Caverns (fantasy no. 1)
for sanjo gayageum and pipe organ
2024
8 minutes
Composed for Junghwa Lee and Jung-A Lee, this work will be premiered in 2025.
Under the mountain’s shadow
The shadows of mountains
Loom again in the cavern.
The stones like stars
Flash over valleys that fade
In uncertain distance.
— from The Cavern, by Glenn Ward Dressbach
8.5×11 PDF score and parts set
$20
All scores are published by
(ASCAP) and © Christopher Adler (ASCAP)
In myth, folklore, and religions around the world, caves and caverns are the abodes of gods, demons, monsters, and seers, places of birth and transformation, and a gateway to the underworld. As antithesis of light and of the human realm, they instill awe, terror, and wonder, and even a temptation to explore. In Korean creation mythology, for example, the cave is the site of transformation of Ungnyeo, the bear that becomes a woman after passing 100 days in a cave (this story was also the subject of a dance for which I composed the piano solo Bear Woman Dances, 25 years ago).
Caverns (fantasy no. 1) evokes the sound world and episodic structure of the organ fantasies of French composer and organist Jehan Alain. His works made a strong impression on me as a young pipe organist and composer. The 12-stringed Korean gayageum (plucked zither) introduces idiomatic playing techniques and musical elements of the sanjo (“scattered melodies”) genre, here set within an invented melodic scale. The sanjo genre and the keyboard fantasy genre offer a resonance between distant musical traditions, as they both capture an improvisational spirit and flexible organization into a fixed compositional form.
Caverns (fantasy no. 1) is dedicated to Junghwa Lee and Jung-A Lee.