Ch'angjak kugak: Making Korean music Korean.

Abstract

The impact of Western music on the music of non-Western cultures has been an important topic in ethnomusicology. The influence of Western culture on the development of new traditional music in South Korea, however, has received little attention. Until very recently, discussions of Korean music have generally fallen into one of two categories: (1) Western studies which depicted Korean music as an exotic, static phenomenon of a larger East Asian culture or (2) historical studies of old literature and scores conducted for the most part by native researchers. The purpose of this study is to provide insights into the musical changes which have occurred in South Korea since the 1960s. Following the rapid social and political changes of the last thirty years, a growing sense of national pride and solidarity has emerged and resulted in a call for Korean music which could express the distinctiveness and superiority of the Korean heritage. Ch'angjak kugak (newly-composed traditional music) has surfaced as an answer to the nation's long-standing desire to have a new representative musical tradition which embodies Korean musical ideals. Studies of musical change in non-Western countries have frequently centered on the issue of Westernization versus modernization. I argue that this dichotomy may be misleading if applied to Korean music; the new compositions of ch'angjak kugak are not simply the result of a desire to advance in the sense of Westernization or modernization, but rather the outcome of a fervent search for an ideal Korean music. I first describe musical and social changes in Korea from the late nineteenth century to the present, with special emphasis on the rift between the Western and old Korean cultures. I then discuss how composers of new Korean traditional music have synthesized a new musical culture from diverse sources beyond the limits of either the Western or Korean traditions. In particular, I analyze the traditional orchestral works of Yi Song-ch'on, the leading figure in the development of ch'angjak kugak in South Korea.