Authors with a previously approved comment should get through without moderation; new authors require a tick by me on the acceptance box. May sometimes take some time; I am not always online. Sometimes WordPress does not seem to recognize the computer of a previously approved commentator. I do not know why.
Email morandisco@gmail.com, but not read very often.
Moranbong Band Discography 2012.07.06 - 
Here’s something interesting that I just found out recently. The intro music of MB’s One Great Family sounds very similar to Matsuda Seiko’s 夏の扉. I posted the video links so you can compare. Who knew Seiko-chan was popular in NK?
That’s quite interesting there, they do sound uncannily alike at the songs’ introduction. However, you may know that the song “One great family” was only performed in that style for that concert by the moranbong band, and all earlier performances do not contain that particular rhythm as in “natsu no toriba”, I’m unsure if the arrangers of this version were aware that this song was so similar, but it seems too similar to be a coincidence. Perhaps the arrangers are allowed to listen to foreign songs to gain inspiration. I feel that could be likely especially considering how the moranbong band have played foreign songs in the past, so therefore the arrangers need to adapt the songs for the performance, they must have some access to foreign music. And this little bit of something simlar was slightly adapted to differentiate the song.
Also seen in this song are references in rhythm and style to south korean pop music.
I’d think that the most interesting here is that the intro is not South Korean. Nothing against South Korean intros, but in SK there is a strong, very strong, too strong tendency to read anything new in NK as “Hallyu influence”. No doubt that kind of influence also exists. However, there is no necessity and no reason for NKoreans to limit themselves only to South Korean music and styles. They have the whole world to look at for inspiration. What we quite often hear in concerts are pieces of classical European and even old American music, Soviet compositions, Chinese ones, and we know that there is also an avid Eric Clapton fan or perhaps more among the NK guitarists. Apparently even Japanese music is still being listened to, in spite of the bad relations between the states.
Actually this is not a new thing, but rather goes back to Kim Jong Il’s internationalizing of NK musical politics. The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble was created in 1985 exactly for performing popular foreign melodies in diplomatic occasions and other events involving foreign guests, and they have recorded a rather large number of NKorean versions of foreign compositions. Even Indian songs. There is a long tradition of familiarity with foreign classical and popular music among NKorean music professionals. How wide the circle of people with access to such music is cannot be known, but it certainly must be more than only a few people. When Kim Jong Il built the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in 1989, he also established there a major musical library, which is likely to contain a fair sized section of foreign music, with additions over the years. I have not seen the library, but I have read KJI’s “The Art of Music”, and hidden under the language of Juche there is a clear programme of learning from foreign master pieces in order to make NK musical propaganda more efficient and to raise the compositions and performances artistically to an international level. Wide foreign sources of inspiration are a norm, not an exception among North Korean composers, arrangers, and top performers.
As this MBB performance shows, these inspirations have been put into good use.
kim yukyong and another young is spotted with hyon sonwol at vinh halong scene at vietnam today, then they did sightseeing and took picture.
i have 4 relevant images,but not know how to uploadoad here.
Interesting. Nobody has seen a whole orchestra? It is also possible that these ladies act as scouts for a possible future concert. No way to upload pictures here. The only way to do it is to upload them somewhere else – like Imgur – and place a link here.
I already posted some links, but they never showed up here in the comment section. WordPress is broken.
No sight of them in the pending comments queue. They seem not to have registered anywhere. Maybe the system is broken. I do not know whether there is any upper limit for comments; this has a quite large historical archive already.
Neverthless the pictures:
viet nam major media introduced mmb yesterday
the link as follows https://m.dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/ngoai-giao-am-nhac-cua-trieu-tien-duoi-thoi-ong-kim-jongun-20190222153209582.htm
I have noticed something wrong with her teeth since her last performance in Beijing.But I wasn’t sure that stage lighting could be the reason.She used to have gold teeth, but recently, she was completely rotten.Does that poor country really not have the money to treat a national treasure singer’s teeth?
yes, it is true.
that position has already empted since around end of 2015. you can find it easily in the show of that period.
