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Piano Quartet
2024
Cello
Performer
Piano
Preparations
Viola
Violin
- Program Notes
- This piece deals with how the concept of “depth” is formed around the music. Is it really true that serious treatment of elements creates the deep substance of the piece? Then how about the ones that are already negating the concept of being deep by being mass-produced? The genre of “Easy Listening” can be thought as a prime example of this music that refuses to be deep even before the definition of depth in music. I wanted to dig deeper to see if I can make this music a paradoxical nightmare, treating unserious materials just as serious as I can, placing them in different positions to make them carry more important roles, to be far more than just gimmicks. This series originally began with FACILEMENT ÉCOUTABLE Ia, composed for flute and piano trio, but now I have felt the necessity to delve deeper into the very idea of the instrumentation itself. It is clear that the addition of the viola to the piano quartet, historically considered the most perfect and the most challenging instrumentation, the piano trio, is a clever strategy to buffer the overly strong personalities among the instruments. However, the viola has historically been the subject of ridicule due to its acoustical flaws and ambiguous positioning. As a violist myself, I have composed this piece to explore the potential of this dramatic setup fraught with latent conflicts, mocking the piano trio as a small, condensed form of orchestra, the perpetually aggrieved viola, and mass-produced music that is easy to listen to, all while testing the limits of that potential. Easily listenable things always hover around us. Yet, it is certain that someday they undoubtedly will penetrate our skulls and scramble our brains.
- Recording Notes
- Joonghyun Lee (*2000) FACILEMENT ÉCOUTABLE II (2024) WP 27. June 2024 - at Daegu Concert House, Chamber Hall. Performed by Flex Ensemble: Lisa Werhahn (Violin & Party horn), Anna Szulc (Viola & Party poppers), Martha Bijlsma (Violoncello & Police whistle), & Johannes Nies (Piano & Melodica)
- Performer Credits
- Flex Ensemble
- External Links