Most are now familiar with Korean rap music thanks to the song "Gangnam Style" with the introduction of the horsey dance. Well, that is only a small glimpse into the Korean love for music. It is infectious in this country. Music is everywhere and it is very much a part of their soul.
The Koreans love to sing. I hear them singing all the time on campus. I'll walk by classrooms on the way home from teaching in the evening and I'll hear the sound of students singing drifting through the windows. Susan and I can often hear the singing from our 5th floor apartment late into the evening as we retire at the end of the day.
Every chapel service on campus includes a time of worship. The Koreans love to sing the modern praise songs and the traditional hymns. This morning I was at the faculty chapel and we sang the hymn "The Love of God is Greater Far" which was written in 1917. Most today would be unfamiliar (as I was) with this beautiful hymn and would have stumbled with the words and melody. The Koreans have beautiful voices and and sang the first two stanzas in English and the third in Korean. I was transported back to 1917 when the song would have been sung with the same enthusiasm modern worship songs are sung today. It was absolutely beautiful beyond words and the sound drifted far across the campus. It reminded me of something I have always strongly felt - a beautiful song about God is timeless. Here are a couple of the verses:
"The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the low-est hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His son to win; His err-ing child He rec-on-ciled, And pard-doned from his sin.
Could we with ink the o-cean fill, And were the skies of parch-ment made, Where ev-ery stalk on a earth a quill And ev-ery man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God a-bove Would drain the o-cean dry; Nor could the scoll con-tain the whole, Tho' stretched from sky to sky."
I am also amazed at the number of Koreans who are gifted musicians. The piano is played primarily by ear (although most are classically trained) and it is not unusual for two pianos to be used during worship times. We are hoping to set up music lessons for all our kids in the next few weeks. Nothing would please me more than to see them be able to express the Korean love for music and carry that throughout their lives.
In our travels around Korea we have had the chance to visit Folk Villages that show how life was before modern times in Korea. As you might expect, music and dance were also an integral part of village life. We have enjoyed the traditional Korean music as much as the modern music. There is a happiness than runs through much of it though it also reflects more somber and difficult times in performances of the Mask Dance. And then there are the Korean drums. Using several styles of traditional Korean drums and what looks like a small single cymbal, the musicians progress through a variety of rhythmic beats that make your face light up with joy and your feet want to break out in dance.
Coming to Korea has helped me understand Susan's love for music and why her voice is so beautiful when she sings. I'm seeing lots of indications that our kids have that same love embedded in their genes and this makes me very very happy.
Ken Chinn
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