nostalgia

Hi! I just finished another choral piece, based on Dylan Thomas' famous poem "Do not go gentle into good night"... According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_go_gentle_into_that_good_night), this poem was written for his dying father before Christmas, and below is a brief summary... In the first stanza, the speaker encourages his father not to "go gentle into that good night" but rather to "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Then, in the subsequent stanzas, he proceeds to list all manner of men, using terms such as "wise", "good", "wild", and "grave" as descriptors, who, in their own respective ways, embody the refrains of the poem. In the final stanza, the speaker implores his father, whom he observes upon a "sad height", begging him to "Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears", and reiterates the refrains once more. Do not go gentle into that good night Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953) Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated 🙂 Once ready, I'd also like to work on some notations, piano reductions, etc... Have a nice day!

I just revised few measures (mm. 21-22, 24) for this one to make wide LH leaps much easier. Also, I put fingerings for all notable hand exchanges to make it clear... All the other measures are definitely playable after practice for me - they will be even easier for piano majors since the tempo is pretty slow... Please see the attached score and audio, and feel free to give me any comments! Thanks - Edward

Hi! I just made revisions for quick hand exchanges so that - There are such exchanges (except for only few occasions) when there is plenty of time, e.g. quarter notes or rests, for hand leaping - Tempo of the second movement is slowed down from 108 to 100 or 104 per quarter - All notable hand exchanges are clearly marked with LH, RH, up- and down-stems, separate slurs, etc. Please see the revised scores and audios and feel free to leave any comments! Thanks

PROGRAM NOTE In this work, I tried to express through music all my feelings while standing alone in contemplative mood by the window on a rainy afternoon...

PROGRAM NOTE In this three-movement piece, I tried to describe through music the shapes and motions of three major galaxies (Milky Way, Andromeda, and Triangulum) wandering around the solar system. Imagining various possible situations where they could one day threaten the peace of the Earth, I tried to develop each movement based on the chain of events possible in such situations. After those events, as described later in the third movement, the Earth regains peace and is back to its original routine...

Hi! I've just finished writing flute trio (Journey to the Ancient World) in three movements as a composition assignment for my composition class... This piece was inspired from George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children, and melodies and harmonies are based on pitch class sets (3-pitch sets) and their transpositions, inversions, rotations, etc. from various melodic motions of the Crumb's piece... First movement (Time Travel) describes the traveler's feeling of excitement and expectation of the past he or she has never previously experienced, second movement (Dreaming of Conversation) is about the traveler's anticipation of communicating with prehistorical people he or she will encounter, and third movement expresses the traveler's feeling of happiness from communing with those people... In second movement I also added some quotations from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Adoration of Earth) motive (C-B-G-E-B-A C-B-A-D C-B-G-E-B-A)... Hope you enjoy this piece, and please don't hesitate to give me any comments!

Hi! I made this short string quartet describing chains of free imagination (as implied by the title "Flight of Fancy") in free form impromptu style... Actually I tried to make sure all multiple stops (e.g. perfect fifth double stops played like guitar barre (in consecutive perfect fifths or perfect fifths switching quickly from/to other intervals like sixths or fourths), violin triple stops in loud dynamics, etc.) are all definitely playable, and I'd like to ask soon my string major friends to make sure there is no other things technically extremely difficult around the whole piece... Hope you enjoy this piece, and please feel free to give me any comments or suggestions 🙂

Could you merge my account into nostalgia, since this is the one I made previously? Thanks for your help!

Actually I accidentally made one more account (Pele) which I will close soon...

Actually I often did feel the music moved on too slow to the climax and thought the audience who listen to this piece for the first time might not feel the direction of music... But I still wanted to keep some static elements like eighth or quarter note chords while gradually building up with wider registers, louder dynamics, extending bass (in the middle section: from D, F, Ab, then to B with note values getting longer), and also chords which get thicker and shorter and become homorhythmic with top staff octaves (and then joined by down-stem chords in the middle staff in mm.33-35) until the very climax... Of course I tried to also change eighth or quarter octaves and chords more so that the audience can more easily hear direction over 1-2 minute span from the beginning of middle section up to the ff climax by using accelerandos, flowing chords (like you mentioned), or some more melodic/rhythmic variations, but they only made music sound changing too abruptly and also much different from previously intended sound... Actually I got the idea of using static and dynamic elements together from Louis Andriessen's De Tijd (The Time) learned previously from my composition class which focuses on the contrast between statis (eternity) and progress (time) which gradually develops through 43 minute long whole piece. I also listened to the piece as a background music for space history documentary show in Adler Planetarium (Chicago), and I was really fascinated with the music describing the chronology of the universe as opposed to the fleeting of time. Although this contrast built up lasted for nearly the entirety of 43 minute piece, I could still clearly feel overall direction after trying to approach this slow paced music in longer term... Actually I could find this type of slow transition music from some other minimalistic composers' pieces too... You can listen to Andriessen's De Tijd here:

Thanks so much for your comments! I just changed the instrument order from orchestra (where woodwinds come first, then percussion / piano, then strings) to mixed small ensemble (Clarinet - Violin - Piano). I'll also make part scores which will be in transposed pitches so that clarinet / bass clarinet does not have any bass clefs... Actually this full score is "in C" meaning all instruments are in sounding pitches, but since this piece has only three instruments and thus doesn't need a conductor, I think I can also transpose this full score so that clarinet / bass clarinet doesn't have any bass clefs nor more than three ledger lines... Any other comments about this piece?

Hi! I just finished a trio piece (elegy) dedicated to 305 victims of sinking accident of Sewol MV in 2014 Sinking of MV Sewol - Wikipedia based on the original melody (inspired from my childhood memories and some Korean folklores)... Any comments or suggestions will be really appreciated! Thanks

Hi! I just made first movement of this piece using harmonic materials from George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children as a composition assignment of my composition class... Having used his harmonic materials, I tried to create different sounds by applying them only loosely... I'd like to soon make it three movement piece, and will let you know once done!

Hi! I just finished three movement piano piece inspired from trip to NYC few years ago... First movement describes freestyle driving in the morning along the riverside around the city, second movement describes night scape viewed from the observation deck of skyscraper, and and the last third movement describes jazzy feeling (in modernistic style) after jazz concert in downtown park... Actually I can promise all seemingly technically challenging passages are definitely playable after practice, especially some three staff measures with damper or sostenuto pedals (in slow enough tempos)... Hope you guys enjoy this piece, and please don't hesitate if you've got any comments or suggestions... Thanks :)

Yes! I really loved pandiatonic harmonies from Whitacre’s choral music, studying and analyzing his pieces (Lux Aurumque, Cloudburst, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, etc.)…