Concerts

Jump to Friday, April 4 Concert

Thursday, April 3, 2025, 7:00pm

Sonic Intercultural Evolutions

Horowitz Theatre, University of Alberta

Program

水节奏 Water Rhythm (2022)

Jeffrey Roberts

PAN Project Ensemble

saenghwang, gamin; guqin, electronics, Jeff Roberts; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim 

In East Asian traditions (i.e. Chinese, Korean, Japanese), musical instrument mimicry of water is common. The Chinese guqin (7-stringed zither) uses a string-raking technique that imitates the sound of flowing water. The rhythmic patterns of the Korean barrel drum janggu are associated with water as well. Through my practice of soundscape composition, I developed a subtler sonic awareness of connections between instrumental sounds imitating water and actual water sounds in nature. For example, in listening to sounds of a rainy landscape, I noticed how the rhythms of louder rain drops standing out from the overall complex texture of rain created scattered, accented rhythms similar to the rhythms of Korean janggu in slower-tempo music. In the piece ‘Water Rhythm’ I attempt to synthesize these two worlds, merging the scattered, accented rhythms of Korean janggu and the flowing sounds of guqin with field recordings of rainy landscapes. Found objects create a meeting point between the instruments and field recordings and help to produce an integrated sound world of flowing and spontaneous rhythm, melodic gesture and texture.

True Love Peach Blossom (2025)

Chihchun Chisun-Lee

PAN Project Ensemble & CAMP Ensemble

saenghwang, gamin; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim; Eunmi Ko, breath controlled piano; trumpet, Arda Cabaoglu

True Love Peach Blossom is a special composition celebrating the union and wedding of two exceptional musicians from the Contemporary Art Music Project: Finnish violinist Dr. Sini Vritanen and Turkish trumpet player Dr. Arda Cabaoglu. This piece is uniquely crafted for both the CAMP and PAN Project Ensemble, featuring an intercultural blend of instruments, including the Japanese shakuhachi, Korean piri and janggu, the Suzuki Andes 25F (a Japanese recorder-keyboard), and Western violin and trumpet. Inspired by this diverse instrumentation and the rich cultural backgrounds of the musicians, True Love Peach Blossom embraces the theme of love and marriage. The music incorporates elements from various wedding traditions, drawing from Japanese, Korean, Finnish, and Turkish ceremonial music and dances. Commissioned by the Contemporary Art Music Project, this piece was made possible with additional support from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government.

오시더라 Oshi Dhora (he came)

Pan Project Ensemble

PAN Project Ensemble

piri, gamin; guqin, Jeff Roberts; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim 

Oshi Dhora is an intercultural musical meditation on the process of death, releasing worldly regrets, crossing into the spirit world and finding peace. The text, constructed by vocalist Saeyeon Jeong (with borrowings from Korean ritual and pansori texts), is rooted in Korean exorcism ritual that blends shaman Jindo Ssitgim and Buddhist Jesokcheon. The opening of the text calls on the spirit of the deceased (오시더라/He came) to relieve lingering regrets unresolved in the world, after which Namuyeo (Buddhist Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) is evoked to facilitate the passage onto paradise and spiritual peace (배띄워라 배띄워라 극락가자 배놓아라/Let’s float our boats, let's go to paradise). This music ebbs, flows and mixes between music traditions: sections of driving trance-like rhythms from Korean shaman ritual music trade off with the slow, meditative phrasing of Chinese guqin music, all infused with chromaticism and abstract sound texture from Western free improvisation.

Ripples in Spacetime

CAMP Ensemble

Guoping Jia

piri, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; piano, Eunmi Ko

Ripples in Spacetime is dedicated to an outstanding Chinese astronomer Nan Rendong, the founder and the chief scientist of Chinese FAST project, to expressing sincere respect for his pioneering work. The inspiration and core sonic gesture of this work came from three fragments of pulsar’s signals in deep space which was discovered by the “Chinese Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope” (FAST) in 2017. The dominant pitches of this work originate from the initial letters of FAST. Moreover, the composer intends to absorb some strong traditional Chinese music factors throughout this piece, and integrate it into Western instruments to contextualize a unique sound world.

