The Development of Contemporary Korean Music with Emphasis on Works of Isang Yun

Home , Aak, Ajaeng, Bara (drum), Buk (drum), Ernest Bour, Heterophony

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONTEMPORARY KOREAN MUSIC WITH EMPHASIS ON WORKS OF ISANG YUN

D.M.A. DOCUMENT

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

Joo Won Kim, B.A., M.M.

Graduate Program in Music

The Ohio State University

2011

D.M.A. Document Committee:

Dr. Thomas Wells, Advisor

Dr. Jan Radzynski

Dr. Caroline Hong

Joo Won Kim

2011

ABSTRACT

Although Korean contemporary concert music today occupies an important place in the international music scene, its development is largely a twentieth-century phenomenon, played out against a backdrop of turbulent political unrest: from the

Japanese occupation (1910-1945) through the Korean War (1950-1953), and unsettled relations with North Korea.

The major developments in internationally-recognized Korean composer Isang

Yun‘s (1917 – 1995) career closely mirror those in Korean contemporary composition, and Yun is today venerated as the father of Korean contemporary concert music—making a discussion of Yun‘s music inescapable for the subject of this document.

Although he was well versed in European avant-garde techniques through his studies there in the 1950‘s and early 60‘s, Yun worked, however, to blend these Western methodologies with those of Korean traditional music to achieve a unique expressive personal style. This amalgam of Eastern- and Western expression is exemplified in two of his works, Loyang, and Reak, which are discussed as representatives of this hybrid style.

The document concludes with observations on the state of Korean composition after Yun, and some thoughts on the future influence of East-Asian music.

It is hoped that this document will give the reader a background in and appreciation for the aesthetic goals and achievements of Korean contemporary music-- namely, how Korean composers have utilized Western music materials and combined them with Korean sensibilities, and what they hope to accomplish culturally and artistically.

iii

Dedicated to my family

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am heartily thankful to my advisor, Dr. Thomas Wells, who gave me encouragement, guidance and advice from beginning to end. Completing a DMA is a long journey, and I would not have been able to complete this without his steadfast support and enthusiasm. I also would like to express my gratitude towards to Dr. Caroline

Hong for her efforts and outstanding teaching. Many thanks go in particular to Dr. Jan

Radzynski for his time and encouragement. I want to thank my parents, my wife Ki

Young Lee, and my daughter Sarang Kim for their support and patience. Most of all I wish to give thanks to God for the musical gifts, blessings, and everything has done for me.

VITA

August 18, 1971 ...... Born Kyungsan, South Korea

1997...... B.A. Music Composition,

Kyungpuk National University, South Korea

2001...... M.M. Music Composition,

Western Michigan University

2003 – 2008 ...... Director of Music, Grace Korean United

Methodist Church, Columbus, OH

2008 – 2010 ...... Director of Music, The Church Next Door,

Columbus, OH

2010 – Present ...... Director of Music, Havens Corners Church,

Blacklick, OH

Fields of Study

Major Field: Music

Studies in Music Composition Dr. Thomas Wells

Studies in Piano Performance Dr. Caroline Hong

Studies in Choral Conducting Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii

Dedication…………………………………………………………………………...……iii

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….iv

Vita…..…………………………………………………….………………………………v

List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………...viii

Chapters

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………...…………1

2. Contemporary Korean Music…………………………………………...……………..2

2.1 Origin and History………………………...……………………………..……….2

2.2 Composers……………………………………………………………….……….5

2.2.1 First generation…………………………………………………...….…....5

2.2.2 Second generation……………………………………………...... …….7

2.2.3 Third and current generation....………………………………………...…7

2.3 A Brief History of Korean traditional music…………………………..………...10

2.4 Characteristics of Korean traditional music….…………………………..………13

2.5 The influences of Korean traditional music………….………...…………..….…15

2.6 Combination among Eastern Asia countries…….……………………………….17

3. Isang Yun……………………………………………………………………...…..…19 vii

3.1 Life and musical background……….……………………………………..….….20

3.2 Stylistic Characteristics...……………...…………………………………....……27

3.3 Loyang………………...………………………………….……………....…..…..34

3.4 Reak……………………………………………………………………....…..…..43

4. Conclusion and looking forward………………..…………………………..….….…59

Bibliography……..………………..……………………………………………………..61

Appendix A: List of Isang Yun‘s Composition………………………………………….63

Appendix B: Conversation of Isang Yun and Bruce Duffie…………………….……….74

Appendix C: Consent Letter from Boosey & Hawkes, Inc……………………………...87

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 First section of Sangyeongsan of Yeonsanhoesang ...... 32

Figure 3.2 Voices in Sangyeo-sori of Kochang ...... 34

Figure 3.3 Instrumentation of Loyang ...... 36

Figure 3.4 Musical form scheme of Loyang ...... 37

Figure 3.5 Loyang m.1 – 7 ...... 38

Figure 3.6 12 tones in Loyang m.1 – 5 ...... 38

Figure 3.7 (0,1,3) Pitch-Class-Set Formations in Loyang ...... 39

Figure 3.8 Loyang m. 8 – 14 ...... 40

Figure 3.9 Loyang m. 32 – 37 ...... 41

Figure 3.10 Loyang m. 15 – 25 ...... 42

Figure 3.11 Instrumentation of Reak ...... 45

Figure 3.12 Musical Form Scheme of Reak...... 46

Figure 3.13 Reak m.1 – 5 ...... 48

Figure 3.14 Reak m.11 – 16 ...... 50

Figure 3.15 Reak m. 43 – 49 ...... 52

Figure 3.16 Reak m. 64 – 68 ...... 54

Figure 3.17 Reak m. 88 – 91 ...... 55

Figure 3.18 Reak m. 166 – 168 ...... 57

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The advent of contemporary Korean music coincides with the introduction of

Western music into the country‘s musical life, and the historical development of contemporary Korean music continues to be the subject of intense musicological investigation.

After a period in which Korean composers imitated western compositional styles from 1900, a blending of the two musics emerged, and that approach has been generally acknowledged as one of the most fruitful and creative paths for Korean art music. It is that philosophy that was espoused by Isang Yun (1917 – 1995), a focus of this paper, and the greatest and most well known Korean composer in Europe and the West. This document will describe the history of this hybrid style that Yun developed, its characteristics, its influence on Korean contemporary-music composers, and its influence in other countries. The paper will also include a discussion of two musical compositions of Isang Yun (1917 – 1995)--Loyang and Reak, works that illustrate how his compositional technique combined Eastern musical elements and Western music.

Although Yun‘s music was more well known in Europe than in Korea, he was a strong influence and great inspiration for young Korean composers.

CHAPTER 2

CONTEMPORARY KOREAN MUSIC

2.1 Origin and History

Western-style music in Korea was actively introduced through Christian Hymnals at the end of nineteenth century through the missionary work of Henry Appenzella (1858

– 1902) and Horace Underwood (1859 – 1916), two American Methodist churchmen.

The Western hymnody, with its tonal harmony and regular rhythm, had a strong influence on the music of early Korean composers. Among the early composers influenced by

Western church music were Sang-Jun Lee (1885 – 1962), In-Sik Kim (1885 – 1962), and

Nan-Pa Hong (1897 – 1941). Although the works of these composers consisted mainly of art songs and children‘s songs written in a simple tonal language, they were a significant contribution to that repertoire. Hong‘s writings about the direction Korean music should take show him to be one of the first to advocate a hybridization of eastern and western styles to create a new Korean music. Hong said that ―A new (Korean) music should be built based on our [Korean] thought and emotion and by taking advantage of both Asian

and European music‖.1 His great achievement in this period was to establish a form for the Korean art song, consisting of lyrical melody and piano accompaniment.

Around 1900, the German composer and conductor, Franz Eckert (1852 – 1916), was hired to establish the Korean royal military band.2 Eckert and the band made quick growth in short time. He contributed to develop military band and musical talents as well as effort of globalization in inheritance and development of Korean traditional music and he handed Korean the ways. Eckert also helped in edition work of Korean hymnals and research of Korean traditional music actively. The military band held public concerts for the citizens and introduced Western music to them seriously.3 Mission schools and churches, as well as military bands have performed an important role to promote the early

Korean composers.

Another important composer and a student of Richard Strauss is Eak-Tai Ahn

(1906 – 1965). Ahn was the first Korean composer to study abroad. He studied cello in the U.S. in the 1920s, studied composition with Dohnanyi and Kodaly at the Royal

Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary in the early 1930‘s, and moved to Germany to become the pupil of Richard Strauss, who had a strong influence on Ahn‘s music in terms

1 Jae-Sung Park, ―Korean contemporary music, a brief history.‖ Sonus Vol.20, Spring 2000, 30. 2 Ibid., 29. 3 Yi, Kang-Suk and Kim, Chun-Mi and Min, Kyong-Chan. Uri yangak 100-yŏn. Sŏul-si: Hyŏnamsa, 2001, 49.

of harmonic idiom and orchestration.4 One of Ahn‘s most important and influential works is his Korean Fantasy, from which the Korean national anthem was taken. This work was premiered by the Ireland National Orchestra in 1938 under the direction of the composer, and served to raise the world‘s awareness of Korean concert music. The work continues to be in the repertoire of many orchestras in Korea and abroad.

Soon-Nam Kim (1917 – 1995) was also one of the first Korean composers who mixed Korean color and contemporary musical language, such as atonal systems and expressionism.

The history of Korean contemporary music in the twentieth century can be divided into three generations of composers. The first generation composers are those in the period under the Japanese reign, 1910 – 1945, and military administration, 1945 –

1948. The second covers the period of 1950 – 1970 and the third after 1980. Composers of the first generation wrote songs mostly using European musical materials with simple tertian tonal systems, while those of the second and third generations developed a more advanced harmonic style and ventured into larger-form chamber-music and orchestral works.5

4 Andrew P Killick, Musical Composition in Twentieth-Century Korea , Korean Studies, 16(1992) 43. 5 Jae-Sung Park, ―Korean contemporary music, a brief history.‖ Sonus Vol.20, Spring 2000, 31. 4

2.2 Composers

2.2.1 First Generation

In 1946 the establishment of The Composition Department at Kyungsung College of Music, the forerunner of today‘s College of Music at Seoul National University, was a momentous event. This school provided a place for students to study music composition and soon became a crucible of creative talent that set the stage for professional work in music composition.6 Many of the first generation of contemporary composers such as

Un-Young La (1922 – 93), Dal-Sung Kim (1921 – ), Hoe-Gab Chong (1923 – ), Sung-Jae

Lee (1924 – ) graduated from this school. The major developments in internationally- recognized Korean composer Isang Yun‘s (1917 – 1995) career closely mirror his philosophy and unique musical characteristics in Korean contemporary composition, and

Yun is today venerated as the father of Korean contemporary concert music and examined more detail in next chapters. Also among this first generation was the noted avant-garde composer and video artist Nam-June Paik (1932 – 2006), whose music and

6 Jae-Sung Park, ―Korean contemporary music, a brief history.‖ Sonus Vol.20, Spring 2000, 32.

art brought a great deal of exposure and notoriety in its unorthodox and controversial expression.

