Geumsan (Étude for Flute Solo) I. Dawn

Program Note

《Geumsan》 is an unaccompanied flute work inspired by the scenery of dawn. Rather than simply depicting the visual and auditory elements of nature, the piece unfolds the passage of time from dawn to morning as an acoustic narrative. Beginning with slow breaths and extended tones, the music gradually gains movement, portraying the transformation of a quiet dawn into a morning filled with vitality. In particular, the notes D and E serve as central musical materials, symbolizing “Dawn” and “Morning” respectively, suggesting the transition of time throughout the work.

The opening section begins with a long-breathed introduction inspired by the Daseureum of Korean traditional music. In the following sections, various extended flute techniques—including air tone, trills, key clicks, microtonal glissandi, and wide vibrato—are employed to delicately evoke elements of dawn such as mist, the fluttering of birds’ wings, the movement of branches and leaves, the flow of wind, and the cries of animals. These sounds do not aim to reproduce nature realistically, but rather to expand the sense of movement and spatial depth experienced within nature through musical expression.

In the latter part of the work, the gradually brightening sky and rising sunlight emerge through the music, while the composer’s personal emotions toward nature become intertwined with the sounds of the natural world. 《Geumsan》 captures the moment where landscape, time, and human inner experience intersect through a single flute, serving as a musical record that translates the sensation of breathing with nature into a contemporary sonic language.