Fanfare for PyeongChang

Fanfare for PyeongChang combines three styles: dubstep, sanjo, and fanfare.

Dubstep (a sub-genre of electronic dance music [EDM]) is the initial idea for this piece, since I wanted to make it festive and “hip.” Seeking to be different from other composers who are also interested in dubstep, sanjo (a virtuosic improvisatory style of Korean traditional music for solo instrument and percussion) came across to my mind as a perfect complement. These two genres contrast immensely: dubstep and sanjo symbolize modernity/Western/popular and traditional/non-Western/art music, respectively. Additionally, dubstep is mainly in duple meter while sanjo is in triple. In my imagination of the work, the two were being glued together through the bass drum sound, almost the only thing they share. Fanfare was contractually given with the title, which became the third piece of the “puzzle.”

For local flavor, I borrowed melodic material from “PyeongChang Arari,” a representative folk tune of the region. It is a simple tune with numerous variations that could be combined with countless texts.

The tune appears throughout the piece in freely elaborated, stretched, or modified forms that especially embrace the improvisatory manner of sanjo. As in a sanjo, sections with faster tempo come later, from jinyangjo through jungmori, eotmori, etc.—with a handful of twists, including the dubstep interruption—concluding with a very fast fanfare in hwimori/dubstep. While this ten-minute piece may be unlike a traditional fanfare, I hope it fittingly celebrates the cross-cultural nature of the PyeongChang Festival.

written by Jane Vial Jaffe and Texu Kim