ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author details the process of re-creation of the tradition through her collaborations with a prominent Korean composer, Dae-seong Kim. In 2010, she commissioned Kim to write two compositions for the taegum and Western instruments. The author’s main purpose in this project was to explore how nongum can be a tool in the creation of new music. She explores the way that the modernisation of the traditional practice affects the original melodies, articulations and even stage settings. The author discusses how the stage set-up and contemporary music writing affect her physical gestures in taegum performance. Korean traditional music is, like many other traditional musics, ‘a uniquely multi-dimensional performing art, a tradition that is outstanding for its choreographic and kinesthetic elements, its synesthetic nature, as well as its aural beauty’. Based on the practical project, the author explores the resulting issues, making a connection to the somatic movement considered in respect of the ‘cultural relativism’ of performance.
