bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Tamar Herman

When he started listening to BTS’s music during the Covid-19 pandemic, Henry Cheng didn’t expect to end up writing a 15-minute-long suite of classical music based on it.
But the composer-conductor fell in love with the K-pop boy band while attempting to discover why so many people love their music. The result is Suite for Army, which infuses classical greats with BTS hits and B-sides.
The work premiered at an exhibition titled “Beyond the Scene” at the Total Museum in Seoul, South Korea, on July 13. The exhibition tied into another event, “BTS: The Third Global Interdisciplinary Conference”, a gathering of BTS fans and experts, also held that month.
Cheng, who is the artistic director of the Klangkraft Orchestra in Duisburg, Germany, began contemplating BTS’s musical impact after his wife, art curator Joanne Kim, became involved with the 2020 art project Connect, BTS, spurring Cheng’s interest in their musical messages and philosophy.

When orchestral performances came to a halt because of the coronavirus, Cheng began to analyse BTS’s work and their impact from the perspective of his classical background.
“I kind of just didn’t really understand,” Cheng says. “BTS is a boy band, a K-pop boy band, so all the stereotypes of my classical music mind came into play. I said, ‘Well, what does it mean? What does it mean for a boy band to have a philosophy?’
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“And so throughout Covid, I ended up analysing every single one of their pieces like one would a Beethoven symphony, which was kind of fun. And it became a bit of an obsession.”
Starting from their 2013 debut single No More Dream, it quickly hit Cheng that BTS were doing something totally different than the stereotypes he held.
“I came in as a complete sceptic but I said, ‘Well, if I’m going to learn about BTS, I should start from the very first song.’ No More Dream was quite fascinating because, and maybe the English translation was missing some nuances, but if I remember correctly, it was saying, ‘Well, you don’t need to have a dream.’
“And that’s very strange to me. Because, of course, my generation is like, ‘No, you have to have a dream, and our job is to go and fight for that dream.’ But then the lyrics are that you don’t need to have a dream to be happy. And I thought that was really quite like there’s a release or relief of pressure. And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really beautiful.’”

As he continued to analyse BTS’s work, it became more apparent how BTS had managed to become one of the most popular groups on the planet.
“Regardless of if you like their music, or whatever bias or preconceptions one may have coming in, they’ve obviously reached a generation.”
Cheng says that while classical music is constantly struggling with its place in the modern era, his analysis of BTS’s work gave him hope. He realised that BTS draw on many classical legacies, whether by incorporating classical music into their songs or drawing on its storytelling and thematic elements, and that their fandom, called Army, reacts positively to it.

“Classical music, where it stands in society, it’s always questioning how it will survive. Beethoven [wrote] letters about it,” he says. “But I noticed so many parallels, thematic, musically. They’re ‘quoting’ Chopin and Debussy.
“[Meanwhile] books of philosophy are selling out [as the group has incorporated ideas and themes from famous philosophers in their music]. It’s not such a bad thing if you empower millions to read [Carl] Jung and [Hermann] Hesse, right?”
Cheng’s website describes Suite for Army as 15 minutes of “interwoven movements [that] chronicle the philosophical and personal developments of BTS & Army”. The piece draws on BTS’s music as well as that of Chopin, Bach, Wagner and more.

Cheng admits that in creating the work, he also hopes to spur BTS fans to think more about classical music.
“From the time of Beethoven, it was like, ‘Oh, culture is degrading all around us. How will classical music survive?’ And here’s BTS propagating the legacy. So the suite was inspired by BTS, but it is for Army, maybe for people to say, ‘Hey, maybe classical music is kind of cool, maybe it’s relevant.’”
Cheng says he has plans for additional BTS-related works that focus solely on Beethoven, with one piece, Beethoven.BTS Opus 1, currently in progress.


BTS songs and classical music merge in Suite for Army, a composer’s ode to the K-pop boy band

BTS perform Butter at the Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, the US, on April 3, 2022. A classical composer has written an ode to the band drawing on their hit songs and classical greats such as Bach and Wagner. Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Composer Henry Cheng (centre) leads a performance of his “Suite to Army”, a 15-minute-long piece drawing on BTS hit songs and classical greats such as Bach and Wagner, at “BTS: The Third Global Interdisciplinary Conference in Seoul” in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Courtesy of Henry Cheng

BTS perform Butter at the Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, the US, on April 3, 2022. Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Cheng admits that in creating the work, he also hopes to spur BTS fans to think more about classical music. Photo: Courtesy of Henry Cheng

Cheng is artistic director of the Klangkraft Orchestra in Duisburg, Germany. Photo: Courtesy of Henry Cheng

BTS perform at the Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, the US, on April 3, 2022. Photo: Reuters

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When Henry Cheng set out to discover why BTS are so popular, he didn’t expect to fall in love with them himself and write a 15-minute piece dedicated to them
‘Suite for Army’ draws on the band’s hit songs and classical greats such as Bach, Chopin and Wagner. A work focusing solely on Beethoven is in progress



After composer Henry Cheng unexpectedly fell in love with BTS, he wrote ‘Suite for Army’, which draws on the K-pop stars’ hit songs and classical greats such as Bach, Chopin and Wagner.
