Recorded on the album Eunah Noh, The World of Haegeum: Contemporary Music (Sound Press Records)

Among the oldest extant sijo, the compact, lyrical poetry of Korea, is U Tak’s In the Spring Mountains (춘산[春山]에), the opening line of which states, “The spring breeze melted snow on the hills, then quickly disappeared.” This line, with its simple, yet poignant imagery, is the starting point for A spring breeze melts the snow… (한줌 봄바람에 쌓인 눈이 녹듯…).

Although both the poem and the piece reflect on life, they take different directions. Whereas the poem’s speaker goes on to wish he could use the breeze to stop his own aging, the piece instead imagines the melted snow as a metaphor for life. Beginning a long journey as a mere trickle, droplets converge, gradually gaining form and force, until they become a gushing river, which finally spills into the sea. Along the way, the character of the water changes as it takes on different forms — individual beads of water become a rivulet, which becomes a stream that, in a moment of calm, flows into a pond before resuming its momentum downhill. Those few small drops of melted snow eventually transform into a powerful body of water, inexorably moving toward its natural destination.

While the imagery for the piece comes from traditional Korean poetry, the musical character is closely related to sanjo, the quintessential instrumental genre of traditional Korean music. Like sanjo, the piece is built on a series of evolving rhythmic patterns articulated by janggu. And, like sanjo, it begins in a state of supreme calm that progressively builds into an energetic swirl of notes.

Haegeum player Eunah Noh, who commissioned the piece, says that “sanjo is a song of life, singing various emotions.” A spring breeze melts the snow… sings life as the motion of water — growing, gliding, transforming, as it flows into the future. About 12 minutes long, the piece is dedicated to Eunah Noh.

춘산(春山)에

봄 산에 쌓인 눈을 녹인 바람이 잠깐 불고 어디론지 간 곳이 없다.

잠시 동안 (그 봄바람을) 빌려다가 머리 위에 불게 하고 싶구나.

귀 밑에 여러 해 묵은 서리(백발)를 다시 검은 머리가 되게 녹여 볼까 하노라.

우탁 (禹倬, 1263–1343)

 

In the spring mountains

The spring breeze melted snow on the hills, then quickly disappeared.

I wish I could borrow it briefly to blow over my hair

And melt away the aging frost forming now about my ears.

U Tak (1263-1343) trans. Larry C. Gross