In one of the pictures from Hạ Long Bay that tooth was completely missing. I do not think it is a problem of money as such. International sanctions are the problem. Dentistry is a highly technical field of medicine. I discussed in 2014 in Pyongyang during an international trade fair with a representative of a European medical company who said that he had lots of medicine that he was willing to sell, and North Koreans were willing to buy, but if a specific medicine contained even one chemical that theoretically could be used in weapons development, it could not be legally exported to North Korea. Which meant in practice almost no trade in medicine. The UN has a comprehensive sanctions regime, and in addition the USA has an array of unilateral sanctions, which it treats as law for the rest of the world. Japan has its own bundle, and also a lot of South Korean sanctions are still in place. A chemical, an instrument, or a spare part for an instrument etc can all be illegal. Of course there is smuggling, but it does not solve the total situation. Although the North Korean economy as a whole appears to be holding its ground reasonably well, as years go by in lots of specific areas there are bound to be unsolvable problems. North Korea is an industrialized country, but it cannot cover adequately all specialized civilian fields. It is sensible that North Korea in Hanoi asked for a partial removal of sanctions, apparently those enacted in 2016 and later, which would have allowed at least for increasing the total external trade volume. I guess that international politics have entered Kim Yu Gyong’s beautiful mouth, and that for the time being the situation cannot be helped. She sings very well, anyway.
Former UO conductor Ri Myong-il was featured in the news today and he is indeed teaching at the KWG conservatory.
I am very happy to hear this. I always liked his elegant style of conducting very much.
According to the photo Ri Myong-il is a 강좌장, that is the NK title for a dean of a faculty of an university. Thus he achieved already a high position.
Does anyone recognize this young woman? She looks different at every angle. She is one of NK’s delegation to Hanoi for KJU’s summit with President Trump, and visited a Vietnamese car factory, also snapped selfies on a boat ride on Ha Long Bay, one of Vietnam’s top tourist sites. Traveling abroad is a highly privileged activity in North Korea, especially among young women. I was curious about why she was chosen as one of NK’s delegation.
For those of you who may be interested in knowing, I created a wiki page about ‘신아우'(Sinau) also known as ‘혁명을 위하여'(For the Revolution).
https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%8B%A0%EC%95%84%EC%9A%B0
RI Sukyong? 리수경
Nobody seems to know her name, at least in the places that I have seen. Nor does she look like Ri Su Kyong. Arthur Yabe has a name of a musician/singer Cha Yun Mi 차윤미, of whom he does not know how she looks like. Could this be her? As the name suggests, she might possibly be the sister of MBB violinist Cha Yong Mi 차영미. Do you see any family resemblances? Cha Yong Mi visited Panmunjom in April 2018 as a member of the North Korean delegation’s artistic arm. Could a sister now be serving in a similar role? And if so, wouldn’t it mean that the family is rather influential?
Please note that there was NOT one bit of actual information in the comments above (except Panmunjom). Only guesses and speculation. Nobody knows who she is, for the time being at least.
If anyone would be interested in reading for a change something about international politics, and not only music, here is something that just came out. This is one major thing with which I have been occupied lately. It is not about the recent summit, but takes a much longer view.
North Korea as a Small Great Power
Pekka Korhonen and Tomoomi Mori 森類臣
https://apjjf.org/2019/05/Korhonen.html
Excellent!!! Congrats!!!
Concert at Kim Won Gyun University of Music
I believe it is the 70th anniversary of the founding?
A fair bit of the video involves a lot of people talking about Kim Won Gyun unviersity I believe.
Those of us who fully understand Korean should be able to make something of this
At 5:54, Mansudae Art Troupe Adviser, Merited Actress Oh Pil-bae (* Sonu Hyang-hui’s grandma ), she stated that she graduated in 1957, and her daughter also graduated from the Dept of Instrumental Music, and her granddaughter Sonu Hyang-hui also graduated from the Dept of Instrumental Music in 2010. Yes, three generations of same family graduated from the KWG University of Music. Oh Pil-bae was the violinist of Merited Women’s Instrumental Ensemble, and appeared in 2015 concert ‘Golden Oldie'(추억의 노래) at the People’s Theatre, Pyongyang. There is little known about Sonu’s personal life, supposedly Sonu’s talent was inherited from her mother and grandma.
Someone posted on here about two years ago, that Sonu Hyang-hui left the band due to her marriage, her parents were both musicians and Sonu’s parents got divorced when she was small, so Sonu was raised by her grandma. Her daddy got married again.
This is all very interesting and thanks a lot for the Korean speakers to share their knowledge. The information about Sony and her family is valuable, but also North Korean willingness to share information is interesting. They are rapidly adopting a new international public relations strategy; one visible at the state level with KJU answering publicly to journalistic questions, or the Foreign Minister commenting quicly on events; one visible at the musical diplomacy level, with creator information systematically displayed in videos, and lyrics presented as subtitles in them. Information on the background of artists is also published via different channels, and I do not think this is random. They know well in Pyongyang that interest and goodwill towards them is highest in the art field. They are clearly serious about this new era of peace making. If everything does not always go well with the Americans, the rest of the world might be more responding.
