Mool-lae-bang-ah 2(excerpt) by Eun Young Lee

Premiered by Diablo Symphony, Matilda Hofman- conductor

Mool-lae-bang-ah means waterwheel in Korean. This piece introduces Korean folk tunes, Do-ra-ji, Ong-hae-ya, most recognizably Arirang. The continuous spinning of a waterwheel implies the notion of repetition. The repetition seems the same but the waterwheel always meets different water. Korean folk tunes that are familiar to me touch me unknown parts of me since I have been living in the States. It reminds me Heraclitus of Ephesus’s saying-“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river.”