Episode 121 — June 21, 2021
Isang Yung: "Glisèes für Violoncello solo" for cello
Performed by Christine J. Lee

Cellist Christine J. Lee uses music as a vessel for sharing culture. When words fail, she believes music can bridge the gap between our lived experiences, and open our minds. This outlook led her to share a Korean folk song titled Arirang for her first House Music series video, which was released this past April. In her rendition of the song, she transformed her cello into traditional Korean instruments, exploring how different performance techniques could create different types of sound. This House Music series video, which is her second, compliments her performance of Arirang. Here, she presents Isang Yun’s Glisèes für Violoncello solo (1970). 

Yun was a composer who was exiled from Korea and living in Germany. He wrote avant-garde music that was revered by famous 20th century composers like Igor Stravinsky and Pierre Boulez, though his music is played less often. The cello was one of his favorite instruments, which is just one of the reasons Lee felt connected to him. As she began to learn his complex music for a concert celebrating his 100th birth year, she found a deep connection to its layers of meaning. In composing, Yun combined Western avant-garde techniques with traditional Korean styles, uniting the two traditions into one. Lee found her own experience living in both Korea and the United States reflected in these notes, and the more she played his music, the more she understood all the elements, musical and philosophical, he sought to portray. Here, she performs Glisèes from her home in Korea.

Notes by Vanessa Ague

 
House Music: Bite-sized concerts recorded at homes around the world

In 2020-21, we created a weekly video series featuring short-form concerts of newly-commissioned works, supporting 208 artists around the world during the pandemic.