Year composed: 2025
Duration: 9′
Instrumentation: 2 sanjo gayageums and string quartet
Notes:
A vine follows the path was commissioned by the Korean Experimental Music Festival 2025, and was premiered in Berkeley and Santa Cruz by members of the National Gugak Center of Korean and the Del Sol String Quartet.
A vine follows the path, took shape from a poem by John Campion:
becoming tree,
a vine follows the path around which
the green spins its bark
climbing a scaffold they build together
til the old fellow goes and vine coils up, still
held in the architecture of its ghost
I pictured the two gayageums as the vine, and the string quartet as the tree. You’ll hear them growing and climbing together, until the string quartet reaches its apex and the ensemble gradually dies away.
In my compositions I like to use a large palette of unusual sounds, and here in particular I loved the interplay between the plucked and strummed sounds possible between the gayageums and quartet. The piece proceeds with sections marked “Tree and Vine” that alternate with freer “Interludes” featuring birdsongs and expressive improvisatory sounds.
Reviews
“During UC Berkeley professor emerita Cindy Cox’s composition “A Vine Follows the Path,” the violinists sounded almost exactly like birdsong.” — Francis Luo (The Daily Californian)