Jinsil Lee

Stage Music

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Choral Music

Bird, Blue bird (2022) is an arrangement of the folk-melody “Saeya, Saeyar.” The original folk tune traces back to 1895, around when the peasants’ War ended in Korea. The war was precursor to Japanese colonization, since the peasants mostly fought against the Japanese army. This song was sung by the wives of the deceased husbands who fought in the war as a requiem. Bluebird refers to the Japanese army, as their army was all blue at the time. The piece reaches its apex when the choir cries, “why did you fly in here?” This piece refers to the “Han” part of the title - it is a folk term referring to complex entanglement of frustration, desire, and strong will all form the wounds of the past.

Dookkubi (2018) translates to “Toad,” and it is a folk play song and nursery rhyme known to be composed during the 20th century. In our country, there is a poisonous toad called 'scabies toad' because of its unusually thick back. Here is a sad story regarding the toads’ mothers. Usually, and naturally, mothers are always careful with themselves when they are pregnant with a child. However, when the scabies toad incubates an egg, she behaves strangely, and it is said that she sets out on the road in search of the viper that she has always been evading because of fear. So when she encounters a viper, she fights with all her might while embracing the poison, and eventually gets eaten by the viper. However, since the mother toad also has a poison, she shoots it last minute to kill the viper as well. Then, the eggs in the scabies toads feed on the mother toad and the dead viper, and they are all born strong and healthy as young scabies. The text “Toad, Toad, here’s an old house, give me a new house” is from the story that the old house refers to a mother who sacrifices herself for her children, and the new house refers to her children. Traditional nursery rhymes were lost during the Japanese colonization because of music censorship and it is known that this piece was written during that time to discover and preserve forgotten Korean folk songs.

Uelssigu Taryung (2020) is an upbeat piece with many combinations of various rhythmic motives. This is where the “Heung (흥)” part of the title comes in - although there is no direct translation of the word, it could translate to joy and excitement. “Ulssigu” and the other Korean words used in this piece are widely known to Koreans as simple exclamations used in the traditional musical contexts. However, further research revealed that each letter of the word “Uelssigu(얼씨구)” has a meaning. Uel: 얼 (sprit), sis (씨): (seed), gu: 구(구하다: to seek for) -> “to seek for the seed of the spirits.” Back during the Japanese colonization, the lower class people would be the only ones sent out in the wars and riots. As a result, most of them were killed and therefore did not have a descendant that would pass down their heritage. The spirits in the above phrase refer to these lower class men who were mercilessly tour cured and killed.