- Intermission -

New Deung Deungguk

PAN Project Ensemble & CAMP Ensemble

Dawon Kim

piri, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; piano, Eunmi Ko

Gathered together: solo piri. Gong from afar spreads. The haunted people gather and a party begins. 모여들다: 적막이 감도는 피리 독주. 징의 소리는 서서히 더 먼 곳까지 퍼진다. 무언가에 홀린 듯 하나 둘 모여들기 시작하고, 한 무리의 난장이 시작된다.
Excited and confused: dancing, hoping, screaming, crouching… partying to death 신에 겨워 어쩔 줄을 모르고: 모여든 사람들은 각기 다른 모습으로 춤을 추고 펼쩍펄쩍 뛰어다닌다. 갑자기 움츠러들기도 하고 갑자기 소리를 지르는 등 마구 법석을 떨며 신명 나게 판을 벌인다.
Without dying: getting tired, emptiness/depression takes over. People stop talking to each other. Babbling fills the space. 죽지도 못하고는: 사람들은 지쳐 주저않았고, 풀리지 못한 허망함이 사함들이 덮친다. 다들 혼잣말에 잠기고, 엉켜버린 수많은 독백이 공간을 채운다.
A man is not a man: Dance to exhaustion though no energy left. Everyone dances till passing out. 사람이 사람이 아니라네: 그 누구에게도 남아있는 힘은 없다. 하지만 사람들은 무언가 홀린 듯 마지막 춤을 춘다. 누구 하나 남김없이 마지막 남은 모든 열기를 토해내다 이내 쓰러지고 만다.

It is said that in the year of the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, people sang “Deungdeunggok,” and walked around pretending to be goblins and shamans, laughing and crying. Even now, about 500 years later, many people struggle to live while feeling helpless in many problems that cannot be changed by individual power alone. As a young man living in this chaotic world, I dedicate a “new Deungdeunggok”. Gathered together - Excited and confused - Without dying - A man is not a man.

The Ice is Talking

Vivian Feng

CAMP Ensemble

bass drum & electronics, Kevin von Kampen

I grew up in Edmonton, and every year my family would vacation in the Canadian Rockies. I would greatly look forward to seeing the mountains, the majesty of the giant silhouettes, the clean, crisp air, and the proximity to nature and wildlife. I was invited back to the Banff Centre last year and decided to visit the Columbia Icefields as a bit of nostalgia for my childhood. That trip pained me deeply when I saw how much the glaciers had receded since the last time I was there, about 20 years ago. “The Ice Is Talking” is a work that is an emotional reaction to that experience. Scored for a solo percussionist and electronics, it features the percussionist as the protagonist “playing” on a block of ice. At the start, it is a celebration of the elements, taking in the beauty of a blade gliding through ice, the taps and swishes of ice being shaped into virtuosic rhythmic patterns that speak through interjections by the performer. As the piece progresses, the piece becomes more and more violent, and the instruments reflect the rage and intensity of the protagonist, with a power drill, ice picks and stabbing motions reflecting the realization of human’s ill effects on the natural landscape. It ends with dramatic flair in the hope of raising awareness to the world around us.

सीमातीतप्रवाह sīmātītapravāhaḥ (Borderless Flows)

Pan Project Ensemble

PAN Project Ensemble

piri, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; guqin Jeff Roberts; Shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; sarangi, Deepak Paramashivan; qanun, Afarin Nazarijou

At one point in Tang Dynasty China during the Silk Road era, Indian and Persian Musicians were living in the Chinese Tang Capital Chang-an (modern day Xi’an) and performing a court music called Banquet music (yanyue) alongside Chinese musicians. In fact, one Persian instrument, the barbat, assimilated into Chinese culture to become what is known today as the quintessential Chinese instrument Pipa. Such is the great historical interculturalism buried deep in the roots of music cultures on the Asian continent that today are often overlooked or forgotten. But those intercultural connections are right there on the listening surface of the music. In this improvisation, Borderless Flows, it seems the instruments that have the closest connection are the Indian Sarangi and the Persian Qanun as adjacent India and Persia have a long history of intercultural exchange, including scales, melodies and music forms related to Hindu and Islamic traditions. However the Chinese guqin’s language of bending notes (huayin) matches quite naturally with bending note languages.

