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Two Movements on the theme of Angry Birds

Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish company Rovio Entertainment. The series focuses on multi-coloured birds who try to save their eggs from green- coloured pigs. Inspired by Crush the Castle, the game has been praised for its successful combination of fun gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to many spin-offs, versions of Angry Birds being created for PCs and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters, a televised cartoon series, and a feature film.

In January 2017, Gideon Gee-Bum Kim composed a Capriccio type of short piece for string trio and percussion on the themes of "Angry Birds" song. The piece was premiered at the Toronto Messiaen Ensemble’s “The Sounds of Love and War” concert in the St- Jerome’s Cathedral in St-Jerome, Quebec on September 9, 2017. The original song consists of three main themes. The work displays a systematic structure and progresses in polyphony texture as a whole using all three themes. In a sense of rhythmic development, heterophony is also found in the piece. The tempo of the work is accelerated to express the excitement of the fun video game.

In June 2017, Kim added a short movement to the Capriccio making a two-movement work for amplified haegeum (a traditional Korean string instrument, resembling a fiddle), flute, clarinet, trombone, piano, and percussion with commission by composer and Music Director, Moon Young Ha. While the second movement is a new instrumentation of Kim’s Capriccio, the first one, Image is an abstractive construction of the story of the video game. Haegeum plays a role of soloist in the first movement, whereas it appears as a part of the ensemble in the second movement. Two movements are linked with Attacca. The work was premiered by Korean haegeum player, Soo Yeon Lyuh and Ensemble Mise-En under the baton of Kim at the Cell Theatre in Chelsea, New York City on December 6, 2017.

On December 28, 2017, Kim completed arrangement of the work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion for the Toronto Messiaen Ensemble’s “Play” concert in 2018.

 
Gideon Gee-Bum Kim, managing/artistic directo
 
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