The sound of Korea: twenty first century Korean choral music
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Abstract
South Korea has seventy professional choirs and is one of the leading choral musiccommunities in Asia and around the world. Korean choral compositions are frequently performed by foreign choirs. This manuscript includes an overview of various types of Korean choral music and notable Korean composers for non-native conductors. It begins with chronology of Korean choral m a brief usic and highlights eleven popular contemporary Korean composers and their music. The works detailed in this manuscript are each included in a new professionally recorded album entitled The Sound of Korea (21st Century Korean Choral Music) featuring the Seoul Vocal Artists. They are discussed in the order in which they are recorded on the album, which is organized according to the following themes: Poetry Settings, Church Anthems, Elements of Jazz, and Elements of Traditional Korean Music. Korean composers often ensure that the meaning of texts is intricately connected to their musical settings. The Korean poetry settings included on this album typify how music and poetry both have repetitions for emphasis, as well as similarities in structures, rhythms, dynamics, and tempo. Church anthems as a genre began with the arrival of Western missionaries in the 1880’s. Today they remain an important genre of Korean choral music and often share similar characteristics, including a prelude, an interlude, and frequent use of a main melody. Many Korean choral composers studied at music institutions known for their Jazz studies, which inspired those composers to infuse jazz harmonies and scat singing in their compositions. Finally, many composers include elements of traditional Korean folk music in their contemporary works. Composers use various elements like folk song melodies, traditional rhythms, singing styles, and modes. By providing a brief analysis of these eleven contemporary Korean choral compositions, this manuscript might help non-Korean conductors recognize various styles of Korean choral music and assist them in their preparations for performing these and other Korean choral works.