The piece opens with suspended high ‘E’ flat octave unison. It is coloured by timbral trills and embellished by a series of ascending notes, whilst attacks of vibrant piano emphasize low ‘E’ flat. Exploring sonorities of this huge space carries on through the piece. A descending gesture, which mirrors the ascending scales in the opening bar, gradually establishes itself as a prominent figure and later leads to the climax of the first of the two sections. After the first section, the expanded descending gesture is heard gently on the piano and played in high register as a short transition. A similar structural procedure follows in the second section, which ends with an even more energetic climax.

Shades of raindrops was composed between September 2005 and January 2006 almost in parallel with the period of my pregnancy. It was the last piece I completed in Korea before I moved to live in Greece. It lasts about 12 minutes and is scored for five instruments: Flute, Bb Bass Clarinet, Piano, Violin and Violoncello. It was first performed by the Ensemble TIMF under the direction of Uzong Choe at the First Church in Cambridge in Boston.

This piece was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University.