The Final Countdown

The week is almost over. Thankfully. As I previously mentioned, I live for "the Friday"!

There's a bit of a funny story I wanted to mention about my past few weeks. When Loralee and I went to Gyeongbokgung palace and grounds, we briefly visited the Korean Folk Museum. Inside, we found a sign announcing that there would be a traditional Korean instrumental performance in (lucky us) 5 minutes!

We entered the warm, dark, auditorium. I eagerly awaited this performance which was bound to be fascinating and surely beautiful! It was meant to by played by a 11th-grade student at a local high school, but he was only able to play a single piece due to an injured hand. The instruments were a variety of stringed harp-like instruments that lay prone and on stands to let the sound escape from the bottom side of the long, deep fretboard. If my internet "research" is correct (and we all know the internet is ALWAYS RIGHT), they are called gayageums and guhmoongos. They have a really distinctive and beautiful sound.

Having said that, the performance was... er... unique. The very first piece was a traditional Korean song, completely and utterly suitable for the instrument and very beautiful. After those first glorious moments (which the student with the injured hand produced), his father (supposedly a renouned gayageum player in a local orchestra) came out and replaced him (due to his bandaged up and injured hand). This is where the "performance" took a steep downward spiral...

The student's father began to play the gayageum to the accompanyment of a host of prerecorded CD tracks. Ok, fine. No problem...

The first song lined up to back up the stringed glory was Beethoven. At first, I thought "That's somewhat odd - east meets the west." Admittedly, it wasn't all *that* bad... but I was a little put-off by the needless canned accompanyment. "Oh well... moving on - let's hope that's the only CD song he'll play", I mistakenly thought to myself.

Next up: Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff. Yikes... not exactly the most "appropriate" piece for a light, airy stringed instrument. I really enjoy this song, and now whenever I hear it, I will be forced to think of the comical plucking away of the Korean musician in the auditorium that day... think of deep, sonorous, chanting singers singing a song in a minor key, full of pathos and woe, accompanied by the sound of a plucking made annoyingly shrill by its inappropriateness.

Follow this up with "It's the Final Countdown" by Europe, a nameless random techno song, and a happy-go-lucky 60's tune (which I can hum, but can't quite name)...

(By this point, I was spellbound by the ridiculousness of the whole affair and was desperately wondering what would be next)... "Stand by your man" by Tammy Wynette was next on the menu in this gigantic smorgasbord of musical tastes.

The *GRAND FINALE* came when he pulled out a bow to play the last song (which I don't think I could have done a better job of picking, in keeping with the chaos of it all): "My Heart Will Go On", by Celine Dion. I almost cried.... from laughing.

I think what I found so amusing was the impression I got from the whole performance - it was as if the songs were chosen to "demonstrate the versatility and dynamic nature of the gayageum", but in the end, resulted in the exact opposite effect... I *love* the sound of the gayageum, but I think if I ever have to hear it played again with modern pop, country, and techno pieces, I will be forced to take up a crusade against it.

I could be incredibly short-sighted and don't fully appreciate the complexity and intricacy of such a musical fusion, but I think it's like my dad says: "It's better to have them think you're a fool by keeping quiet, than to open your mouth (or play gayageum to techno music) and prove them right"...

Having said all that, I'm now looking for some *traditional* gayageum music on CD... let me know if you find any!