Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance
Performed by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Wind Symphony
Orchestration was originally for concert band
Culture of origin was Korea
Variations on a Korean Folk Song is a staple of the wind band repertoire composed in 1965 by John Barnes Chance, a white American male from Texas who served in the 8th Army Band in South Korea. The piece is a warhorse of band music, although it is no longer considered to be performed as much as it should be. A discussion on this piece of music is appropriate for the parameters of this course, and specifically to this week's readings. One of the things our readings insist is that as music teachers, we must be aware of popular music from our students' cultures, as well as work to include culturally diverse programming. It could be argued that because Variations on a Korean Folk Song is based upon the Korean folk song "Airirang" that it meets the need to include more culturally diverse musical programming. However, this piece was composed by someone who was not Korean, nor was he a part of Korean culture. In the position of Contextualism in the Reimer reading, we are warned against ethnomusicology misrepresenting and/or misappropriating musics of another culture, and we are warned that such a thing is intrusive and potentially more dangerous than the damage that colonialism causes.
Because I have a large population of Hmong and Laotian students at Wausau East, we have discussed searching for and programming music of those cultures with the bands. I have repeatedly been told by my Southeast Asian students that they would welcome such action, but only on the musical and educational merits of the programming alone. They do not want to be patronized. I think this connects directly to the fears of the Contexualism position in Reimer's chapter this week. Is a piece like Variations patronizing of another culture, and should we continue to program it for its cultural diversity, it's musical merits, or should it just be relegated to the back shelf of the Band Library?
