The Magnificent and Grand Beauty in Korean Traditional Music

Music reflects one's life and history in a particular culture. It is created by the people within a given natural environment. Musical activities and sounds are diverse, as their subjects and recipients are different in a society. By the same token, other arts can be a similar situation within the same culture and tradition. In this respect, Korean traditional music should be related to other arts such as paintings, mural paintings, architectures, dancing, literature, religion, when it comes to talk about its feeling and beauty. The article aims to introduce readers and listeners alike to some aesthetic terminologies used in Korean arts and to apply them to some musical repertoire and genres. They are as follows: the beauties of magnificence 장려미壯麗美; grandeur 웅혼미雄渾美; nobility 고결미高潔美; simplicity 간소미簡素美; length 유장미悠長美; randomness 무작위의 미無作爲美; 'han' 한恨의 멋; excitement and enjoyment 신바람과 흥興의 미; spontaneity/ improvisation 즉흥卽興의 미 and satire 해학미諧謔美. As music is seen as rather abstractive, regarded as a 'frozen architecture', such terms as represented in visual arts will be greatly helpful to understand musical sounds.