Ocean/Shore 2 (2003) by Hyo-shin Na
for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello
World premiere; Earplay commission

Ocean/Shore 2 is the second in a series, following Ocean/Shore (2002) for chamber orchestra and piri (Korean bamboo oboe) solo. Each piece is a study on the use and coexistence of diverse materials and instruments. As in the meeting and interaction of water and land, these instruments can have fundamentally very different characters (piri and violin, or clarinet and cello), yet shouldn’t lose their basic nature in the interests of harmony, or even beauty.

Ocean/Shore was made of diverse elements: sounds of the piri and the western chamber orchestra, songs of the Indians of Northern California, and impressions of the coast of California itself — water, rain, fog, mist, light, trees, grasses, hills, and rocks.

Ocean/Shore 2 resembles a collection of immigrant stories; dreams, failures, confusion, disappointment, hope. It was commissioned for Earplay by the Zellerbach Foundation to celebrate the 100th year of Korean American immigration and was premiered at the 2003 San Francisco International Arts Festival.