A line runs away (opus 51 nr 1)

Programme notes

A line runs away was inspired by the poem entitled Sketches of lines No. 1 (1966) by Korean poet Moon Deuk-soo: A line runs away like a thin snake/ A second line pursues quick as light out of darkness/ One after another, other lines bite the petals/ Like a snake, another line pursues and bites/ Like flames blooming out of darkness/ More lines tear to pieces and drop/ The boundless gauze is woven like cobwebs/ A round cosmos like an egg/ lands quietly on the flowery gauze. 

(Dixit Casteels) In my compositional response, every consonance corresponds to a specific non-transposable diatonic pitch and every vowel to a chromatic transposable pitch. The poem is not spoken. May a peaceful line run amongst the performers and the listeners.

The piece exists in four distinct versions: a trio for kayagŭm, viola, mime, solo yang qin and Chinese instrumental ensemble, a sextet for two gu zhengs and European classical string quartet and finally in a quartet for gao hu, pi pa, qudi and vibraphone. The well-known Korean kayagŭm soloist Heesun Kim commissioned and premiered the original trio version in 2007 in the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts (Umeyondan), Korea.

Handwritten sketches and drafts

to be found on page 1 of the red cover, A4 size, 385 pages, sketchbook

Recordings

link #1 video of the premiere

Score follower

link #2