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Abstract
The purpose of this project is to capture my seven-year-old daughter Hyunseo’s vivid imagination of magic land in a music suite entitled “The Magic Land Suite” with four movements. Each of the movements, I. Magic Land in January, II. Unicorns and Rainbow Cats, III. Tiny Guys, and IV. Lalaya, were composed to capture Hyunseo’s narrative of her story of imagination. People tend to forget about their unlimited childlike imagination while they grow up in a competitive modern society, and my daughter’s excitement and huge smile of expressing herself with her imagination reminded me of my imaginary friend when I was a child. The composition and arrangement of The Magic Land Suite were inspired by storytelling elements in Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (1936), such as characters with instrumentations and different moods with harmonies and rhythms. After finishing the compositions, the arrangement of each movement was revised according to my daughter’s feedback on the density of the rhythm and adding instrumentation to capture the essence of her imagination, as well as input from artistic director Danilo Pérez and guest artist John Patitucci in the directed study, rehearsal and the forum at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. My project, “The Imagination of Magic Land,” is a reminder of nurturing children’s imagination and creativity and a reminder to adults that we can bring back our power of limitless imagination and bring them smiles and joy.
Publication Date
7-1-2024
Campus
Boston Campus
Recommended Citation
Jeong, Youngchae. “The Imagination of Magic Land.” Master's thesis, Berklee College of Music, 2024. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-jazz/165.