ISANG YUN (1917-1995): Octet for Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, String Quartet and Double Bass, Glissées for Cello, Trio for Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon, Monolog for Bassoon, Quintet II for Clarinet and Strings.

Description: These works span the period from 1970 to the last year of the composer's life. The late clarinet quintet is the most substantial work here, and the most immediately approachable. The composer's idiom underwent a significant transition in the direction of very tonal-sounding harmony in his last years, and this work exemplifies that change, though persistent pentatonic inflections, pitch-bending and a degree of emulation of traditional instrumental techniques of the east leave one in no doubt that this is not the work of a purely western-educated composer. Yun's love of the traditional music of his divided homeland is very evident in the works for solo instruments and in the instrumental lines within the ensemble works. Not surprisingly, the earliest works - the octet and Glissées - are the most dissonant and modernist, displaying the uncompromising modernism of the European avant garde in whose principles the composer was immersing himself at the time (and whose members spoke up strongly in Yun's defence at the time of his politically motivated detention in the late 1960s). Octuor Mirae.