Sur's musical style has been described as uniquely personal, "eclectic", and "unpredictable", and ranged from
atonal and
minimalist to
neo-tonal. He sometimes used unconventional instruments in his scores such as
banjos,
bongo drums,
Korean trumpets and even a
skillet,
conch shell, and
bullwhip. His later music often incorporated musical references to a variety of styles and periods, including
Baroque,
Impressionist, popular dance tunes, and traditional Korean music. Two of Sur's works were on explicitly Korean themes: his 1991
Lacrimosa dies illa (
Day of Tears) for chamber orchestra commemorating the
March 1919 Korean uprising against Japanese rule; and his 1993
Kumdori Tansaeng (
Birth of the Dream-Elf) for solo violin, chorus, and orchestra, commissioned by the
Taejon International Exposition for Korean American violinist
Sarah Chang. Sur also composed the score for
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson's 1999 film
Silence Broken, a documentary about the Korean "
comfort women" of World War II.
John Rockwell, writing in
The New York Times, was more critical, describing both the score and the libretto as artistically unconvincing. He echoed Dyer's comments about the setting of the music for the soloists but also found that Sur's "attempts to incorporate vernacular idioms and historical styles failed to resonate: they were just stuck onto the score, ornamentally, without development or conviction." As part of the country's annual
Liberation Day celebrations,
Slavery Documents received its Korean premiere in August 1990 at the
Seoul Arts Center, performed by the
Korean Broadcasting System orchestra conducted by David Hoose and a chorus of 100 Korean singers. Sur amassed far more texts for his libretto than he was able to use, and at the time of his death in 1999 was working on a sequel that would incorporate some of them. As a memorial to Sur, the Cantata Singers commissioned his friend
T. J. Anderson to compose a companion oratorio,
Slavery Documents 2. Its libretto was based on texts from Loren Schweininger's collection
The Southern Debate Over Slavery but incorporated one of the original sentences from Sur's work. The oratorios by Sur and Anderson were performed together by the Cantata Singers on 17 March 2002 at Boston's Symphony Hall. Part I of Sur's
Slavery Documents received another performance in 2010 by the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the combined
glee clubs of
Morehouse College and
Spelman College in a concert (also broadcast on
National Public Radio) for Atlanta's
Martin Luther King Day celebrations.
Other principal compositions •
Catena I, II, and III, for small ensemble (1961;
Catena I revised 1970,
Catena II revised 1962,
Catena III revised 1976). Also known as
The Book of Catenas, they were performed together for the first time by
Collage New Music. • ''Sleepwalker's Ballad'', for soprano and chamber ensemble (1972). Composed for Sur's doctoral dissertation at Harvard and set to a text by
Federico García Lorca, the work was premiered by soprano
Bethany Beardslee and the Speculum Musicae ensemble conducted by
Charles Wuorinen. •
Red Dust, for 29
percussionists (1967; revised for Western percussion in 1976). The work is based on classical Korean percussion and although lasting only 13 minutes, is divided into 20
movements. •
Il Tango di Trastevere, for four
contrabasses (1977). Commissioned by the
National Endowment of the Arts and dedicated to
Donald Palma, the work premiered in
Minneapolis, Minnesota played by the Times Square Basstet. It was later revised by Sur for a small orchestra of low-pitched instruments. •
A Neo-Platonic Epistrophe While Crossing Times Square, for
piano trio and clarinet (1980). Premiered by Collage New Music, the work is sometimes performed together with his 1984
Satori on Park Avenue under the title
New Yorker Sketches. •
The Unicorn and the Lady, for narrator and small ensemble (1981). The work was inspired by 18th-century hunting calls and
The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestry series in
The Cloisters museum. The narrator's text was written by American poet
Barry Spacks. Each of the 12 movements is scored for a different combination of instruments. •
Sonnet 97, for
a cappella chorus (1999). A setting of Shakespeare's
Sonnet 97, the work was premiered by the
Cantata Singers in Boston's
Jordan Hall on 7 May 1999. •
Berceuse (
Lullaby), for violin and piano (1999). This was the last work Sur completed. He attended its world premiere at the
Library of Congress on 19 February 1999, three months before his death. The music was inspired by
Walt Whitman's poem "
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". ==Recordings==