Sar(y)ang

Programme notes

Sar(y)ang string decet op. 134 refers to a composition written from 1 to 5-V-2021. Scored for double string quintet and lasting five minutes, this optimist composition was completed in five days on the fifth day of the fifth month. Five-beat bars delimitate each of the five sections. Contrabass 2 is the timekeeper establishing the five tempi. Violin 1 presents the uplifting melody. This melody surges in each section and generates the fivefold harmonic material (a minor chord that implodes into its tonal antipode eb minor around which linger auxiliary tonalities, eb minor explodes into a diatonic pentatone that morphs into a second pentatone that turns out to function as a plagal cadence of the final fifth tonality of E Major). The rhythmic activity fluctuates between five values (3, 5, 7, 9 and 11), which in the end come together in a peaceful homorhythmic flow of quavers. Five is a lucky number bestowing good fortune. The title Sar(y)ang combines sarang and sayang, the Korean and Malay words for love. "To love is nothing To be loved is something. But to love and be loved is everything" 는 것은 아무것도 아니다. 사랑받는 것은 꽤 대단하다. 하지만 사랑하고 사랑받는 것이 전부이다

Handwritten sketches and drafts

to be found in chapter XXXIII of white cover, A3 size, 600 pages book 

Completion of the composition 

3-V-2021

Full score

see page 108 in the full score entitled Acqua nel Riflesso