Broderick Lemke

Conducting

October 25, 2016

Korean Folk Rhapsody

The piece Korean folk rhapsody was composed by James Curnow. It is rated at a level 2 difficulty
which makes it great for a beginning band. This piece will help them explore a wide variety of concepts
at an accessible level. They will learn about Asian influences in music, new rhythm, and it can be tied
into a music history lesson and more advanced listening skills.

Curnow lives in Kentucky and serves as the president of Curnow Music, a publishing company
under his name. He spent 5 years teaching in public schools and has worked at least thirty in the
college/university setting. He is very experienced in writing for a large variety of ensembles and has
produced several great works for younger band such as this piece along with an arrangement of
Trumpet Voluntary that is rather famous. These works do a great job of being simple enough technically
that students are able to perform them while exposing them to a variety of styles and techniques.

This piece exposes students to a variety of different articulations. This teaches them how to
perform legato passages such as the melody, as well as the staccato passages that contrast strongly. This
would be a great piece to emphasize that concept and to teach them about tonguing and slurring. Along
these lines it also presents many opportunities that a teacher could discuss phrasing. There is an obvious
melody with a climax and helping students to learn how these phrases work will allow them to explore
various concepts related to phrasing like breathings and dynamics.

This piece could also be used to explore various elements of Asian music. The piece uses a
melody that is based upon the pentatonic scale as many Asian tunes are. The piece also uses a lot of
open fourths and fifths that allow students to work on their tuning. Other elements to work on include
the dotted quarter note and eight rhythms and how the piece trades off the lines at various spots.

Finally this piece could be used a tool to explore various historical pieces of band literature. You
could discuss the use of folk songs and explore how other pieces use them and relate it back to the
piece. Additionally you could look at the piece Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance.
That piece uses the same tune as its basis and even has several variations that sound similar to sections
of this piece.