2005-2162 The Buddha’s birthday illuminates Seoul

Culture
Updating a moving
musical tradition
Lee An-sam, a Korean composer, says,
“There can be preferences, but there’s
no room for prejudice” in judging classical
and popular music.
Ask any young Korean on the
streets if they listen to gagok,
classical Korean songs.
The answer, most likely,
will be no.
They may even have to struggle to
remember the titles of the most famous
pieces: “Bongsunga” (Garden Balsam),
“Geujibap” (In Front of That House),
and “Gohyangsaenggak” (Thoughts of
Home), to name a few. Gagok has long
given voice to quintessential Korean
sentiments. But since the influx of Western
music in the mid-20th century,
things have changed.
Classical Korean songs have been
largely shunned by the public, deemed
old-fashioned and melodramatic.
Today, gagok are mostly absent from
TV, radio and other mass media.
These pieces sound like Western
opera, with emotional and poetic lyrics,
classical musical accompaniment and a
theatrical singing style. In fact, many
gagok use as lyrics some of Korea’s most
famous poems.
Lee An-sam, 66, has been an evangelist
for classical Korean songs for
some time. He’s been on the gagok circuit
for about four decades, and he first
began composing in his 20s. He says
that classical Korean songs are facing “a
historic watershed” today.
“If classical Korean songs don’t
change, they will be history, buried with
the passage of time,” Lee said firmly in a
recent interview at his small studio in
downtown Seoul.
Lee has been at the forefront of
efforts to update gagok, and to fight stereotypes
about them. He even invented
a new genre, which he calls “Clapop,”
several months ago, using his experience
and the network he’s built over the
years to encourage well-known singers
Singer sets out
to save Korean
gagok through
fusion with
popular sounds
Lee An-sam’s “clapop”
albums update gagok for
modern times.
[JoongAng Ilbo]
such as Soprano Kang He-jeong to create albums and
hold concerts.
“It’s natural that people find gagok difficult and
rather unfriendly, because they’re very literary, philosophical
and profound. In that sense, their target audience
is those with a taste for literature and philosophy,”
Lee said.
That is why Lee thought it would be paradoxical to
try to appeal to the general public with existing songs,
which are sophisticated and refined. Instead he has
pushed forward with changes in form, rhythm and
harmony.
“I realized that in order to get closer to the general
public, music had to be made more easy, fun and
dynamic. That is what Clapop is like.”
Listening to Lee’s album, “Lyric-Clapop,” is of
course not exactly a traditional experience. But still, it
does not veer too far from the elements of gagok:
poetic lyrics, and a certain degree of solemnity and
gravitas.
Although he has his roots in classical music, Lee
says he quite often listens to pop music, even singing
some at karaoke. Though to him pop music sounds
complex, confused, even disorderly at times, he said
he respects it because it is a reflection of a modern
society that is just as complex, confused and chaotic.
Lee is also embracing the culture of modern times
— the Internet. He opened an online cafe on the Daum
portal last summer, and it now has some 800 members,
spreading the “good news” about classical songs.
He held a concert especially for his members on April
18.
“Music is a mirror to a certain country, people and
culture. There are different languages, but the same
musical notes. That is why there can be preferences,
but there is no room for prejudice, be it classical or
pop,” Lee said. Lee has written about 200 classical
songs. The most famous include “Deep in My Heart,”
“When Buckwheat Flowers Blossom” and “Good
Shepherd.” He is now working on his seventh album
and will hold his sixth annual concert in coming
months. By Kim Hyung-eun
You can get a glimpse of his activities through http://cafe.
daum.net/ansamlee.
[joongAng Ilbo]
24 korea May 2009 May 2009 korea 25