Weaving Heaven and Earth

Composer and musician Chris Thomas invites listeners into a conversation that spans centuries and continents with his new work, “Celestial Threads,” written for mezzo soprano and chamber orchestra. The piece draws its inspiration from 10 traditional Korean sijo poems, weaving them into a musical dialogue between heaven and earth. Though the poems are brief, they carry reflections on nature, human life, and the forces that connect both.

“Celestial Threads” will premiere with the Central Oregon Symphony on April 11 and 12. I recently sat down with Thomas to discuss the inspiration behind the piece and how “Celestial Threads” reflects an ongoing artistic exchange between cultures, traditions, and musical languages across time.

“Weaving Heaven and Earth” was commissioned by anonymous donors expressively for Mezzo Soprano Charlene Chi, with agreement from Michael Gesme, Conductor of Central Oregon Symphony to conduct this composition and for Chris Thomas to compose this commissioned work.

the Source: What led you to discover sijo poetry, and what made you decide it was the right fit for “Celestial Threads?”

Chris Thomas: I started reading lots of poems and saving ones that resonated. I kept finding these little gems that reminded me of Japanese haiku. They were concise and elegant. Eventually I noticed they all had something in common. They were sijo poems.
I began researching the poets and kept seeing references to this ancient Korean poetic form called sijo. That’s when I realized something deeper was going on. I became obsessed with it for about three months.

tS: What aspects of the sijo form captured your interest?

CT: sijo is similar to haiku in that it’s compact and syllable-based. But structurally it’s different. You get about two and a half lines developing an idea, and then the final few syllables introduce what’s called a twist. That twist completely recontextualizes what you just read.
So you think the poem is about one thing, and then suddenly it shifts. That moment fascinated me. I thought, this is exactly the kind of poetry I love.
As I learned more, I discovered sijo evolved across several philosophical eras in Korean history. The poems often reflect on the relationship between the heavens, nature, fate, and the human soul. There are these conceptual threads connecting heaven and earth.
At some point I realized I could structure the work so the poems formed a conversation between heaven and earth. Each movement alternates between the two. If you split the cycle in half, the poems actually mirror each other. Conceptually, it forms a circle.
That’s why the piece is called Celestial Threads. I wanted everything to be deeply interwoven.

tS: Were there other influences or experiences that shaped the piece as it developed?

CT: Yes. Over the last five or six years I’ve been revisiting some Asian modern composers I love, particularly Tōru Takemitsu and Qigang Chen.
What fascinated me about them is how they rediscovered aspects of their own national traditions through Western music. That happened because European composers had already been influenced by Asian music. So there’s this fascinating loop. For example, Claude Debussy discovered Javanese gamelan music at the Exposition Universelle in 1889. That encounter transformed his harmonic language. Later, Takemitsu became obsessed with Debussy’s music. Through Debussy, he eventually rediscovered elements of Japanese musical aesthetics that Debussy himself had originally drawn from Asian traditions. So the influence traveled in a big circle. I’ve always been fascinated by that process. I call it the “great circular exchange.”

tS: That idea of cultural exchange is compelling. Did working on this piece lead you to any new realizations about your own identity as a composer?

CT: Definitely. There were two major shifts in my life as a composer. One happened when I started college. At the University of Oregon, composers had to perform in Balinese and Javanese gamelan ensembles to graduate. That experience changed everything for me. I discovered gamelan music and immediately fell in love with it. The Pelog scale, which comes from Balinese music, became central to how I understand harmony. My concert music is also very rhythmic, which comes directly from that influence. The second shift happened after spending time in Europe. For years I tried to fit myself into the European classical tradition, but it never felt authentic. Eventually I realized something simple. I’m just an American composer. I grew up playing fiddle music and gospel music. That Americana sound is in my blood. Once I stopped trying to imitate European traditions and embraced my own influences, everything changed. Suddenly I could write honestly.

tS: That sounds like a significant turning point.

CT: It was. The first time I wrote something that truly felt like my own voice, my wife heard it and immediately said, “That’s you.” She had never reacted that way before. It was the first time I felt like I was really speaking through music. This new piece is an extension of that process. I’m still drawing from my Americana background, but I’m also leaning into the Asian influences that have shaped how I hear music.

tS: Let’s shift briefly to the vocal aspect of the work. For readers who may be less familiar with classical vocal repertoire, why did you choose to write this as a song cycle for mezzo soprano?

CT: In classical music, that tradition really comes from Gustav Mahler. Mahler wrote several large song cycles using poetry, and he often preferred the mezzo soprano voice. A mezzo can sing high, but the tone is darker and richer than a soprano. It carries a certain emotional color.
Because Mahler did it so often, there’s now this informal tradition. The singer Charlene Chi happens to be a wonderful mezzo, and when we started discussing the project, everyone immediately thought of a Mahler-style song cycle. This is actually the first time I’ve written one.

tS: Earlier you mentioned the possibility of some controversy surrounding the piece. Could you elaborate on what you meant?

CT: Well, I’m an American composer writing music based on Korean poetry. Some people might question whether that’s appropriate.
My view is that culture grows through exchange. Music history is full of examples where traditions influence each other. Debussy learned from Asian music. Jazz influenced classical composers. American music influenced Asian composers. It’s all interconnected. But we’ve been through a cultural moment where people sometimes feel everyone should stay in their own lane. I don’t agree with that. I think sharing ideas across cultures enriches everyone.

tS: Do you sense that perspective beginning to shift?

CT: A little. There was a period between about 2021 and 2023 where some of my works were actually removed from concert programs because they referenced musical traditions outside my background. But that moment also created opportunities. More composers from diverse backgrounds started appearing on concert programs, and I discovered incredible music I might never have heard otherwise. So even the difficult moments had positive outcomes.

tS: That’s an insightful way to look at it.

CT: At the end of the day, I believe the beauty of art is how cultures influence each other. You can’t disentangle these traditions anymore. They’re already woven together.

tS: When you describe “Celestial Threads,” the imagery of threads connecting heaven and earth comes to mind. Listening to you, though, it also sounds as if the structure is more circular, with ideas looping and weaving through time.

CT: Exactly. Some of the poems are about weaving threads together, but conceptually the whole piece is circular. The ideas keep looping through time. Those ancient philosophical teachings are still alive today. They continue shaping how we think and create. And the same thing is true of musical traditions. They’re constantly evolving through exchange.

Central Oregon Symphony
Sat. April 11 7:30-9:30pm, Sun. April 12 2-4pm
Mountain View High School
2755 Northeast 27th St., Bend
cosymphony.com/calendar

This story was updated to include information about how the composition originated.

This article appears in the Source March 26, 2026.