composer



Sunrise, Sunset (2006)

Sunrise, Sunset received its premiere performance on February 17, 2011 by the Michigan State University Concert Band, Cormac Cannon conducting.

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Publisher: C. Alan Publications

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Scored for Piccolo, Flutes 1, 2; Oboes 1, 2; Soprano Clarinet in Eb, Clarinets in Bb 1, 2; Bassoons 1, 2; Alto Saxophones 1, 2, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone; Trumpets in Bb 1, 2; Horns in F 1, 2; Trombones 1, 2, Bass Trombone; Euphonium; Tuba; Percussion 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Duration: 8 minutes.

 

Sunrise, Sunset - excerpt 1

Sunrise, Sunset - excerpt 2

Sunrise, Sunset - excerpt 3

Sunrise, Sunset - excerpt 4

Sunrise, Sunset - excerpt 5

 

The Samul-Nori is a performance practice based on ancient Korean folk music. The Samul-Nori is enjoying something of a rebirth in Korea as a popular entertainment performed on stage rather than in the fields. In the summer of 2005, one of my former doctoral students in composition, Soonmee Park, now a distinguished Professor of Composition in one of Seoul’s finest universities, was visiting the United States. Dr. Park spent two weeks in East Lansing, and during our reunion she gave me DVD and CD performances of several forms of traditional Korean music. When I viewed the lavish Samul-Nori performance, I was immediately struck by the power unleashed by the four percussionists and the manner in which the music unfolds in a spiritual communal fashion not unlike that of the Indonesian gamalan orchestra performances. Dancers, running and leaping, long tassels flowing from their headpieces, join in from time to time. The moods of the Samul-Nori seem to range from the gentle to the most ferocious and convulsive, often passing through everything in between.

I was inspired to write not an imitation of what I heard and saw, but a piece with somewhat of a ritualistic quality in which ‘drumming’ would provide the constant thread. Over this filament, melodies in the winds, one, two, and three at a time would dance to the beat. I would not, and should not, attempt to emulate true Korean folk practices. The similarity would lie simply in the fact that my ideas were spawned deep from within my imagination and that these ideas seemed to express the activities associated with some communal practices deigned to express both sadness and joy.

Jere Hutcheson, 2006

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