Since the Korean War (1950 – 1953), composers‘ interests in contemporary music were growing but, however, largely in the absence of exposure to then-contemporary western compositional techniques such as total serialism, musique concrete, and electronic music. Nevertheless there was considerable interest in twelve-tone and atonal music, largely due to the availability of books by authors such as Josef Rufer and

Rudolph Reti. – Rufer, Josef. 1954. Composition with Twelve Notes Related Only to One

Another. Trans. Humphrey Searle. New York, The Macmillan Company. (Original

German ed., 1952)

Beginning around 1950 several organizations were formed to promote the performance and composition of new Korean music through concert series and annual competitions. In 1952, Un-Young La (1922 – 1993) founded the ―Korean Contemporary

Music Society‖ and the term; ―contemporary‖ was used for the first time in Korea.

―Korean Composers Club‖ in 1955 and ―Korean Music Association‖ in 1957 were also created and established performance and composition competition for contemporary music. These groups have proven to be an important forum for composers to introduce and present their music, and successes in these venues have been opened careers for many composers and performers. In 1957 Korea became a member of the International

Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), which served to promote and disseminate

Korean music on an international level.

2.2.2 Second Generation

Prominent in the second generation of contemporary Korean music are three leading composers, Sukhi Kang (1934-), Byung-Dong Paik (1936-), and Jung-Gil Kim

(1934-), who studied under Isang Yun at Hanover State College of Music in Germany and had rising musical careers after returning to their home country. They have presented music in different musical forms for vocal, chamber, and orchestra with interests in avant-garde, electronic, and atonal music. Kang‘s two chief concerns from the very outset were: 1) how to write a contemporary Korean music, and 2) experimentation. His pioneering Feast of Id (1966) was the first Korean electronic music. Jung-Gil Kim also was interested in music for practical purposes like film or ballet music. By the 1970‘s Korean contemporary music developed rapidly and Korean composers were selected for performance at the ISCM Festivals almost every year.

2.2.3 Third and current Generation

The third generation has held composer‘s seminars criticizing and examining the previous generations that pursued western music but failed to develop their own musical cultures. Based on this conviction, they began a renewed interest in traditional music,

and use of simpler musical material that expresses the Korean national and cultural identity. Prominent composers of this generation include Jun-Il Kang

(1945-), Geon-Yong Lee (1947-), Man-Bang Lee (1945-), all of whom share a philosophy that emphasizes realistic description of social concerns in their works.

Tai-Bong Chung (b.1952) and Unsuk Chin (b.1961) who are in active composers these days in Korea and Europe are the best-known representatives of this generation, born after 1950. A professor of Seoul National University, Tai-Bong Chung believes that the creative artist of today is a prophet, and bears the social responsibility for writing enlightening works. Chung values works which expose today‘s problems and show the way towards a better future. Music that evades the realities of present day is for him a flight from the artist‘s obligation, and today artists should take pains to follow this path.7

Among many younger Korean composers, the music of Chin Unsuk reveals a remarkable command of individual sonorities and a fantastic imagination. Chin doesn't regard her music as belonging to any specific culture—rather, she describes her music as follows: ―My music is a reflection of my dreams. I try to render into music visions of immense light and of an incredible magnificence of colors that I see in all my dreams, a play of light and colors floating through the room and at the same time forming a fluid sound sculpture. Its beauty is very abstract and remote, but it is for these very qualities

7 David Babcock, ―Korean Composers in Profile.‖ Tempo New Series No. 192, Apr. 1995, 20. 8

that it addresses the emotions and can communicate joy and warmth.‖8 She studied with

Sukhi Kang (1934-) in Seoul Korea, and won several prestigious awards including the

Gaudeamus Composition Prize, before moving to Hamburg in 1985.9 After that Chin studied with György Ligeti in Hamburg from 1985 to 1988, and was awarded the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for violin concerto in 2004 and the Arnold Schoenberg

Prize in 2005.

In 2001 and 2002 Unsuk Chin was appointed composer-in-residence at the

Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and since 2006 she holds the position of the

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra‘s composer-in-residence and Artistic Director of its

Contemporary Music Series. Unsuk Chin was a featured composer in the 2009 Suntory

Summer Festival in Toyo which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Suntory Music

Foundation.

Among current composers, three overarching musical tendencies have formed as follows: 1) finding musical identity in Western contemporary musical language, following the example of the contemporary composers after 1950; 2) attempting to progress beyond the work of third- generation composers, working to what they consider an even fuller expression of the Korean national musical culture, 3) embracing popular forms, and producing music for popular media (e.g. film and theatrical soundtracks).

8 Wikepedia. ―Unsuk Chin.‖ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsuk 9 David Babcock, ―Korean Composers in Profile.‖ Tempo New Series No. 192, Apr. 1995, 19. 9

In an effort to obtain current information on the state of composition in Korea, the author interviewed Dr. Bong-Ho Kim, a professor of composition at Ulsan University in Korea, and a former student of Dr. Thomas Wells in music composition from Ohio

State University. In Dr. Kim‘s opinion, many Korean composers nowadays are interested in individualism, and in reflect their own unique colors their works. Kim says that it is difficult to say where the mainstream of Korean compositional style is. Dr. Kim, personally is making an effort to close up the distance between the audience and contemporary music, and wants write music that engages and challenges audiences, yet a music that is understandable and enjoyable. His favorite styles include the music of

Stravinsky and George Crumb and he is also interested in the combination of contemporary techniques with pentatonic scales, traditional elements or Korean art songs in various Eastern/Western instrumental. Kim states that the audience for contemporary music in Korea has increased rapidly over the past twenty or thirty years.

2.3 A Brief History of Korean Traditional Music

a. Antiquity (before 57 BC)

It is not known exactly when Korean music was started exactly, but it appears in

historical records that ritual music existed from the Samhan Period during which

populations congregated for agricultural work. Music played on drums and other

percussion instruments had a role in this society to accompany dancing and for

sacrificial or memorial services, as well as for or thanksgiving celebrations after

the harvest.

b. The Period of the Three Kingdoms( 57 BC – AD 668)

The Three Kingdoms refer to the regions of Koguryo, Paekje, and Silla, each of

which began to develop their own musical cultures. The musics of the Koguryo

and Paekje regions had strong martial characteristics which matched their national

aggressive and progressive characteristics. The Silla region was renowned for its

cultural achievements, and music from the Silla region employed a wide range of

mainly-Chinese instruments and was influential in the development of Japanese

music, having been imported into Japan around 550 AD. An important

development in Korean music was the invention of the Komungo, a plucked string

instrument invented by Wang Sanak from Koguryo that history records as the first

indigenous Korean musical instrument.

c. Medieval period (AD 668 – AD 1392)

This period is marked by the unification of the Silla and Koryo dynasties, and

among the most important musical developments during this time was the

development of three string instruments–he Kayageum, the Komungo, and the

Hyangbipa, along with three woodwinds–the Daegeum, the Chunggeum, and the

Sogeum. Court music is divided into three types: Aak, which translates as ―elegant

music‖ and is a name given to Chinese ritual music that was imported to Korea

around 1116; Hyang-ak, a traditional form Korean music that has its origins in the

Three Kingdoms Period, and is often presented accompanied by folk dances; and

Dang-ak (literally, ―Tang music‖), a combination of Korean music with Chinese

influences from the Tang dynasty. Dangak and Hyangak were primarily used for

entertaining the royal court music and Aak was used in the ritual music. All of

these musical styles were strongly influenced in their aesthetics by Buddhism and

Confucianism.

d. Chosun Dynasty (AD 1392 – AD 1910)

In the early Chosun dynastic period between 1392 and 1593, the rulers

commissioned music and ordered the compilation and publication of musical

scores and treatises on music theory. In late Chosun dynasty period (1594 --

1910), folk music and various musical forms were prevalent, among them

Pansori, lengthy vocal and percussive works played by one singer and one

drummer; Nongak, outdoor ensemble music performed by farmers and peasants, a

genre that flourished between 1910 and 1945; and Sanjo, solo instrumental music

accompanied by the changgu, a two-headed drum that is a fundamental

instrument in Korean traditional music. e. Modern times (after 1910)

Even before the Japanese occupation, as has been pointed out, Western style

music had been introduced through missionaries to Korea at the end of nineteenth

century, and in 1907 the Korean government began to make official distinctions

between the two: using the term Gugak for traditional music and Yangak for the

Western music or new music in Western style in 1907.

The Japanese colonial period (1910 - 1945) was characterized by severe

repression of Korean culture, even to the attempt to force the use of the Japanese

language on the populace. There was, however, a consistent effort by Koreans to

preserve the heritage of their traditional music, especially the chang-geuk

theatrical form of Pansori.

After the liberation of Korea in 1945, traditional music was revived and a

program of preservation set up by the newly established National Center for

Korean Traditional Performing Arts. Nowadays, many Korean music composers

and musicologists, realizing the importance of Korean traditional music to the

cultural identity of the country, are working both on the preservation of this

cultural artifact, but are creating new Korean music with its roots in tradition.

2.4 Characteristics in Korean traditional music

The most important feature of Korean traditional music is its flexibility of articulation, which permits deviation, variation, and improvisation in individual

performances. The extent to which musical variables are employed depends upon the performer‘s artistic idiosyncrasies and aesthetic preferences.10

Considerations of melody, rhythm, and timbre are secondary in Korean music in comparison compared to its Western counterpart, and there is an emphasis on the unique concept of the individual note in melody. Isang Yun (1917 – 1995) states the concept of this individual note in his article.

