A Story of Oseonbo: Sounds Lost in Translation
2022
Single-channel video, stereo sound
47 minutes 8 seconds
This work examines a musical score created during Korea’s modernization period, a time marked by the influx of foreign cultures and the frequent erosion or transformation of traditional practices.
Joseon Guak Yeongsan Hoesang is a score transcribed in 1914 by Insik Kim, a teacher at the Joseon Court Music Study Institute, who translated the yanggeum (Korean dulcimer) score for the piece Yeongsan Hoesang into Western staff notation. Featuring gueum (a form of oral notation or symbols used in place of musical notes to mimic instrument sounds) written in Korean language, the score is the earliest known example of Korea’s old notations being adapted into the Western notation system by a Korean. Musicians at the time compiled scores on staff notation in an effort to introduce traditional Korean music to the outside world or to incorporate foreign sensibilities into Korean musical compositions. However, at the same time, there were also sounds and techniques in traditional music that could not be adequately conveyed through Western staff notation.
Centered mainly on interviews with traditional music performers, composers, and researchers, the work reconstructs their various speculations on the sounds and sentiments in the score that have been lost or transformed in the process of translation. By combining archival materials and ordinary video footage, the work also investigates the colonial history of music education and contemporary musicians’ ambivalence toward what has remained through this educational legacy. In doing so, it raises questions about the institutionalization of staff notation and other forms of musical systems that have become entrenched as contemporary musical frameworks, while reflecting on today’s traditional music.
Adapted commission by the 15th Gwangju Biennale in 2024
(KR)
2022
Single-channel video, stereo sound
47 minutes 8 seconds
This work examines a musical score created during Korea’s modernization period, a time marked by the influx of foreign cultures and the frequent erosion or transformation of traditional practices.
Joseon Guak Yeongsan Hoesang is a score transcribed in 1914 by Insik Kim, a teacher at the Joseon Court Music Study Institute, who translated the yanggeum (Korean dulcimer) score for the piece Yeongsan Hoesang into Western staff notation. Featuring gueum (a form of oral notation or symbols used in place of musical notes to mimic instrument sounds) written in Korean language, the score is the earliest known example of Korea’s old notations being adapted into the Western notation system by a Korean. Musicians at the time compiled scores on staff notation in an effort to introduce traditional Korean music to the outside world or to incorporate foreign sensibilities into Korean musical compositions. However, at the same time, there were also sounds and techniques in traditional music that could not be adequately conveyed through Western staff notation.
Centered mainly on interviews with traditional music performers, composers, and researchers, the work reconstructs their various speculations on the sounds and sentiments in the score that have been lost or transformed in the process of translation. By combining archival materials and ordinary video footage, the work also investigates the colonial history of music education and contemporary musicians’ ambivalence toward what has remained through this educational legacy. In doing so, it raises questions about the institutionalization of staff notation and other forms of musical systems that have become entrenched as contemporary musical frameworks, while reflecting on today’s traditional music.
Adapted commission by the 15th Gwangju Biennale in 2024
(KR)
#1-2 Exhibition view, 15th Gwangju Biennale, 2024. Image courtesy of Gwangju Biennale Foundation (Photo by Studio Possiblezone)
#3-5 Installation view at SONGEUN, Seoul (Photo by Jihyun Jung)
#6-9 Still cut
2 min Video Excerpt