The Last Empress

(If it is a little bit long to watch then take the one that I uploaded in the below it is not the same clips but it is a movie scene that covered same incident)

             It was hard to choose the topic for this one because this can be the last blogging so I did not want the last blog to be simple as the other articles that I covered before. Therefore, for this week, I want to cover about not music itself but music’s background and story because today’s music video not only it has touching music but also it has important story as music’s background.

          The music video that I uploaded above seems that it is just a love story of the past which tragically ended. However, except some fictional parts (a warrior who loved empress), it is a true story that happened in the Korean Empire at 1895. Japanese militarists who were trying to take over Korea wanted to avoid all of the possible obstacles that could block the annexation plan. The empress Myeongseong was one of the powerful obstacles for the Japanese so they planned to kill the empress. In early dawn of August 1895, Japanese samurais and armies trespassed on the Korea palace and killed the random people who blocked their way to the empress. Though there were palace guards who protected the emperor and the empress, they were no match for the Japanese troops because the Japanese already took over the power of the Korea. Therefore, the Japanese invaders could easily find the empress and kill her cruelty. (The Empress’ last saying in the video: "I am the mother of Korea Empire. Even if I keep burning and burning and disperse into a handful of ash and lonely ride the air and be pushed around by the rain, How could this be my end?" : She did not try to avoid the threats, she faced with the danger and she died)

The Last Empress

             It is impossible to understand some scenes and what the music says because it is Korean (sorry for thatL) but without the understanding those scenes or lyrics, it is not hard to understand what messages the music video wants to deliver; How Japanese militarists cruelty and unreasonably took over Korea and the sorrow of the weak nation. Though it is quite old music video, I sometimes watched the music video. Every time I watched the video, I always think that I should be one of the people who have power to protect my own nation or at least a possibility of my country. In addition, I also think what the adequate attitude is for the one who has power.

             These days, South Korea is one of the leading countries in the world. Therefore sometimes, people forgot the sorrows of the weak that our country experienced. There’s an old saying in Korea; Frogs forgot the past that it was once just a tadpoles. It means people usually forgot the past that had to be remembered. We should not forget about the past. It is where we came from and some tragic happenings could happen to us if we could not advance to the better future.

Attracted by the Piano

Like there are many kinds of art techniques that have its own characteristic and beauty, Music has many musical instruments that can express its own beauty or characteristics by the sound. Do you have any musical instruments that you can play? What is your favorite instrument? In my case, the only thing that I can play is the piano and that’s why the piano is one of the favorite instruments for me. (Though I really like the guitar, I cannot play it L)

It is hard to come up with the pianists except someone who is very popular such as Beethoven, Mozart etc. I also do not know many pianists but I have one whom I really like. Therefore, from now on, I am going to introduce him and his music briefly. His name is Yi Ru Ma who is a well known pianist for the new age genre (Sooooorry, I either not know the exact meaning of the new age. May be we can figure out the meaning later J). River flows in you that I uploaded above is one of the representative music of him. When you listen to the music, I am sure that you can feel some emotions coming into you because the ability that melts emotions and feelings into the music pieces is Yi Ru Ma’s strength. For me, when I listen or play his pieces, I always could feel some emotions from each music piece. Because of him, the pattern of my playing that usually focus on accompaniment for songs (piano was just the sidekicks for songs) not a piano piece itself changed to find and play piano pieces. In other words, I recognized the excitement of playing the piano itself not just as the assistance for some pop songs.

Whether you can play the piano or not, I think you can be touched by listening to his music. (I really hope that same things that I experience happened to you guys !) Though I really want to play the guitar these days, it is hard to abandon the piano away because the beauty and the excitement of playing the piano are infinite.

The Pianist

A man who survived under the darkest hour of the mankind

A man who did not give up his soul and life under the irrational brutality of the mankind

A pianist who lost all of the priceless things except passion on his talent

During WWII, a lot of people died anonymously simply because of ideologies, norms, concepts and powers which led whole society to irrationality and wildest massive massacre. The movie that I am going to cover is about a story about the Jew pianist who survived from those harsh conditions and spent the rest of his life with suffering from losses of the war and genocide against the Jews, that is Holocaust. Today, rather than focusing the music itself, I would like to focus on a pianist’s life and humanity.

The movie is based on the true story of the Jew pianist named Szpilman who came through the holocaust. After he died in 2000, his son made public Szpilman’s diary so the movie could be made based on his diary during the WWII period. The film starts with Szpilman’s playing on the Polish radio station. He was the promising pianist in Poland but his life changed completely after beginning of the WWII by the Nazi German attacked Poland. He lost people he loves and went around hiding from the Nazi’s observation. One day, he captured by German military officer and be asked to play the piano. Szpilman played the piano with all his soul and might because he thought it could be the last time of his playing. However, the officer released him and after the war, Szpilman tried to find the officer but he found out the German officer was captured in the Soviet labor camp.

Unlike the other movies that cover WWII focus the war itself, the pianist focuses people’s sorrows and losses from the war by showing one Jew pianists’ harsh life. The movie makes me to come up with some questions; Why did those people need to be suffered, What things that can be acquired from the war, are those things more valuable than the losses of lovers and humanity?

