Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Hoheub: Every Last Breath (for taegŭm and percussion) is about breath (in Korean, 'hoheub') and celebrating the spiritual presence in nature, especially in the Judaic-Christian sense of 'something which is driven along with miraculous power resplendent in light through the totality of creation' in birdsong/nature, with every last breath-even when every breath is painful. It includes Kate Fagan's beautiful poem about breath and finding beauty in bower birdsong, even when things are painful. The piece is like one massive breath which expels air-pain, beauty, and praise. It forms the sonic basis for Vincent Tay's film shot in Mulgoa Nature Reserve exploring the presence of the transcendent energy of nature. The structure of the music for the film is a three-part mosaic: part one explores flourish and breath motifs, including chanting of Judeo-Christian glossolalia phonemes-a mysterious spiritual communication; part two explores the flourish idea to lead to taegŭm scalic athleticism and percussive bursts; whilst part three transitions back through the scalic runs/percussive bursts to the flourish and breath motifs' dissipation of the energy, to focus on the Korean word 'sangchan'-a type of ecstatic praise.

Work Details

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: Taegŭm, 1 percussion (Kkwaenggwari, 2 Korean Temple bowls [high, medium], Ching, Changgo)

Duration: 10 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Advanced — Complex rhythmic detail and changing colour nuances

Dedication note: Hyelim Kim (taegŭm) and James Larter (percussion)

Commission note: Hoheub: Every Last Breath was composed as part of a film collaboration between Korea and Australia

The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc in relation to this work:

Kate Fagan’s poem “Bower”, Korean taegŭm and gayageum Sanjo, Japanese Gagaku and Honkyoku, and the free jazz of pianist Matthew Shipp, saxophonist Allen Lowe, bassist Kevin Ray and drummer Gerald Cleaver.