This piece is a study in the imaginary tradition of navigating by means of melodic lines. I heard a story about pigeons, how some of them got lost during a race. The investigator concluded that the birds were navigating via the actual frequencies emitted by the earth, and that their course was interrupted by a sonic boom. I have no idea if this is true, but it made me think, what if birdsongs were actually maps? And what if not only birds did it, but people? What if people learned a musical language, scales corresponding to cardinal directions, and passed down songs indicating safe passages? In this etude, the guitar’s melody is actually a map of the Korean border, where pitches indicate direction and duration indicates distance. The piano and voice add topographic and emotional details.
Recorded at Baltimore Composers Forum’s Intersegmental 38: Baltimore concert, November 19, 2023
Ji Eun Kim, soprano, Young Jun Lim, guitar, and Bonghee Lee, piano
