일제강점기 이왕직 편 『조선음악사』 편찬연구

Abstract

This study is dedicated to the examination of Joseon Music History, the first volume of Joseon Music Series, compiled by the Yiwangjik. This book is an official historical text compiled by Yiwangjik, which demonstrated organizational effort in collecting relevant literature from Korea, China, and Japan. In the early stages of the project, Ahn Hwack, a folklorist and historian, participated, and from 1930 onward, Seong Nak-seo, a graduate of the Department of History at Keijo Imperial University, assumed responsibility. By 1940, six volumes and seven books, encompassing comprehensive research on the history and theory of music, instruments, musical scales, compositions, songs, and dance, were completed. However, for reasons that remain unspecified, the work was never published and was kept in manuscript form within the archives of the Yiwangjik. It was later transferred to the National Gugak Center. Following the liberation, several scholars utilized this invaluable material as one of the foundational resources for early Korean music research, thereby exerting a profound and enduring influence on the development of modern Korean music scholarship. Joseon Music History covers the period from ancient times to 1930, focusing on selected musical events drawn from an extensive body of material to outline the framework of Korean music history. This selective approach is one of the key contributions of the book. However, it scarcely addresses the late Joseon period or modern times, and by distributing the content across the Joseon Music Series the book avoids discussing the situation of the royal court music scene and the Royal Court Music Department during that period. The structure was designed in such a way that it prevents an understanding of the changes in the royal court music scene that occurred following the loss of national sovereignty and the subsequent downgrading of the Yi dynasty. Additionally, the work is primarily centered around historical sources, focusing on court music, and thus fails to address folk music, which represents a significant limitation. Joseon Music History is a music research text created within the framework of modern scholarship; however, given that it was compiled by the Yiwangjik, it must be critically examined within the context of colonial historiography. Future research on the music-related materials compiled by the Yiwangjik is essential.