Admiral Yi - Theme Music

The erhu was indeed intended to emulate the sound of a haegeum - I have an email from Sean and Dean specifically explaining their choice of substitution, so I know they put a lot of thought and work into the composition. Your in-depth perspective is also appreciated, though, and I'm glad you did take the time to write it out! We don't really have much opportunity in the series to dive into the music - although the Sean and Dean will be joining our Q&A this month for the first time, so we may get a chance to discuss things there!

Extra History

I liked the piece, but if this is about a Korean admiral, wouldn't it make sense to have chosen to have the erhu played more like a Korean haegeum, or even better, taken the composition and arrangement more to traditional Korean courtly sounds than Chinese ones? I mean, I understand the practical choices to go with this version, considering that the research into the more obscure Korean court sound (especially if you wanted to focus specifically on the era that Admiral Yi was alive) would have been time intensive and not terribly accessible to non-Koreans, plus I imagine tracking down a particularly talented Korean traditional multi-instrumentalist (haegeum, geomungo, danseo, etc.) for the composers might have been challenging too, unless they are based in LA where there are a few studios and the Cultural Center as resources. But with few mainstream cultural reference points (there really is no fiction in mainstream Western consciousness set in pre-Korean War Korea), I could see how it might have seemed like a daunting task and to pick its bigger neighbor (that exerted some degree of political and cultural influence on Korea), which has a much greater international presence, makes practical sense. I suppose I just feel like I have to comment so that people clearly understand that traditional Chinese music and traditional Korean music are actually distinct, including the instruments used and the way that they are performed, even if there are some shared elements. And that this particular piece sounds much more influenced by Chinese music than Korean (especially the style of play of the erhu and its timbre). I guess for non-musicologists this is nitpicking--but if we're talking about history and want to be historically accurate, I'd think we'd want to at least consider putting the same kind of critical historical reflection into how we receive the music as we would the narratives and images presented.

John Jihoon Chang

So cool

Clearwood

This is amazingly Cool!! :)

Tristan Murphy

Heh..it will be on my birthday

Brian Kim

To be clear, this was written by our composers Sean and Dean Kiner, who also played several instruments on it. They're amazing! Wang Hong performed in the ehru here, though, which was an awesome treat for all of us!

Extra History

You got the guy who does the Avatar music to do this song? That's amazing! That series had the best music, and this is just as amazing!

Colin

That's really epic. Can't wait!

Mikkel Kaas

Want more hype? David (who illustrated the Sengoku Jidai series) has really pulled off the gloves for this one. We decided to ramp up our production levels to match his cinematic art style, so there are going to be some pretty special moments going on in this series.

Extra History

Me too! I've listened to this so much. It's taken all my willpower not to share it sooner, because I didn't want to torment everyone with a preview for this series while it was still some ways away. But September 26 is finally drawing near!

Extra History

You two nailed it as well! I hope the love you're getting here shows you how much so. ;)

Extra History

Dan picks a segment of the full piece and uses that for the theme, so don't worry, we'll get the best parts in there! And there will be more music DURING the episodes this time, which I hope you'll enjoy as much as we do...

Extra History

Aaaah, soooo good! =D

Jesse Phoenix

I really like this one. You all did a wonderful job. :)

Tyndel

This is great! The Hype for this series can only go up from here! :D

Ki-Young Joannes Jang

Thank you guys for all your support! This one was a blast to work on, and Hong really nailed it.

Sean

That. is. AWESOME!!!

Robert Griffith

I felt shivers and chills down my spine when I listened to this. You guys did good! So excited for the next series!

Riane Torres

Nailed it. Only thing is you need to make absolutely sure that you get a full 30 seconds in before the episodes end, as I feel a lot of the impact actually starts at 0:25.

This. Is. The. Best.

Tsp1721

so hyped

Kristian Sekse

So much yes.

Hung Nguyen