Jasmine Choi performed the piece “Garak” by Isang Yung (1917-1995) at her recent NYFC recital in NYC. Yung was a South Korean-born German composer whose art suffered under political prosecution. The NY Times article covering his death notes that he was kidnapped from Berlin in 1967 by the South Korean government, tried for treason because of a previous visit to North Korea, and sentenced to life in prison. International pressure resulted in a commuted sentence of only two years; his wife served three. They returned to Germany and became citizens, and incredibly there was a second attempted abduction while he was visiting Japan in 1976.
His work “Garak” allows the western flute to imitate the dae geum (also called the tae gum), a large transverse flute with prominent nodes. It dates from the Silla period, roughly 57 B.C. – 935 A.D. The upper end of the instrument is sealed with wax at the first node, and the bottom is open. There is a listening hole and six tone holes, and a resonating membrane which gives the flute a distinctive tone. Because of its range of sound, the dae geum is used for both court and folk music in South Korea.
What I really wanted to ask Jasmine Choi during her recital was what she did with the pad cleaning paper that she brought onstage with her for the piece? At first I thought she was being preemptive in case she had a problem, but then I hoped she was going to insert the paper in her flute to better portray the character of the dae geum. I must have blinked, because the paper disappeared during the piece and I didn’t see it again. No matter, her performance was just as masterful: