric of this energetic movement. But I hear many influences of other significant composers over all three movements, particularly Charles Ives and Krzysztof Penderecki.<\/p>\n The layout of Monastic Sceneries<\/em> strongly resembles Ives\u2019 Third Symphony, \u201cThe Camp Meeting.\u201d Both works bookend the fast movement in the middle with two slower and more meditative movements, and even the titles evoke similar images. Monastic Sceneries<\/em> begins with \u201cSmall Group Gathering for a Religious Service\u201d while the Ives work opens with \u201cOld Folks Gatherin,\u201d which itself suggests a hymn sing.[4]<\/a> The second, livelier, movements are, respectively, \u201cIncantation,\u201d and \u201cChildren\u2019s Day,\u201d and both feature many repeated notes and energetic rhythms. The finales of the two works are \u201cPrayers\u201d and \u201cCommunion,\u201d both of which suggest spiritual intimacy with the Lord. Perhaps Kim was even influenced by Ives\u2019 deft quotations of the hymns in \u201cThe Camp Meeting\u201d many of which he surely played for services at the two Presbyterian congregations he served in New Jersey and New York City as he was composing this work. Interestingly enough, Ives\u2019 Pulitzer-Prize-winning work was completed in 1911, barely two years before the Rite.<\/em><\/p>\n Another comparison between \u201cThe Camp Meeting\u201d and Monastic Sceneries <\/em>is the similar instrumentation. While Ives called for a full string section, his woodwinds and brass are strikingly parallel to Kim\u2019s chamber ensemble, which adds only a piano for its percussion section.<\/p>\n Penderecki\u2019s influence is also writ large in Monastic Sceneries.<\/em> Many of Kim\u2019s stunning string effects seem made possible by Penderecki\u2019s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,<\/em> which explores the realms of microtones (quarter sharps and flats), tone clusters, extended string techniques, and aleatoric repetitions of gestures and motives. In the last few moments of \u201cIncantation\u201d there is a vibrant crescendo<\/em> to a cliffhanging climax that adroitly combines the Rite\u2019s<\/em> rhythmic drive with the Threnody\u2019s<\/em> aleatoric repetitions of patterns. It is a marvelous moment that is beautifully answered with the calmness of the opening strains of \u201cPrayers.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of \u201cPrayers\u201d and that remarkable double bass solo over the rumbling vamp of the piano, I cannot help but think of \u201cCage Machine\u201d written in the mid-1990\u2019s by Paul Dresher for his Electro-Acoustic Band of six musicians.[5]<\/a> This was originally the first movement of a violin concerto accompanied by the band, which included an electronically \u201cprepared\u201d synthesizer, hence the name \u201cCage Machine.\u201d Kim, however, keeps his sounds all acoustic, but the descending lines of the double bass here resemble the descending lines of the violin solo in Dresher\u2019s work.<\/p>\n One very neat rhythmic effect begins in the midst of \u201cIncantation\u201d around the six-minute mark on the YouTube video footnoted above. By cleverly alternating quarter, eighth, and dotted-eighth notes, Kim achieves a magical rhythm effect that resembles at times a lopsided waltz, but is always mesmerizing.<\/p>\n I also admire Kim\u2019s ability to share his faith and spiritual heritage so boldly, even as he, like Ives, sharply departs from music languages accessible in church! He has done so in a very engaging way, which is amply demonstrated in the multiple performances this work has received around the world and the significant awards it has won. This work deserves many more performances and listenings, and the YouTube video is a superb and well-prepared performance of this piece, and may be found at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-8KfA0cbRBQ<\/a>. To experience the \u201cunbridgeable\u201d chasm, search YouTube for the hymn \u201cWonderful Peace\u201d and listen to both traditional and Contemporary Christian presentations. Kim has indeed bridged that chasm!<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nHB8JcX_A0g<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2016<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-8KfA0cbRBQ<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2016<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Texu Kim. Monastic Sceneries.<\/em> Bloomington, Indiana: www.texukim.com<\/a>, 2013<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> http:\/\/www.musicsalesclassical.com\/composer\/work\/29245<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2016<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/album\/cage-machine\/id78645300<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday, June 5, 2016 I begin with events featuring my music because there has been a change: The June 12, 2016, performance of Quiltings at the Fresno Art Museum has been postponed to a future date, most likely August 7, 2016, at 2:00 pm. Please watch this blog for a confirming announcement soon. June 19,… Read More »Texu Kim: Monastic Sceneries<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,23,12,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cfamc","category-fresno-art-museum","category-music-reviews","category-performances"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}