Last Wednesday, composer and komungo virtuoso Jin Hi Kim presented a guest concert and lecture. Her lecture presented basic background information about Korean traditional music and introduced some of her beliefs and experiences that she incorporates into her composition; her concert performance, titled “Komungo Muse and Permutations,” included traditional and modern works on both electric and acoustic komungo.
A board zither with frets, silk-wound strings and moveable bridges, the komungo is played by plucking or tapping the strings with a small bamboo "wand" — a plectrum. Originating in Korea in the fourth century, the komungo was not designed for public performance but rather for male Confucian scholars to play as an element of meditation. Thus, there is no standard repertoire for komungo aside from sanjo, which, according to the program notes, is "a long folk-style virtuoso piece that is based on six rhythmic cycles moving from slow to fast." To demonstrate the traditional style, Kim played an excerpt from the sanjo “Chajin Mori” as well as the komungo part from a traditional Korean ensemble piece, “Dasrum.”
To the Western listener, the goals of Korean music are completely foreign. Where Western music strives to entertain or to express an idea or emotion, traditional Korean music’s goal is to help the listener find a quiet inner space to go to for meditation. As Kim said: "I have no story to tell you."
Instead, the focus of the performer is to produce what Kim calls a "living tone," a concept that the program notes describe as the belief that "each note is alive, embodying its own individual shape, sound and sub-text deeply rooted in Korean traditional music…a reverence for the ‘life’ of tone, the color and nuance granted each articulation."
Additionally, the emphasis of komungo performance is not on virtuosity, but on depth of expression.
"It’s not about techniques, it’s about your soul," Kim said.
Because there is less preoccupation with technical facility and performance of a set repertoire, the realm of music is more accessible to people who are not formally-trained musicians. Kim identifies one of the major differences between Western music and Korean music; in Korea, Kim said, "Music and dance was available for everyone."
After performing the two traditional komungo pieces, Kim performed six of her own compositions. The first three, titled “Self Portrait,” “Ssareng” and “Core,” were performed on acoustic komungo, and represented an interesting blend of Korean and Western music elements. Her next three pieces, titled “Komungo In and Out”, “Saturn’s Moons,” and “Doduri,” were performed on the electric komungo with computerized accompaniment. The electric komungo is Kim’s creation; she conceptualized, helped design and now plays the only electric komungo in the world.
As a student of traditional Korean music, Kim realized early in her life that an artificial barrier had been erected between Western music and all other music. She felt that such a dichotomy should not exist, and decided that she would like to become a composer and to integrate traditional Korean music with classical Western music.
She realized that to do this she would have to study Western music, so, after receiving her BA in Korean Traditional Music from Seoul National University, she moved to the US to continue her studies. She had difficulty finding a school, program or teacher who shared her goals, but finally settled on Mills College, from which she received her MFA in electronic music/composition. During her stay in America, she also became acquainted with the innovative composer John Cage, who was also interested in combining Western and Eastern music. He became a sort of mentor to her; she identifies him as the composer who had the greatest influence on her work. She suggested that she and Cage were both trying to accomplish the same thing, only from different directions: he was starting with Western music and incorporating Eastern elements, whereas she was starting with Eastern music and incorporating Western elements.
Kim’s Eastern and Western music integrations have included collaborations with jazz musicians, improvisers, classical musicians and MIDI systems. Kim has received numerous awards for her cross-cultural work; in 2001 she received the composer award from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts as well as the Wolff Ebermann Prize for 2001 at the International Theater Institute in Germany.
Kim’s performance and lecture at Oberlin, as part of a three-week long tour of the United States, were sponsored by Oberlin Shansi and the James Hall Fund for Musicology.