Not Broken Bruised-Reed: For Piano/Percussion and Violin

The Judaic-Christian idea of not breaking a bruised-reed or snuffing out light but instead allowing it to flourish is the basis behind this composition. The heart of the sounds draw on the poignancy of the Korean kyemyonjo scale as the basis for the Pansori-like – traditional speech – song form – as a type of bruised utterance that emerges from oises to flower in lyricism. Its chromatic-tinged wholetones from the basis of layered harmonic resonances which wrestle with jazz-influenced sections based on extemporizations on Korean changgo rhythm. the rhythmic and harmonic complexity is matched by resonating metals from luminous Filipino kulintang gong-chimes,osft Korean ching drones and strident k’kwaenggwari accelerations. A controlled extemporization for the players emerges at the work’s centre culminating in the instrumentalists’ vocalized cry “a-pu-ji-ana”. A late flowering of the earlier Korean modal resonances returns and then rests within the quiet living colours of prepared piano vibrations, whistling, ching glissando, and breath.