PAMUN

For piano solo (1971)

I wrote this piece while I was a student at Seoul National University in 1971, for my fellow student Yoon-Jung Kim. She performed it for the first time at my master’s concert in the same year.

PAMUN (the Korean word for water circles) was the last composition I completed in Korea to this day.

When I take a walk around a  pond and, lost in my thoughts, toss a pebble into the water, it creates soft circles (PAMUN) on the water’s surface.

If I toss a second pebble into the whirl, a new set of circles is formed. The water circles touch each other, overlap each other, grow apart. After a while, they will fade, returning the water to its state of peace.

his piano piece tries to emulate my thoughts floating on the waves, across the pond.

 

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