First Electric Geomungo Inventor, Player Holds Solo Concert
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
``Geomungo'' (Komungo), a traditional six-stringed Korean instrument, has long been regarded as the instrument of men, while gayageum, or 12-stringed instrument, has been thought of as a women's instrument.
It's because the former was an integral part of Joseon's literati culture, played by ``seonbi,'' or noblemen, with its masculine, coarse and raw sounds for meditation. The latter was usually performed by ``gisaeng,'' or female entertainers, with its feminine and melodic sounds, during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910).
It's always been quite rare for a female to play geomungo for the public. But Korean-American musician Jin Hi Kim ventured to choose the geomungo to show her capacity in playing the men's instrument when she was a student at Gukak National High School.
``In the past when I was a university student, Korean people rejected Korean traditional music as inferior to Western music. I was deeply hurt by that. So I thought how I could change the attitude by making Korean music equally important to Western music,'' Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times. She is visiting Korea for her first solo concert Nov. 28-29 at KOUS in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul.
To achieve her musical goals, she composed new combinations of Korean and Western instruments before going to the United States. ``To do that, I had to know Western music as well as Korean music. So I decided to study in the U.S.,'' she said.
When Kim finished studying at Mills College, she needed an instrument appropriate for her compositions combining Eastern and Western music. The 51-year-old artist ventured to design the world's only electric geomungo by using technology and computer music. Kim has introduced the Korean indigenous instrument into the Western contemporary music scene for the first time with her wide array of pioneering compositions for chamber ensembles, orchestras, avant-garde jazz improvisations and multicultural ensembles.
But it was not easy to modernize the instrument. She first experimented with an electric geomungo in 1989 using metal strings and no soundboard, but it sounded like an electric guitar and she returned to the original silk strings.
Ten years later, she upgraded, thanks to the widespread use of music computer programs.
She created interactive pieces for the new electric geomungo and introduced a MIDI computer system, with which she is able to manipulate sounds using manual switches and foot pedals.
She turned the instrument into an eight-stringed one. The electric geomungo has four strings the same as the traditional one but four other strings were replaced with new ones ― a silk string coiled with metal string, a string with an alligator pin, a cello string and a string from a Koto, a Japanese instrument.
``When I upgraded the instrument, I thought I would not produce the same sounds as the traditional geomungo, but at the same time, it should not produce the sounds as the electric guitar,'' she said.
``The essence of my music through the electric geomungo is to deliver the meditative energy of the instrument to the public,'' she said.
Kim explained that unlike the gayageum, which was widely used as a folk instrument to express one's emotions, the geomungo was designed for meditation for the literati men. So she believed that the instrument has a great energy in it.
Many Americans know geomungo rather than gayageum because she has performed it over the last 25 years, making her more famous in the U.S. and Europe than in her home country.
``They (Americans) were fascinated by the austere and elegant sonority of the new sounds of the electric geomungo. They are always open to something new. But in Korea, people don't welcome something new. Although I am trying to promote Korean traditional music to other countries, Korean traditional musicians don't think of my music as Korean,'' she said.
She said that with the electric geomungo, she wants to make creative and free-style music for the general audience while keeping Korean musical features.
``When it comes to fusion music in Korea, it refers to Westernized Korean music. But I have tried to add Korean musical elements to Western music. I think it's fusion,'' she said.
Kim explained that one of the most distinguished features of Korean music is ``sigimse,'' or the concept of ``living tones,'' in which each tone is alive, embodying its own individual shape, sound and sub-text, deeply rooted in Korean traditional music. It is often found in pansori (Korean traditional narrative song), in which a singer generates each tone with various articulations from vibration.
``Like spices in food, `sigimse' makes music rich and expressive. I just want to use that element in Western music. It's really good for jazz performances, as the living tones are similar to improvisation,'' she said.
She has developed a ``living tones'' notational system for written compositions employing Western instruments, with many of the graphic symbols representing various vibrations and gestures.
She has also improvised with Henry Kaiser, Elliott Sharp, William Parker, James Newton, Hans Reichel, Rudiger Carl, and many other prominent figures in new music and avant-garde jazz.
Kim has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia.
Kim was born in Korea and graduated from Gukak National High School and earned a B.A. degree in Korean Traditional Music at Seoul National University before going to the United States. She emigrated there in 1980 and studied electronic music/composition at Mills College for two years from 1985.
Kim is also renowned for combining video with electroacoustic music, as well as large-scale multimedia performance pieces.
For the upcoming concert, she will show new music along with internationally renowned drummer Gerry Hemingway and Korean fusion ethnic band Bamboo Trip.
``I have never performed the same repertoire twice. My concerts are always new. Even I can't guess how the other musicians and I will perform. We will improvise and attempt new music,'' she said.
Tickets for the concert cost from 10,000 won for students and 20,000 won for adults. For more information, call (02) 929-8679.