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Korean Composers in Profile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

David Babcock
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Extract

Ancient, ornately carved palaces in the midst of a megalopolis, the spirituality of delicate green Koryo celadon, an archaic traditional music as pungent (and delicious) as kimchi – once experienced, never forgotten. Add to these the city of Kyongju, called the ‘museum without walls’, the many reminders of a long history of suffering under Japanese oppression and the uninterrupted excellence of its poetry and visual arts, and one begins to feel Korea's special quality. The country is prosperous; education in all fields, including the arts, is given high priority. Contemporary life is vibrant and intense; the people possess a seemingly boundless capacity for hard work as well as for celebration, festivity, ceremony and mourning – and for music-making. Hardly surprising, then, that the compositional scene in the Republic of South Korea is booming, to say the least.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 192 , April 1995 , pp. 15 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

* ‘Contemporary Music Skyrocketing’ in Koreana, Vol. 6 No. 1, 1992 Google Scholar, published by the Korea Foundation, 526, Namdae-munno 5-ga, Chung-gu, Seoul, Korea. The author wishes to thank the Korea Foundation for the generous support which made this study possible.

* Sôn is a Korean form of Buddhist mental and spiritual training, not unlike the Japanese Zen, but with its own distinct and individual tradition.

* Ibid., page 12.