Books

Contemporary Kayagŭm Music in Korea offers the first book-length account of a new musical genre developed in post-war South Korea for kayagŭm, a traditional 12-stringed long board zither. The book examines the process by which a traditional instrument has become a vessel for the expression of new ideas concerning modernity, tradition and identity by examining history and relationships among composition, performance and representation. At the same time, Hee-sun Kim shows how, for kayagŭm practitioners, producing and performing new music has become a means of artistic survival and lately, of social distinction and success.

The book deals with musical sound, the meaning of performance, aesthetics in specific social contexts, and interactions among people. Most importantly the book aims to answer the question of why people make music in a given society at specific times. The book, which is accompanied by an audio CD of representative kayagŭm repertoires, offers unique perspective on music and society in contemporary Korea, which will be of importance to students of Ethnomusicology, Korean music, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies as well as Korean studies.