온고(溫故)의 시각으로 조망한 한국음악의 신지평

Abstract

During the twentieth century, Korea experienced unprecedentedly rapid change. Colonization, war, dictatorship and ideological turmoil were only the part the Koran people had to undergo. Traditional culture has faltered as agricultural society gave way to industrial society and the inflow of the western culture tremendously impacted on the Korean culture. Especially, the influence of the western music was enormous enough to fill almost all the concert and the musical education. While the western music flooded, the traditional music struggled to survive by insisting on its own legitimacy and cultural uniqueness. The dual structure made of two kinds of music has continued, causing sometimes conflict and discord, sometimes reconciliation and adoption. However, from the longer view, I am sure that the twentieth century Korean music was not disastrous. Today's dual structure might conceive a favorable future like spring comes after long winter. The fusion of the western music and the Korean music seems to be not easy because the one is based on reason and logic and the other based on emotion and spontaneousness. But if the two meet together, it is possible to create the third, new trend of music. We can see it in the massive interest in the oriental thought and the rediscovery of Sŏnbi mentality in the Korean tradition as a cure of the capitalistic discrepancy. Furthermore, the new generation with twenty-first century sensibility is constantly pursuing the new art. From this point of view, Korea is likely to be the field of new trend of art worthy of twenty-first century. The Korean traditional music and the western music will dialectically transform as thesis-antithesis-syntheses and eventually create the new music.