The beauty of globalized mismatch

As we live in a globalized society, cultures that usually distinguished by regions or people become hard to being recognized as a particular group’s product because there are many outside sources from other regions which influence one’s own culture or tradition. For this reason, we can enjoy a number of varieties in cultures in our daily lives. These so called ‘Fusion’ make a plenty of awesome products in many parts such as food, music and so on.

Music is one of the products of mixed culture. It is not hard to watch some music pieces that are composed of various types of musical instruments, melodies, rhythms from different regions and cultures. The video that I am going to mention on today’s blog shows this fusion trend in music. This video was made in 2006 to advertise a construction company that wanted to attain fresh and dynamic images. In the film, it shows musicians, dancers playing and dancing along with the background music. The music consists of B-Boys, Beat Box, DJ and Gayageum which is one of the famous traditional musical instruments in Korea (You may recognize that the background music is ‘Canon variations’). When I first watched the video, it was quite fresh and surprise to see how those contents that seems mismatch are connected together. Though the film was made in 2006, it is well made music video that melts different musical characters into a music piece.

We can enjoy varieties of cultural mixes along with the globalization. There are many criticisms about globalization which influences local cultures and sometimes destroys local traditions. Therefore, it is important to secure one’s own culture under the pressure of globalization but like the film, if we blend cultural differences properly, it can produce other forms of tradition that can show the beauty of local and globalized cultures.

The Chorus

Music is a powerful way that can influence and change people into various different characters. Just as background music decides moods of places such as restaurants and derives particular emotions of people, music impacts people by its melodies, lyrics and so forth. Therefore, today, music is generally used as an educational tool in schools around the world.

Today, I will introduce a movie that shows the power of music that can change a person’s character by being used as an educational subject in school. “The Chorus (Les Choristes)”, the France movie which was released in 2009 attracted the audiences with its touching story and choruses that were covered in the movie. I had a chance to watch this movie because of my sister who was studying French during that time. At first, I did not have much interest since the movie’s genre is not one of my favorites but after few minutes of watching, I found myself that completely fell into the movie.

The movie’s main theme is the story of a music teacher, Papinot, who transferred to a small French rural school where its students consist of disorderly children. While Papinot worked at the school, he was surprised at the school’s inappropriate method to teach students. Therefore, he started to change the school and students through music. He made a school choir and by doing so, students bonded together and were cured their own wounds in minds. It is impressive to see how those disorderly students change and beautiful choruses and harmonies that children made during the movie (They actually sang these song in the movie).



I strongly recommend this movie to you guys because I think you will enjoy the beautiful songs and scenes in the movie. In addition, you can feel warmth in your heart by watching the children’s transition. Don’t miss the chance to see the movie! Just spend 90 minutes, you will find yourself fall into the movie and its beautiful harmony. You will not regret!

Music; It is A Destiny

Susan Boyle, Paul Potts …. What images occur from these names? There are many figures that could be attached to those people such as overcoming hardships and prejudice, achieving own dream. In addition to this, they have a feature that both of them are inspired by music in common. In other words, they defeat their own adversities by music. Today, I want to cover about a poor boy who was hopeless and would not accomplish a great achievement during his life if he did not run in to music.

Back to last summer, there was an audition show which benchmarked one of the successful audition programs: Britain’s Got Talent in South Korea (It is called Korean’s Got Talent). There were lots of outstanding participants in the audition but there was a boy who attracted attention at once not by his talent but for his a growth process. As an orphan, he had harsh childhood without necessary support from family. It is hard to imagine that a young little boy went through such a rough life so the audiences fully attracted to him just listening his life story. In addition to his dramatic story, he brought impressive performance like the ones of Paul Potts or Susan Boyle. Combined with his story, the song did things to the audience. I do not know the final results of the audition but I heard that he ranked in the top 10. A piece of music that he heard at the club changed his life for whole.

Like his example, sometimes, the music changes somebody’s whole life. Nobody knows what things would happen to him if he did not have a chance to sink into the music. Music is the driving force keeping his life continues despite of his harsh childhood. For me, not as impressive as his example, I do have a song that makes me fascinated by singing. I sang the song for my cousin’s wedding in 2008 and it changed me a person who knows the excitement of singing and appearing on the stage. After that, my life cannot go on without music. I would like to ask- Is there any particular moment or the music that change your life? And if you do have, what did you get from that experience?

Secret

If you are interested in beautiful piano pieces, I strongly recommend watching this movie: Secret (2007). All of the music played in this movie is worth of listening. You will find yourself wanting to play the piano after watching this movie.

The movie is about a love story between two students. While a boy transferring to arts high school is looking around the school, meet a girl playing the piano in school’s old chamber. He is attracted by her beautiful playing. They fall in love while sharing their interests in the piano and spending time together. The boy makes a promise that he plays for her at the graduation ceremony, the day of tearing down the old chamber where they met each other for the first time. However, she suddenly disappeared and he cannot find her for a while, but while he is playing the music at the graduation, he comes to realize that she is watching his performance and right after he recognizes that, he runs after her.

