Because I am still semi-confined, not being able to attend Aix Festival where I should have been in the audience for Combattimento and on the 24th for The Golden Cockerel, I keep my musical life wandering in Korea- youtube for wonderful voices and young singers really outstanding as they are trained in competitive schools of music either in Universities or private institutes where the Korean Entertainment industry produces Kpop, crossover, groups of dancers singers performers either classic or modern ... the choice of groups is amazing and sometimes misleading ... still somehow it is possible to select a type of voice which rings a bell like this young musician I discovered only through his voice in a serie I watched twice'My Mister'.
When I first listened to his voice through the song "One million Roses" I had the impression he was singing in Russian and that the song was a Russian romantic song of sorrow which could well have been in dearest Dmitri Hvorostovsky's recital tours. I wanted to see the singer, read the lyrics and found videos of the young artist who is such a charming performer. The song has a story back to Latvian origins, it is as I could feel in the voice a romantic and sorrowful story illustrated in the serie through the lives of the main characters.
Then with more determination to explore the range of his rich bass voice so surprising in this young looking man, I came across two renditions of 'Counting the Stars 'where he sings alone on stage with a huge chorus and orchestral backbround for televised concerts:
The first in 2019 and then the following year 20 (which was in France a period of pandemic cultural restrictions, it was not yet the case in Korea as the audience is sharing normal distancing and no masks on), he sang the same melody twice with the same hand gesture, which shows respect for what he sings and later I understood why. ( I deleted the first youtube 2019 because of rights owner who stopped it almost instantly which is a pity as this blog is a non-profit ine only aiming at passion for Culture Music and understading as much as possible , copyright has to be maintained I understand but how could I get Cds from Forestella or Ko woo Rim here?I took the screenshots from that video though ).
I could feel the song was moving the audience at heart completely, as well as the singer who each time was expressing deep feelings and heatfelt emotions.
Then I discovered the lyrics.
(reading all the comments, I came across a contribution with the mention of the poet and the verses in Korean and English. So I could really try to go deeper in feeling the emotions through music, voice and words. )
I felt I was not far from some songs sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky who has the same voice range as Ko Woo Rim and the choice of "Cranes" has also a war significance just like 'Counting the stars' has meaning for a Korean audience as a memory of struggle through Japanese occupation.
I understood the singer's attitude of respect with his hand near his heart.. and his emotion during both renditions a year apart. Same with some captions of the audience shedding discret tears... Of course, when I discocered this young bass so accomplished as an opera trained performer I searched all the arias renditions on youtube. Now he joined a very recent group which was formed after a voice competition on television Forestella which is a combination of 'forest' and stella' where sopranist and bass come from opera training and the other two from Kpop. They are amazing as they also move dance talk during their crossover recitals. My choice would be to listen to Ko Woo Rim on his own... but I believe they have to follow the group path for a while... Will he keep singing opera arias? will he have more duets with the sopranist Cho Minguy who is the lead of the group ? They are very 'popular' and success is along side their concerts in Korea and Japan, very often on tv shows, will they tour Europe? America for sure very soon .. they even sing a French tune I liked a lot in its days 'Je suis malade complètement malade..' (Serge Lama et Alice Dona) Wo Rim with full orchestra and his fellow singers make a wonder of this tune...
The lyrics of 'Counting the stars' found on the comment from :
근엄
1 year ago (edited)
Yun Dong-ju was a Korean poet in Japanese forced occupation.
계절이 지나가는 하늘에는 가을로 가득 차 있습니다.
"The sky where the season passes is brimming with fall
나는 아무 걱정도 없이 가을 속의 별들을 다 헤일 듯합니다.
Without a worry, I think I will count all the stars of fall
가슴 속에 하나 둘 새겨지는 별을
The stars that engrave themselves in my heart —
one, two 이제 다 못 헤는 것은
The reason I can’t count them all now
쉬이 아침이 오는 까닭이요, 아직 청춘이 다하지 않은 까닭입니다.
is that morning comes easily, is that my youth is not over.
별 하나에 추억과
In a star, there is memory
별 하나에 사랑과
In a star, there is love
별 하나에 쓸쓸함과
In a star, there is loneliness
별 하나에 동경과
In a star, there is longing
별 하나에 시와
In a star, there is poem
별 하나에 어머니, 어머니
, In a star, there is mother... mother...
겨울이 지나고 나의 별에도 봄이 오면
When winter passes and spring also comes to my star,
무덤 위에 파란 잔디가 피어나듯이
just as green grass will grow round the grave,
내 이름자 묻힌 언덕 위에도 자랑처럼 풀이 무성할 게외다.
The hill where my name was once buried will be lush with thick grass, worth my pride. "
I am very grateful to 근엄 for this comment and translation.
The poet Yun Dong-Ju is an important figure in Korean litterature and Historical memory of Japanese colonialism. A blog about Korean poetry gives three poems in translation with a short biography and his photo and also illustrations of landscapes which add reality and charm to the poems.
His life was short and painful, he died in prison in 1945. That makes the line ''my youth is not over" even more overwhelming and distressing.
The grassy hill he imagines makes me think of 'Le dormeur du val' written by Arthur Rimbaud (he was fifteen) during the Prussian-French war (1870 ) the young peaceful soldier is also immersed in luxuriant nature and yet his life is at a standstill. (I tried to find an audio version of this poem and was not successfull perhaps being to choosy myself).
Yun Dong-Ju 's poem has delicacy and hope towards life through 'memory' first and then 'Love'.
Counting the stars ' ( I found another title 'The wind and the stars') is so simple and yet deeply moving : repeating 'In a star there is...' gets deeper into the person he was, thoughtful and loving, his life as a poet and brave opposant, then at the end, his mother is the last star: 'in a star there is mother...mother 'ends the succession of six stars : sung the way Woo Rim Ko does, makes the poem even more heartbreaking.
Second rendition in 2O20, with same intensity and overwhelming emotion in his voice which really brings tears . Now I am able to appreciate the poem more and more with music and lyrics.(Notice a fashionable coloring shades is Woo Rim's hair, very sweet !)
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