William Blake’s poem The Tyger, the opening line of which reads “Tyger, tyger, burning bright,” is the starting point for Tiger Burning Bright. Blake presents the tiger as a fearsome and powerful, yet elegantly beautiful beast, whose existence speaks to the unanswerable questions of the universe. The recurring phrase “fearful symmetry” refers not only to the flame-like stripes of the tiger, but also to its inherent, paradoxical duality of ferocity and beauty.

The piece adopts a similar tone, presenting a beautifully ferocious music draped in symmetry. Apart from various symmetrical patterns in the notes themselves, geomungo and piano strike a harmonious balance in their pairing, finding an equilibrium in their interlocking lines so as to seemingly merge into a single powerful yet elegant instrument. And, like the tiger, each instrument has its own stripe-like exterior – the strings of the geomungo and the keys of piano.

Tiger Burning Bright was written for Yoonjeong Heo and Jonghwa Park in 2022, the year of the tiger.