Jongsoli

Program Notes

Jongsoli (정소리), translating to “windchimes” in English, is inspired by a particularly striking field recording I captured last winter.

For centuries, Koreans have maintained this superstition; placing wind chimes outside of a home acts as some spiritual guard, protecting the human spirit from malevolent beings. So, as a fellow Korean, my dorm-mate placed an impressive set of windchimes - composed of dozens of long, hollow metallic rods woven together with a fine rope - outside our stoop. Impressed by both the windchime’s range of sound - spanning three octaves of pitch - and its full-of-color timbre, I decided to take the opportunity to capture a field recording. 

After about thirty minutes of footage, I listened back, and was immediately captivated The recording began soft, meditative even, the windchimes moving on their own accord forming a hushed melody through gentle surges of wind. This melody, I thought, felt like a conversation with the wind, responding to its various nudges, and forming a song, unbeknownst to itself, in the process. A few minutes in, I made the key decision of closing my eyes, and soon noticed some of the most beautiful underpinnings of the recording; prominent overtones resounded when certain pitches were struck, and in the far distance, I could pick out the resonances of church bells, its sonorities felt all throughout Cambridge. And as the recording progressed, the wind grew more insistent, driving the chimes to further and further turbulence, barreling to a peak of intensity around the ⅔ mark. And finally, remarkably, almost as if nature was composing in that very moment, the wind began detracting from the landscaping, allowing the windchimes its space again for gentle swaying, and its contemplative melody. The recording then ended as it began.

Structurally, the piece closely follows I had closely heard in the recording - from the contemplative melody born out of the chimes’ gentle swaying, to the moment I first closed my eyes and opened my ears to a whole world of color, to the exclamatory church bells and howling wind intensifying - all combine in a single inhale-exhale dramatic arc, to tell the story of that windy day. 

I hope Jongsoli inspires you to take a moment, to stop and clear your mind, to simply take and ponder the natural marvels around you. Lately, I’ve felt that our world is filled with beautiful surprises waiting to be discovered—if only we take a moment to listen and let them speak to us.