Ouvertüre

Yun’s Overture for full orchestra (1973, revised version 1974) stands at the end of the epoch of "sound compositions", i. e. of the composition of works in which homogeneous sound planes are articulated and elaborated. The following orchestral piece by Yun was the Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1975/76). In the mid-seventies other composers also proceeded to the composition of discursively structured instrumental concertos.

In his understanding of the title "Overture" Yun goes beyond the basic meaning of an opening piece introducing a symphony concerto to the idea of the motion of opening deriving from the etymological meaning of the word. In detail and on the whole, Yun’s Overture features the gradual buildup of a compositionally explicated crescendo, with the sound planes formed from different instrumental combinations occurring in succession as well as overlapping. The simultaneity of the sound layers is gradually dramatized, but the increasing intensification and animation with shorter note values and broader intervals are only occasionally punctuated by retrograde-reductive processes. Formally, the course of events can be divided into four parts, each consisting of approximately fifty measures. Each of the four parts is also divided into two sections.

The Overture appears already in the first measures to be borne by dark tone colors and gloomy expression. During the further course of the music this expression is intensified so that it verges on the threatening. The serious and dark tone is probably to be explained in reference to the context of the premiere. Yun’s Overture was heard immediately prior to the Berlin first performance of the "ecclesiastical action" Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, who on August 10, 1970, five days after completing this score for two speakers, bass solo, and full orchestra, had taken his life.

According to the autographic score, Yun composed this work commissioned by the Berlin Festival with financial support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon in [Berlin-] Kladow from May 7 - June 16, 1973. The premiere took place during the Berlin Festival Weeks on October 4, 1973, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Hans Zender. Yun revised the score for its publication in 1974. The revision concerned three passages, with two minor enhancements being supplied for reasons of balance. The viola and violoncello parts were animated or reinforced rhythmically and tonally in measures 140-144, and the brass part was thinned out and simplified in measures 162-176. Major revisions were made in the conclusion (measures 177-204). Here the woodwind and string parts were completely recomposed and dramatized in dynamics and sound, even with the addition of new material. The reworking aimed at a design of greater rhythmic flexibility, greater action, and more sound excitement (which is to be deciphered as "accusation"). The revised version was heard for the first time in a performance by the Solingen City Orchestra under Lothar Zagrosek on May 12, 1974.
Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer