'Arirang Fantasy' brings together old and new
.jpg?w=728)
Pianist and composer Yang Bang-ean
By Kwon Ji-youn
Pianist and composer Yang Bang-ean was familiar with the “Arirang” when he was asked to create an arrangement of the Korean folk song for the Busan International Film Festival two years ago, but he didn’t really know Arirang the way he does now.
“I had heard it many times and it wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in the song, but I had never stopped to think about it in depth,” Yang said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “Once I began working on the arrangement, it really became a part of me.”
That is when Yang began his extensive research on the folk song, which led to the composition of the “Arirang Fantasy,” an eight-minute long arrangement of Arirang that was performed at the closing ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics last month.
“It was an amazing experience, performing such a culturally rich piece for some 40,000 people from around the world,” he said.
The performance included three singers ― soprano Jo Su-mi, jazz vocalist Nah Youn-sun and singer Lee Seung-chul. Yang played the piano himself.
Following the Korean National Anthem, the Arirang Fantasy resonated throughout the stadium to bring together the traditional and the contemporary. Soprano Jo sang a rather classic version of the folk song accompanied by a gayageum, a zither-like string instrument, while Nah added a jazzy twist to it and Lee rocked to a distinct beat.
“I wanted to create various versions of Arirang, using different genres,” Yang said.
Yang, who began playing the piano at a very young age, is also the composer of “Frontier,” the 2002 Busan Asian Games theme song.
“I hadn’t written the song for the Asian Games in particular, but the organizing committee had really enjoyed it,” he said. “I didn’t participate in the performance, but it was quite an experience.”
Yang performed the Arirang Fantasy at President Park Geun-hye’s inauguration ceremony in February of last year.
“Ever since then, I’ve kept thinking that I would really like to promote this song as the theme of the 2018 PyeongChang Games,” he said.
Yang, who is a Korean national living in Japan, has performed Arirang at almost every one of his concerts and performances.
“I really took a liking to the song,” he said. “It’s not easy putting on such a grand performance. But I felt it was really important to have a lyrical song like Arirang representing Korea when the Olympic torch was passed on to PyeongChang.”
Yang travels back and forth between Japan and Korea, recording albums and performing concerts whenever and wherever he can. Many refer to him as a “new age” artist, but he would prefer not to be labeled as one or another. Yang has composed music for movies, animations and even games.
“The thing I love about music is that it always changes,” he said. “Depending on the stage, the audience and the arrangement, one song can sound nothing like another song.”