Kang Song Jin, section chief of the National Musical Instruments Institute of the Pyongyang Traditional Musical Instruments Factory, has devoted his all to the development of national art.
He is well known at home for his prominence in making kayagum, oungum and other traditional stringed instruments.
“Have you ever made a musical instrument? It is quite different from carpentry,” an old-timer asked Kang when he was appointed to the institute decades ago.
As he put in, musical instrument making was more than craftsmanship. It required deep insight into traditional instruments, great musical sensitivity, profound knowledge of musical art and exquisite craftsmanship.
Kang buckled down to work in high spirits with his mind made up to make a superb traditional musical instrument.
He started with okryugum.
He delved into the structural characteristics and making methods of traditional instruments and began to learn how to make a traditional instrument with the help of veteran makers. He successfully finished his first okryugum.
Later he set himself to study and develop kayagum.
He called on traditional musical instrumentalists to solicit their views and made efforts to further enrich the original tone of kayagum. He made a point of getting feedback from instrumentalists on the finished one before making modifications if necessary.
Assiduous research and efforts paid off. He refined kayagum so that it could express the beautiful and ennobling national sentiment in a better light, and improved oungum in technical terms, thus making a tangible contribution to the development of traditional musical instruments.
He has made hundreds of kayagum up to now and some of the instruments he made were highly appreciated at several national musical instruments shows.
Kang still works hard to make the sweet melody of national music better received.
Pak Ui Chol
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