Yu-Fang Chen, violin
Peter Opie, cello
Live recording from Central Washington University New Music Festival,  October 6, 2023

Program Notes
Pali-pali is a common Korean expression, which is similar to ‘chop-chop’ in English but much more present, almost as a lifestyle – hard working AND efficient.  Many South Korean people seem to believe this to have played a significant role in South Korea’s rapid economic growth in the late 20th century. 
The title of this piece “Pali-pali!!” came from the situation in which I actually had to compose the piece very quickly, due to the last-minute commission.  I did not just accept but ENJOYED this challenge (all thanks to this Pali-pali spirit I inherited), by making this piece about a composer dealing with deadlines!
The opening of this piece is somewhat auspicious and contemplative, as when one begins a new composition project.  Then, the music becomes anxious, depicting the moment when the composer becomes aware of the deadline approaching but tries to stay calm and focused.  The music becomes tumultuous as the composer’s inner turmoil grows more frenetic and frantic, eventually to explode!  Will the composer make it to the deadline?  We will figure it out!

Concert Two

Texu Kim (b. 1980): Pali_Pali!!! for violin and cello (2018)

Music by Texu Kim
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 26, 2014

Bounce!!

Commissioned and premiered by Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Shi Yeon Sung
Live recording from its premiere.

- revised version is here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AE64dQ0lpI

Premiered at the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik 2016 by Curious Chamber Players 

Moa Bromander / Flute
Dries Tack / Clarinet
Martin Welander / Percussion
Frederik Munk Larsen / Guitar
Karin Hellqvist / Violin
My Hellgren / Violoncello
Rei Munakata / Conductor

Ringo for 6 Players (2016)

Migration was commissioned by the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music and Texas Performing Arts for The University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble.

World premiere on March 5, 2017, University of Texas Wind Ensemble, Jerry Junkin conducting.

I. Marching (0-3:50)
II. Dreaming (3:51-9:55)
III. Escape (9:56-12:40)
IV. Crossing (12:41-18:18)
V. Beginning (18:18-end)

Symphony no. 2 "Migration"

Texu Kim - Bounce!! - (2014)

Performed by the JACK Quartet
info & program note — https://louisgoldford.com/works/memoire-involontaire/

25 March 2017
DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York City
score: https://issuu.com/louisgoldford/docs/memoire_involontaire
watch on Score Follower: https://youtu.be/IdNrij6QK3A

Mixed by Louis Goldford
Mastered by Rebekah Wineman + Louis Goldford

Mémoire Involontaire (2017)

Decrescendo

Live Recording of 'Dusty Books' for string quartet and fixed media
Commissioned and premiered by 45th Parallel at Old Church Concert Hall, Portland, Oregon, 2/15/2019.
The piece is based on a poem with the same title by Micah Fletcher, the survivor of Max Stabbing in Portland, Oregon in 2017. It addresses his personal transformations after the tragic event through hypothetical questions.

Texu Kim - Dusty Books

45th Parallel Universe presented Pyxis Quartet and Micah Fletcher in this performance on February 15, 2019, at The Old Church, Portland OR. Their program was titled "Chrysalis".

5 - Dusty Books By Texu Kim

I. Drips & Drops
II. Floating City of Lake Texcoco –
III. Aqueduct Run

http://pronovamusic.com/notes/flow.html

instrumentation: 
1(=pc)22(cl,bcl)2(bn,cbn) - 2211 - Timp, Perc(3), Hp, Pno - Strings - flute soloist

Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, November 9-10, 2019 (live)
Iván del Prado, conductor; Alejandro Escuer, flute
     I–0:00 (improvised cadenza 3:54-4:27)
     II–7:25 (improvised cadenza 7:11-8:17)
     III–14:21

Program Note:

Composed for and dedicated to my good friend and long-time professional colleague, flautist Alejandro Escuer, FLOW is a concerto for flute and orchestra. One can imagine many things “flowing”: air, creating the flute’s sound; water traveling from here to there around this whole planet – giving us all life and a shared elemental experience; people, moving to and fro; and of course, music, especially music passing ideas back and forth among musicians or taking one or more motives on a journey across a piece of music lasting some 20 minutes, as in FLOW. Each of these examples of flow also involve transformation, in a process that might be circular, or perhaps never-ending.

While composing this concerto, I thought much about the flow of water, and even specifically, about the flow of and history of water in Mexico City, which of course was built upon a lake and continues to have challenges relating to water. Supplying fresh water to the population is not easy, and while extracting twice the amount of water as that replenishing the underground aquifers, the city continues to sink, such that the zócalo is now below the level of Lake Texcoco, which was the lowest point in the Valley of México.

The first movement is called “Drips & Drops.” Over the course of about six minutes the music gradually transforms from the opening single short note played by the flute into short motives and then longer lines and gestures; many of these descend in the way of water following gravity, not unlike the Aztec’s aqueducts. The slow central movement contemplates the shifting ground beneath the city afloat on the aquifers below lake Texcoco. Blocks of sound shift in relation to each other throughout, and the climax presents a large imposing structure arising and then sinking. The closing movement imagines water traveling the paths of the old aqueducts but is also inspired by the bustling activity and flow of people around the city.

For any theorists in the audience: some key melodic shapes are drawn from letters in Alejandro Escuer’s
name: AAEADD for his first name (L for the pitch A, or “La” in solfege; R for pitch D, or “Re”; I skipped
over j and o). Escuer translates as EBCCED.

SUM

Texu Kim