April4 concert

Friday, April 4, 2025, 7:00pm

Intercultural Experimental

Studio 27, Fine Arts Building, University of Alberta

Gaen, Ji Gaeng

Na Seong Chui

PAN Project Ensemble

Kkwaenggari, Woonjung Sum

The performer holds the Kkwaenggari-Gong over and under and strikes it using mallets and bare hands. The Kkwaenggwari-Gong has transitioned from being a mere object for play to a component integrated within the playing subject.

Gaen, Ji gaeng

The monologue of Kkwaenggari-Gong continues with various nuances.

His increasingly lengthy monologue evokes the repetitive recitation of lyrics by a Mudang (shaman) in 굿Gut(ritual ceremony).

CAMP Ensemble

And the Glaciers Echoed

Huan Sun

Bass Drum & Electronics, Kevin von Kampen

And the glaciers echoed is inspired by Katie Paterson’s installation entitled Vatnajokull (the sound of). She used a waterproof microphone that transmitted live sound from the Jökulsárlón lagoon in Iceland, which is the largest glacier in Europe. She made a link to encourage people to connect emotionally with melting glaciers. Climate change is having a dramatically damaging effect on glaciers, and the call made a connection to see it happening. Unfortunately, this call doesn't exist anymore due to the melted glaciers. This installation touched me a lot and interested me in researching how melting glaciers are happening tremendously around the world. I can’t even imagine how bad the following national disasters will be after melting glaciers. “In 2016, a four-thousand-foot previously frozen mountain slope in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve collapsed, unleashing a flood of rock and mud over nearly nine square miles of glaciers. The release was so massive it was equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake…” I felt astonished and suffocated by the information about glaciers. Thus, I want to mark the processing of melting glaciers by music. During my music, you could hear the scattered dripping sound, the cracking sound, the “echo” sound of glaciers (you could also see it as whale’s sound), the calving sound of glaciers, and the collapse sound, etc.

Kangwon

Pan Project Ensemble

PAN Project Ensemble

piri, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; guqin Jeff Roberts; Shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg

This performance ‘Kangwon’ is an improvisation based on a version of the Korean folk song Arirang from the Northeast coastal province Kangwon-do in Korea. Arirang is the most widely known folk song in Korea with 20 regional versions of the song and hundreds of variations on these regional versions. Kangwon Arirang, performed here, contains unique regional music characteristics including the use of a minor mode and a five beat asymmetrical rhythmic pattern (in contrast with the best known version of Arirang, which uses a major mode and a symmetrical rhythmic pattern). These ‘Kangwon’ music characteristics are rooted in the local improvisational components of shaman ritual music and thus provide a natural platform for expanded improvisation in this performance.

Gutgeori

Pan Project Ensemble

PAN Project Ensemble

piri, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; guqin Jeff Roberts; Shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg

This piece is based on the twelve beat Korean rhythmic cycle of the same name. This rhythmic cycle’s origins lie in shaman ritual music of Southwest Korea. The musical core of Korean ritual music is the rhythmic cycle which accompanies the shaman during ritual. Alongside the ritual percussion ensemble also performed a group of melodic instruments that, as part of the ritual, improvised music. This music is called sinawi (시나위) and was improvised in a free and heterophonic style as a way to express the emotional-spiritual unfolding of the ritual. In PAN Project’s performance, the folk melody Sae-Taryeong (Bird Song), also from Southwest Korea, is used as a point of departure for free improvisation.