한국 불교음악의 역사적 전개 고찰과 전망

Abstract

The history of The Korean Buddhist music dates back to as early as the 2nd year of Goguryeo King Sosoorim’s reign (372) when Buddhism was introduced to the land for the first time and should cover the entire development to this date, which spans over 1,600 years. The extensive scope of research is overwhelming and research efforts are limited at best. Against this backdrop, this study aims to examine how the historical development of The Korean Buddhist music has unfolded over such a long period of time and to understand how the Buddhist music is supposed to further develop in this land in and after the 21st century. Since the Three Kingdoms period, followed by Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty period, Japanese colonial period, and to this date, the history of the Buddhist music has unfolded in line with the ‘ups and downs of the history of Buddhism’. The Buddhist music is characterized by various development paths based on historical peculiarities over different periods, including protection by the royal family during the Three Kingdoms period, aspect of Buddhist music during the Goryeo Dynasty period, policy to worship Confucianism and suppress Buddhism during the Joseon Dynasty period, harsh repression of Buddhism during the Japanese colonial period, and the present Buddhist music seeking new ways of proliferating Buddhism among the public, which requires an effort to understand the different characteristics of different periods by identifying key perspectives and tasks of Buddhist music in different periods. In this vein, this article includes not only the history of 'Beompae(Buddhist Chant)', a collective term for Buddhist music in a narrow sense but also all Buddhist music characterized by with Buddhism that is communicated in this land and extends its coverage even to Chanbulga(Buddhist hymn)讚佛歌 music created in and after the 20th century. It also examines the historical development of Buddhism related music in this land. Another task of this article is to understand the Myeongching-gagok 名稱歌曲 sung by monks in the early Joseon Dynasty period, music created for public mission work during the Joseon Dynasty period, the meaning of the existence of ‘Hwacheong’ 和請, and the traces of Buddhist music existing in the music of the Joseon Dynasty period.