Whereas in Western music only a complete group of notes arranged either melodically or harmonically has any importance, it is the individual note, the nucleus, which is the focus of attention in the music of Eastern Asia. European music lives from the combination of notes; the individual note is relatively abstract. For us in the East, the tone already lives in itself. Each tone is subjected to alteration from [the] moment it sounds until it dies away. It is endowed with ornaments, grace notes, vibrato, glissandi and changes in dynamic; above all conscious use is made of the natural vibrations of every tone as a means of construction.11

Rhythm in Korean music, known as jangdan, is very important and is determined by meter, accent, tempo, and phrase. In general, triple meter predominates, each beat tending to be comprised of three smaller units, a characteristic of Korea music that distinguishes it from the neighboring cultures of China and Japan. Timbre of Korean instruments and vocal music is also very distinctive. Most instruments are made of natural materials such as wood, bamboo, silk thread for strings, or brass. The natural

10 Byongwon Lee, ―Contemporary Korean Musical Cultures‖ Korea Briefing, Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1993, 127. 11 Isang Yun, ―The contemporary composer and traditional music.‖ The World of Music Vol.20, n2 1978, 57.

timbres of instruments are said to express the unifying of the human being and nature as one body. In vocal music, singing techniques have different qualities like producing sound from the back of the throat to a produce a clear, warm, natural sound for folk songs, usually sung in the dialect of the region.

2.5 The influences of Korean traditional music

Since Western-style music was introduced in Korea, two words have been coined to describe the resultant forms: gugak and yangak. Gugak means traditional Korean music or new music in traditional style, and yangak means Western music or new music in Western style. The introduction of Western culture brought a profound shock due to its unfamiliar and heterogeneous characteristics and its, to Korean ears, violently fast progression. This initial shock, however, gave way to a symbiosis of two musical cultures that have coexisted and developed together. Through these developments, a focus on cultural tradition and national identity remains of great importance to most

Korean composers. A growing economic prosperity in the 1980‘s as well as a newly acquired status as one of the world's leading industrialized nations, coupled with national pride after successfully hosting the 1988 Summer Olympics, produced a growing Korean interest in discovering the roots of and furthering their unique cultural heritage using new forms of expression.

Let us examine, then, in more detail how new styles in traditional Korean music developed. Interest in new compositions for traditional instruments began in the early

1960s.

First, composers arranged folk music in Western-style musical idioms. Chamber and orchestra works in larger might employ traditional melodies embedded in the musical fabric. The 1980s was a time of animated discussion of the characteristics of ethnic and popular music, with the goal to break down the barriers between Western and traditional

Korean music, and between pure and popular music. Since that time, Korean music can be said to espouse four compositional tendencies: first, compositions that are made with traditional Korean instruments, emphasizing ―Korean‖ more than the ―experimental‖ characteristics; second, traditional music reconstructed using modern elements of style and orchestration, to which category ―Yongsang‖, sanjo for orchestra by Dae-Woong

Paik (1943-) belongs, and differs from the traditional Korean form similarly to the way the Baroque sonata differs from its Classical counterpart; third, a simplified, westernized stylization of traditional melodies incorporated into ―catchy‖ popular music and music for television, film and the theater; and fourth, an attempt to adapt Western instrumental works to Korean instruments.

An example of this fourth category is Song-Chon Yi‘s (1936-) arrangement of

Beethoven‘s Moonlight Sonata for the 21-string Kayagum, as well as Byung-Gi Hwang‘s

(1936-) hymn arrangements for this instrument. Byung-Dong Paik‘s Banhyang (Contra) for marimba solo and two percussion groups (1988) is a dialogue between the musics of

the East and West. In this work, two instrumental groups, one consisting of Western percussion instruments, with the vibraphone as leader; the other made up of Korean instruments, led by chimes, engage in a dialog, first asserting their own identity and then eventually harmonizing with the other.

The Korean traditional orchestra is flourishing today. The Korean Traditional

Performing Arts Center presents regular concerts of traditional music and dance. Many composers have written works for the ensemble, which consists of woodwind instruments

(piri, taegum), plucked and bowed strings (haegum, kayagum, komungo and ajaeng), drums (changgu, or buk), and gongs (ching and kkwenggwari) and other percussion instruments. This colorful, passionate and liberating music is in fact very close to contemporary music in its concern for elaborate textures, heterophony, complex rhythms, absence of regular pulse, and free, non-functional tonality.12

2.6 Combination among Eastern Asian Countries

This paper has focused on the combined influences of Western and Korean musical culture. It is necessary however, to include the importance of Korean music‘s place in the greater East Asian culture. Futurologists regard the Twenty First Century as a pacific and a unified period for Korea. The worldwide position of Eastern Asia and the geopolitical position of the Korean peninsula within this scheme hold great significance.

12 David Babcock, ―Korean Composers in Profile.‖ Tempo New Series No. 192, Apr. 1995. 18. 17

In 1993, many musicians interested in traditional music from Korea, China, and Japan gathered in Seoul to found the Orchestra Asia consisting of traditional instruments from each country. This was the first orchestra in history made up of non-western musical instruments and was a showcase of a unified East-Asian music and culture. With this basis of repertoires of individual folk music, it is anticipated that this group will produce a new and unique hybrid twenty-first-century music. With Eastern influence currently on the rise in worldwide culture, it is likely that Asian music will help form and enlarge new musical cultures throughout the world.

CHAPTER 3

ISANG YUN

Isang Yun (1917 – 1995) is one of the most respected and revered figures, a frontier attempted combination of Western and Korean musical elements to the world and belonging to first generation composers in Korean music history. His early works were based on tonality, but since moving to Germany in 1956, his music developed a unique sound, informed by contemporary Western techniques, and also employing a number of techniques associated with traditional Korean music such as vibrato, glissando, pizzicato, grace notes, and heterophony. In 1959 he attended the International Summer Courses of

Contemporary Music in Darmstadt and Gaudeamus, where his pieces Five Pieces for

Piano (1958) and Music for Seven Instruments (1959) were chosen to be performed, and this exposure marked the start of his career in Europe. Yun was known for the expression of East Asian images through Western musical language and was successful, as well, in translating performing techniques of Korean traditional instruments to Western ones. After his exposure to contemporary-Western-music during his studies at Darmstadt and numerous works using this contemporary language, Yun‘s mature works stem from the early 1960‘s, and his developed own musical personality began to emerge in his

works of the early 1960s. Yun‘s successes in Europe inspired many young Korean composers such as Nam June Paik and others to study in Europe.

3.1 Life and musical background

The life and musical period of Isang Yun can be divided into two periods. During the first part of his life, he resided mostly in Korea from 1917 to 1956. After that period,

Yun moved in Europe, where he lived until his death in Germany in 1995. Although he despite his travels and involvement with Western culture, Yun‘s music is strongly tied to the Eastern philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism, both of which fundamentally influenced his music.

Yun was born on September 17, 1917 in Sancheong County, South Kyeongsang

Province in South Korea. His family moved to Tongyoung when he was three. At the age of eight he began to play hymns on the organ in missionaries, and also learned to play the violin and guitar.

In 1933 after he completed Chinese elementary and literary schools in Tongyoung, he moved to Seoul and entered a private music school in Seoul for two years where he learned harmony and theory from Ho Young Choi (1901 - ?), a violinist and composer and a student of Franz Eckert (1852 – 1916), a German musician who was active in Japan

and Korea, and who founded a Western-style military band in Seoul.13 On visits to the

National Library, Yun had the opportunity to acquaint himself with Western contemporary classical music of composers such as Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith,

Bela Bartok, and Arnold Schoenberg.

Yun had begun to compose music at the age of 13 and in 1935 he traveled to

Japan to enroll in the Osaka Conservatory to study music composition, theory and cello.

In 1937, Yun issued his first publication: an album of children‘s music. Returning to

Korea in 1938, he obtained a position at the Hwayang Elementary School in Tongyoung where he taught for two years.14 Around that time he learned through a magazine article about a Japanese composer, Tomojiro Ikenouchi (1906 – 1991), who studied in Paris and enjoyed some success in Europe before returning to Japan to teach in Osaka. .15 Yun, then, returned to Osaka to study composition and counterpoint with the Japanese composer for two years, and then came back to Korea just before the advent of World War II.

He was arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese for two months in 1944 for participating in underground resistance activities and for writing Korean songs, the composition and performance of which were forbidden under the occupation from 1910 to 1945. Following the Korean liberation in 1945, Yun became active in the

13 Dongeun Noh, ―한국에서 윤이상의 삶과 예술 (Isang Yun’s life and art in Korea)‖, EumAggwa Minjok, Vol. 17 Seoul: Minjok EumAg Hakhwae, 1999. 15. 14 Ibid. 17. 15 Jiyeon Byeon, ―The Wounded Dragon: An Annotated Translation of Der verwundete Drache, the Biography of Composer Isang Yun, by Luise Rinser and Isang Yun.‖ PhD diss., Kent State University, 2003. 75. 21

establishment of the Tongyoung Cultural Association, a society for the promotion of culture and the arts that exists to this day, and hosts a noted yearly international music festival. To support himself following the war, Yun became a director at an orphanage in

Busan.

From 1948 to 1952, Yun worked as a music teacher at high schools in Tongyoung and Busan, and he began to develop his musical career in earnest during that time.16

Yun‘s compositions during this period consisted mainly of pentatonic songs with simple

Korean-traditional-music ornamentation for use in his music classes. During this period

Yun published an Korean art-song album entitled ―Dalmuri‖, which consisted of five songs – Geune (1947), Pyunji (1941), Nageune (1948), Gopungeuisang (1948), and

Dalmuri (1948). Yun subsequently moved with his wife and family in 1953 to Seoul, where he continued to compose, taught music composition as a lecturer at several universities, performed his chamber works, and gained his first official recognition as a composer with the award of the Seoul City Culture Prize in 1955 for his String Quartet

No.1 and Piano Trio.17 Yun‘s receipt of this award marked the first time the prize had been awarded to a composer, and this recognition opened many doors for his career, including his further studies in Europe.

