Copyright 2013 Heejin Kim MILITARY BAND MUSICIANS ON THE BORDER: CROSSING OVER MUSICAL GENRES IN THE TRANSNATIONAL SPACE OF THE KOREAN WAR BY HEEJIN KIM DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Gabriel Solis, Chair Professor Nancy Abelmann Professor Jeffrey Magee Professor Thomas Turino ABSTRACT This dissertation examines Korean War period music and explains the musical encounters and developments that resulted from the military collaboration between South Korea (the Republic of Korea) and the United States in the initial stage of the Cold War. In particular, this dissertation looks closely at South Korean military band musicians who played a wide range of music for both military and civilian audiences, crossing over the national and cultural borders between the two countries. Locating their experiences within the South Korean and US military music systems and more broadly within their socio-cultural, historical, and transnational context, I demonstrate that military agents played a significant role as cultural agents in initiating and accelerating transnational musical flow and travels and in shaping musicultural developments in South Korea. These discussions are based on data collected through in-depth interviews with musicians who were active during the Korean War and through archival research both in South Korea and in the US. The analyses of this data are combined with analyses of selected military marches and popular songs written or played in South Korea from 1950 to 1961; they are further interpreted within a conceptual framework based on theories of transnationalism and hybridization and in relation to Korean nationalism. During the Korean War, South Korean military musicians composed and performed Korean military marches as part of the musical nationalism of the South Korean state, while still embracing transnational march forms and practices. During this initial stage of South Korean military march development, the military musicians frequently played John Philip Sousa’s marches rather than their own. Despite their different points of origin both the limited Korean marches and the readily available Sousa marches were remarkably flexible in their ideological functions, able to be employed for both nationalist and transnational politics within the Cold War context. Simultaneously, a dynamic ii hybridization process in South Korean popular music developed during the Korean War period through encounters with the US military and their music, spurred by the preference for diverse musical expressions and grounded on the compatibility with the historical dimensions of the transnational musicultural formations in Korea and with the ideological and socio-cultural dimensions of 1950s South Korean society. iii For my Parents iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation represents the fruit of my dissertation committee’s nurturing intellect and support. Professor Gabriel Solis, my advisor, made it possible for me to complete this dissertation project. He guided me, patiently and wisely, in the best direction I can imagine, and I am truly grateful for his advice, support, and mentoring. Under his guidance obstacles were removed, and I took strength from his endless encouragement. This dissertation is a result of countless discussions with him, and his thoughtful insights and feedback are evident in every part of this dissertation. Professor Nancy Abelmann’s support and guidance were also critical, and I am deeply thankful to her. Her insights were crucial in structuring this dissertation, and her comments resulted in significant improvements. Her thoughtful mentoring made the happy moments even better and the difficult times manageable. I thank Professor Jeffrey Magee for his inspiration in helping me develop ideas for this work and for his feedback that pointed me in a fertile direction for further development. I deeply appreciate his scholarly integrity. I also thank Professor Thomas Turino for providing theoretical perspectives that were important in reformulating my ideas about nationalism. I greatly appreciate his challenging questions. I owe much gratitude to the professors who taught me at Korea National University of Arts as well as at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They provided the ground from which I was able to push myself into intensely focused studies in musicology and eventually develop this dissertation project. Indeed, I must thank all my music teachers, from my childhood piano teachers to my adulthood music theory and music history teachers. In addition, I thank all the professors in and outside the University of Illinois whom I met while writing my dissertation and who gave me invaluable feedback during individual meetings and through email exchanges. v The learning and thinking for this project took place not only in formal academic settings but also were nourished in various warm relationships. I was lucky to have wonderful colleagues and friends in the School of Music and in Korean Studies at the University of Illinois, and numerous discussions with them about my work are incorporated in this dissertation. Throughout my graduate life I received ample support from my friends in and outside the US. I thank them all for their kindness and friendship. While doing my doctoral studies, Illinois has become my second home, where I had my Marshall-Ford family. They always provided support and advice essential for me, and they became a truly impressive model for cross-cultural understandings. A great thrill of learning was experienced through my field research. Special thanks go to veteran musicians, civilian musicians, and non-musician veterans from the Korean War who shared their experiences and knowledge of music with me. Their recollections and opinions are a significant part of the backbone of this dissertation. I also thank current military band officers and band members whom I met during my fieldwork and the members of the Cultural Affairs Division of the ROK Ministry of National Defense who supported my research project. I deeply appreciate their help in enhancing my understanding of military music and collecting data. In addition, I thank the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois and the Graduate College of the University for their financial support for this research. My family’s support was essential for my doctoral studies and research. My parents’ wisdom and care have allowed me to feel secure and to proceed with a positive outlook. My siblings’ care and support were also crucial for me to continue my work. I was nurtured in a musical environment and by discussions on social issues in our home; and I gained emotional stability while having conversations with my parents and siblings. I thank my parents, siblings and all my family members for their love, thoughtfulness, and confidence in me. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS NOTES ON TRANSLATION AND METHODS OF TRANSLITERATION...............................1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………................................................2 CHAPTER 2: THE SOUTH KOREAN AND US MILITARY MUSIC SYSTEMS DURING THE KOREAN WAR: MILITARY AGENTS AS CULTURAL AGENTS……...….49 CHAPTER 3: SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY MUSICIANS: RECOLLECTIONS ON BORDER CROSSINGS…………………………………………………………………...103 CHAPTER 4: SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY MARCHES: MUSICAL NATIONALISM IN THE TRANSNATIONAL COLD WAR………………………………………..............….147 CHAPTER 5: SOUTH KOREAN POPULAR MUSIC: BORDER CROSSINGS AND HYBRIDIZATION PROCESSES……………………………………………………….185 CHAPTER 6: NAVIGATING TRANSNATIONAL MUSICAL FLOWS SHORED UP BY THE POWER OF THE STATE AND NATIONALIST AGENDAS………………………………………………………….…248 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………………..257 vii NOTES ON TRANSLATION AND METHODS OF TRANSLITERATION All translations from Korean are by the author. In the cases in which books and articles published in the Korean language have an English translation of the title as well as their Korean title, the English title of the publication is added in the list of Works Cited enclosed by brackets next to this author’s translation of the title. Korean words are Romanized in this dissertation using the McCune-Reischauer system. Most of the Korean names in this dissertation are written using the McCune-Reischauer, but there are exceptions. Korean last names that have their conventional spellings appear in this dissertation in the conventional Romanization. Korean authors’ names written in English in their publications appear in this dissertation just as they are Romanized in their own publications. One author’s name is Romanized using both the McCune-Reischauer system and an exceptional way in the citations and in the list of Works Cited, and the two different spellings are put next to each other with the second one in brackets: Lee, Paekch’ŏn [Lee, Baik-chun]. His name Paekch’ŏn Lee in the McCune-Reischauer appears in the main text as one of the veteran military musicians, appearing like other veteran musicians’ names. However, his article published in the English language has a different Romanization. Therefore in the list of Works Cited and the citations in the text I put both spellings. Similarly, the following three composers’ names are Romanized using the McCune-Reischauer system, with different spellings that appear in published sources added in brackets: Ikt’ae An [Eak-Tai Ahn],