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An imagined tradition for an orchestra
TORI proposes “Susim-Menari,” a modal language bringing together Susimga-tori and Menari-tori. It began with a question: what music might have emerged if Korean music had no separate profession called composer? I imagined players making their own melodies, sharing them with neighbours and passing them into the next generation’s repertoire. Within that fictional society, I wrote music that had never been transmitted but might sound as though it had existed for generations. Damsun county, Damsunga and their transmission story are inventions. Melodic gestures and ornaments from the two tori move between groups of instruments, giving shape to a recurring, wordless folk-song-like theme.
《TORI》는 수심가토리와 메나리토리를 접변한 ‘수심메나리토리’를 제안하는 국악관현악 작품이다. ‘한국음악에 작곡가라는 별도의 직업이 없었다면 어떤 음악이 생겨났을까’라는 상상에서 출발했다. 연주자가 자신의 가락을 만들고 이웃과 나누며 다음 세대의 레퍼토리로 전하는 가상의 사회 안에서, 실제로 전승된 적 없지만 오래 존재했을 법한 음악을 썼다.
TORI proposes “Susim-Menari,” a modal language bringing together Susimga-tori and Menari-tori. It began with a question: what music might have emerged if Korean music had no separate profession called composer? I imagined players making their own melodies, sharing them with neighbours and passing them into the next generation’s repertoire. Within that fictional society, I wrote music that had never been transmitted but might sound as though it had existed for generations. Damsun county, Damsunga and their transmission story are inventions. Melodic gestures and ornaments from the two tori move between groups of instruments, giving shape to a recurring, wordless folk-song-like theme.
《TORI》는 수심가토리와 메나리토리를 접변한 ‘수심메나리토리’를 제안하는 국악관현악 작품이다. ‘한국음악에 작곡가라는 별도의 직업이 없었다면 어떤 음악이 생겨났을까’라는 상상에서 출발했다. 연주자가 자신의 가락을 만들고 이웃과 나누며 다음 세대의 레퍼토리로 전하는 가상의 사회 안에서, 실제로 전승된 적 없지만 오래 존재했을 법한 음악을 썼다.
Commission and premiere — National Orchestra of Korea, Composer Project
10 September 2025 · Haeoreum Grand Theater, National Theater of Korea
Conductor — Sung Kook Kim