AMES started 2021-22 with an in-person concert exploring the music of mid-20th century Korea. Titled “Korean Music Meets European Avant-Garde,” the Korean Forum concert paid tribute to Korean composers whose careers coincided with some of the most turbulent moments in the country’s history. After World War II, Korean composers faced a twofold problem: the desire to assert their own cultural heritage and the need to respond to the recent developments in what was perceived as the musical center at the time—Western Europe. Subsequently, they blended features of traditional Korean music and those of the post-tonal, avant-garde music dominating the European music scene. The lecture concert, held in Nelson Music Room and online, provided audiences an opportunity to experience this musical blending through the performances by the Noree Chamber Soloists.
The concert opened with the music of Isang Yun (1917~1995), a pioneer of modern music in Korea. His String Quartet No. 1 (1955) earned him the coveted Seoul City Award, which enabled him to move to Germany in 1957. Once in Europe, he began foregrounding the sounds of Korean traditional music within the framework of post-tonal harmonies, a style welcomed by continental modernists. Nore for Cello and Piano (1964), introduced later in this concert, was an example of this novel style. Yun’s contemporary Unyoung La (1922~1993) also supported modern European music, yet he composed under the motto “localize first, modernize later.” His Sanjo for Violin and Piano (1955) reflected this philosophy. La stayed faithful to the work’s namesake traditional genre by adopting its exact tempo development, but added a modern flair by using dissonant harmonies.
Another avant-garde composer featured in the concert was Sun-nam Kim (1917~1983), whose life encapsulated Korea’s tragic history of division. Recognized as a champion of modern music in the early 1940s, Kim aligned himself with proletariat ideals after 1945 and focused on composing socialist anthems. He eventually moved to North Korea, where he quickly emerged as a leading revolutionary composer, but was sent to a labor camp in Sinpo by 1970 after the great purge. Unfortunately, much of his music has been lost. This concert introduced some of his surviving vocal music written in the modernist style, including Lullaby (Jajang-ga), Mountain Flower (Sanyuhwa), and Azelea (Jindallae ggot). The lyrics for these pieces were adopted by another twentieth-century composer Sung-tae Kim (1910~2012), whose songs also were presented in this program. The concert closed with two beloved Korean folk tunes, Doraji and Arirang, arranged for string quartet by contemporary composer Han-Ki Kim (b. 1954).
The performers of the concert included Hahnsol Kim (violin), Sungjin Lee (viola), Yoon Lee (piano), Eun Byoul Song (soprano), Yezu Woo (violin), and Yi Qun Xu (cello). These award-winning musicians have performed in concert halls around the world and regularly appear in prestigious festivals, such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Verbier, Heifetz, and the Perlman Music Program. You can learn more about the Noree Chamber Soloists at www.noree.org.
Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies