Byoyomi (2020)
Duration:
17’10” / 13’42”
Instrumentation:
6 guitars (including Alto Guitar)
Programme Note
This piece is dedicated to the commemoration of the Hiroshima tragedy that occurred on August 6th, 1945. While writing this composition, I was thinking about life before and after this event and how we, as humans, sometimes commit acts that can have such tragic consequences for our lives. I invite my audiences to reflect on how we can take more responsibility for our actions. After experiencing a tragedy of such scale, we must learn to live with this new understanding.
The piece was written during the lockdown and social isolation caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic, which affected the life circumstances of many people around the world. It was commissioned by CRAS ensemble for their project IN OUR TIME, which commissions a new composer each time the Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight.
There longer version, 17’10” of the piece requires musicians to have two guitars on stage, the first set will have string cut with knives during the Intro part. The shorter version, 13’42”, would start directly at Part I, and would not need second set of guitars or knives for cutting strings.
A later edition of the piece is written for Contrabass Clarinet and String Quartet, was premiered in Scotland, and nominated for Ivors Novello Award.