Year composed: 2016
Duration: 6′
Instrumentation: haegeum
Commissioned and premiered by Sooyeon Lyuh at the Pacific Rim Festival in Santa Cruz, CA, October 2017
Notes:
“Naseon” is Korean for spiral. Naseon I is the first part of a larger work; the second part features the gayageum, geomungo, and ajaeng.
This piece is loosely based on the last movement of a violin piece called Back to Square One. I thought the last movement, which is marked “wistful,” was a good match for the soulful quality of the haegeum.
I visited Seoul in the summer of 2015 as a Fellow at the National Gugak Center. They gave a wonderful two-week workshop on traditional Korean music, and it was there that I met Sooyeon Lyuh. This piece is gratefully dedicated to her.