Yun first traveled to France, where he studied composition in Paris with Tony

16 Sooja Lee, ―내남편 윤이상 (My husband Isang Yun).‖ 2 Vols. Seoul:Changchak kwa Bipyong, 1998. Pt1. 121. 17 Andrew McCredie, ―Isang Yun.‖ In Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcenbook, edited by Larry Sitsky, 586-592. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002. 586. 22

Aubin and music theory from Pierre Revel, a student of Paul Dukas at the Paris

Conservatory in 1956. After one year in Paris, he enrolled at the (West) Berlin

Hochschule für Musik in Germany and studied counterpoint and fugue with Reinhard

Schwarz-Schilling, and composition from Boris Blacher (1903 – 1975). Yun also studied twelve-tone composition with Joseph Rufer (1893 – 1985) whose book Composition with

Twelve Tones was one of the earliest essays on serial composition techniques.18

In 1958 Yun participated in the International Summer Courses for New Music in

Darmstadt, Germany, one of the centers of modern music at that time, and met many important composers there such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, and John Cage.19 The Darmstadt experience was a great opportunity for Yun to experience the then-avant-garde styles, including indeterminacy and electronic music, all of which he saw as possibilities to enhance the expression of his art. During the following year, performances of two works--Musik für Sieben Instrumente at the Darmstadt

Contemporary Music Festival and Fünf Stücke für Klavier at the Gaudeamus Music

Festival in Bilthoven, Netherlands were received with great success. Both works employed twelve tone techniques, and in the second movement of Music für Sieben

Instrumente, Yun explained that he attempted to express the Taoist concepts of yin and yang: yin representing characteristics such as negativity, passivity, weakness, and

18 Jiyeon Byeon, ―The Wounded Dragon: An Annotated Translation of Der verwundete Drache, the Biography of Composer Isang Yun, by Luise Rinser and Isang Yun.‖ PhD diss., Kent State University, 2003.106. 19 Ibid. 108. 23

darkness, and yang representing positive characteristics, activity, strength and brightness.20 The contrast between Yin and Yang was implied by the cello‘s pizzicati and glissandi, and decrescendi and crescendi. This idea was the beginning of a path that lead to the development of many of the Yun‘s later techniques.

Yun spent the years from 1960 to 1963 in Krefeld, Freiburg, and Cologne from

1960 to 1963, and he returned to Berlin in 1964 with the assistance of a Ford Foundation

Scholarship.21 This period was a prolific one that saw the composition of his String

Quartet No.3 (1959), Fluktuation für Orchestra (1960), Loyang für Kammerensemble

(1962), Gasa für Violine und Klavier (1963), and Reak für Großes Orchester (1966). In these pieces gradually formed a personal style in which he sought to to create a music that was neither Korean nor Western, and yet at the same time was both.22

His Buddhist-inspired oratorio Om mani padme hum in 1965, and the orchestra work Reak, premiered by South German Radio Symphony at the Donaueschingen

Festival in 1966 led to Yun‘s widespread international recognition.23 During this time he participated in summer music festivals supported by the Ford Foundation Scholarship in the United States and Europe, along with lectures and recitals in many US cities

20 Laura Hauser,―A Performer‘s Analysis of Isang Yun‘s Monolog For Basson with ans emphasis on the role of the traditional Korean influences.‖ DMA diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2009. 20–21. 21 Herold Kunz, ―Yun, Isang.‖ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Ed. by Stanley Sadie, Vol. 27. (London:Macmillan, 2001), 696. 22 Keith Howard, ―Creating Korean Music:Tradition, Innovation and the Discourse of Identity‖ Perspectives on Korean Music Vol.2 Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006, 130. 23 International Isang Yun society. http://www.yun-gesellschaft.de/e/bio.htm 24

including Aspen, San Francisco, Detroit, New York, and Washington.

In 1967, Yun was kidnapped from Germany to Seoul by agents of the Korean secret service under Chung Hee Park‘s government. In 1963 Yun and his wife had visited one of his old friends, Sanghan Choi, in Pyongyang, North Korea to observe the frescoes in an ancient king‘s tomb known as Sasindo (Picture of four Gods). Yun was charged as a communist conspirator and spy, subjected to a show trial, tortured, and imprisoned under a life sentence. While he was in prison he was permitted to compose, and there he translated his impressions of the Sasindo into the work Image for flute, oboe, violin, and cello in 1968. He also completed an opera, Die Witwe des Schmetterlings, as well as Riul for Clarinet and Piano during his confinement. In October 1967, Wilhelm

Maler, the President of the Hamburger Akademie der Künste sent an appeal letter signed by 161 internationally known figures, including Igor Stravinsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen,

György Ligety, Herbert von Karajan, demanding Yun‘s release.24 As a result of the international protest and pressure, the South Korean government released him in 1969 with the understanding that he would never return to his native country. Since that time, he would never again visit South Korea, being barred from reentry. His widow, Sooja

Lee who was also banned, would not return to South Korea until 2007 where she was able to visit her late husband‘s home village and participate in a festival in Seoul in

24 Jiyeon Byeon, ―The Wounded Dragon: An Annotated Translation of Der verwundete Drache, the Biography of Composer Isang Yun, by Luise Rinser and Isang Yun.‖ PhD diss., Kent State University, 2003. 208. 25

honour of his 90th birthday.25

Yun returned to Germany, where he taught composition at the the Hanover

Hochschule für Musik from 1970 to 1971 and the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin from

1970 to 1985 as a German citizen in 1971, and a full professor in 1974. His opera Sim

Tjong (1972) was commissioned by the 1972 Munich Olympic Committee for the opening ceremony programs, which further contributed to his international reputation.

Yun‘s catalog includes more than one hundred works, including four operas and a number of instrumental concerti. His operas written in eight years from 1965 to 1973 –

Der Traum des Liu-Tang (1965), Die Witwe des Schmetterlings (1967 – 1968),

Geistrliebe (1969 – 1970), and Sim Tjong (1971 – 1972) are based on original librettos in

German, but are shaped after East Asian materials.26 In the 1980‘s he composed a series of five large, interrelated symphonies, and during that time the tone of his work changed to one of a striving for unity, harmony and peace and the reunification of Korea reflecting his political belief and desires. These works include Exemplum in memoriam kwangju

(1981), the second movement of the Violin Concerto no.2 ‗Dialog Schmetterling und

Atombombe‘ (1983–6), Engel in Flammen (1994) and the five symphonies (1983–7). The government of South Korea eventually officially withdrew the charges against him and

25 The News From Wabu-eup. http://rbbadger.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/yun-isang- tapis-pour-cordes 26 Andrew McCredie, ―Isang Yun.‖ In Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcenbook, edited by Larry Sitsky, 586-592. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002. 590.

officially restored his honor. As a result, his music was performed for the first time at

Seventh Korean music festival 1982 in South Korea since East Berlin spy incident.

However, unfortunately the successful concert was held without the main composer.

Yun‘s many honors and awards include an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen (1985), Bundesverdienstkreuz (Bonn 1988), an honorary membership in the

International Society for Contemporary Music (1991), the Thomas Mann Plakate and

Membership Freie Akademie der Künste (Hamburg 1993), the European Academy of

Arts and Sciences (Salzburg 1994), and the Goethe Medal of Goethe Institute (1995).27

The International Isang Yun Society was founded in Berlin in 1996. The Isang

Yun International Music Festival (Tongyeong International Music Festival) stands as one of the leading festivals in South Korea. He died of pneumonia in Berlin in 1995.28

3.2 Stylistic Characteristics

Yun's essential goal as a composer was to develop Korean music through Western means, combining East Asian performing practice with European instruments, and expressing an Asian imagination and sensibility in contemporary Western musical terms.

His compositions from 1959 and 1960 employed the twelve-tone technique, but after

1961, however, he developed a more individual style in compositions such as Loyang

27 Ibid. 587. 28 Naxos. ―Isang Yun Biography.‖ http://www.naxos.com/person/Isang_Yun/21621.htm

(1962), Gasa (1963), Garak (1963), Om mani padme hum (1964) and Réak (1966). In these works, glissandos, pizzicatos and vibratos provide a certain exoticism, while traditional Chinese court music ornamentation is used in a heterophony of multiple melodic lines. In works written after 1964, Yun employed numerous melodic strands; these ‗Haupttöne‘, as he called them, constitute centers of gravity through which the musical form is generated. Contrasting elements, derived from the Taoist concept of unity as the balance of Yin and Yang, influence instrumentation, dynamics, harmony, intensity and other musical parameters, finally uniting in a single sound stream, as suggested by

Taoist philosophy.29

Haupttöne

One of the unique characteristics of Yun's music is what he termed Hauptton technique, in which one member of a succession of notes is considered central and is ornamented by grace-note figures, appoggiature, trills and different types of vibrato. To

Yun, the individual note was more important than the motive or phrase. Of course a single note by itself can‘t form the basis of a musical structure (except, perhaps in the works of LaMonte Young or other minimalist composers) and in Yun‘s music musical interest is achieved and sustained through the use of ornamental figurations and rhythmic articulations of the single note.

29 Oxford music online. ―Yun, Isang.‖http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.ohio- state.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/30747

These Haupttoene, with their long sustained notes or repetitions of the same note, often appear in layers to build complex textures or clusters. Another important feature of

Yun's music is the subtle emerging and disappearing of material through careful dynamic calculation, a process that mirrors the Yin-Yang concept in Taoist thought.

In European music, the individual note is rather an abstraction, and gains meaning in association with other notes through horizontal melodic structures and vertical harmonic textures. East Asian music, on the other hand, is influenced by the philosophy and aesthetics associated with Taoism, and in Korean music the note itself has a unique meaning and value, as it is articulated by rhythmic changes and ornaments. Yun himself said ―The basis of my composition is the ―Einzelton‖ (single tone). Each tone, involving the power of chameleon, becomes a foundation along with ornamentations, vibratos, accents, glissandos which envelop the sound unit of a single note. I called this

‗Hauptton‘.‖30

Hauptklang

Hauptklang is Yun's term for the expended conception of the Hauptton technique as employed in large ensemble or orchestra works, and consists of several Haupttöne sounding simultaneously to form structural sonorities. These musical textures take the

30 Jeongmee Kim,―Musical Syncretism in Isang Yun‘s Gasa,‖ in Locating East Asia in Western Art Music. Ed. Yayoi Uno Everett and Frederick Lau (Wesleyan University Press, 2004), 184.

form of sustained sound masses distributed among different parts of the orchestra.31

Yun's use of the Hauptklang technique was certainly influenced by the orchestral textures in the music of Ligeti and Penderecki. Yun explained that the piece conveys nothing new, but development that is to the Hauptklang technique. From each Hauptklang a new one will be born and everything sound figure contains all the elements of the whole, all colors, all moments of the imaginative world from the Dämonische32 to the high heavens.33

Use of Tone Clusters in Homophonic Textures

In some cases Yun also embedded Haupttöne within dissonant tone clusters in homophonic textures producing the effect of simultaneous ornamentation on multiple instruments in traditional Korean court and aristocratic music.

