He Led The Korean Style Of Singing To Be Sustained.

Chairman Kim Jong Il, a genius of musical art, wisely led the singers to develop our style of singing by thoroughly establishing the Juche orientation in musical interpretation and sing it with our own style of singing.

Chairman Kim Jong Il said:

"In order to develop vocal music in our own style, it is essential to meet our demands in terms of vocalization and singing."

On January 21, Juche 96 (2007), Chairman Kim Jong Il received a report that the unaccompanied chorus, composed of schoolgirls of the middle course of the then Pyongyang Music and Dance School, came back from the 4th World Chorus Contest held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, and summoned them.

He said that he would listen to the songs they sang at the contest as the women chorus of the Pyongyang Music and Dance School took the first place in the Fourth World Chorus contest.

The students, who were enthusiastic as they staged artistic performance before him, sang songs of the DPRK including the immortal masterpiece "Nostalgia" and other songs of Russia, China and Germany.

Chairman Kim Jong Il clapped first whenever the program ended.

When the performance was over, he said that he would listen to the students if they had prepared solo.

Six students, including those who took the lead in the chorus performance, were presented. All of them sang the first songs from the five major revolutionary operas and the second ones sang the famous songs of our country.

Chairman Kim Jong Il expressed great satisfaction whenever every song was over, highly appreciating the level of their skills, saying that he liked to hear that all the students sang songs from the five major revolutionary operas.

He appreciated the efforts made by teachers, saying: It is important for the students of Pyongyang Music and Dance School to solve the problem of breathing method during their study; the songs sung by a student "Prosper, O My Motherland" and "Both to Die or to Live Is a Glory on the Road of Revolution" from the revolutionary opera "Tell O Forest" show that the school pays attention to solving the problem of breathing method of the students who learn vocal music at the school.

Then he said that the students sang Korean famous songs and foreign songs in an unaccompanied chorus, but there is a serious problem in singing.

The instructors and officials of the Chorus were surprised to hear him saying that our songs were sung in the same way as those of German songs, and that it was not our style but entirely Western style.

He continued: The song should be sung thoroughly in our own way, and the peculiar timbre of our nation should be sustained. When we created the five major revolutionary operas in the past, the people of other countries were very mysterious about it. We must sing the songs in our own way in foreign countries.

Chairman Kim Jong Il repeatedly stressed that the music of the unaccompanied chorus is composed with various tonal colours, so it is necessary to sustain the national characteristics and peculiar timbre of the songs of our own style and not to imitate the choir of the church.

That day he said to officials that it is the invariable requirement of our Party to live thoroughly with the Korean-nation-first spirit and advance to our own style. He gave precious instructions that film and music should be created and depicted in our own way in the field of art and literature, too, and that they should advance towards the world, giving full play to the tastes of our nation.

The teachings of Chairman Kim Jong Il that Koreans should regard as motto and guidelines of life are still kept deep in the hearts of the Korean people and artistes.