Since it was featured in the Twilight saga, ‘River Flows in You’ has morphed into the ‘Clair de lune’ of the 21st century. Yiruma, whose real name is Lee Ru-ma, is a South Korean-British composer and pianist. Born in 1978, he started playing piano at the age of five, and moved to London when he was 10 to study at the Purcell School of Music. He later attended King’s College, London where he studied composition and released his first album, Love Scene. His most popular album First Love (there’s a running theme here…), containing the hit ‘River Flows in You’, was released in 2001.
The piece, written in A major, is the South Korean-British composer’s best-selling song to-date. Structured more like a pop song than a classical piano composition, ‘River Flows in You’ is hugely popular among both pop and classical listeners. It is inspired by the French composer Samuel Vallée’s 1999 composition ‘Une rivière coule en toi’, which literally translates in English as ‘River Flows in You’. Consisting of recurring patterns and repetition, it is generally classed as ‘new-age’ or ‘contemporary classical’ music and has been compared to modern film and TV music.
The phrase ‘River Flows in You’ is quite enigmatic in English. So, whether it’s about finding your inner music, falling in love (or the feeling of desperately needing to find a bathroom), the meaning behind the piece is all in the ears of the listener. ‘River Flows in You’ is frequently mistaken for ‘Bella’s Lullaby’, another simple piano piece on the Twilight soundtrack written by Carter Burwell. However, it does also feature later on the soundtrack.
Then, “River Flows In You” received another bump in fame when piano players (re)discovered the instrument during the Covid-19 lockdowns, using their time inside to learn this beautiful yet accessible piece. Finally, “River Flows In You” is a popular song to play on public street pianos. What makes Yiruma’s hit so magical is that it’s simple enough for late-beginner piano players to learn, yet beautiful and impressive at the same time. It doesn’t sound like a beginner piece. Yiruma found the perfect mix between complexity and simplicity to turn a four-chord song into a masterpiece.
