OCTET(2021)
for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass

Performance: Ensemble Modern & TIMF Ensemble
Conductor: Johannes Kalitzke

2021/10/8 

TIMF Concert Hall
Tongyeong, South Korea

* Commissioned by Tongyeong International Music Festival 
ⓒTIMF

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTerQeHhaF4&t=397s&ab_channel=%EC%9D%B4%EC%88%98%EB%B9%88

OCTET (2021)

고풀이[Ko-pu-ri] (2021)
for piano, tenor saxophone, and voice

Performed by Contemporary Art Music Project

Piano: Eunmi Ko
Tenor saxophone: Katherine Weintraub
Voice(Soprano): Jamie Jordan

Recorded by Kevin von Kampen

2022. 1. 17
Tampa, Florida (US)

This concert was supported by Arts Council Korea.

[Lyrics]
Pul-ro ka-ja 풀로 가자 (Let's solve it)
San-sin ni-ma 산신님아 (Dear god)
Ko-pu-ro man-ko-pul-ko 고풀어 만고풀고 (Let’s free thousands of pain) * ‘Ko’ means pain
Ha-neul-yi ul-ko 하늘이 울고 (The sky is crying)
Tang-yi ul-ko 땅이 울고 (The land is crying)

[Video link]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIF7sa2j3bg&t=1304s&ab_channel=ContemporaryArtMusicProject%28CAMP%29

고풀이[Ko-pu-ri] (2021)

Vanished into the Clouds (雲隠) takes its title from a chapter in the ancient Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. This chapter is significant because it has no content. There are two theories about this chapter. The first theory is that the chapter is lost. The second theory, and the one that I prefer, is that the chapter was left intentionally blank so as to express the narrator’s sorrow about the death of Genji which occurs between the end of the preceding chapter and the following chapter.

Unlike the aforementioned chapter, this work for cello and live electronics is not left blank. This said, many conventions of music such as melodic or motivic development, clear phrase structure, and rhythmic motion are regularly obscured and ignored. The resulting work instead focuses on exploring the inner sonic regions of the cello’s open and muted C string, sudden ruptures in motion, and the gradual degradation of material. The goal of this approach is to create a sort of new musica povera that reflects on both a narrators’ or authors’ difficulty of writing as well as the sort of inequalities of wealth that pervade our world.

The work was written for and premiered by cellist Jason Calloway and is dedicated to him.

– Jacob David Sudol Kaohsiung, Taiwan July 28, 2013

Vanished into the Clouds (雲隠) (2013) for cello and live electronics

Through a Fading Autumn (2010) 2 Huqins, Pipa, Zheng

Saa Niñi Ya´a
in Mixteco Language means (bird blood here)
The piece was created with field recordings of the improvisational work I did with the Oxacan Band in Los Angeles at the Maqueos Music School in Korea Town mixed in two layers with electronic processing.
Artist: Carmina Escobar 
(with the Banda Filarmonica Maqueos Music, the Maqueos Music School, and Yulissa Maqueos conductor)

Recorded for: HEARD IN LA IN RESPONSE TO TELLUS #28

Saa Niñi Ya'a

Twang (2010)

“Trefoil Knots (総角)” (2014 – 15) is the second work in a series of four works based on the ancient Japanese novel “The Tale of Genji.”  The last three works of this series, of which this is the first, are each based on one chapter from the final third of the book – often referred to as the Uji Chapters.  Rather than directly drawing narrative from these chapters I was more interested in reflecting on the complexity and cycles of the crossed relationships and consistently denied passion in these chapters.

The work is my second piece for cello and electronics for my dear friend, cellist Jason Calloway.  It was premiered at the International Society of Contemporary Music New Music Miami Festival on January 29, 2015.

Studio recording made at Florida International University.  Recording engineered, mixed, and mastered by the composer…

Trefoil Knots (総角)(2014-15) for cello and live electronics (Jason Calloway, Cello)

2018.05.12 First Performance by the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra

From Fading Mountains (2017-18) for Erhu, Pipa, Zheng, and Electronics

Quasar Saxophone Quartet (Marie-Chantal Leclair: Soprano Sax, Marthieu Leclair: Alto Sax, André Leroux: Tenor Sax, Jean-Marc Bouchard: Baritone Sax)
Jacob David Sudol: Electronics

Live Performance at the FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios, as part of the New Music Miami Festival (March 6, 2019)

Program Note:

"threads of wind..." was composed for the Montréal-based Quasar Saxophone Quartet to be premiered at the 2019 New Music Miami Festival. The work follows a similar approach to spectral materials and form that I’ve explored in works such as threads unraveling, unraveling, and stone bells and singing kites where the partials of various spectral analyses alternatively reveal themselves, tangle, and unravel. The work is also intended as tribute to two both Gerard Grisey and the Montréal-born Claude Vivier, who Grisey memorialized in his solo saxophone work Anoubis, Nout.

-Jacob David Sudol 
February 13, 2019 
Miami, FL

"threads of wind..." (2019) for saxophone quartet and electronics

Haegeum by Jeonghyeon Joo
Gayageum by Nayeong Park
Geomungo by Jeongmin Park
Project supported by Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture / Arts Council Korea / Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Premiered and recorded on Oct. 2019, Seoul, Korea

‘Gagok Exercise’ is a combination of traditional gagok form and common extended techniques of the haegeum, gayageum and geomungo. This is also an exercise piece for string players to grow their technical flexibility. The score is on a Jeongganbo system, a Korean classical way of notation.

Gagok Exercise

Listening to the audio recorded from the Perseverance rover as it travels through interplanetary space to Mars, I had two thoughts: 1) drifting through space and seeing a craft approach, pass by me, and recede into blackness; 2) the "subdued whirring of the rover's heat rejection fluid pump" is too subdued. With this short piece, I hope to evoke the former and rectify the latter. 

It's more fun if you listen on headphones...

Original Audio: https://soundcloud.com/nasa/perseverance-rover-sounds
Audio Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DPA