Chongbong Band - People’s wish (인민의 축원)

청봉악단 - 인민의 축원 Music: U Jong-hui (우정희) Text: Ri Ji-song (리지성) Recorded: Mokran Video, DPRK The Chongbong Band style is more serious, perhaps with grown up intellectuals in mind. Sometimes they even lean towards the equilibrist with intricate arrangements, etc. Here however, they perform a really beautiful version of this equally beautiful song. The lyrics are a variant on the theme of how hard the Supreme Leader works for His people. The Orion’s belt star constellation mentioned in the lyrics, can actually be seen on the backdrop at 0:22 . While following the strict rules for how DPRK texts should be written it reaches very high poetic qualities. With my limited knowledge of the English language, it actually feels a bit awkward to try and translate it. Some of the highest quality music in the western history of music comes from times when even more strict rules had to be obeyed. Often the same religious themes were used over and over again but reaching higher levels of art each time. I’m thinking of 16th Century polyphony by Franko-flemish masters like Ockeghem, Josquin and Palestrina. Later on Bach also had to follow (and bend) the rules in his famous church music. Maybe the secret why the DPRK music reaches these high levels of fine art lies in the fact they also have many strict rules to follow and fight against?