Seoljanggu, from which the piece’s title is derived, is a music-dance section traditionally performed in a Korean peasant harvest rite, and has now evolved into a stage performance. While the overall structures of Seoljanggu pieces are similar, variations in rhythmic patterns and dance movements can be found among different schools and regions.

In most musical compositions, the listeners’(/spectators’) assessments of which (auditory) stimuli are considered elements of the work, and the mutually dependent question of the ontology of the work/performance, to a greater or lesser extent rely on references to conventional musical schema(s). The schema(s) may hinge upon, for instance, sounds that sound similar to those in a conventional performance with such instruments, or sounds that are intentionally produced through the agency of the performers, and so on. Obviously, different spectators have varying levels of referencing resources and make their individual judgments based on their knowledge, including past experience of other performances, and they will mostly update their understanding as the piece progresses.

In the present composition, two layers of work are composed: one layer comprises elements that fall outside the conventional musical schema, whereas the other layer consists of elements within the traditional schema of a Seoljanggu performance. The latter acts as a façade concealing the former, creating an invisible theatre.

From the outset, the piece presents itself as a mediocre rendition of traditional Seoljanggu. Over time, spectators gradually become individually aware, at different paces, of events or stimuli that fall outside the conventional schema of traditional Seoljanggu performance. These events may include what could be considered mistakes, failures, incompetence, by-products of drum playing, warm-ups or rehearsals, all contributing to the dramaturgy of this underlying layer.

Amidst the profusion of visual and auditory stimuli at any given moment, spectators increasingly become adept at picking up these relevant elements within the underlying layer. This heightened awareness is facilitated by various strategies, ranging from mere repetitions to structural/syntactical articulations that link these elements to the more conventional ones. As the piece progresses, it becomes possible to introduce elements that deviate further and further from convention.

In this way, the piece does not demand every spectator to grasp the totality of elements of the underlying layer, but instead allows a statistical distribution of knowledge about this layer among the audience at any given timepoint in the performance.

This variability allows the exploration of intersubjective aspects of spectatorship, as the incongruence between the two layers (/performances) can prompt uncertainty by the spectators (including the composer) on whether what they know, witness, expect or remember are shared with those around them. The potential for embarrassment arising from performative failures and inadequacy as well directs attention to the social dimension of the situation. The outcome is an idiosyncratic type of share consciousness, highly exclusive to the spatiotemporally co-present group of audience, with a dispersed focus on stage happenings and on fellow spectators.