I decided to “recompose” Munmyo Ritual Music because its unique significance, history and musical characteristics attracted me. Today, Munmyo Ritual Music could be played at school on the first day of a semester or at the beginning of a day’s classes. That is because Koreans used to play this music during a ritual dedicated to great scholars of the past so that these ancestors can encourage them to study. How interesting it is! This explains how much Korean people have emphasized the importance of studying. Moreover, Munmyo Ritual Music is the oldest existing form of Korean orchestral music. Considering all of this, I came to be convinced that recomposing this piece would meet the purpose of the Recompose series: to learn something new from tradition. I then did some historical research and found out that Munmyo Ritual Music had come from China’s Song dynasty to be first introduced during Korea’s Goryeo Dynasty. At the beginning of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, the piece was rearranged and restored to become close to its original Chinese form of the BC era. In other words, this music is as old as over 2,000 years. The fact that it is no longer played in China means that it was successfully “recomposed” to become part of Korean culture. Consequently, I became eagerer to present this piece on stage. Not only its history and significance but also its musical characteristics differentiate Munmyo Ritual Music from other Korean orchestral piece. First of all, there is almost no grace note and every note is very simple. It is said that ritual music applies the principle of “simplicity for majestic music.” Interestingly, the ideal pursued by this ritual music is very similar to the one pursued by Greece’s Aristotle. As for the piece’s musical scale, a seven-note scale, which looks like the Lydian mode (medieval church music similar to the major scale except its fourth semitone), is used. Its tunes are composed of 32 notes: eight groups (maybe linked to the eight trigrams used in Daoist cosmology) of four notes. One note lasts for as long as about five seconds, so it is very difficult to catch the piece’s tones and beats. That is why one of my most important goals was to show the audience a big picture of the tunes in Munmyo Ritual Music. Such a goal became all the more important because we don’t hear this music often. What is very impressive about this piece is the fact that the end of each note goes up slightly, just as incense goes up to the sky during a ritual. I think that this expresses a scholar’s wish to continue to study to understand heaven. It also reminded me of a traditional Korean poem that says, “Even if a mountain is high, it is lower than the sky. If you go up again and again, you can reach its top.” Inspired by this poem, I made the piece’s subtitle “If You Go Up Again and Again.” The slightly rising note at the end is used as a major motif throughout the piece. Academic Ritual has three parts: overture, motif (and its variations) and finale. Hyeopjonggung (a piece whose keynote is hyeopjong) of Munmyo Ritual Music appears in the middle of the piece as a motif, and as I mentioned before, it serves as the theme of the entire piece. This is a somewhat academic piece which is focused on exploring the development potential of the original work, rather than on expressing particular emotions. While generally using basic composition techniques of Western music such as counterpoint, I added a few experimental elements regarding the possibilities of the playing styles, sound range and combination of instruments. Furthermore, keeping in mind the principle of "simplicity for majestic music," I concentrated on conveying each moment's message clearly. I personally prefer what is sophisticated and colorful, so such work was quite challenging for me. Finally, in an attempt to effectively highlight the charm of the original work and traditional Korean orchestral music, I used only the instruments that are officially played by the National Orchestra of Korea. Particularly in the case of percussion, only the instruments included in the original work (pyeonjong, pyeongyeong, bak, bu, chuk, eo, nodo, jeolgo and jingo) were used.
I decided to “recompose” Munmyo Ritual Music because its unique significance, history and musical characteristics attracted me. Today, Munmyo Ritual Music could be played at school on the first day of a semester or at the beginning of a day’s classes. That is because Koreans used to play this music during a ritual dedicated to great scholars of the past so that these ancestors can encourage them to study. How interesting it is! This explains how much Korean people have emphasized the importance of studying. Moreover, Munmyo Ritual Music is the oldest existing form of Korean orchestral music. Considering all of this, I came to be convinced that recomposing this piece would meet the purpose of the Recompose series: to learn something new from tradition. I then did some historical research and found out that Munmyo Ritual Music had come from China’s Song dynasty to be first introduced during Korea’s Goryeo Dynasty. At the beginning of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, the piece was rearranged and restored to become close to its original Chinese form of the BC era. In other words, this music is as old as over 2,000 years. The fact that it is no longer played in China means that it was successfully “recomposed” to become part of Korean culture. Consequently, I became eagerer to present this piece on stage. Not only its history and significance but also its musical characteristics differentiate Munmyo Ritual Music from other Korean orchestral piece. First of all, there is almost no grace note and every note is very simple. It is said that ritual music applies the principle of “simplicity for majestic music.” Interestingly, the ideal pursued by this ritual music is very similar to the one pursued by Greece’s Aristotle. As for the piece’s musical scale, a seven-note scale, which looks like the Lydian mode (medieval church music similar to the major scale except its fourth semitone), is used. Its tunes are composed of 32 notes: eight groups (maybe linked to the eight trigrams used in Daoist cosmology) of four notes. One note lasts for as long as about five seconds, so it is very difficult to catch the piece’s tones and beats. That is why one of my most important goals was to show the audience a big picture of the tunes in Munmyo Ritual Music. Such a goal became all the more important because we don’t hear this music often. What is very impressive about this piece is the fact that the end of each note goes up slightly, just as incense goes up to the sky during a ritual. I think that this expresses a scholar’s wish to continue to study to understand heaven. It also reminded me of a traditional Korean poem that says, “Even if a mountain is high, it is lower than the sky. If you go up again and again, you can reach its top.” Inspired by this poem, I made the piece’s subtitle “If You Go Up Again and Again.” The slightly rising note at the end is used as a major motif throughout the piece. Academic Ritual has three parts: overture, motif (and its variations) and finale. Hyeopjonggung (a piece whose keynote is hyeopjong) of Munmyo Ritual Music appears in the middle of the piece as a motif, and as I mentioned before, it serves as the theme of the entire piece. This is a somewhat academic piece which is focused on exploring the development potential of the original work, rather than on expressing particular emotions. While generally using basic composition techniques of Western music such as counterpoint, I added a few experimental elements regarding the possibilities of the playing styles, sound range and combination of instruments. Furthermore, keeping in mind the principle of "simplicity for majestic music," I concentrated on conveying each moment's message clearly. I personally prefer what is sophisticated and colorful, so such work was quite challenging for me. Finally, in an attempt to effectively highlight the charm of the original work and traditional Korean orchestral music, I used only the instruments that are officially played by the National Orchestra of Korea. Particularly in the case of percussion, only the instruments included in the original work (pyeonjong, pyeongyeong, bak, bu, chuk, eo, nodo, jeolgo and jingo) were used.
11월에 정치용의 마스터피스때 들었는데
국악의 새로운 면모를 보게 된 것 같았습니다. 국악기가 이리 아름다운 소리를 낼 수 있다는 것을 알려주셔서, 좋은 곡 작곡해주시고 좋은
연주 해주셔서 감사합니다. 앞으로도 국립극악관현악단 응원할게요.
건물이오르고 대출이또 오르면 저출산이 왔구나 얼쑤~