culture

A music and dance performance given by the National Folk Art Troupe is going on at the Ponghwa Art Theatre, drawing loud applause of the audience.

Starting with the cheerful melody of the song "Pyongyang Is Best", the performers put on stage such colourful numbers as female chorus, female solo, mixed duet, song and dance, and dance.

The songs on the theme of patriotism, including “Motherland and My Destiny”, widely sung by the people leave a strong impression on the audience as they are newly interpreted with traditional musical instruments.

The song and dance given by performers and folk dance pieces they perform with elegant and charming rhythmic movements in time with the national and upbeat music are so exciting that the audience find themselves dancing with their shoulders moving up and down.

Small-sized haegum (Korean fiddle) solo and national percussion instruments ensemble “A Bumper Harvest in the Chongsan Plain”, performed by Merited Artiste Nam Un Ha, a famous female instrumentalist, and several male instrumentalists, strike a chord with the audience at once.

“I’ve never imagined that they would interpret the song that I had ever heard in orchestral music so wonderfully with such national musical instruments as small-sized haegum, janggu (hourglass drum) and drum. When I appreciated the instrumental, I saw in my mind’s eye farmers harvesting rice in great delight on the Chongsan Plain with a bumper crop,” said Kim Se Un after enjoying the performance.

The audience sang together with and responded to the performers and called for encores when they sang folk songs including a female solo and male chorus “Moran Hill”, a song about Moran Hill in Pyongyang, a mixed duet “Ballad of Gold Mountains” and a female solo “Let’s Go to Pick Mulberry Leaves”.

They put on stage a unique medley of large ensembles to rev up the atmosphere.

According to Director Jon Song Nam, it is the first time that nearly 20 vocalists sing different songs in a medley.

The medley of songs showing daily-changing appearances of the country that become beautiful with the passage of time thanks to the regional development policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea and instilling confidence in their life which will be more prosperous was greeted with thunderous applause of the audience.

The audience, who enjoyed the performance, lavishes praise on it, saying unanimously that Korean songs and dances full of national sentiment are the best.