San Tokki (Grade 2)
Perusal Score
San Tokki, or Mountain Rabbit, is one of the most famous children’s songs in Korea that every child probably grows up hearing their mother sing. The song is about a busy mountain rabbit that spends its days hopping around and disappearing into the hillside. Everybody wonders, where does the rabbit go and why does it seem so busy? This piece is dedicated to the students of Edmunds Middle School, and my friend Graham Lambert, from whom I have learned so much.
Half Moon - Concert Band (Grade 2)
Score + PDFs of parts for Half Moon, for concert band (grade 2)
Half Moon is a lullaby written by Yun Geuk-Young, a Korean writer of children’s stories and songs. The melody is simple and pure, and the lyrics describe a rabbit sailing gently across a sea of stars. The rabbit, the tree, and the moon make reference to the folktale about the rabbit on the moon, who is depicted beneath a tree making rice cakes for the gods. As the melody is passed around the band, it sways and gently rocks like a boat floating in a calm sea. This piece is dedicated to my older sister and her first child.
Winter Unending, Invincible Summer (Grade 4)
Score + PDFs of parts for Winter Unending, Invincible Summer, for wind ensemble (grade 4)
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” - Albert Camus
It is this sense of endless perseverance and inner strength that inspired this piece, which was composed as a tribute to people who suffer from depression. Mental illness is often overlooked in many cultures and viewed with a negative stigma. People tend to believe that the sufferer is merely weak and not actually suffering from a legitimate biochemical imbalance. Throughout my life I’ve had close friends who I have watched battle with depression, and I believe them to be some of the strongest people I’ve ever met. The piece is meant to depict a narrative of a transition from a cold, lonely winter that thaws and brings the listener someplace warm.
Letters Home
PDF's of "Letter's Home", A Mini-Album for my Birth Mother
This collection of short songs for solo piano is a gift to my birth mother. She’s quite fond of the piano music of Yiruma, and we spent many car rides listening to his albums together. Aside from the first song, all of these were written during my trips to Korea and each one corresponds with a cherished memory. All songs should be played earnestly and genuinely according to the individual, hopefully while remembering something precious.
1. Dear Mother
2. Because I'm Your Mom
3. Busan Breeze
4. Our House
5. Landscape from the Passenger Seat
Seoraksan for piano solo
Digital download of the PDF for Seoraksan, for solo piano
Seoraksan is the third tallest mountain in South Korea. It's name roughly translates to the icy peak, it's a treacherous, difficult, and humbling climb. I hiked this mountain in the autumn of 2021 and found myself marveling at the beautiful and awe inspiring sights. This is the first in a series of works dedicated to the mountains of South Korea.
Mother Tongue for piano trio
Digital download of PDF's for Mother Tongue, for piano trio
I. Echo of a Dream
II. Tongue Tied
Mother Tongue is based on my experience learning to both speak Korean and play Korean traditional music as a Korean American adoptee. For many adoptees, the process of reclaiming one's mother tongue, among other aspects of culture of origin, can be a slow, difficult, frustrating, and at times shameful process. Fluency can seem like a far off dream, and no matter how long one studies another language, they will likely always have an accent, and their mind and psyche will forever be influenced by the language that formed it. As a musician, raised and educated in the US, my musical native language is also divorced from my country of origin, and that western accent will likely always color my style as a musician.
Echo of a Dream is about the phenomenon of dreaming in a second language. When you begin to dream in a second language, it signals deep learning and language acquisition. When I first began learning Korean, it would appear in my dreams as an incomprehensible nonsense language, based on my fears and anxieties about traveling to Korea and being rendered mute. Now, I am occasionally visited by a dream fully in Korean, some parts I can understand, and some parts I cannot. For me, Korean language and music still hovers at the edge of my mind, almost within my grasp, but just beyond my reach.
Tongue Tied is an expression of frustration and anxiety about speaking a second language. I often find myself becoming tongue tied when trying to switch quickly between Korean and English. The rapidly changing time signatures and fast switching between styles eventually give way to episodes of fluid thought, in which the speaker is finally able to express themselves comfortably.
Sanjo Sonata for solo violin
Digital download of PDF's for Sanjo Sonata for solo violin
Sanjo is a genre of Korean traditional solo instrumental music that roughly translates to “scattered melodies.” Having studied sanjo during my time living in Korea, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between sanjo and its western counterpart; the sonata. Sanjo, much like sonata, progresses through a variety of sections (movements) while exploring and elaborating on various themes, however unlike sonata form each section of a sanjo gets faster and faster through a combination of natural accelerando and metric modulation. The arrangement of the melodies, or themes, in a particular sanjo vary among schools; sanjo is an oral tradition, wherein thematic material may be adjusted, extended, or omitted depending on the unique practices of a given school. Sanjo is also highly virtuosic, combining the expressiveness of Korean traditional music with a plethora of unique attributes executable by a given instrument.
The sections of this piece are outlined as three movements which are based on rhythmic cycles found in traditional Korean music - Jinyangjo, Jungmori, and Jajinmori-Hwimori. Jinyangjo is a word derived from the South Jeolla dialect, “jil-da,” meaning “very sluggish.” The slow nature of Jinyangjo makes it suitable for expressive, lamenting passages of music with profound vibrato and dramatic pitch bends. Jungmori can be thought of as something similar to andante. The word “jung” in “Jungmori” means “not too fast and not too slow,” while “mori” means to “drive” something forward. Jajinmori is a fast rhythmic cycle that is frequently used across all genres of Korean traditional music, characterized mostly by the implied 3:2 polyrhythm that it creates. Lastly, the finale is Hwimori, the fastest rhythmic cycle, meaning “as fast as a whirlwind.”
Sanjo Sonatina for solo violin
Digital download of the PDF for Sanjo Sonatina, for solo violin
*this is the slightly simplified student version of Sanjo Sonata
Sanjo is a genre of Korean traditional solo instrumental music that roughly translates to “scattered melodies.” Having studied sanjo during my time living in Korea, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between sanjo and its western counterpart; the sonata. Sanjo, much like sonata, progresses through a variety of sections (movements) while exploring and elaborating on various themes, however unlike sonata form each section of a sanjo gets faster and faster through a combination of natural accelerando and metric modulation. The arrangement of the melodies, or themes, in a particular sanjo vary among schools; sanjo is an oral tradition, wherein thematic material may be adjusted, extended, or omitted depending on the unique practices of a given school. Sanjo is also highly virtuosic, combining the expressiveness of Korean traditional music with a plethora of unique attributes executable by a given instrument.
The sections of this piece are outlined as three movements which are based on rhythmic cycles found in traditional Korean music - Jinyangjo, Jungmori, and Jajinmori-Hwimori. Jinyangjo is a word derived from the South Jeolla dialect, “jil-da,” meaning “very sluggish.” The slow nature of Jinyangjo makes it suitable for expressive, lamenting passages of music with profound vibrato and dramatic pitch bends. Jungmori can be thought of as something similar to andante. The word “jung” in “Jungmori” means “not too fast and not too slow,” while “mori” means to “drive” something forward. Jajinmori is a fast rhythmic cycle that is frequently used across all genres of Korean traditional music, characterized mostly by the implied 3:2 polyrhythm that it creates. Lastly, the finale is Hwimori, the fastest rhythmic cycle, meaning “as fast as a whirlwind.”
