KJCKorea
Journal Central

Isang Yun’s the first five early songs, composed between 1941 and 1948, have the same composition historical context of a national vocal music style, which 1940’s Korean composers tried to find. Among his early songs, <Dahlmuri>, composed in 1948, is generally evaluated as a song of Western music style and technique. However, this song can be assessed as a song expressing aesthetic characteristic of Korean traditional poetry and song, and unique characteristics of Korean language. Song <Dahlmuri>, taking lyrics of Mok-wol Park’s 「Dahlmuri」 where indigenous lyric and the spirit of korean traditional life, interprets poetic expressions and emotions through a musical language. Following the form and rhythm of a poem, musical form and structure of <Dahlmuri> reflects traditional yin and yang ideas, and circulatory concept of time. Moreover, through repetition of a few of musical materials and alterations, <Dahlmuri> expresses beauties of omit, implication, simplicity, and space. Furthermore, it naturally expresses the characteristic of Korean through disposition of text and lengthy curved melody on the basis of skeletal tone and chungmori rhythm pattern. <Dahlmuri> seeks Korean art song’s direction, with national identity and artistry, by accommodating traditional song’s aesthetic characteristic. Vocalization and Pronunciation matching Korean characteristic and emotion, and shigimsae which is the expression of space between note and note rather than note written on staff notation are important elements that have to be considered in <Dahlmuri>’s performance interpretation.

Isang Yun, Isang Yun’s <Dahlmuri>, Korean traditional Ga-gok, Korean art song, Korean traditional poetry and song