Namdaemun (2014)
For Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Horn, Trombone, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Bass, Percussion. 5 minutes.
Premiere May 31, 2014 at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. Performed by Musicians from the New York Philharmonic with Richard Carrick conducting. This work is dedicated to Jon Deak and Theodore Wiprud.
Program Note:
Namdaemun, for 11 instruments, is named after the (still standing) great South Gate of 14th Century Seoul, and the bustling part of town where I stayed during multiple trips there. This short ensemble work captures, in miniature, a day in the life of this busy metropolis from an outsider's perspective. Rather than pastorally transcribing the street sounds into music, I chose to capture the constant interactivity of people in the labyrinthian streets of the Namdaemun market, the largest outdoor market in Korea.
Commercially released on Richard Carrick: Cycles of Evolution by New World Records.