In This Issue
It may not encompass the focus of this issue of NMC, but we’re certain Leo Kraft won’t mind our using this space to talk about the topic of symphonic music as a political force, something all music-minded people should take interest in. That’s exactly what CNN has done with its hour-long TV documentary “Americans in Pyongyang.” And this piece by the “pastmistress” of TV reportage, Christiane Amanpour, was beautifully etched—balanced and yet moving.
One would expect that such a report would be dotted with a lot of political asides: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s portrait as secretive and a complete totalitarian; his openness to fully celebrate an event hand in hand with the U.S. as strictly for political gain; the spruced-up appearance of Pyongyang as a festive location for such an occasion, complete with those remarkably synchronized performances by hun-dreds of dancers and gymnasts in sparklingly colorful costumes, a spectacular distraction from the country’s abject poverty. Even the visit to a nuclear laboratory, a hot issue up to now, was dismissed by on-camera critics as simply “part of the show.”
But Amanpour’s more positive moments were a credit to her style of stressing the human side of every political event she covers. There was an excellent vignette about the Assistant Concertmaster of the Philharmonic, Michelle Kim, a Korean native who came to the U.S. as a child. She had many misgivings about the trip back, even the fear in her mind over the possibility of kidnap-ping, something that did recently occur. No such incident happened on this occasion, thank goodness, and she was as thrilled by the event as much as the other musicians. “This might not solve the problems with the U.S. politically but it will be in their hearts as something to re-member,” she said afterward.
But another segment of the report stressed North Korea’s tight, seemingly irrational, control over its own musical activities. Some years ago pianist Kim Cheol Woong was reprimanded for “jazzing it up” at the keyboard, in private yet. He was forced to write a ten-page apology, then fled to South Korea. Nam Ji Hae, a singer, was jailed just for singing at home. Eventually, she, too, escaped to South Korea via China. The two musicians now both enjoy the artistic freedom they believe is as important as creature comforts. We have talked about this aesthetic issue many times before, but for CNN it was a rare bit of coverage, still somehow grist for Amanpour’s humanistic mill.
While the music played at the concert was not dwelt on, there was some focus on a very eloquent statement made by the orchestra when it performed a Korean folk song called “Arirang,” beloved in both North and South Korea. One would have had to be gazing at the ceiling to miss the emotions on the faces of attendees. Whether or not this selection had been approved by the authorities beforehand we don’t know, but it touched on something alluded to earlier, that even traditional folk singing is controlled by the government.
The most modern work on the program, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, was introduced by Maestro Maazel jokingly but diplomatically as one that might inspire some composer one day to write Americans in Pyongyang. The program also included the playing of both national anthems (characterized as yet another breakthrough), two Wagner overtures, Dvorak’s New World Symphony and several encores.
Though Kim Jong Il was not in attendance, that did not stop the people behind the two-day affair from calling it a huge success. While Maazel stressed his responsibility—“We are here to make music,” he said flatly—Zarin Mehta, president of the orchestra, seems to believe that this visit served as an important “first step,” the fact that the heart of the deal involving North Korean denuclearization included a cultural exchange.
Such exchanges have never been known to hurt America’s world position either
politically or artistically. But, even far more important, as Copy Editor Leonard Lehrman, who spent much time in Eastern Europe during the eighties, points out, they put a human face on our “enemies.” It becomes more difficult for people to see any sense in killing each other. These exchanges make us more aware of both similarities and differences in cultural strivings and in social systems and help us to confront and negotiate them peacefully.