winter fall summer spring and⋯⋯ (2022)
mixed choir and piano (9′)
performance
• july 14, 2022, busan conductors’ choir, kangkyu kim (cond), hyunju baek (pf), busan, south korea
program note
‘winter fall summer spring and⋯⋯’ for mixed choir and piano is a piece that begins with nietzsche and eliade’s concept of eternal return, a journey of regression and cycles.
the piece adopts eliade’s concept of time in its structure. it represents various historical times that return to eternity as expressed in the lives of individual performers. the piece is divided into seven parts. the first five parts are in the order of ‘yesterday’, ‘half a year ago’, ‘a year before’, ‘about fifteen years ago’, and ‘when i was young’, progressively regressing in time. performers convey their memories either through spoken words or melodies. in this way, the structure at the beginning of the piece depicts a regression into the past. the last two parts are ‘now’ and ‘tomorrow, next month, next year, and so on…’ borrowing from nietzsche’s ideas, the linear time flowing from the past to the future is implied to be condensed into the present moment.
this overall structure of the piece results in a phenomenon that appears through the process of practicing and performing the piece. the content within it changes depending on when it is performed. today becomes the yesterday of tomorrow, the last week of next week, and the last year of next year. this is a series of processes, and if nietzsche’s infinite time is set as a condition, the performance can be reproduced exactly as before. this embodies the cyclical shape of ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail, capturing the form of cycles.