동화(同化)와 이화(異化)의 문화정치, 1925년의 음악계

Abstract

This paper examines the music society under the cultural rule during 1920s. After the March 1st Movement, the Japanese changed the way of colonial rule to cultural politics and allowed the publication of Korean newspapers. Nationalists used newspapers and magazines as spaces for political discourse, while carrying out cultural movements within the limits allowed by the Japanese. The cultural movement of the 1920s was especially led by intellectuals who studied in Japan, and was characterized by the development of a new cultural movement modeled on Western modern art and artistic activities influenced by socialism. Musicians from Tokyo, such as Kim Young-hwan, Hong Nan-pa, Yoon Shim-deok, and Han Ki-joo, also participated in the cultural movement led by colonial intellectuals. This paper examines the music society during 1920s, mainly focusing on music concerts in 1925. 1925 was the year when the first music magazine ‘The Musical World (Um-Ak-Gye)’ was published, and Hong Nan-pa advocated a professional music concert. He thought of “concert-like concerts” as “concerts for music,” in other words, a concert with Western music as its main repertoire, not a concert of social relief such as sympathetic concerts or charity concerts. However, it was also the year when the great flood in 1925 that caused tremendous damage to the Korean Peninsula, revealing unsubstantiality of imperialism’s assimilation policy and national discrimination of Japan. Concerts about flood relief took place across the country beyond Gyeongseong, and by banning concerts specifying flood relief, concerts become an important medium for forming a sense of unity in the national community. There was a trend of music and dance, as another aspect of music concerts during 1920s. The children’s/boys movement, which began at the Cheondogyo Juvenile Association, advocated the training of a healthy body, and music and dance became a musical phenomenon characterizing this era. Music concerts in 1925 were hosted by children’s and juvenile associations, Sunday schools of each church, and kindergartens. The participation of all musicians active at the time stands out. Through the concert in 1925, it was confirmed that there was a politics of exclusion and discrimination behind the assimilationist policy of the Japanese colonial rule. What the Japanese imperialism aimed at for cultural rule was the division within nationalism and was to make pro-Japanese group through it, and the music community could not escape from the influence of cultural rule. History proves this.