Listen to the Premiere of Terra Mater (2011)
on Youtube
Young-Min Park, Music Director and Conductor
October 20, 2011
Terra Mater
is a compact one movement dramatic work for symphony orchestra (approx. 10′) that deals symbolically with the creative and destructive powers of nature.
Terra Mater follows the footsteps of Voices of the Rainforest (2007), another work dealing with nature. However the content and gestures of Terra Mater have a deeper sense of urgency. I have always felt that the earth is an organism just like we are, and as such it deserves our respect. If we fail to take care of the earth it may lead to our own destruction. Beneath the dramatic gestures of Terra Mater there is an underlying and compelling lament that surfaces at crucial points of the piece connecting the various strains and providing structure. I have wanted to write an orchestral work on this topic for long time and I welcome this opportunity with excitement. The recent weather events in all parts of the world make nature a ‘hot’ topic and I am eager to make a contribution in musical terms. I live now in Seoul and last summer I had the chance to experience the Asian monsoon season; it was apparently one of the hottest and rainiest summers on record in Seoul. This extreme Korean weather reminded me of the Texas summer storms at most violent. To me there is nothing more awesome and overwhelming than the power of nature. I can understand how ealier civilizations, much more connected with nature than we are, worshipped many elements of the physical world with its capacity to create and destroy.