Heterophony

Much of Yun‘s music from his mature period is characterized by heterophonic textures. The idea of a main melody played simultaneously by a number of instruments, each simultaneously employing their own variation and ornamentation, is a characteristic

31 Youngchae Kim, ―Cultural Synthesis in Korean Musical Composition in the late twentieth century: An anaylysis of Isang Yun‘s Reak for orchestra‖ Ph.D. diss., Kent State University, 2006, 55 32 Dämonische is a German word meaning ―a universal spiritual force or energy, or the ultimate source of all life.‖

33 Youngchae Kim. 56.

of many ethnic musics, and has entered western contemporary classical music through various folk influences.

Yun developed a system of composition based on oriental heterophony, his work influenced by his political ideas and desire for Korean unification, and by elements of

Korean and Chinese culture and Taoist philosophy. These musical structures in Loyang can be compared with Sangyeongsan of Yeonsanhoesang34 in Korean traditional court music. Figure 3.1 shows a transcription of heterophonic textures in the first part in the

Korean Sangyeongsan of Yeonsanhoesang. It can be compared with Yun‘s work in

Figure 3.9. Oriental heterophony is different from European tradition of heterophonic music in that simultaneity of different tones does not follow the organized chord progressions in the Western system.

34 It is a chamber music led by geomun-go, and usually includes one of each of the following: geomun-go, gayageum, haegeum, se-piri, daegeum, and janggu. 31

Figure 3.1 First section of Sangyeongsan of Yeonsanhoesang

Josef Häusler speaks of Yun‘s composition technique as a kind of polyphonic heterophony in the polyphony in his book Musik im 20. Jahrhundert (Music in the 20th century). 32

In a very important point Yun goes beyond the [Korean] native tradition. The music of the Far East does not know real polyphony in the European sense…. Often in oriental music performance monophony turns into a momentary accidental polyphony, or heterophony. But it never exhibits planned or organized polyphonic character. Yun broadened the heterophony to polyphony, certainly not in the thematic imitation meaning of Western tradition, but truly as the consciously formed and controlled polyphony of the polyrhythmic Faktur.35,36

Nonghyun and Sigimsae

Among the techniques of traditional Korean music Yun carried over in his instrumental works were those of Nonghyun (Inflection) and Sigimsae – ornaments which referred to vibrato, trills, grace notes or appoggiature in Korean instruments. Nonghyun can be translated as ―to toy with strings‖37 The ornaments known as sigimsae are more rhythmically and developmentally involved.38 The Noghyun technique is usually used in string-instrument writing, while the Sigimsae appears in woodwind, brass, and in vocal writing. Basic types of Nonghyun according to the manner of execution and classified consist of Yoseong, literally meaning ―vibrating or shaking sound‖, toeseong, meaning

―thrusting or declining sound,‖ and chuseong, meaning ―pushing the sound upwards.‖

Figure 3.2 shows a transcription of a Korean vocal work in which the Sigimsae technique with grace notes and long and short tremolandi is employed.

35 Faktur, meaning the total, sum, or result. 36 Byeon, 145. 37 Inhwa So, Theoretical perspectives on Korean traditional music. Seoul, Korea: National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, c2002, 77 38 Ibid. 98 33

Figure 3.2 Voices in Sangyeo-sori of Kochang

3. 3 Loyang

Loyang for chamber ensemble (1962), a work influenced by Taoist philosophy, is one of Yun‘s first works to show an East-Asian musical influence. Yun submitted

Loyang to several composition competitions and music festivals, at first without success, but the work was finally premiered by the orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales conducted by

Klaus Bernbacher in Hanover on January 23, 1964. Loyang enjoyed great success, and laid the foundation for Yun‘s more famous composition, Reak.

The title, Loyang, comes from the name of a Chinese city, one of the four great ancient capitals of China, and an important cultural center for court music. In fact, an ancient Chinese musical piece, Spring in Loyang, was adopted by Korean court musicians

during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), and is still performed in its Koreanized version.

This version, called Dang-ak, meaning literally music of Dang dynasty, is a term applied to music of Chinese origin in general. Loyang came about as a result of a series of radio programs on traditional East-Asian music Yun was working on in Freiburg, Germany. In preparation for his radio talks, Yun engaged in a great deal of musicological research, and out of these investigations the composer developed a strong interest in employing Eastern musical sensibilities in his composition. His adaptation of East-Asian music principles is far from literal: he quotes no Korean folk tunes nor incorporates any Asian instruments such as composers like Takamitsu have done. Rather, Yun internalizes the sense of the

East-Asian traditional musical practices, and arrives at a new kind of expression that enables him to employ Western instruments to provide the acoustic means to realize a sound world in which the Eastern sensibility of the importance of a tone itself, decorated with all kinds of embellishments, becomes paramount. In Loyang, there are some connections with twelve-tone serialism that Yun had employed in earlier works, but these techniques are not applied rigorously. (See the Figure 3.5. Loyang m.1 – 7)

The instrumentation of Loyang consists of woodwinds, percussion and strings

(Figure 3.3), and the orchestration of Loyang is very much influenced by that of traditional Korean music known as Sujechon – used in court banquets and ceremonies, and Hyang-ak, which generically refers to music of a Chinese origin. Sujechon is

characterized by a typical orchestration known as Samhyeonyuggak (three strings and six horns) occasionally with expanded instrumentation in some works.39

Group Instruments Woodwinds Flute Oboe Clarinet in B-flat Bassoon Percussions Triangle Whip Tam-Tam Snare Drum Bass drum Vibraphone Low-pitched Plate Bells Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals Strings Violin Violoncello Harp

Figure 3.3 Instrumentation of Loyang

39 So. 144. 36

Loyang is comprised of three movements, mainly in a slow tempo with frequent meter changes throughout. (Figure 3.4)

Movement Tempo Section – measure I ♩=ca. 60 I. 1 – 16 II. A. 17 – 27 B. 28 – 53 III. A. 54 – 63 B. 64 – 73 Coda 74 – 88 II ♩=ca. 76 I. 89 – 109 II. 110 - 129 III. 130 – 176 IV. 177 – 196 III ♩=ca. 54 I. 197 – 214 II. 215 – 230 III. 231 - 252 IV. 253 – 304

Figure 3.4 Musical form scheme of Loyang

Figure 3.5 shows the beginning section of Loyang with the motives from measure

1 to 4 drawn from the twelve tones C#, B, D, F, Eb, E, Bb, C, G, F#, A, G# (Figure 3.6) presented in serial fashion. However, afterwards the pitch material is freely employed in short phrases that are developed and articulated by rhythmic changes, extension, and contraction. Measure 5 announces a pitch-class group (C#, B, D – 0, 1, 3) that will figure prominently in varied forms (Figure 3.7) throughout the rest of the work.

Figure 3.5 Loyang m.1 – 7

Figute 3.6 12 tones in Loyang m.1 – 5

Figure 3.7 (0,1,3) Pitch-Class-Set Formations in Loyang

Figures 3.8 and Figure 3.9 show the use of glissandi and trills in the strings and woodwinds to animate the musical texture, similar to the Korean traditional string techniques known as Nonghyun.

Figure 3.8 Loyang m. 8 – 14

Figure 3.9 Loyang m. 32 – 37

This technique is also apparent in an overall heterophonic texture with the string tremolos of measure 19 and 20, and in the woodwinds from 17 to 23 as illustrated in

Figure 3.10. The dense textures with mixed chord structures in measure 22 to 24 in the harp and strings are sustained with woodwinds and articulated by dynamics. The strings

from measures 19 to 24 employ all twelve tones of the chromatic scale.

Figure 3.10 Loyang m. 15 – 25

While in Loyang Yun employs these traditional Korean techniques alongside

Western serial ones, his subsequent work Reak is more focused and developed on the

Hauptton, and Hauptklang techniques which are found consistently in his later works.

3.4 Reak

Reak (or Yeak in other transliterations) is an orchestral piece in which Yun attempted to combine the Korean musical expression of court ceremonies, festivals and

Confucian rites and project them through western musical techniques and expression.

This composition was commissioned by Südwestrundfunks Baden-Baden and premiered by Südwestrundfunks Symphony Orchestra under Ernest Bour‘s conducting at the

Donaueschinger Musiktage in Germany on October 23 1966. Yun‘s technique of

Hauptton, Hauptklang and heterophony are all present in this work. To express the

Korean traditional, he combined with the traditional technique “Nonghyun.” As noted previously, in the aesthetics of Korean music tones are said to have their own lives and unique dynamics. These techniques such as Nonghyun and Sigimsae are important in the performance practice of traditional Korean music, serving as processes by which performers articulate melodies tastefully, expressively and dynamically. (See page 32).

In the book ―Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde‖, Andrew McCredie states that Reak involves neither motives nor themes, nor selected processes identified with either the Second Viennese or Darmstadt Schools, but rather a musical texture determined through long-sustained sounds comprising sonic surfaces, threads, bands, or blocks that follow on or emerge out of each other, as parts as though extracted from an unending continuity of sound. The emphasis is thus primarily on timbral, timbral inflection, and subtle kaleidoscope change.40 The instrumentation of Reak consists of woodwinds, brass, percussion, timpani, harp and strings. (Figure 3.11).

40 Andrew McCredie. ―Isang Yun.‖ In Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcenbook, edited by Larry Sitsky, 586-592. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002. 589-590. 44

Group Instruments

Woodwind 3 Flutes (1. Doubling Alto Flute, 2 and 3. Doubling Piccolo) 3 Oboes (3. Doubling English Horn) 3 Clarinets in Bb (3. Doubling Bass Clarinet) 2 Bassoons 1 Contra Bassoon

Brass 4 Horns in F 3 Trumpets in C 2 Trombones 1 Tuba

2 Harps Timpani

Percussion (4 players) 3 Triangles 3 Baks (Korean clappers) 3 Large slapsticks 1 Low and medium Tomtom 4 Temple blocks (different sizes) 6 Suspended cymbals (different sizes) 3 Large sleigh bells 2 Thai Buckelgongs (different sizes) 3 Bass Drums 1 Low Tam-Tam

String Violins (I and II) Violas Cellos Double Bass (I and II)

Figure 3.11 Instrumentation of Reak

Section Subsection Measures

Introduction 1 – 4

Section I I 5 - 10

II 10 – 26

III 26 - 31

Section II I 32 - 43

II 43 - 76

III 76 - 87

Section III I 88 - 112

II 113 - 135

Section IV I 136 - 155

II 156 - 173

Figure 3.12 Musical Form Scheme of Reak

The form of Reak can be divided into four sections, each of which has its own emphasis in turn on phrase, dynamic, sound group, and technique, and each section has its own unique tone color and sonority.

Section I

Reak begins with strokes on the Bak (Korean clappers, or slapsticks) which in traditional Korean music are used to signal the beginning and end of court-music pieces, and which also play a role as conductor and timekeeper in the ensemble.

