Hilary V Finchum

When people gather to share their voices, they both claim a public role and re-center narratives to include their experiences and their perspectives. Such expressivities are key to building and nurturing fluid social relationships. This article focuses on the role of hŭnggŭlsori  (murmuring sound), an individualistic and improvisatory expression of female desire and angst. In Korea, hŭnggŭlsori  has served as an emotional outlet for women, uttered either in hopes the message could be received or, at least, released onto the air. Here, I examine diverse contexts for the performance of hŭnggŭlsori  and consider the ways by which performers evoke individual, community and regional identities through use of melodic and narrative tropes. By examining public presentations of a once-private form of female articulation, the paper touches on the ways by which concepts of genre and related expressivities transform in accordance with societal transformations and the human relationships therein.

Auto-ethnographies tracing the fieldwork encounters of anthropologists have become integral to understand the processes of the ethnographic endeavor. In ethnomusicology, ethnographic methodology remains the sine qua non distinguishing our work from that of the musicologist. The field is ubiquitous in our work as the space within which we accumulate the experiences informing our analyses. Equally ubiquitous is the assumption that the field exists outside of our ‘real lives’ (Rasmussen 2004). Yet, with transcultural professional lives becoming increasingly common, and more scholars establishing professional roots in locations formerly allocated as ‘the field,’ there exists an obvious need for a reconsideration of and new fluidity in ethnographic research. If “fieldwork is, in reality, just living” (Reed 2003), then this way of life deserves a consideration in all its complexities, diving into the interstices of personal, professional, and artistic identities.

In this paper, I explore the overlapping and ephemeral spaces of the ethnographic self in the Korean context. Drawing on my own experiences as a non-Korean researcher of Korean music and professor in a department of Korean music, the paper inescapably takes the form of auto-ethnography. The paper uncovers the ways by which performance-based practice of bi-musicality complicates the identity of the researcher, as the ability to perform on an instrument tied to local notations of race-based nationalism transforms the scholar into a curiosity. Through an analysis of my own bimusical practice, I scrutinize the benefits and pitfalls of the constant presence of the foreign researcher in the Korean academic and social milieu.

The construct of interculturality has influenced significantly the positioning of the works of non-European, non-American composers in the realm of international composition. The common paradigm of early-twentieth-century and post-war compositions embraced a centeredness of the European classical art tradition around which the “rest” circulated and/or served as resources for creativity. Mid-twentieth-century Korean composers such as Sukhi Kang and Isang Yun adapted to such paradigms as they incorporated their individual stamp on the foundational power structures of post-modern composition. As time passed, and more artists from Korea were developing their own paradigms of “contemporary composition” and artists outside of Korea became increasingly sensitive to pitfalls of Orientalism and appropriation, a dialogue began to form. This paper takes as its heart both the allegorical and concrete dialogues inherent to contemporary composition engaging with the instruments, aesthetics and ideas of Korean music traditions together with those of other musical traditions. To avoid unintentionally reinserting an East/West binary in analysis, I examine representative work of two artists from two very different cultural and performance contexts as well as different but overlapping time spaces: composer Tai-Bong Chun and performing artist, jazz vocalist and composer Jen Shyu. In examining the creative philosophies and creations of these artists, I focus on the authorial agency (Everett 2004:4) of the individual artist as a guide for interpretation of their work. I argue for a shift in the assumptions underscoring the meaning of “intercultural composition.” By focusing on the personal experience of composition which draws on disparate cultural roots, the aim of this paper is to argue for the importance of artistic habitus—the space of possibilities wherein which creative choice materializes—in considerations of intercultural composition.

Intercultural composition materialized at a time during which Euro-American social and artistic values transformed into a force of globalization. Such a force profoundly impacted political, educational and artistic institutions in East Asia and helped shape perceptions of the relationship between the domestic and the foreign which have continued into the 21st century. China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan share something in common: a general acceptance of Western music as the basis of contemporary musical development and change. Perhaps the most defining element of this affinity is the ‘interculturality’ seemingly inexorable to the very concept of contemporary composition. Despite the wholesale acceptance of European art music as ‘modern’ music in the mid-20th century, artists in these Northeast Asian countries simultaneously acknowledge the importance of traditional music to the identity of a modern nation. Acknowledged, as well, is the somewhat marginal status these music traditions have held within rapidly developing 20th and 21st century society. Caught between the rhetoric of national representation and long-established cultural and racial power discrepancies, the East Asian composer embodies a liminality in international composition; on one hand perennially marked by foreignness and on the other labeled a vehicle for progressive national culture. Insider/outsider dichotomies have remained foundational to the reception and interpretation of compositions by non-European, non-U.S.-American composers into the new millennium. As more and more composers, performers and educators have turned to the music expressivities of East Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan for artistic partnerships, issues of identity, authenticity, ownership and culture have become more complicated. The articles in this special issue explore constructs of interculturality in the East Asian context. By examining the particularities of nation, genre, musical roots and composer identity, each paper both explores and questions the validity of the interculturality construct. The contributors to this issue aim to re-appropriate interculturality by exploring the nuances of East Asian compositional perspectives.

