Music of North Korea

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The first evidence of Korean music is ancient, and it has been well-documented by surviving written materials since the 15th century and was brought to heights of excellence during the Yi kings of the Joseon Dynasty. Japan's invasion of Korea eliminated Korean music from 1905 to 1945. A brief post-war period rewakened folk and patriotic music. By 1951, Korea was split, into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North and the Republic of Korea or South Korea. Revolutionary song-writing traditions were channeled into support for the state, eventually becoming a style of patriotic song called taejung kayo in the 1980s.^[1]

In North Korea, culture, including music, is controlled by a government which encourages light, state-sponsored music, or music with patriotic worker-driven themes (praising leader Kim Jong Il, his late father Kim Il-Sung and their communist policies) played on radios, the Pyongyang Metro speaker system or in public by large worker's orchestras. Listening to South Korean music or playing Rock and Roll is considered a crime.^[2] Foreign music is lumped into one genre which the North Korean government calls "jazz" (note: this is a definition of the word peculiar to North Korea), and which is considered barbaric because "it has no melody".^[2]

North Korean pop music is light and optimistic, usually performed by a young female singer in front of a large band. All music is in praise of Kim Jong Il, or otherwise the ideals of Communism, and songs have titles like "Our Life Is Precisely a Song", "We Shall Hold Bayonets More Firmly" and "The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation".^[3]

North Korean propaganda songs share structural, rhythmic and harmonic similarities with those in China and the former Soviet Union, and often use military bands and men's choruses.

BBC radio DJ Andy Kershaw noted, on a visit to North Korea, that the only recordings available were by the pop singers Jon Hye Yong, Kim Kwang Suk, Jo Kum Hwa and Ri Pun Hui, and the groups Wangjaesan Light Music Band, the Mansundae Art Troupe and the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, who play in a style Kershaw refers to as "light instrumental with popular vocal".^[3] There is also a Sea of Blood Opera Company, two choruses, an orchestra and an ensemble dedicated to Isang Yun's compositions, all in Pyongyang. The Pyongyang Film Studios also produces many instrumental songs for its films. Music education in North Korea is done at the Pyongyang Music and Dance University and at children's music centres in each provincial capital.^[1]

[edit] Korean music

Main article: Korean music

Korean music includes kinds of both folk and classical, courtly music, including genres like sanjo, pansori and nongak. Pansori is long vocal and percussive music played by one singer and one drummer. The lyrics tell one of five different stories, but is individualized by each performer, often with updated jokes and audience participation. Nongak is a rural form of percussion music, typically played by twenty to thirty performers. Sanjo is entirely instrumental that shifts rhythms and melodic modes during the song. Instruments include the changgo drum set against a melodic instrument, such as the gayageum or ajaeng.^[3]

The three kinds of Korean court music are aak, an imported form of Chinese ritual music, hyangak, a pure Korean, and tangak, a combination of Chinese and Korean influences.^[3]

[edit] External links

The Pyongyang Metro Music (with mp3 downloads)
N.Korean flees for love of jazz piano
Kim Jong-Il Janggune Norae - example of North Korean Music, with lyrics (in Korean) and mp3 recordings: (External; licensed for non-commercial use.)

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Pop music of Asia. IIAS Newsletter Online. Retrieved on September 27, 2005.
^ ^a ^b Newsletter Online N.Korean flees for love of jazz piano. Retrieved on March 26, 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Provine, Rob, Hwang, Okon and Kershaw, Andy. "Our Life Is Precisely a Song". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 160-169. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0