Figure 3.13 shows the opening of Reak, with short phrase structures shown in boxes. These structures have no motivic or thematic function, but rather form sound groups that follow and overlap each other in different instrumental choirs, forming dense harmonic aggregates. The resulting textures are animated by dynamic changes and percussion writing while the string group moves toward a static chord in measure 4 and 5, over which the solo oboe presents a short melodic line. At the beginning of the piece, each group of Hauptkläenge consists of D#, G#, A in the brass in measure 2, and F, C#, E,

G, A in the strings in same measure, and C, Eb, F, Ab in the horns.

Figure 3.13 Reak mm.1 – 5

From measure 12 in the Figure 3.14, each instrument appears to have an individual harmonic layer (drawn from the pitches C#, B, F, D#, Bb, A, D, C, G# in the woodwinds in measures 13-16), and these grow to form a more dense sound mass with the addition of the brass from m.14 and strings from m.15--a sound mass, yet one with a variety of harmonic and timbral facets.

These harmonic layers, divided into instrument groups by of Woodwind, Brass,

Percussion, and Strings and separated into low, medium, and high ranges, are developed throughout the piece.

Figure 3.14 Reak m.11 – 16

Section II

Section II is characterized by the string and brass choirs‘ presenting sustained sonorities which are articulated by the Hauptton technique. (See Figure 3.15).

Figure 3.15 Reak m.43 – 49

From measure 64 rhythmic variety is introduced in a percussion tremolo that was previously presented in the strings, and a contrabass pizzicato, and the Korean plucked string instrument Kayageum is invoked in pizzicato figures in the lower strings.

Figure 3.16 m. 64 – 68

Reprinted by permission

Section III

In section III, further rhythmic development, structural contrast, and the use of ornamentation appear above a sustained chord. At the beginning of this section, main tones in the woodwinds similar to notes of the Gyemyeon-jo – one of Korean pentatonic scales – appear. In general, Korean traditional scales can be divided into Pyeong-jo and

Gyemyeon-jo. Pyeong-jo is similar from Western major scale – G, A, C,D,E (G can be tonic function). Gyemyeon-jo is compared with Western minor scale – A, C, D, E,G (A can be tonic function). In measure 88, Yun used five notes, B, C#, E, F# G#.

Figure 3.17 m. 88 – 91

Section IV

The last section is characterized by thicker formations of harmonic layers and the development of musical elements that were employed in previous sections, now expressed with a more passionate and dramatic expression through the expanded use of percussion, and heightened dynamic contrast. (Figure 3.18 m. 166 – 168).

Figure 3.18 m. 166 – 168

CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION AND LOOKING FORWARD

This document examines the history of contemporary Korean music, with emphasis on how since the early 1960‘s Korean composers have combined Eastern and

Western and styles to form a unique compositional approach.

Isang Yun (1917 – 1995), one of the most conspicuous figures in Korean music history, was one of the first composers to successfully achieve such a stylistic blending, and two of his works, Loyang, and Reak, were used to illustrate specific characteristics of this hybrid style. Although his music was at first more well known in Europe than in

Korea, Yun has since become an important source of influence and inspiration for young

Korean composers.

Since the twentieth century, Korean music has developed in both traditional and

Western contemporary styles. During that time, Korean composers have had a tendency to think all compositions should always be progressive regardless of style. In this new century, this pursuit of new music seems to be alive and well, and different interests, directions, and genres continue to develop, if even in small steps.

One of the current tendencies in Korean music is the reincorporation of Western into what is loosely termed changjak umak (creative music) with less concern for cultural 59

baggage, stylistic norms, or avoidance of clichés than one might expect in European or

American tastes. Changjak umak, after all, is meant for a domestic audience and, in essence, adds Western elements to the traditional Korean musical grammar.41 In coming decades such an approach gives composers the challenge of breaking new musical ground, while at the same time inviting cultural and aesthetic questions. Recently, composers such as Young Dong Kim (1952- ), Byong-Uk Yi (1951- ), Soo Chul Kim

(1957- ), have begun to add guitars and keyboards to Korean traditional ensembles, and have met with great commercial success. Other composers will likely continue to expand this mix of traditional and contemporary to include various electronic instruments as well as computers. To accomplish this task in an artful fashion, technicians and musicians alike will need to cultivate sensitivity for the creation, arrangement, and cultivation of a new electronic sound palette. The opportunity ahead will include the development of new genres and acoustic inventions as mentioned above with resultant compositional possibilities. It can all be summarized in one phrase: ―Korean Music.‖ Since the introduction of Western culture, this phrase has taken on new and greater meaning.

Korean music implies the unification and ownership of all styles of music for the all the

Korean people. Today, Korea can be proud of its place in the modern musical world.

41 Keith Howard, ―Different Spheres: Perceptions of Traditional Music and Western Music in Korea.‖ The World of Music Vol.39, n2 1997, 64.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Babcock, David. ―Korean Composers in Profile.‖ Tempo New Series No. 192, Apr. 1995,15 – 21.

Byeon, Jiyeon. ―The Wounded Dragon: An Annotated Translation of Der verwundete Drache, the Biography of Composer Isang Yun, by Luise Rinser and Isang Yun.‖ PhD diss., Kent State University, 2003.

Duffie, Bruce. ―Composer Isang Yun:A Conversation with Bruce Duffie‖ http://www.bruceduffie.com/yun.html

Hauser, Laura. ―A Performer‘s Analysis of Isang Yun‘s Monolog For Basson with ans emphasis on the role of the traditional Korean influences.‖ DMA diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2009.

Howard, Keith. ―Creating Korean Music: Tradition, Innovation and the Discourse of Identity.‖ Perspectives on Korean Music, Vol.2. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006,

. ―Different Spheres: Perceptions of Traditional Music and Western Music in Korea.‖ The World of Music Vol.39, n2 1997, 61 – 7.

International Isang Yun society. http://www.yun-gesellschaft.de/e/bio.htm

Killick, Andrew P., ―Musical Composition in Twentieth-Century Korea.‖ Korean Studies, 16(1992) 43 – 60.

Kim, Jeongmee. ―Musical Syncretism in Isang Yun‘s Gasa,‖ in Locating East Asia in Western Art Music. Ed. Yayoi Uno Everett and Frederick Lau (Wesleyan University Press, 2004).

Kim, Youngchae. ―Cultural Synthesis in Korean Musical Composition in the late twentieth century: An analysis of Isang Yun‘s Reak for orchestra‖ Ph.D. diss., Kent State University, 2006.

Kunz, Herald. ―Isang Yun.‖ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie, Vol. 27. London: Macmillan, 2001, 696-97.

Lee, Byongwon. ―Contemporary Korean Musical Cultures‖ Korea Briefing, Boulder CO: Westview Press 1993, 121 – 138.

Lee, Sooja. ―내남편 윤이상 (My husband Isang Yun).‖ 2 Vols. Seoul:Changchak kwa Bipyong, 1998.

McCredie, Andrew. ―Isang Yun.‖ In Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcenbook, edited by Larry Sitsky, 586-592. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.

Naxos. ―Isang Yun Biography.‖ http://www.naxos.com/person/Isang_Yun/21621.htm

Noh, Dongeun. ―한국에서 윤이상의 삶과 예술 (Isang Yun’s life and art in Korea)‖, EumAggwa Minjok, Vol. 17 Seoul: Minjok EumAg Hakhwae, 1999.

Oxford music online. ―Yun, Isang.‖ http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.ohio- state.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/30747

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The News From Wabu-eup. http://rbbadger.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/yun-isang-tapis- pour-cordes.

Wikepedia. ―Unsuk Chin.‖ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsuk

Yi, Kang-Suk and Kim, Chun-Mi and Min, Kyong-Chan. Uri yangak 100-yŏn. Sŏul-si: Hyŏnamsa, 2001.

Yun, Isang. ―The contemporary composer and traditional music.‖ The World of Music Vol.20, n2 1978, 57 – 60.

. Reak, Berlin: Bote & Bock Musik-Und Buhnenverlag GMBH & Co. 1966.

. Loyang, Berlin: Bote & Bock Musik-Und Buhnenverlag GMBH & Co. 1962.

APPENDIX A

List of Isang Yun‘s Compositions

Year, Title, Instrumentation, World Premiere

1958 Fünf Klavierstücke For Piano, 09/06/1959, Bilthoven

1959 Musik für sieben Instrumente (Fl., Ob., Kl., Fag., Hrn., Vl., Vlc.) Mixed ensemble, 09/04/1959, Darmstadt

Streichquartett III (1959/1961) String Quartet, 06/15/1960, Koln

1960 Bara Full orchestra, 1/19/1962, Berlin

Symphonische Szene Full orchestra, 9/7/61, Darmstadt

1961 Colloides sonores String Orchestra, 12/12/ Hamburg

1962 Loyang Mixed ensemble, 1/23/1964, Hannover

1963 Gasa Violin and Piano, 10/2/1963, Prag

Garak Flute and Piano, 9/11/1964, Berlin

1964 Fluktuationen Full Orchestra, 2/10/1965, Berlin

Om mani Padme hum Chorus and Orchestra, 1/30/1965, Hannover

Nore Cello and Piano, 5/3/1968, Bremen

1965 Der Traum des Liu-Tung Opera, 9/25/1965, Berlin

1966 Reak Full Orchestra, 10/23/1966, Donaueschingen

Shao Yang Yin Cembalo (or Piano), 1/12/1968, Freiburg

1967 Tuyaux sonores Organ, 3/11/1967, Hamburg-wellingsbüttel

1968 Riul Clarinet and piano, 7/26/1968, Erlangen

Die Witwe des Schmetterlings Opera, 2/23/1969, Nürnberg

Images (Fl, Ob, Vl, Vlc) Mixed Ensemble, 3/24/1969, Oakland CA

Ein Schmetterlingstraum Mixed choir and percussion, 5/8/1969, Hamburg

1970 Geisterliebe Opera, 6/20/1971, Kiel

Schamanengesänge Alto and chamber orchestra, from the opera 'Geisterliebe', 12/16/1977, Berlin

Glissees Violoncello, 5/8/1971, Zagreb

1971 Namo Soprano and Orchestra, 5/4/1971, Berlin

Dimensionen Full Orchestra, 10/22/1971, Nürnberg

Piri Oboe, 10/25/1971, Bamberg

1971/72 Sim Tjong Opera, 8/1/1972, München

1972

Gagok (guitar, percussion and voice) Mixed Ensemble, 10/25/1972, Barcelona

Konzertante Figuren Chamber Orchestra, 11/30/1973, Hamburg

1972/73 Trio für Flöte, Oboe und Violine Mixed Ensemble, 10/18/1973, Manheim

1972/75 Trio für Violine, Violoncello und Klavier Mixed Ensemble, 2/23/1973, Berlin

