Injecting Oriental spirit into Western music
Isang Yun's music successfully combines elements from East and West .
“Riul, a title of the piece has several meanings in Korean: flowing melodic line, rhythm, and strophe, among others. He applies the word here to the arching and melismatic lines of the clarinet, which has similarity to the technique of Korean woodwind instruments." Riul was commissioned by the Internationalen Theaterwoche der Studentenbiihnen.
According to Halesy Stevens, in the Riul “Expressive gesture is underlined by elaborate dynamic specifications, but the artifices of traditional notation serve throughout. The scores have been handsomely and reasonably accurately produced. In the first measure of Riul the left-hand piano chord should apparently read A-Bb-D rather than Ab-B-D; the last note of measure 5 in the clarinet part should be a sixteenth; measure 10 should have a gover the trill sign; the last note group of the same measure in the piano score lacks the quintole sign. Time has not permitted an extensive check-hence, caveat canen.” (Stevens, Halsey. "Images für Flöte, Oboe, Violine und Violoncello by Isang Yun; Riul, Klarinette und Klavier by Isang Yun" Music Library Association. Second Series, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Dec., 1970), p. 346) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/896952>
Click below to listen to the Riul: for clarinet and piano:
“Riul, a title of the piece has several meanings in Korean: flowing melodic line, rhythm, and strophe, among others. He applies the word here to the arching and melismatic lines of the clarinet, which has similarity to the technique of Korean woodwind instruments." Riul was commissioned by the Internationalen Theaterwoche der Studentenbiihnen.
According to Halesy Stevens, in the Riul “Expressive gesture is underlined by elaborate dynamic specifications, but the artifices of traditional notation serve throughout. The scores have been handsomely and reasonably accurately produced. In the first measure of Riul the left-hand piano chord should apparently read A-Bb-D rather than Ab-B-D; the last note of measure 5 in the clarinet part should be a sixteenth; measure 10 should have a gover the trill sign; the last note group of the same measure in the piano score lacks the quintole sign. Time has not permitted an extensive check-hence, caveat canen.” (Stevens, Halsey. "Images für Flöte, Oboe, Violine und Violoncello by Isang Yun; Riul, Klarinette und Klavier by Isang Yun" Music Library Association. Second Series, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Dec., 1970), p. 346) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/896952>
Click below to listen to the Riul: for clarinet and piano: