Music in North Korea

In the spirit of Callum's post, and given the significance of music/song in The Guest, I wanted to share an article with you about changes in the musical repertoire of North Korea's orchestras.  Earlier this year the BBC interviewed a German conductor who has traveled and performed in North Korea on multiple occasions and has worked with musicians in Pyongyang.  He says that the city has changed dramatically since 2006, becoming more open to western culture. I thought his comments on the musical changes were especially intriguing:

"North Korean musicians are desperate for repertoire. The whole of 20th Century music is unknown territory. So we brought a piece by Witold Lutoslawski, who will be celebrating his 100th birthday next year. And we also brought music from 250 years ago - a Haydn symphony.  The university students copied out their parts from the music through the night on the day of our arrival. This is what they have done on all my previous visits. The music from those visits has now found its way into their curriculum - Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Stravinsky."

For me, this article had a lot of problematic moments like the one quoted above.  The conductor obviously had a lot of preconceptions about the music/musicians in Pyongyang, as you might detect in his patronizing tone.  The full article can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20773542

I tried to find a recording of the concert that the German and Pyongyang orchestras did together, but couldn’t.  So instead, I found a North Korean channel on YouTube (uriminzokkiri) that features a few musical performances.  Here is a link to one that sounds like more traditional, non-western music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yVowqiAOK4

I have no idea the significance of this piece, or its origins.  But I think it might be interesting to pursue the kinds of musical performances taking place today in North Korea, and their connection to western influence.

--Sarah T.