This study examines Lee Jeong-ho’s Heart of Storm, a concerto for modum buk, focusing on its formal structure, rhythmic organization, cross-cultural rhythm integration, and the musical functions of its cadenzas. While grounded in traditional Korean ...
This study examines Lee Jeong-ho’s Heart of Storm, a concerto for modum buk, focusing on its formal structure, rhythmic organization, cross-cultural rhythm integration, and the musical functions of its cadenzas. While grounded in traditional Korean rhythmic patterns, the work incorporates diverse rhythmic idioms such as Soca and Afro-Cuban structures, resulting in a multilayered and multidimensional rhythmic texture that transcends simple alternation of jangdan. The progression of rhythmic changes throughout the piece traces a narrative arc analogous to the generation, rotation, intensification, release, and dissolution of a storm, and the interplay between the cyclical nature of jajinmori and the asymmetrical subdivisions of world-music rhythms produces a distinctive sonic tension.
Rhythmically, the work juxtaposes and interweaves disparate elements—including 4/4-based Soca patterns, 12/8 jajinmori, Afro-Cuban subdivision structures, and half-time grooves—to construct a hybrid polyrhythmic surface characterized by the coexistence of rotational and linear motion, regularity and irregularity. The three cadenzas, all presented without fixed bar lengths and allowing improvisational freedom, serve integral structural roles by shaping atmosphere, releasing accumulated energy, and facilitating key rhythmic transitions.
This study demonstrates that Heart of Storm not only reinterprets traditional Korean jangdan in a contemporary context but also actively integrates global rhythmic vocabularies to create new rhythmic possibilities within Korean orchestral music. In doing so, it suggests broader directions for the coexistence of traditional and global rhythmic structures in modern Korean composition and provides foundational material for further research on percussion-centered creative works and concertos.