59 Pieces of Music in Four Days

Today is my final day at the 2016 ISCM Music Days in Tongyeong in South Korea. The cherry blossom is in full bloom, but the view of the islands over the peninsula is misty and evocative.

By my calculation, I've heard 59 individual pieces of contemporary music whilst here from over fifty different countries. Some of the most interesting have come from Asian composers, using the tools of the western tradition, but from a new and fascinating perspective. I would have lost track altogether of the various pieces, had I not kept notes. At one of the assembly meetings it was suggested that each of us nominate half a dozen pieces that we were particularly struck by - here are a few of the names and pieces that have stood out for me this week. Click on the composers' names to reach their website.

One of the most evocative pieces, filled with delicate colours was Midsummer Song by Lithuanian composers Raminta Šerkšnytė (b.1975) played by the strings of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (30 March). 

From Britain came a virtuoso choral work by the young composer Alexander Campkin (b.1984), Unleash the beauty of your eyes sung by the Incheon City Chorale (28 March). 

Finnish-born Jouni Hirvelä came up with a fabulous orchestral piece Vuolle based on "the movement of gliding water masses of the Kymi River in South East Finland" - a magical piece of orchestral textures played by Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (28 March).

Rita Ueda's As snowflakes return to the sky was one of Canada's entries. Scored for string ensemble, it's a mesmerising piece whose quietly repetitive rhythms produce a wonderfully meditative effect (29 March - Hong Kong New Music Ensemble). 

In terms of sheer beauty and mastery if orchestral texture, there wasn't much this week to match Isao Matsushita's Prayer of the Firmament - written in response to the nuclear disaster on 11 March 2011 (Changwon Philharmonic Orchestra, 29 March). 

Orchestra mastery of a different kind came in Elzbieta Sikora's Five Miniatures for Orchestra - a work displaying the passion of youth and mastery of a lifetime (31 March, Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra)

Then, finally, there was Francisco del Pino's Largrimas for solo cello - elegant, utterly new but highly expressive (Ensemble TMIF, 30 March).   

Cherry Blossom arrives in Tongyeong

Yesterday, overnight all the trees in Tongyeong, South Korea, suddenly exploded in a riot of cherry blossom - by the time I arrive back in Cardiff on Friday evening, it will have gone.

Here is a short haiku by Issa from 1804

cherry blossoms
tree after tree
of good karma

And here is the view from Tongyeong's concert hall

To read other blogs on the ISCM Music Days in Tongyeong see here and here.

New Music in Tongyeong

After 26 hours of travelling, I've arrived in Tongyeong, South Korea, where I'm delighted to be representing Wales as a delegate at this year’s ISCM World Music Days. The International Society for Contemporary Music held their first annual World Music Days back in 1923 and each year presents music from over fifty different countries. Last year Wales became the latest country to join and will have its music represented at the days from 2018 onwards. I'm here attending the conference and concerts at this year’s music days in the coastal city of Tongyeong on the southern tip of the Goseong Peninsula. 

Before the opening reception at the city's concert hall, I had a chance to spend a day in the brilliant Easter Sunday sunshine visiting the seaport city itself. Down in the harbour there's no doubt that this is a fishing town.

Here's the entrance to the fish market where people sell fish traditionally as they probably have here for hundreds of years.

Korea is very modern - on a two hour car journey to get here I did not see any building that looked more than fifty years old. It is full of bright primary colours, the landscape scorched and, on the southern peninsula at least, the cities and towns surrounded by mountains that remind one strongly of Hokusai. But in Tongyeong, despite its size (the population is 120,000), there is not one apartment store and virtually no international chain stores (apparently they had two Starbucks, but one has just closed). Instead it is riot of small little shops with bright eye-catching signage.

Unlike Britain where one would never know that a contemporary music festival was happening (because signs and banners cost so much), here there are signs and banner everywhere proclaiming the Sounds of Tomorrow Festival. 

At 5pm there was a reception at the concert hall here with about a hundred composers squeezed into a small room where Philip Glass made a speech and Unsuk Chin arrived for the festival. Take a look at the photos on the ISCM's Facebook page. Tomorrow my work as a delegate begins - fourteen hours of meetings and concerts with over 50 pieces of contemporary music.

You can find out more about the ISCM here and more details of this year’s festival here. Look out for more details of the visit over the next few days.