The Korean woman composer, Unsuk Chin (b.1961), who received the Grawemeyer Award in 2001, has become increasingly acknowledged as a major voice in Western music. This dissertation examines her six Piano Etudes (1993-2003), including their structure and perforn1ance, in the context of Chin's background. Her Korean upbringing and musical education, her gender and her diasporic life, as well as the remarkable depth of the musical influences upon her, are all considered. Via her Korean teacher, Sukhi Kang, she absorbed the techniques of electronic music and those of extended techniques in instrumental music, while via Ligeti, her later teacher, she absorbed many other influences, including that of Nancarrow's music. Some, like that of Korean music itself, she seems to have gained on her own initiative. However, she claims that the works of Lewis Carroll and Conlon Nancarrow fit into this category, too, despite the overwhelming preoccupation of Ligeti with both of these sources; she also disavows any concerns with being a woman composer, despite her reception's clearly being affected by this. These issues, often puzzling, all . prove worthy of close consideration. The two penultimate chapters are devoted to an analysis of each of the six Piano Etudes; an understanding of their design and achievement is dependent on knowledge of all these background materials. This is followed by a discussion of performance issues in the pieces, which were written, as Chin declares, away from the piano and published in her own script, and which offer immense practical challenges to the performer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:654962 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Lee, Jennifer |
| Publisher | City University London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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