NO VOICE IS HUSH’D
Ensemble Wiro
Wonju KR, 9-28-24
Audio editing: Yongwoo Lee
No Voice is Hush’d
bass clarinet and string trio, 14’ (2024)
Thomas Hood's 1823 sonnet, "Silence" refers to two types of profound silence. One is the silence of spiritual and physical places that man cannot reach: "the cold grave"; "the deep sea". The second is the mysterious, lonely silence of ancient ruins, now overrun by wildlife and green vines: places where man once was, but no longer is.
This composition, titled with words borrowed from Hood's poem, is concerned with this second type of silence. Slow drones and microtonal intervals evoke a dessicated and ruined remnant of music, traces of human expression that used to be but now only exist as remant, fossil, relic, or memory.