Memento Mori

from regina by Nick Brooke

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about

Memento Mori is a brief study written at the Gugak Center in Seoul for members of the National Gugak orchestra. Here the piece is played by virtuoso Junghwa Lee, who was also my gayageum teacher. The gayageum is a 14- to 17 stringed zither, where pressure and retunings over the bridge create its starkly plucked sound, glissandos, and warbling. Here I use techniques such as jeonseong and toseong (bending the pitch up/down), as well as a structural nod to the gradually accelerating mori, or tempos of sanjo, a traditional solo repertoire for gayageum. At one point, Junghwa Lee improvises a part around 2 minutes in. Many thanks to Junghwa for recording this short but tricky piece, under pandemic conditions, in Fullerton, CA. The tune God Save the Queen was briefly adopted by the Korean Army as an anthem post-WWII.

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from regina, released August 21, 2022
Junghwa Lee, gayageum

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Nick Brooke Bennington, Vermont

Nick Brooke mixes musical sampling, lipsynching, and theater into a genre all its own. In his works, vocalists and actors are trained to mimic sampled collages of sound effects, pop songs, and musical ephemera, blurring the line between recording and live performance. His works have been performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, HERE, and Mass MoCA. ... more

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