Mrs. Kim says that in Korea there are many mountain passes with the name Arirang and no one is sure which is the one from the story. Because of this, it is also possible to interpret Arirang not as a physical location but as a state of mind or as a place better than the here and now. I think, “Wow! This viewpoint is a long way from Snow White waiting for Prince Charming to return.”

Students in the Florida Middle School All-State decided that Michael Story’s arrangement for string orchestra is less related to these contemporary performances than it is to the older folk song connected to the folk tale. They conclude that the arrangement demonstrates the personal, contemplative nature of the folk song. So they further decided to alter the arrangement to increase its connection to the personal nature of the folk song. Therefore, instead of the large first violin section playing the melody after the arrangement’s four-measure introduction, they decided to begin with a single violinist playing the first verse and then have the rest of the violinists enter at the repetition of mm. 5–12, which we also add.

In Illinois, students decided to begin with everyone playing the song on their own to reflect the personal and aural nature of the song. The resulting cacophony merged into a unison performance and segued into the arrangement itself. As each player aurally recognized that the bass section had begun to play together, he or she stopped playing at his or her own speed and style and joined in with the larger group. When the tutti version concluded, the piano entered with the introduction from the arrangement, which the orchestra played as written. This last part reflected the videos we saw in which Arirang was performed by an orchestra in different ways (e.g., accompanying a vocal solo or a piano rhapsody or as an outdoor festival showpiece).