ABSTRACT
We saw in the previous chapter how the combination of rhythmic subtleties with a preference for thin textures goes a long way toward characterizing Hwang’s personal style. The same combination recurs across later works that otherwise may sound very different from each other, and I believe it helps account for a quality that many listeners have found in Hwang’s music, and that the composer acknowledges as a goal: that of being “meditative” (myŏngsangjŏk; e.g. Yun chunggang 2003: 152–3). for instance, an anonymous article in the newspaper Munhwa Ilbo (June 30, 2007) described Hwang’s music as
clear and elegant. The expression “to rinse one’s ears” would seem to apply here. Your head seems to become completely empty too. A resonance that passes through the ears to reverberate inside your head makes you sink automatically into meditation. (reprinted in Hwang Byungki 2008: 132)