1972/82 Vom Tao (choruses from the opera "Sim Tjong") Chorus and Organ, 5/21/1976, Hamburg

1973/74 Ouverture für großes Orchester Full Orchestra, 10/4/1973, Berlin

1974 Memory für 3 Stimmen und Schlaginstrumente Three Voices and Percussion, 5/3/1974, Rom

Etüden für Flöte solo Flute, 7/18/1974, Tokyo

Harmonia (winds, harp and percussion) Mixed Ensemble, 1/22/1975, Herforf

1975 An der Schwelle (baritone, woman's chorus, organ and other instruments) Chorus and Ensemble, 4/5/1975, Kassel

Fragment für Orgel

Organ, 5/ 17/1975, Hamburg-wellingsbüttel

Rondell für Oboe, Klarinette und Fagott Wind Ensemble, 9/30/1975, Bayreuth

1975/76 Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester Cello and Orchestra, 3/25/1976, Royan

1976 Pièce concertante für Kammerensemble oder Kleines Orchester Ensemble, 6/15/1976, Hamburg

Duo für Viola und Klavier Viola and Piano, 5/3/1977, Rom

Königliches Thema für Violine solo Violin, 4/1/1977, Düsseldorf-Benrath 1977 Konzert für Flöte und Kleines Orchster Flute and small Orchestra, 07/30/1977, Hitzacker

Doppelkonzert für Oboe und Harfe mit Kleinem Orchester Oboe, Harp and Orchestra, 9/26/1977, Berlin

Der weise Mann Baritone, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra, 6/9/1977, Berlin

1977/78 Salomo für Altflöte oder Flöte (nach Der weise Mann) Flute solo, 4/30/1979, Kiel

1978 Oktett (Klar., Fag., Hrn., Streichquintett) Mixed Ensemble, 4/10/1978, Paris

Muak

Full Orchestra, 11/9/1978, Mönchengladbach

1979 Sonata für Oboe, Harfe und Viola oder Violoncello Oboe, Harp and Viola (Cello), 7/6/1979, Saarbrücken

Fanfare & Memorial Orchestra, 9/18/1979, Münster

1980 Novellette für Flöte (Altflöte) und Harfe Flute and Harp, 2/5/1981, Bremen

Teile dich Nacht Soprano and Ensemble, 4/26/1981, Witten

1981 Exemplum in memoriam Kwangju Full Orchestra 5/8/1981, Köln

O Licht Chorus, Violin and Orchestra, 6/21/1981, Nürnberg Konzert für Klarinette und Kleines Orchester Clarinet and Small Orchestra, 1/29/1982, München

Konzert für Violine und Orchester Nr. 1 Violin and Orchestra, 4/29/1982, Frankfurt

Der Herr ist mein Hirte Mixed choir and Trombone, 11/14/1982, Stuttgart

1982 Interludium A für Klavier Piano, 5/6/1982, Tokyo

1983

Monolog für Baßklarinette Bass Clarinet, 4/9/1983, Melbourne

Concertino für Akkordeon und Streichquartett Accordion and string quartet, 11/6/1983, Trossingen

Sonatina für 2 Violinen 2 Violins, 12/15/1983, Tokyo

Inventionen für 2 Oboen 2 Oboes, 4/29/1984, Witten

1983/84 Symphonie I in vier Sätzen Full Orchestra, 5/15/1984, Berlin

Monolog für Fagott Bassoon, 2/2/1985, Nizza

Inventionen für 2 Flöten 2 Flutes, 6/18/1988, Hilversum

1983/86 Konzert für Violine und Orchester Nr. 2 Violin and Orchestra, 1st Mov. – 3/30/1984, Siegen; 2nd Mov. – 7/8/1983, Tokyo; 3rd and 4th Mov. – 1/20/1987, Stuttgart

1984 Duo für Violoncello und Harfe Cello and Harp, 5/27/1984, Ingelheim

Quintett für Klarinette und Streichquartett Clarinet and String Quartet, 8/24/1984, Kusatsu

Symphonie II in drei Sätzen Full Orchestra, 12/9/1984, Berlin

Gong-Hu für Harfe und Streicher

Harp and Strings, 8/22/1985, Luzern

1985 Symphonie III in einem Satz Full Orchestra, 9/26/1985, Berliner Festwochen

Li-Na im Garten Violin, 11/28/1986, West-Berlin

1986 Mugung-Dong (Wind, Percussion and Double Bass) Full Orchestra, 6/22/1986, Hamburg

Rencontre für Klarinette, Harfe und Violoncello Clarinet, Harp and Cello, 8/2/1986, Hitzacker

Quartett für Flöten Flute and Wind Ensemble, 8/27/1986, Berlin

Symphonie IV Im Dunkeln singen Full Orchestra, 11/13/1986, Tokyo

Quintett für Flöte und Streichquartett Flute and String Quartet, 1/17/1987, Paris

Impression für Kleines Orchester Small Orchestra, 2/9/1987, Frankfurt

1987 In Balance Harp, 4/8/1987, Hamburg

Kontraste Zwei Stücke für Violine solo Violin, 4/10/1987, Hamburg

Symphonie V in fünf Sätzen Full Orchestra, 9/17/1987, West-Berlin

Duetto concertante für Oboe/Englishhorn, Violoncello und Streicher oboe/cor anglais, cello and orchestra, 11/8/1987, Rottweil

Tapis pour courdes String Quartet, 11/20/1987, Mannheim

Kammersinfonie I 2 Oboes, 2 Horns, and Strings, 2/18/1988, Gütersloh

Naui Dang, Naui Minjokiyo (Mein Land, Mein Volk) Voices, Choir and Orchestra, 10/5/1987 Pyongyang (N. Korea)

1988 Distanzen für Bläser- und Streichquintett Wind quintet and string quintet, 10/9/1988, Berlin

Contemplation für zwei Violen 2 Violas, 10/9/1988, Berlin

Festlicher Tanz für Bläserquintett Wind Quintet, 4/22/1989, Witten

Intermezzo für Violoncello und Akkordeon Cello and Accordion, 10//6/1988, Avignon

Pezzo fantasioso per due strumenti conbasso ad libitum Two bass instruments ad libitum 7/10/1988, Chiusi

Quartett für Flöte, Violine, Violoncello und Klavier Flute, Violin, Cello and Piano, 5/26/1989, Münster

Streichquartett IV String quartet, 11/28/1988, Würzburg

Sori für Flöte solo Flute, 11/7/1988, New York

1989

Kammersinfonie II “Den Opfern der Freiheit” Chamber Orchestra, 9/6/1989, Frankfurt

Konturen für großes Orchester Full Orchestra, 3/18/1990, Braunschweig

Rufe für Oboe und Harfe Oboe and Harp, 11/10/1989, Ravensburg

1990 Together für Violine und Kontrabaß Violin and Contrabass, 4/28/1990, Arhus

Kammerkonzert I Ensemble, 6/16/1990, Amsterdam

Konzert für Oboe/Oboe d’amore und Orchster Oboe and Orchestra, 9/19/1991, Berlin

Kammerkonzert II Ensemble, 11/26/1990, Leipyig

Streichquartett V in einem Satz String Quartet, 7/14/1991, Isselstein/Holland

1991 Bläserquintett in zwei Sätzen Wind Ensemble, 8/6/1991, Altenhof

Sonate für Violine und Klavier Violin and Piano, 9/26/1991, Frankfurt am Main

1992 Silla. Legende für Orchester Orchestra, 10/5/1992, Hannover

Konzert III für Violine und kleines Orchster Violin and Small Orchestra, 6/22/1992, Amsterdam

Espace I für Violoncello und Klavier Cello and Piano, 12/7/1992, Hamburg

Quartett für Horn, Trompete, Posaune und Klavier Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Piano, 9/16/1992, Berlin

Streichquartett VI in vier Sätzen String Quartet, 4/7/1992, Basel

Trio für Klarinette, Fagott und Horn Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, 10/3/1992, Hannover

1993 Espace II für Violoncello, Harfe und Oboe ad lib. Cello, Harp and Oboe, 9/17/1993, St. Blasien

Bläseroktett mit Kontrabaß ad libitum Wind Octet and Double Bass, 2/19/1995, Stuttgart

Chinesische Bilder für Blockflöte Flute, 8/14/1993, Stavanger

Sieben Etüden für Violoncello solo Cello, 9/17/1995, Berlin

1994 Engel in Flammen Memento für Orchester Voice and Orchestra, 5/9/1995, Tokyo

OstWest-Miniaturen für oboe und Violoncello Oboe and Cello, 5/28/1994, Berlin

Quartett für Oboe, Violine, Viola und Violoncello Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello, 11/7/1995, Wien

Quintett II für Klarinette und Streichquartett Clarinet, String Quartet, 9/26/1995, Berlin

APPENDIX B

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie42

Yun, Isang, important Korean composer; b. Tong Young, Sept. 17, 1917. He studied Western music in Korea (1935-37) and in Japan (1941-43). After the end of the war, he taught music in South Korean schools; in 1956 went to Berlin, where he took lessons in composition with Boris Blacher and Josef Rufer at the Berlin Musikhochschule. He settled permanently in Berlin, where he produced several successful theatrical works, marked by a fine expressionistic and coloristic quality, and written in an idiom of euphonious dissonance. His career was dramatically interrupted when on June 17, 1967, he and his wife were brutally abducted from West Berlin by the secret police agents of South Korea, and forced to board a plane for Seoul, where they were brought to trial for sedition; he was sentenced to life imprisonment; his wife was given three years in jail. This act of lawlessness perpetrated on the territory of another country prompted an indignant protest by the government of West Germany, which threatened to cut off its substantial economic aid to South Korea; twenty-three celebrated musicians, including Igor Stravinsky, issued a vigorous letter of protest. As a result of this moral and material pressure, South Korea released Yun and his wife after nearly two years of detention, and they returned to Germany. In 1970 he was appointed a professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.

[From Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians by Nicholas Slonimsky.]

