James Larter (percussion) and Hyelim Kim (taegŭm) in London at Stella Polaris Studios, 21st November 2023; Mulgoa Nature Reserve, Western Sydney, Sunday 10th September 2023 (photos: Øyvind Aamli; Bruce Crossman).
Hoheub: Every Last Breath details
for taegŭm and percussion (2023)
duration: 10′ 06″
publisher: Australian Music Centre
score available from
dedication note:
Hyelim Kim (taegŭm) and James Larter (percussion)
program note
Hoheub: Every Last Breath (for taegŭm and percussion) is about breath (in Korean, hoheub) and celebrating the spiritual presence in nature, especially in the Judaic-Christian sense of ‘something which is driven along with miraculous power resplendent in light through the totality of creation’ in birdsong/nature, with every last breath—even when every breath is painful. It includes Kate Fagan’s beautiful poem about breath and finding beauty in bower birdsong, even when things are painful. The piece is like one massive breath which expels air—pain, beauty, and praise. It forms the sonic basis for Vincent Tay’s film shot in Mulgoa Nature Reserve exploring the presence of the transcendent energy of nature. The structure of the music for the film is a three-part mosaic: part one explores flourish and breath motifs, including chanting of Judeo-Christian glossolalia phonemes—a mysterious spiritual communication; part two explores the flourish idea to lead to taegŭm scalic athleticism and percussive bursts; whilst part three transitions back through the scalic runs/percussive bursts to the flourish and breath motifs’ dissipation of the energy, to focus on the Korean word sangchan—a type of ecstatic praise. The first part is where the taegŭm gradually breathes to life with the sudden noisy-breathy melodic angularity inspired from the syncopated Mulgoa tree branches, with traditional Korean metal percussion—kkwaenggwari, ching and Korean temple bowl resonances—startling and lingering high and low around Kate Fagan’s words about beauty in birdsong but linked to emotional pain. The second part is where the taegŭm breaks out into ecstatic birdsong, working almost combatively against percussive skin sounds from the Korean changgo (double-headed skin drum). The two performers work with poetic chant and free mobile sections that allow ‘ripping it up’—in the Cai Guo-Qiang gunpowder sense of exploding the ideas unpredictably—with improvisatory rough Mahk-like gestures that reveal spirit in their intensity as a type of ecstatic inspired-birdsong from Mulgoa Nature Reserve. The third part of the music returns to ringing metal kkwaenggwari, ching and Korean temple bowl resonances as the taegum gradually burbles, burst in colour utterances, and elongates in into long-drawn breath notes that gradually evaporate into the air resonances with Korean temple bowl ethereal sounds.
(photos: Øyvind Aamli; Bruce Crossman).
Bush walks in Mulgoa Nature Reserve in Western Sydney allow me to come across amazing moments of life action in the bush—it is as if the bush is a dancing taegŭm player suggesting rich timbres and reedy athletic sounds amidst an echo-eco system of swirling percussion resonances.
first performance:
Hoheub: Every Last Breath was composed as part of a film collaboration between Korea and Australia, involving Hyelim Kim (taegŭm), James Larter (percussion), Vincent Tay (director/cinematographer), Ian Stevenson (sound design), Kate Fagan (poetry) and Bruce Crossman (composer). It was written for Hyelim Kim (taegŭm) and James Larter (percussion) and recorded on the 21st November 2023 in London at Stella Polaris Studios, with Øyvind Aamli (sound engineer), and mastering in Sydney with Ian Stevenson. The work was funded by the Collaboration Funds and Researcher Professional Development Allowance from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. We are grateful for the support of Professor Matt McGuire (Dean) and Associate Professor Alison M. Downham Moore (Associate Dean of Research) from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts (SoHCA).
other performances
Bruce Crossman’s Hoheub: Every Last Breath (taegŭm, percussion), with Kate Fagan’s poem “Bower,” as part of Open Spaces, was shown as a 3-minute film excerpt (work-in progress) by Vincent Tay at End of Year School Meeting, School of Humanities & Communication Arts, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University, Australia, 13 December 2023.
Bruce Crossman 