Unsuk Chin : Frontispiece (2019)

Unsuk Chin (진은숙, *1961) : Frontispiece (2019, Revised version(?)) for Orchestra
Frontispiece by Unsuk Chin © 2019 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd,
www.boosey.com/cr/music/Unsuk...
Disclaimer: This video is just for promotion, and not for profit. I hold no right to the picture on the video nor the music itself. All rights reserved for the composer and the publisher.
Please write me a direct message if you have complaints about this upload concerning copyright issues. In that case, I will delete the video immediately.
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Alan Gilbert, Conductor
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (presumably)
Frontispiece for orchestra was commissioned by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to open Alan Gilbert’s inaugural season as their Chief Conductor. This occasion prompted me to write a short piece which presents a time lapse of a kind of the history of music: certain aspects of a number of key symphonic works of different epochs are being evoked and poured into new moulds by letting them interact and comment upon each other. These are never actual style quotations - mere allusions, and faint references. On the level of details, the work consists of many tiny fragments which all refer to gestures typical to certain works and composers, and these are being ‘translated’ to each other in numerous different and occasionally unexpected ways. As to give but a few examples: certain chord sequences by Anton Bruckner are interpreted in a manner akin to Anton von Webern, splinters of Strauss, Scriabin and Stravinsky collide, Brahmsian harmony passes through the prisms of, say, Charles Ives, and certain material from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony - Heaven forbid - is being presented a la manière de Pierre Boulez. This process of ‘translating’ happens on several levels: diverse materials and gestures, ranging from Baroque music all the way to the avant-garde, are being transcribed and transformed in an alienating manner so that something very different arises as a sum of their interactions. All of this happens at a rather microscopic level: all aforementioned allusions, as well as other ones, are not immediately perceivable, and it is most certainly not necessary to trace them in order to be able to ‘understand’ the piece. On the level of the macrostructure, the work’s form is being held together by a certain chord, which could be called its supporting pillar - a chord which, by way of exception, is completely autarchic. Frontispiece reflects on my decades-long experiences with landmark works of the symphonic literature as composer and recipient. In extracting distinct aspects of works of certain composers, Anton Webern’s art of revealing a ‘universe in a nutshell’ by means of extreme compression served as a particular inspiration.
(Unsuk Chin)

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

(Most of the) References in this piece: 0:10 Webern : Op.10 Mvt. 1 0:25 Webern : Op.10 Mvt. 3 0:43 Ravel : Frontispice 0:58 Scriabin : The Poem of Ecstacy 1:03 Webern : Op.6 Mvt. 2 (between here I have no idea) 1:40 Stravinsky : The Rite of Spring - Sacrificial Dance 1:53 Webern : Op.6 Mvt. 2 (2) 2:00 Boulez : Initiale (or Fanfare for Georg Solti's 80th Birthday) (unsure) 2:06 Messiaen : Turangalîla-Symphonie Mvt. 1 2:17 Boulez : Notations II 2:24 Boulez : Notations II + Scriabin : The Poem of Ecstasy 3:00 Stravinsky : The Rite of Spring - The Augurs of Spring (between here I have no idea 2) 3:54 R.Strauss : Also Sprach Zarathustra 4:09 Gubaidulina : Offertoriun 4:28 Boulez : The last note of Dérives I 4:30 Bruckner : 7th Symphony Mvt. 2 4:52 Grisey : Les Espaces Acoustiques, right at the end of Transitoires 5:00 Bruckner 7th Symphony Mvt. 2 (2) 5:19 Beethoven 9th Symphony (hamiltonian system) (between here I have no Idea 3) 5:46 Messiaen : Oiseaux Exotiques 5:54 Furrer : Zwei Studien for Orchestra (unsure) 6:06 Webern : Passacaglia Op.1 6:18 Stravinsky : The Rite of Spring - Dance of the Earth 6:22 Tchaikovsky : 6th Symphony Mvt. 4 + Boulez : Notations VII 6:41 Tchaikovsky : 6th Symphony Mvt. 4 + Grisey Modulations 7:15 Bruckner 9th Symphony Mvt.1 7:23 Webern Passacaglia (2) 7:29 Brahms 4th Symphony Mvt. 4 7:36 +Lutosławski Concerto for Orchestra Mvt.3 Help me expand this list!

[@bryshares]

Wish Unsuk Chin would cite her sources, hahaha

[@MrDSCH-ib2mx]

I think because of the trumpet at around 1:00 to 1:03, it sounds a bit like Scriabin's "The Poem of Ecstasy"!

[@masem3156]

Isn't it Ives around the 4-5 minutes marks ?

[@reamartin6458]

She began her career by knocking off György Ligeti and now she ends her career by knocking off everyone else lol 😂 Political connections help the untalented the most

[@alexunseth5408]

7:37 sounds like lutoslawski concerto for orchestra mvmt 3

[@thinkOfMeAsAClassicalMusician]

I love how she plays with the materials and the wonderful orchestration

[@bryshares]

Wish Schnittke were alive to hear this

[@MrDSCH-ib2mx]

Very interesting piece!! I just love finding the references hidden in this piece!! Especially love the Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Webern references!!

[@__414.88b_]

Hollywood approves

[@akadetrorjk]

Lots of Rite of Spring in here

[@AbdulazizShabakouh]

This is a masterpiece!

[@arielorthmann4061]

Amazing

[@SaintDeus]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@lillian6828]

I find the new ending interesting, which seems like a dark/humour take on Brahms Nr.4 (beginning of the 4th mvt) under the surface.

[@handledav]

frontispice

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

"is this a typo?" no. it is just as how it was published.

[@SuonoReale]

This is genius.

[@Quim141]

2:12 Mussorgky/Ravel pictures

[@wensidunmi]

nice，listened seems have spirits both of Bach &Beethoven

[@Quim141]

0:58 Skriabin porros

[@machida5114]

sodelicious.....................

[@bryshares]

Listening to this on the toilet

[@Zoorty_]

Cause it belongs there

[@stacia6678]

@@Zoorty_No

[@Quim141]

Me 2

[@thinkOfMeAsAClassicalMusician]

Same

[@Flatscores]

Very Webernian beginning.

[@pabloaldunate]

How do you get this score? I have nkcoda but you can’t screenshot it.

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

who said I use nkoda? XD

[@pabloaldunate]

@@BetonBrutContemporary Do you have access to the full scores? They are very hard to get.

[@Piratebreadstick]

@@pabloaldunate Nkoda sucks.

[@Quim141]

Colage

[@prepcoin_nl4362]

I like quite a few of Unsuk Chin's works and am familiar with (and enjoy) quite a few of the referenced pieces. And yet, all combined, I find this almost insufferable. I'm reminded of Orson Welles's words in reference to academic "informed" cinema "The world does not need another god damn homage."

[@anaklasis]

I admire Chin but I also dislike some of her works. I admire because she is a magician like Ligeti and at the same time, she owns a true sense of craftmanship. It's the artist behind the works which I find outstanding. But I can't stand this habit of giving a wink to the audience by writing tonal and easy music (sometimes is a catchy tune hidden in the score or tonal chords or sounds, whatever the combination of textures or timbres could be). She doesn't need that.

[@joeweinberg3108]

@@anaklasis​​⁠​⁠the essence of this comment is “i don’t like tonal music, and i also don’t like accessible music”. that’s fine if that’s all that interests you, but it doesn’t give you any right to criticize composers that simply don’t fit your aesthetic interest. it’s infuriatingly pretentious to hear music enjoyers get frustrated, let alone dismissive, of music written today that’s not just a jumble of atonality with zero development or recognizable thematic material. chin’s craftsmanship in this piece is undeniably genius, and whether or not it fits your artistic predilection should absolutely not be a means for such condescending language.

[@youshin1682]

@@anaklasis I understand of your point. well, but sometime the music should't be only belong some certain method. nowadays in Darmstadt I see many composers imitating Lachenmann's 'Musique Concrete' too much. sometime's looks so pity because it could considered only one aesthetic. even like many people saying 'atonal' music sometimes I couldn't agree or get be persuaded(also my music as well), after visited several contemporary music festivals in Germany. I think the method already discovered by many composers, so the 'atonal' 'easy or difficult listening' is doesn't matter to me. rather I consider 'what concept did she/he/they choose' and how's that work and how's that having own stories and fantasies. I remember composer Mikel Urquiza also use several tonal elements but I felt from his music completely having his owns something. because it's not a matter of tonal or atonal, it's matter of achieve his fantasy. Probably I think that's why Unsuk want to try on her work.

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

@@youshin1682NEGATION RULEZ

[@JamesElkins]

Is there a similarity here to the moment of postmodern appropriation in the 1980s with Rochberg and Schnittke?