ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to show how traditional music has been reinterpreted in a new creation by the contemporary composer, Sngkn Kim. One of the composer’s influencers, Isang Yun, was chosen to explain Kim’s musical identity correspondingly. New compositions within the frame of ch’angjak kugak have used various levels of stylistic modification to effectively identify ‘Koreanness’ in a contemporary context, but there have been many disputes about the extent and efficiency of composers’ attempts to revive traditional heritage. Kim believed that the way for Korean traditional music to survive in the modern world was to return to court music, the core of the tradition, rather than adjusting the roots to contemporary audiences’ tastes. Kim believes that the traditional elements of court music can function as new material for ch’angjak kugak – creative music based on the Korean tradition. His response was to return to the essence of tradition as a ‘new’ sound for ‘old’ Korea.
