from line (after Lee Ufan) / 線より:李禹煥の作品にちなんで (2018)
Genre / ジャンル
text score / テクストスコア
Instrumentation / 編成
open
自由
自由
Duration / 演奏時間
5-20 minutes / 5〜20分
Other information / 他の情報
Premièred 22 May 2018, Innis College Town Hall, University of Toronto, by Stephen Tam (fl), Teresa Suen-Campbell (hrp), Alice Ho (pf), Chan Ka Nin (gtr)
2018年5月22日、トロント、イニス・カレッジ・タウン・ホールに於いて、Stephen Tam氏、Teresa Suen-Campbell氏、Alice Ho氏、Chan Ka Nin氏によって初演されました
2018年5月22日、トロント、イニス・カレッジ・タウン・ホールに於いて、Stephen Tam氏、Teresa Suen-Campbell氏、Alice Ho氏、Chan Ka Nin氏によって初演されました
Score available for purchase (pdf or printed copy) from the Canadian Music Centre.
Programme Note
Lee Ufan (b.1936) is a leading Korean abstract artist, resident for most of his adult life in Japan. He was a major figure linking the artistic communities of both countries in the 1960s and ’70s. The paintings in his early series From Line (1972-84) consist of successions of thick monochrome straight lines drawn in a single stroke using a traditional East Asian ultramarine ink made from finely ground minerals (iwagunjō in Japanese). Over the course of the stroke the amount of pigment on the brush decreases, resulting in the line becoming less solid as the stroke continues. Each stroke, performed in the same way, beginning in the same way, produces different patterns as uncontrollable factors such as the way pigment clings to individual hairs of the brush affect the line as the ink begins to run out.
Seeing one of these paintings in a gallery in Tokyo in late 2017, I was struck by the obvious debt to traditional calligraphic practice but also the original way Lee had found into abstract art. Indeed, the exhibition (‘Rhythm in Monochrome’, at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery) showcased 17 Korean abstract artists, and the vast majority were eye-openingly original – clearly in dialogue with the latest art trends out of Europe and New York, but also very much creating their own styles often making use of traditional Korean techniques and materials. Lee’s From Line (1976) immediately provoked a music-theatrical response in me, the result of which is this piece. Like the painting, it deals with different aspects of repetition, exhaustion of material, and traditional materials (incense).
Seeing one of these paintings in a gallery in Tokyo in late 2017, I was struck by the obvious debt to traditional calligraphic practice but also the original way Lee had found into abstract art. Indeed, the exhibition (‘Rhythm in Monochrome’, at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery) showcased 17 Korean abstract artists, and the vast majority were eye-openingly original – clearly in dialogue with the latest art trends out of Europe and New York, but also very much creating their own styles often making use of traditional Korean techniques and materials. Lee’s From Line (1976) immediately provoked a music-theatrical response in me, the result of which is this piece. Like the painting, it deals with different aspects of repetition, exhaustion of material, and traditional materials (incense).