There is a secret about their love story like the title says but I would not reveal that secret. It is good for you to find that secret by watching this movie !

Instead of the movie’s story itself, there is lots of beautiful piano music in the movie. One of the most popular scenes in the movie is the piano battle (I uploaded the video at the bottom. You will regret if you do not watch that video!!). It is hard to think that the movie’s main characters actually played that piece but they really played that for the movie.

I am sure that you are gonna enjoy this movie not only because of the movie itself but also because of the beautiful scenes and music and I recommend you to play one of the music covered in the movie if you are capable of playing the piano ! (I tried to play ‘the secret’, the movie’s main theme song).

Music with Movie

This week, I want to introduce not music or musician itself but the movie’s music that attracted me. The movie that I want to cover is “Once” released in 2008. I am a person enjoying watching movies but I did not watch the movie when it was first released because its genre is not one of my favorites. However, by accidentally, I saw a performance by a Korean singer singing ‘Falling Slowly’. After I listened to the music, I found myself sitting in front of a chair and looking for what the music is. The reason I was attracted by the music at once, the guitar’s sound and singers’harmony were so powerful and taking.

The movie, it is about a couple’s love story how they met each other, fell in love and so on. In the movie, a man who has wound in his mind about love met a woman while he is performing on the street. Thanks to her support for him and his music, he tried to make his album in London. By making the album and doing performances together, they fall in love and sing together with his guitar and her piano. ‘Falling slowly’ is one of those songs that is covered in the movie. The song is generally talking about love but its lyrics mainly tell main character’s love story. One of the facts that make the song more attractive is that those main characters actually become a couple (though they broke up later).

I think this song is one of the examples that a person’s life melts into the song though it is about the movie story. Therefore, by this song, I become more assured than before, that when the music which is combined with people’s lives and experiences, it could be more attractive. I strongly recommend this movie because I am sure that you would be moved at the movie, its story and music and you could also find yourself in film music covered in the movie.

Falling Slowly

Bruno Mars

         This week, I am going to introduce one of my favorite singers Bruno Mars. I know he is well-known and popular musician so someone could think why he is needed to be treated, but I really want to cover about him because these days, I totally get in the swing of his music and lyrics so by sharing my thoughts and reflections I think you could find some other attractions that you did not realized before.

Back to 2010 summer, I downloaded music unconsciously from pop chart. When I listened to the music randomly, there was a music that dragged me at once by its rhythms and lyrics. It was ‘Nothing on You’ that sung by B.o.B and featured by Bruno Mars. Before I listened to that music, I didn’t’ know who the Bruno Mars is and at first, I thought that song was sung by a single singer not featured by another singer. However, after I listened to the song, I tried to find who the singer is and other songs of him. By doing that, I came to realize that I was attracted by Bruno Mars, not B.o.B. (This does not mean that B.o.B. is a bad musician!! :) ) The first song except Nothing on you, that I listened was ‘Just the Way You Are’ which was released in 2010.

As its title shows, in this song, Bruno Mars keep saying to his lover that she is perfect enough the way she is. I love this song because of its lyrics. I really hope there is someone that I could sing this song (and also someone who do not care about my musical skill) because this song’s lyrics are so beautiful and all of the lyrics consists of words that I wanted to say to my lover.

By listening to this song, I considered what the real love is. For me, the real love is something that loving and trying to understand partner no matter what happened between your partner and you. I really hope you could also consider about what the real love is by this song though it is little cheesy.

I also uploaded another version of the song covered by Korean artist Standing Egg enjoy it ~

Covered by Standing Egg Original version of the Just the Way You Are

Welcome !

             Nowadays, we live in a society with tons of entertainments. We can enjoy dramas, movies, plays, shows, games or etc in everyday of our daily lives. However, it is hard to say that those entertainments could survive without ‘music’. Every single entertainment such as movies, dramas, games… has music as its background or important component making its mood, atmosphere. In addition, as someone walking down the street, he or she can hear many songs that coming from shops, markets, buildings. Like these examples, human beings’ cannot be separated with music.

For me, the reason that music could bring lots of impacts is its character; people do not need to use much time to enjoy music and most importantly, music itself has stories about our lives in its lyrics. It has ‘messages’ that impressing a variety of people. I want to share some songs, musicians, performances and etc here in my blogs and hope you guys could feel and experience indirectly by listening to music’s story and message as I do.

I am gonna try to post about introducing these days hot trends music, musicians and also reviewing some performances. Moreover, I will organize some songs and introduce by some categories such as love, friendship, the 20’s or etc. I also hope if you guys have any songs or performances that you want to share, then do not hesitate to leave some comments or tell me! I will try to cover those stuffs too as much as I can.

Welcome to my ‘Life goes with music’ blog and I hope you can enjoy while you are surfing my blog.

I want to share some songs or performances by playing by myself with some of my friends but I am not sure you can enjoy…. I will try as much as I can to perform and show my performance.