Sinuiju

Viola and Piano, (with optional Clarinet) (2017) | 6-7'

Piece 2 in the Exegesis Cycle | also Conflict as Artefact 1

Written for E7B

First performed in Durham

08.06.17

Edited version premiered by the Ives Ensemble in Amsterdam

28.10.19

First broadcast with Contrazontal on BBC Radio 3 from Sunderland

13.03.22

Score

I follow you father,
Your translucent trail of blood
On the Ocher road...
Where you died wrapped in a burlap sack.

Chiha Kim

The score for the piece follows the outlines of craters in a rice paddock outside the city of Sinuiju (North Korea), made by US Air Force bombs in October 1950. The work does not attempt to portray the atrocities of the Korean war, but rather outlines the ghostly craters and remnants of what was once a vibrant place, filled with song, poetry, and laughter. The listener is invited to think about this while listening to the piece; contemplating the differences - and links - between two disparate sides to humanity – between the artistic beauty and human connection presented in 21th century concert halls and the human tragedy and alienation of our ideologically driven wars.

Ives Ensemble performing North Korea in Durham in November 2019.