For many scholars of Korean music, the southwestern province of the Korean peninsula remains a bright spot for folk performance activity. Residents of Jindo are widely acknowledged to be among the most proficient performers of Korean folk traditions. Thanks to the efforts of some key individuals, a few local genres underwent a period of refinement during the latter half of the 20th century which led to these genres’ designations as intangible cultural heritage. The island of Jindo,
alone, hosts four performance traditions designated as national intangible heritage with many others designated regional and/or local intangible heritage. Many residents of the island, while depending on agricultural activities to earn a livelihood, began focusing energies on learning local music traditions both as a way to cushion their incomes and vie for coveted designation as human cultural treasure.This paper focuses on the efforts of the Sopo Village eomeoni noraebang
(mother’s singing room) in resurrecting and promoting folk song heritage. Instituted and curated by Han Namrye with the help of local government funding, the Sopori eomeoni noraebang became both creative and social outlet for women of the village. Preceding the village’s current jeonsugwan, the noraebang served as a crucial vehicle for maintaining and teaching local folk songs as well as provided a space for the learning of professionalized genres suchas pansori. The
paper examines both the primary performance repertory of members as well as the tension between perceived local standards and those promulgated by the official intangible heritage system. Balanced between need to preserve a local identity and promotion of the village within a contemporary tourism-based economic climate,
the noraebang vitalizes local performance tradition as it reinvents and personalizes it. The paper argues for a consideration of grassroots efforts in cultural reconstruction and preservation in addition to the political and economic incentives driving cultural production in this southwestern corner of the peninsula.

Drawing on the success of K-Pop, Arirang is now marketed as a national brand, deeply entwined in the world music commercial mechanism. While there is no doubt that world-wide attention given to K-Pop could influence the reception of Korean traditional performing arts outside of Korea, the domestic globalization focus tends to emphasis Korean culture’s outward trajectory. Without negating the viability of Arirang’s alignment with K-Pop, in this paper I suggest we steer the conversation from one of globalization to one of a pre-existing and continual presence in the United States. Such a presence began and has been nurtured through Korean immigration to the United States, Korea/U.S. relations, and, more recently, multicultural education. In this paper, I consider the musical and educational roots of “Arirang” in the U.S. Although arguably problematic and in need of attention, these roots carry more weight than a tenuous focus on Arirang as a commercial endeavor.
The paper critically examines the multicultural music curriculum in the U.S. as both a real and potential force for placing and shaping “Arirang” in the American musical imaginary. The song “Arirang” is typically taught as the example of Korean music and culture in the US multicultural music curriculum. Although a positive step towards recognizing a Korean domestic population as well as the importance of Korean music in the world today, the curriculum is riddled with problems. Through an examination of these problems, the paper uncovers the weaknesses in Korean music education in the U.S. and suggests ways the curriculum could improve. Finally, the paper suggests scholars of Korean music work towards the development of accurate and user-friendly materials with educational goals in mind. This paper begins a dialogue regarding the creation of accurate and consistent Korean music educational materials with “Arirang” at the heart of this endeavor.

Put multiculturalism and Korea in the same sentence and a potential paradox materializes. Korea’s ethnic nationalism, with its espousal of one people, one blood, has driven government policies and local identity for decades. In recent years, escalating numbers of foreign workers and “marriage migrants” have led local and national governments to develop social programs designed to assimilate immigrants into Korean society as well as educate native Koreans about these foreigners. Various multicultural family centers, like the Center for a Multicultural Korea (Han’guk Tamunhwa Sent’ŏ/CMCK) in Seoul, have been set up around the peninsula to advance this goal. In this paper, I examine the Seoul-area Center’s spearhead program, the Rainbow Chorus, as a visible endeavor both projecting the Center’s goals as well working within a specific Korean construal of the term “multicultural;” a construct engaging domestic socioeconomic and cultural hierarchies as well as emphasizing assimilation. The Center, choral program, and choristers represent a contemporary liminality within Korean society; one balanced between complete assimilation and the desire to nurture Korea’s burgeoning diversity through integration and education. The choristers themselves serve as symbolic icons of contemporary demographic change. Simultaneously, the Chorus embodies a potential paradigm shift, acting as a metaphor for Korea’s hoped-for trajectory: a future in which a diverse Korea maintains equal footing with global competitors. Through a heuristic case study examining the choristers’ training and performance processes as well as the Chorus’s rhetorical connections to Korea’s multiculturalism, this paper offers a perspective on the meaning of ‘multiculturalism’ for children in the South Korean context.

Chapter on Korean new folk songs of the early 20th century.

Korean pop music: riding the wave was the first book in English to consider Korean pop music. The book offers a comprehensive account, written by thirteen scholars of Korean Studies, ethnomusicology and popular culture, charting Korean pop from the 1930s to the present day, from genres imitative of ...

Publisher: eprints.soas.ac.uk
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2006

Edited by Andrew N. Weintraub and Bart Barendregt 2017. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 363 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8248-6986-1 (hard cover). Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities is a co-edited volume and the product of the Voices of Asian Modernities (VAMP) project. VAMP represents a series of collaborations between the University of Pittsburg, Leiden University, and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). VAMP developed through conferences on two continents involving approximately 30 scholars, all gathered to discuss the roles of female popular music performers of Asia. The contributors hail from fields as diverse as film studies, history, musicology, anthropology, and literature, among others. This volume represents a much-need English-language publication on popular music throughout Asia, and particularly the contributions of women to popular cultural developments throughout the region. The book is a solid product of 'Asian Studies,' a sometimes nebulous and massive area of study encompassing all research connected to the geographic region of Asia (including Northeast, Southeast, East, South and, sometimes, Central Asia). One of the difficulties of area studies remains its central indefinability. To say one is embarking on an 'Asian Studies' project would be the same as saying one works in 'Western Studies'; defying concise boundaries and intellectual consensus. In short, unlike musicology or history, Asian Studies is not a field of study (although the authors do, unfortunately, identify it as such), but a label indicating on which world region one focuses one's academic research. The editors identify the publication as one by and for Asian studies, citing it as the main thread connecting the volume's authors and the primary reason "the contributors do not share a methodology" (31). As a result, place and context take central stage as the authors present specific case studies of female performers in the popular realm and engage in "cross-talk" (31)