Скачать или смотреть Dissolution (소멸, 2024) for solo cello – Younje Cho / 조윤제

Premiered by Junjae Jeong (정준재)

Graz, Austria
May 2024

[Program Notes]In March of this year, temperatures in Antarctica soared to 38.5°C above the seasonal average. This rapid climate change, a direct consequence of human-induced global warming, is accelerating sea level rise and intensifying extreme natural disasters, posing a grave threat to both humanity and all life on Earth. This work sonically depicts the process of a glacier’s journey from fracture and collapse to its ultimate dissolution through the language of contemporary sound.
Throughout the piece, a variety of extended techniques are employed. Breath and voice intertwine, and the ingressive multiphonic effect—produced as the voice splinters while inhaling—evokes a sensation that is not merely cold, but eerily chilling. Harsh noises created by bowing behind the bridge, pitchless sounds generated by damping the strings, and percussive tapping of the fingerboard without bowing represent the moments when a glacier cracks and begins to split apart. The frequent use of trills throughout the work symbolizes drifting fragments of ice gradually melting away into the sea, receding further and further until they vanish.
At its center, a frenzied passage erupts, portraying the climactic moment when the glacier rips apart and collapses. In the final section, the trills grow increasingly delicate, until only the faintest resonance remains—marking the glacier’s complete disappearance. Knowing that this process cannot be stopped, I sought to express, through sound alone, the deep sorrow and urgency I feel as an artist witnessing such loss.