You are right about that there, they just uploaded this song, with the SMC with Korean subtitles as well. I do agree that they are becoming a lot better in catering for the international audience, with full concerts being uploaded more frequently, higher quality videos and Korean subtitles on songs, whereas before they never did anything much for the international viewer, and were secretive about personal details of singers etc.
I find this particularly interesting as it shows the SMC in a recording studio, and shows scenes of sound recorders and other people except the musicians involved in the making of the song.
The State merited chorus had a concert for the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Pak Han-kyu 박한규. Changes in the SMC are visible, most prominent is the increase of female musicians and the addition of a female choir, along with the male choir. It appears to be much like the Kim Won Gyun university concert yesterday, with people talking in between songs. No Korean subtitles though, except to introduce people talking, and on the overhead text box.
That is NOT the SMC. The orchestra in the video is actually the Korean People’s Army Song and Dance Ensemble.
Ah, sorry, thanks for pointing that out, that explains quite a bit, I didn’t look at the uniforms close enough, and now that I do, I can see it that these are not the SMC uniforms, and it is not the SMC playing, silly mistake of mine. Sorry!
Hopefully the concert is still of some importance however, I definitely see that this “new” style of concert, which Pekka has further described above, with lots of talking in between songs, also with significant audience members, is very interesting.
A new song has been released
Newly-released song “Yearning” with English subtitles.
Chinese Delegation visits NK with ballet performance and they are met by the First Lady, on her own, first time she is in the public without KJU ? Sure the sister-in-law is in the background.
Also performance of NK band with at least 3 MBB members, singing Chinese songs.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVdI0mEsXE
The band playing is the Samjiyon orchestra, which I don’t think we’ve seen play them this year yet, and they were very prominent last year. The Moranbong singers present were Pak Mi-kyong (light pink choson-ot), Kim Yu-kyong (pink floral choson-ot), Ryu Jin-a (blue choson-ot) and Kim Sol-mi (dark pink choson-ot), (18:03)
So just the same singers who went to China in January, singing many of the same songs as they sang then. It seems that those four are the best Mandarin singers from the MBB.
The violinist in the background, behind Kim Yu-kyong at 18:16 in the video has quite a resemblance to Sonu Hyang-hui, could it be her? From the last time we saw Sonu, her hair was fairly long again, maybe she has got it cut shorter again? It’s possible…?
does anyone know how to upload a picture on this?
Actually, I think this violoinist looks too much like Sonu did in 2013-14, rather than what she looks like more recent times. I’ll still try and put the picture up, but I’m thinking it is less likely now…
file:///F:/Sonu%20Hyang-hui.png
Does that work?
It does not work, because F:/ is a directory, perhaps even somewhere in the net, where your own computer knows the access path, and has the rights to enter there, but it does not contain enough information for other computers. Links that can be shared with others are of the form http (hypertext transfer protocol) or nowadays preferably https (hypertext transfer protocol secure). They tell other computers how to locate the file. The only way to upload photos for Comments is to place the photo in a location meant for file sharing, such as provided by Imgur, which automatically creates the https address.
Anyway, it would be interesting to see the picture you have in your mind. There are many violinists, and Sonu did not catch my eye.
https://imgur.com/OfDoNMI
Thanks for the tip!
I do think she bears a resemblance to Sonu Hyang-hui…?
https://imgur.com/cpZH0rm
Another picture here
Yes, I see the resemblance to Sonu a decade ago, when she actually was a Samjiyon Band violinist, such as in the opening photo of this page: https://samjiyon.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/10-10-2009/
But perhaps not now. This lady looks like one of the SO violinists who visited Gangneung and Seoul in February 2018. Always silently in the background. This one: https://imgur.com/a/gg1VrGA
Yes, I agree, but I think the violinist in the picture you shown from the Samjiyon orchestra looks more like the violinist in front of our Sonu-lookalike.
Yes, can be. Not very clear pictures. Here is a better picture of the Sonu Hyang Hui look-alike from Arthur Yabe’s endless files: https://imgur.com/Am1C86B
Her name is not known, nor anything about her family relationships.
Another NK restaurant rock band in Vientien, Laos. https://youtu.be/35O-F7BqiyU?t=19s
The drummer, she is truly a gem. I wish I could be there.