Let Us Hope When Hope Seems Hopeless (2008)
for Mixed Chorus(SATB) and Piano

Sopranos:   Arwen Meyers, Loralee Culbert, Shan-Hui Lin, Soo Hyun Oh
Altos:  	     Sang Mi Ahn, Jir Shin Boey, Teri Herron, Lisa Vest
Tenors:       Ben Peck, Colin DeJong, Si-uk I, Jae-Hong Chung
Basses:	     Matthew Vest, Christopher Renk, Josh Groffman, Gabriel Lubell
Jeong-Hoon Song, Conductor       
Joe Sheehan, Piano

Let us hope when hope seems hopeless, 
when the dreams we dreamed have died.
When the morning breaks in brightness, 
hunger shall be satisfied.
One who sows the fields with weeping
shall retrace the sorrowing way
And rejoice in harvest bounty 
at the breaking of the day.

This hymn text by David Beebe is taken from the New Century Hymnal.  The other two verses that were not included in my setting speak of understanding God's grace through faith and love.

Let Us Hope When Hope Seems Hopeless

Bioluminescence (2022)
      for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

II. Milky Sea (with/without improvisation)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Bioluminescence - II. Milky Sea

Bioluminescence (2022~   ) work-in-progress
      for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

III. Glowing Corals (solo piano version)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Bioluminescence - III. Glowing Corals (solo piano version)

Bioluminescence (2022)
      for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

III. Glowing Corals (stereo fixed media version)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Bioluminescence - III. Glowing Corals (stereo fixed media version)

Bioluminescence (2022)
      for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

IV. Siphonophorae
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deep-Sea Symphony: Exploring the Musicians Seamounts. 
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/

Bioluminescence - IV. Siphonophorae

Bioluminescence (2022)
      for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

V. Foxfire (solo piano version)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Image credit: Creative Commons  
By self - Own worklalalfdfa, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3967070

Bioluminescence - V. Foxfire (solo piano version)

* 2025 version: https://icmc2025.sites.northeastern.edu/online-listening-room/388-sang-mi-ahn/

Bioluminescence (2022)
for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

V. Foxfire (stereo fixed media version)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Image credit: Noah Siegel (Amanita virosa), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Omphalotus_olearius_33857.jpg

Bioluminescence - V. Foxfire (stereo fixed media 2022 version)

Bioluminescence (2022)
for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

VI. Fireflies
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Image credit: Creative Commons
Sushantk2212, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fireflies_on_a_tree.jpg

Bioluminescence - VI. Fireflies

Bioluminescence (2022)
for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

VII. Glowworms (solo piano version)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Image credit: Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Creator: Martin Rietze e 
ArtofVisuals, https://www.flickr.com/photos/63349090@N08/8720211482

Bioluminescence - VII. Glowworms (solo piano version)

Bioluminescence (2022)
for Solo Piano with/without Electronics
OR for Stereo Fixed Media

VII. Glowworms (stereo fixed media version)
Music: © Copyright 2022 by Sang Mi Ahn

Image credit: Joe Ross from Lansing, Michigan, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glow…802159987).jpg

Bioluminescence - VII. Glowworms (stereo fixed media version)

just the sea and moonlit sky (2023), solo piano version

Music: © Copyright 2023 by Sang Mi Ahn

just the sea and moonlit sky

I. Elegy
II. Water/Tears (attacca)
III. Fire/Anger (attacca)
IV. Coda

Dirge for the Earth Elements - II, III, IV mvts (attacca)

Dirge for the Earth Elements (2012) for Viola and Percussion

Recording for II, III, IV: https://soundcloud.com/electroacoustic1/dirge-for-the-earth-elements-1?si=a2b5c50f320943bbaf16607344dde7fc&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Tze-Ying Wu, Viola   
Brian Mueller, Percussion

I. Elegy
II. Water/Tears (attacca)
III. Fire/Anger (attacca)
IV. Coda

Dirge for the Earth Elements was written for violist Tze-Ying Wu and percussionist Brian Mueller at Indiana University.  I believe that writing music about human nature is one of the most direct ways for me to connect with the audience.  This piece deals with the experience of grief, or more specifically, the dark and unbearable aspects of this emotion.  For me, grief has two different characteristics, sorrow and anger, which find symbolic representation in the form of water (tears) and fire.  Even though sorrow and anger seem to be opposite each other as passive and active emotions, they remind me of the earth elements of fire and water.  While we may use both of these elements in daily life, they can also be destructive forces in natural disasters.  This four-movement dirge is written to remember those who have lost their loved ones in such disasters and suffer not being able to fully express their sorrow and anger.

Dirge for the Earth Elements - I mvt: Elegy

Convergence(2011) for Alto Saxophone and Electronics
Heidi Radtke, Alto Saxophone
https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6608/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsKt5dpiqxg&list=RDOsKt5dpiqxg&start_radio=1

Convergence was written for saxophonist Heidi Radtke.  I was interested in the interaction between the intrinsic qualities of electronic and acoustic mediums.  In this piece, I used the electronics and saxophone as equal partners to take turns in background and foreground roles and to create timbral illusions. I also explored the altissimo range (very high notes) on the saxophone, which can provide unique timbral effects and is technically challenging.

There are two main ideas: trills or noodling figurations, and sustained notes.  These are mutated into each other throughout the piece.  The overflowing of recorded saxophone sounds at the climax is morphed into the live saxophone at the end.  Most of electronic sound materials used in the piece are a manipulation of saxophone sounds pre-recorded by Heidi.  The piece is dedicated to Heidi, whose passion for new music inspires me.

Convergence

Loki's Castle (2010)
for alt. fl/fl, bass cl/cl, bsn, perc, pf, vln, vla, vc, db

I was fascinated by a natural phenomenon called “black smokers” while reading an article about nature.   Black smokers are a type of hot spring found on the deep ocean floor.  They are given the name black smokers because minerals in the water form a black chimney-like structure when hot water emerges through vents on the ocean floor.  Loki’s Castle is the name of a cluster of five active black smokers located in the mid-Atlantic ocean.

I wanted to evoke an oceanic image that is cold, quiet and dark.  In the depths of the ocean, there is also great gravity from the water pressure.  If there are organisms living there, it is hard to see them. The noodling figurations in the piece, however, hint that they do exist.  The timbres of the bass clarinet and alto flute at the beginning of the piece conjure the cool and dark qualities of the deep parts in the ocean.

Because the temperature around the black smokers is warmer and the waters around it stir quickly from the heat, the ocean floor near the black smokers may not be as dark and murky.  I imagine the area around the black smokers to be an enchanted zone where life forms that have been invisible are suddenly recognized from their faint glow.  Their appearances are reflected in a brighter section of the composition where I use unisons and homorhythmic textures.

A solo clarinet passage reflects a movement away from the black smokers.  The polychords that soon follow represent the mixture of warm and cold temperatures in the waters even further away.  When the black smokers are no longer in sight, the waters are once again cold and dark.  The high bell-like sounds in the percussion create a final impression of the ocean depth, as well as suggesting the great distance of the black smokers from the surface of the water.

Sang Mi Ahn

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