42 Bruce Duffie. ―Composer Isang Yun:A Conversation with Bruce Duffie‖ http://www.bruceduffie.com/yun.html

* * *

Isang Yun died on November 3, 1995 in Berlin, and was interred in a grave of honour provided by the City Senate. He was a member of the Hamburg and Berlin Academies of the Arts and of the European Academy of the Arts and Sciences in Salzburg, an honorary member of the International Society of Contemporary Music. He also held an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen, and was the recipient of the Goethe Medal of the Goethe Institute in Munich and the Distinguished Service Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

[From the Yun-Gesellschaft website.]

What follows is the transcript of a telephone conversation with composer Isang Yun. It took place in July of 1987 while he was at the Cabrillo Festival in California. Not withstanding the importance of speaking with this musician, the circumstances of the chat itself are of interest. It all came together on a good day for everyone concerned. I was in my home in Chicago, and Yun was at the home of composer Lou Harrison. The translator, to whom I am very grateful, was the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, whom

I had also met and interviewed previously. Here is what was said that evening . . . . .

Bruce Duffie: Let me start out with an easy question: Where is music going today?

Isang Yun: I don't think anyone can really answer this question, myself included. I can say for myself that my music is becoming more understandable, and I find a quality of human sympathy is becoming more prevalent in it.

BD: Is this something being added now that was missing earlier, or is it an outgrowth of the way your music has been going all these years?

IY: It's part of a natural process, and I've just noticed it through observation. This is a process that started about ten yeas ago and I think it will be at least another ten years before it is fully developed.

BD: Did something specific happen at that point ten years ago to make this change?

IY: My experience of the personal side and political area in Korea happened twenty years ago, and it took ten years for me to be able to translate these experiences into my music. I think today our world very badly needs music that brings us closer together, particularly because there are so many grave problems that people everywhere are having to deal with. In order to be able to articulate these problems in art, we need a great deal of musical understanding.

BD: Should music be political in and of itself?

IY: That is exactly what I do not mean. Music is the expression of an inner truth, and this inner truth is naturally a mirror of today's events. It's always been that way. In 76

earlier times, landscapes or love was the theme in works of art. Today the problems have become much different and much more serious. One example is the uncertainty of the future of mankind; this is in question. The anxieties over our future and the destruction of peace and the dangers of war, and the atomic dangers. This idea is very important. It is not the theme of music, but the musical expressions that I use naturally and automatically which reflect these influences.

BD: Should the audience be aware of these influences and/or the process?

IY: Whatever the composer takes for his subject is privately his, and the listeners don't have to know it. But the circumstances of the creation contain such elements. In other words, if these truths are part of the elements, part of the process of composition, eventually the listener will be affected directly by it.

BD: What do you expect of the audience that comes to hear your music?

IY: A composer is not in the position to dictate how a person listens to music. The public has total freedom and the listener is entirely free as to how he wishes to approach a piece of music. Every group of listeners is different one from another, and the situation that the listener finds himself in is different from that of another listener. But the important thing is that this music somehow moves him deeply one way or another.

BD: Does that mean that the same piece of music will be different at different times of performance?

IY: Yes, it could be. But I feel that if the music really possesses these elements that make up a truth as I see it, the public cannot help but be moved.

BD: If you cannot have any expectations of the public, what are your hopes for them?

IY: I hope there will be a contact, a connection, and through this contact my music will mean something to the listener.

BD: Assuming that mankind survives, are you optimistic about the future of music?

IY: Yes, I'm very optimistic. That's why I compose! I haven't given up hope by any means. In spite of the fact that very often I deal with very negative or tragic themes, I never personally find myself in a situation of depression or uncertainty. At the end of every piece, no matter how tragic the theme or the events around it, I always leave the possibility of hope in that piece.

BD: Do you ever go back and revise works?

IY: Never.

BD: When you're writing a piece, how do you know when it's finished?

IY: My music doesn't have a beginning nor an end. You could combine elements from one piece into another piece very well. This is a Taoist philosophy. Music flows in the cosmos, and I have an antenna which is able to cut out a piece of the stream. The part which I've cut out is organized and formed through my own thought and body processes, and I commit it to paper. That's why my music is always continuous - like the clouds that are always the same but are never alike one to another.

BD: When you're writing, are you in control of the music, or is the music in control of you?

IY: My deep-lying inner feelings dictate to me. I'm not sure that's myself, but I'm fortunate to have a Godly gift speaking through me. So I can sound very Asiatic, or very

Buddhistic, or very religious, or very philosophic. But that's how I think. That's why I don't consider what I'm doing "composing." I'm writing down that which my deepest feelings and instincts tell me to write.

BD: Then you're perhaps the ideal person to ask this question: How is the Eastern public different from the Western public?

IY: As far as the capabilities and capacities to listen, everyone is the same. The differences lie in the areas of experience. Basically you can describe very clearly the differences between European and Asian music, for example, but that's the result of the

different experiences the people have had through their history. But the ability of the audiences to listen is the same.

BD: Are you making a conscious effort to combine both the Eastern and Western spirits in your music?

IY: No, that would be too artificial. The inner truth is, in actuality, a music of the cosmos. Realistically seen, I've had two experiences, and I know the practice of both

Asian music and European. I am equally at home in both fields. I'm a man living today, and within me is the Asia of the past combined with the Europe of today. My purpose is not an artificial connection, but I'm naturally convinced of the unity of these two elements. For that reason it's impossible to categorize my music as either European or

Asian. I am exactly in the middle. That's my world and my independent entity.

BD: We've been talking about East and West. Are there more elements in this large musical cosmos?

IY: In the cosmos, there is neither East nor West!

* * * * *

BD: Have you basically been pleased with the performances and recordings of your music over the years?

IY: Looking at it realistically, they're the best I could have hoped for. To be completely honest, as a composer one cannot be 100% happy. As a composer I would find it impossible to be completely content with my own music or with the interpretation of the music. But I'm a very realistic person and know that I have several unusual requirements in my writing which, especially for European-trained orchestras, are new and difficult. When one looks at it from this standpoint, I'm very happy.

BD: You've done some teaching of composition?

IY: Yes, I've taught musical composition for 15 years in Berlin.

BD: Is musical composition something that can be taught?

IY: The idea of receiving thoughts through your antenna is not a very easy thing to teach. The student must be quite developed in the soul and spirit. In Europe or America, one says, "to be inspired." The second thing is also difficult, and that is to organize and write down these ideas or inspiration that one received through the antenna. That's what we call compositional technique, and to get that across you need a very experienced teacher.

BD: Have we, perhaps, got too many young composers coming along today?

IY: There are very many, and unfortunately they have a very difficult time. The human possibilities for enjoying and listening to music have become so many-sided and so 81

variable, and the young composer has to find a way to move the human heart. It is as difficult as getting a thread through a needle.

BD: Tell me the particular joys and sorrows of writing for the human voice.

IY: I've written very few vocal pieces, but there are four operas. My Fifth Symphony has a singing line all the way through. The premiere will be in Berlin in September, and

Fischer-Dieskau will sing.

BD: Do you feel that opera is still a viable art form?

IY: I would say that opera can still be meaningful, but the future is not very optimistic.

BD: Will opera change or will it die?

IY: As long as the trend continues to not give new operas a chance and not to promote the creation of new operas, that means that essentially the opera will die.

BD: Can anything be done to avert this outcome?

IY: What has to happen is that operas must be composed as a teamwork between the composer, the stage director, and the management of the opera house. And the operas that are composed must be attractive to the public, to a young public. But it has to be completely different than it has been up to this point. The drama and the vocal line must not be destroyed through the orchestral playing! Up to now, the orchestral sound has 82

dominated the operas too much, and the pieces themselves have been much too complicated, much too intellectual. I'm speaking, of course, for contemporary works, and that is why the public has been alienated. But the music cannot just be cheapened or just done for effect. It must, at the same time, have a very high quality and the possibility of winning a very broad public. How to do it is the question. I think the way would be this teamwork I mentioned, and intelligent commissions from the opera houses.

BD: Is this happening, or do you think it will happen?

IY: I'm very pessimistic about that because an opera house is basically a subsidized enterprise, and the people who subsidize these opera houses think only of the box office. They're not in a position to think about the future.

BD: Do you feel opera works well on television, and might this help the situation?

IY: That might be a big possibility, but then you must realize that basically you're dealing with a very simple public. But dealing with a relatively inexperienced audience might have a very big future. I think that this is something that the television networks should definitely undertake.

BD: How do you feel about opera in translation?

IY: I think that generally translations are good.

BD: Have you seen this new gimmick of supertitles in the theater?

IY: I've never seen it, but many things should be tried in order to rescue opera!

* * * * *

BD: Are most of the pieces you write on commission, or are some just things you have to get down on paper?

IY: I write everything on commission.

BD: Then how do you decide which ones to accept and which ones to turn aside?

IY: In the main I accept them all. I'm a very positive and nice person, and I like to do it. (laughter) That's why I've written a great number of pieces.

BD: Do you work on more than one at a time?

IY: I could never do that. I currently have several small orchestra pieces to write, but I would like to stop composing right now. However I don't think I could do that.

BD: What would you do if you didn't compose?

IY: I would like to just think the music. I'd like to just fantasize and imagine the music and not have to compose it. My health isn't the best and that's one reason I'm going to

have to slow down a little bit. I can probably manage to do that, but I don't see myself being able to stop.

BD: As you approach your 70th birthday, what is the most surprising or pleasing thing you've noticed about music?

IY: It's been very difficult work, very hard work, but I've never regretted the fact that I am a composer.

BD: What advice do you have for someone who wants to conduct modern music?

IY: I wouldn't presume to give advice to a conductor in that situation. The conductor would know exactly what to do.

BD: Do you feel that conductors know what they're doing?

IY: Basically yes, but many times there are disappointments. There are also many times that are happy surprises. Maestro Davies [photo at right] is a very happy surprise! (laughter all around)

BD: Do conductors or performers ever find things in your music that you didn't know you'd put there?

IY: I don't think so because I always know exactly what I'm composing. I've never tried out ideas with an instrument, but always with my imagination. I've never made 85

sketches, but rather always composed each piece from the beginning to the end. It's never changed or corrected. I've always been able to hear in my ear that which I'm writing.

BD: Are you conscious of the playing time of the piece even as you're working on it?

IY: Yes. I know exactly how long it will be. As I said before, I'm taking a snip out of the cosmos and I know how many minutes I need. (laughter)

BD: Thank you for being a composer.

IY: Thank you. That makes me very happy. I still question today whether I really am a composer.

BD: Do you feel that history will be the final judge?

IY: Exactly.

http://www.bruceduffie.com/

APPENDIX C

Consent Letter from Boosey & Hawkes, Inc