A view of music widespread these days revels a physical phenomenon of sound in the category of material things. This tendency distorts the character of traditional music. and much is lost. Korea s kŏmun go music is a representative example. To grasp the essential nature of kŏmun go music, one must penetrate the symbolic and connotative meanings that are hidden within the music. kŏmun go music bears an extra-musical dimension. In the Shilla period, it reflected a cosmology rooted in the spiritualism and in the unity of nature, and in the Chosŏn period, under the influence of Confucianism. it came to be associated with the formation of human character. What we must grasp in the context of today s musical world is that the spirituality implied in the kŏmun go music of the past can open up new horizons if brought into contact with present-day musical life. This is connected with the task of bringing Korean music into the 21st century as a major world music.
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