CHINESE & KOREAN ORGAN & HARPSICHORD MUSIC

1. CHINESE & KOREAN ORGAN & HARPSICHORD MUSIC Calvert Johnson RCCO, Victoria BC, July 2010

2. CHINESE(China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc.) • The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) destroyed organs and Western music generally • Since 1976, Western music has been rehabilitated in China, composers have studied in Europe and North America, and organs installed in major concert halls (especially Beijing, Shanghai) • Major concert halls, churches, universities have organs in Hong Kong and Taiwan

3. Musical Styles & Themes • Traditional ChineseMusic • Christian Music • Western “abstract” instrumental music • Fusion of Chinese and Western musics

4. Pei-lun Vicky CHANG (Taiwan, b. 1966) • DMA (organ), Cincinnati Conservatory • Music Director, St. John’s Lutheran, Lancaster NY • Suite for Organ (1995-2000) • Cloudy Sky: based on Taiwan folk tune ‘Teanh-oh-oh’\ • Originally for clarinet and organ for performance at National Concert Hall where audiences were unfamiliar with the organ • Intro, statement of folk tune, ostinato pedal and accompaniment, development • Raining Night’s Flower: based on Taiwan folk tune ‘Woo-yah-hwui’ • Intro, choral style, development with triplets, trio in canon

5. CHAN Ka-Nin (Hong-Kong-Canadian, b. 1949) • BM (composition study with Jean Coulthard), U of BC; DMA (composition), Indiana University • Professor (composition/theory), U of Toronto • Reflection and Promenade, 1992 • Commissioned by Toronto Centre of RCCO, 1992 • Reflection: lyric, contemplative piece climaxing near the middle. Introduction and coda consist of high and low notes, to suggest communion between heaven and earth

6. CHAN Ka-Nin • Promenade: “describes a casual excursion of a youngster who seems to find everything in sight interesting and exciting. … The complexity of intricate rhythms and mixed meter is offset by the simplicity of using only the white keys of the keyboard.” • Phantasmagoria: (a rapidly changing series of things), is a fantasia. “The momentum of the horizontal progression is akin to quantum molecular motion where individual parts may seem to be moving randomly, [but] the overall state of the matter is gradually changing.”

7. WANG An-Ming (Chinese-American, b. 1929) • BA, Central China University; BA, Wesleyan Conservatory; MA, Columbia University • Mystic Moments (2009): world premiere TODAY • Opening theme (a minor) accompanied by cluster chord, and then by flowing melody and slower pedal • Second theme (c minor) in parallel thirds • Development: First theme inverted (g# minor) alternating with Th 2 • New theme in quartal harmonies (g minor) and variant of Th 1 in parallel 6/3 chords (c minor) • Recapitulation of Theme 1 (a minor) as at beginning

8. Man-Ching “Donald” YU (Hong Kong, b. 1980) • BM, Baylor University; DMA candidate, Hong Kong Baptist University; international career • Style: intermingling of lyrical language of atonality, Chinese color, and impressionistic elements • Meditation: entirely from opening motive • various tempi (and diminution), tonal centers • Mystical Aria: derived from one motive • (triplets, 16ths, 8ths, ending with augmented triad • Toccata fantastique: 3-part form • Calmer central section contrasts with perpetual 16ths

9. KOREAN • Catholic missionaries (17th century) never particularly successful—seen as anti-Confucian • Protestant missionaries (19th century) allied with Koreans against Japanese occupation • About 7 pipe organs imported before 1950—all destroyed in Korean War • End of WW II, Protestant Christianity very popular • Over 50% of Koreans are self-identified as Christian • Following Japanese model, organs installed in concert halls, universities, and churches • Koreans avid about Western music, win performance competitions • Korean composers up-to-date in all Western musical styles

10. Musical Styles & Themes • Christian Music • Western “abstract” instrumental music • Fusion of Korean and Western musical styles • Korean characteristics/preferences • Timbre: preference for raspy or buzzy sounds • Tone: fluctuating, gliding, vibrating (wide), ornamented • Rhythm: tempo is slow, based on breathing, and gradually speeds up; triple meter prevails (but 5/8 common); rubato • Expression: essential, especially for deep emotions • Improvisation: essential, even in ‘fixed’ compositions; spontaneity is typical--the same work might be longer or shorter at different performances

11. Myung Whan “Johann” KIM (b.1959) • Dentist, turned composer; BA, Musikhochshule, Vienna; DMA, Southern Baptist Seminary (2010) • Influenced by theory of Bell Harmonies • Favors Christian music, hymn-based organ works • George Beverly Shea’s revival hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus” builds from a mystic atmosphere into a set of variations before returning to the opening mystical material.

12. KIM Myung Whan “Johann” • “O Steal Away Softly to Jesus”: an imitative organ trio similar to 18th-century works by Bach and Krebs. • “To understand this music properly, we need to understand the meaning of the ‘Mystery of God’ … This music has its own harmonic background … It is a mixture of the instinct of the composer and [his] new expanded interpretation of traditional harmony.” After studying the harmonic and contrapuntal possibilities inherent in the Gospel melody, Kim “developed it according to the musical and spiritual principles, so that both the player and audience go to Jesus nearly.”

13. LEE Young Jo (b. 1943) • BM, MM, Yonsei University; composition study with Carl Orff and Wilhelm Killmayer, Hochschule für Musik und Theatre, Munich; DMA, American Conservatory • Professor, Dean, Korean National University of Arts

14. LEE Young Jo • Style: Korean traditional emotional content within German avant-garde approaches. • Influenced by Messiaen, Poulenc, and Ravel. • Zen: principle of yin (long sustained notes in dissonant seconds) and yang (rapid chromatic oscillating ornaments equal in importance to main notes). • Pentatonic scales with added chromatic pitches

15. CHAE Kyung Hwa (b. 1958) • BA, MM (composition), Seoul National University • Graduate study, Karlsruhe Musik Hochschule • Professor, Yeung-nam University • Style: fuses Korean folksong with Western theory • Dara-Dara II: Korean folk song about the moon • Expresses admiration of and harmony with the moon • Various timbres and sound resources of the organ reveal the mystery and beauty of the moon • Slow beginning, rapid build-up of complex rhythms and registrations; statement of folk tune; complexity, slow, simple ending

16. Isang YUN (1917-1995) • Studied composition in Korea and Japan pre WW II • In 1950s, study at Paris Conservatoire; and at Berlin Musikhochschule with Boris Blacher; attended the International Courses at Darmstadt. Became German citizen • Professor: Hannover Musikhochschule (1969); Hochschule der Künste in Berlin (1970-1985)

17. YUN Isang • STYLE: post-Webern musical style is described as “euphonious dissonance.” • Combines Korean performance practices and idioms with European instruments, using various avant-garde styles. • From 1959 used 12-tone serial techniques, combining elements of Korean traditional court music (glissandi, pizzicati, vibratos, and ornamentation) to individualize various melodic lines of his counterpoint. • Often his main melodic motives are the tonal and structural centers of his works.

18. YUN Isang • Fragment: constructed as a large dynamic arch • Begins softly at a low pitch, building gradually to a fortissimo spanning the full range of the keyboards, and retreating to an extremely soft high pitch. • The durations are precisely notated, but have a somewhat improvisational effect and haunting quality not unlike that associated with Korean pansori. • Recording: Calvert Johnson, concert 2001, Atlanta • Tuyauxsonores is a study in densities, timbres, and durations, similar to Ligeti’sVolumina but using Korean aesthetics • Recording: GerdZacher, Wergo 6620-2.