God's Song Volume 3 Chapter 4.4

God’s Song
Volume 3 Chapter 4 Part 4

Coline, the cellist in the quintet, listened to a Korean song he could not understand for a while on his phone and whistled.

“Danny, this is Jun Hyuk’s album?”

Danny went to Coline, who was yelling with the earphones in, took them out and spoke,

“Yeah. His first album. He said it was released in Korea. I guess he made it right before he came here.”

“Composition, guitar, piano….. That’s fucking great!”

Coline was impressed by Jun Hyuk’s guitar and started motioning his fingers in the air as if playing one.

“Jun’s guitar is really…..”

“Killer, right? And what about the configuration of the tracks?”

Danny suddenly remembered something and turned on his laptop.

“Take a look at this too. I’m pretty sure you haven’t seen it yet.”

Danny showed him Jun Hyuk’s versions of Canon that were up on YouTube. Coline’s jaw dropped at the image of Jun Hyuk playing the drums as well.

“He’s really a monster. Not just the piano and composition, but the guitar and drums too?”

“More than that, take a close look at that guitar. You know what that is?”

“Hang on. That… Isn’t that a custom PRS (Paul Reed Smith) and a James Tyler Buring Water?”

“Right. It’s under Jun Hyuk’s bed.”

As soon as Danny spoke, Coline ducked under Jun Hyuk’s bed and pulled out the guitar case. However, it was locked with a passcode and he was unable to see it.

“Danny, was Jun Hyuk rich in Korea?”

“No. I think he went out on some pop music program in Korea. He said he made a lot of money when the songs he arranged became really popular. And I think I heard something about him modeling.”

“Phew – So he was a star in Korea.”

“That’s why he even released an album.”

Coline’s eyes sparked as he spoke to Danny,

“Danny, do you know what time Jun Hyuk’s classes end today?”

“9 o’clock? Or around 9:30? He’ll be coming back soon. Why?”

“Nothing. I just need to ask him something.”

Coline wanted to confess a secret he had been keeping to Jun Hyuk.

After a never ending 4 hour class on the history of African American human rights, Jun Hyuk came back to the dorms exhausted. It was a frustrating lecture that he had not been able to understand half of because the professor spoke more than he normally did.

Jun Hyuk had been expecting to lay down in his bed comfortably, but Coline who had been waiting for him took him by the hand and dragged him out to a bar in front of the school.

“I don’t know what you want to talk about, but hurry up. I’m really tired today.”

“Alright, I’ll get straight to the point. Do you want to join our band? Let’s do it together.”

“What? Band?”

“Yeah. I made a band with 2 friends. It’s been almost a year.”

“Friends? At our school?”

“No. They only know the names Beethoven and Mozart in terms of classical. But they’re amazing.”

There are a lot of people who are difficult to understand in the world. Is it not the CH School of Music where everyone wants to go but cannot?

Not only was he dreaming of doing other music after getting over such a difficult obstacle, but he had even created a band to do something else.

“Then what about classical? Wasn’t it your dream to become a cellist?”

“Classical? What’s so great about music that’s hashed up and replayed over and over again?”

Coline took a swig of his beer and spoke mockingly.

“Hashed? Replayed?”

“Don’t you think so? Beethoven’s symphony ‘Fate’ alone has been recorded in 700 albums. No matter how much of an oldie it is, it’s just one song. It’s one song with different conductors. No, I’m pretty sure Karajan of the Berlin Philharmonic did it around 20 times. It has to be more because he released the box set of Beethoven’s complete works 5 times.”

Herbert von Karajan who especially loved Beethoven. He sold 200 million records while he served on the Berlin Philharmonic. Though there was a lot of talk about how he just performed songs that the public was used to and about it all being showmanship, it was true that he led the popularization of classical music.

“Past baroque, classical, and romantic, do you think classical would have developed? The so-called contemporary music is saying that it is following behind classical, but even that is barely staying alive with Stravinsky, Bartok Schoenberg, and Rigeti.”

Coline’s honest thoughts on classical music exploded and flowed out.

“If you release something as contemporary music now, the premiere is the last performance. It’s only performed once. And for a rookie, that’s only if it’s good enough to get 1st place at the Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth Competition.”

Classical is already falling in its own league because it is worshipping its existing works while keep new trials at a distance.

“Can you understand this screwed up situation? Either rehash relics or make music that no one will listen to even if the critics praise it. These are the only 2 paths in classical.”

Whether it was due to his drunkenness or discontent and dissatisfaction concerning classical, Coline’s voice grew louder and louder.

“Composers were revered a long time ago, but not anymore. No one will listen even if you make contemporary music. If you want fame and wealth…. Composition? You have to give it up and become a performer. Conductor? That’s also okay since a conductor of an orchestra is a performer.”

It was advice with the fact that Jun Hyuk’s majors are composition and command in mind. In Coline’s thoughts however, Jun Hyuk still has a naive view.

“Then instead of making abstruse contemporary music, you can make songs that are like the old classical.”

“Ha ha ha. You’re really impressive. You’re saying we should go back to the past? Do you have the confidence to do that? Fine. Then let’s say you wrote a song. You know who your competition is? You have to compete with people like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Wagner. No. You’ll only be recognized if you write songs that are better than theirs. Or they’ll say you’re just a monkey copying them.”

Jun Hyuk did not think that everything Coline was saying was gibberish. However, he thought that Coline would also know that good music comes to light and is loved by the public. It is just that right now, they are taking down the negative aspects of classical music.

“So you made a rock and roll band?”

“Why? What’s wrong with that? It’s popular music. Classical was popular music of its time. Mozart’s Don Giovanni had a lot of success in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It was the song that the citizens enjoyed in the theater. To compare it with something now, it would be like a box-office success musical or a U2 concert.”

It seems Coline wants the masses to cheer for his music. But as a cellist, he would not be able to get past the restrictions of classical fanciers. This kind of thought could be the reason why they created the band. It is the greatest difference between them and Jun Hyuk, who only thinks about music.

“Jun, just think about it. If Mozart came to the present on a time machine, do you think he would do rock or jazz? Or do you think he would do classical?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m 100% sure. There are a lot of people who like Mozart, like to have fun, enjoy grand things, crave success, and desire people’s cheering. I’m sure Mozart would have put a rock band together and toured the world. Money, fame, women, popularity, alcohol, drugs. These are all trademarks of rockers.”

Jun Hyuk even thought that Coline’s plausible speculations were fun. Mozart as the leader of a rock band…..

“Mozart died at 36, but he would have died at 26 in the present. Of overdosing on drugs. Ha ha ha.”

Coline broke out in laughter and asked Jun Hyuk again,

“Hey Jun, I heard the music you made in Korea. You like rock and roll too, and you like jazz and the blues. Let’s do the band together. I won’t ask you to miss classes or quintet practices, so let’s do it together when you have time.”

Jun Hyuk’s blood also boiled. He wanted to do it. He wanted to play a deafening guitar capable of exploding an amp and he wanted to play the drums so hard the ceiling came down.

However, classical is what really made his blood boil. The exhilarating bliss. He does not have to choose between the two, but now is the time to focus. He does not want to make the 4 years he had decided on with such difficulty to go to waste by doing something useless.

“I can’t. You know too that I get special classes for 2 hours every day. I don’t have time.”

Chapter end