Juxtaposition of Korean and Western Practices in Yong Nan Park's Works

Yong Nan Park was born in Seoul Korea in 1961 and is considered one of Korea's leading female composers. Park, with her abundant output and distinctive musical style, is among the most highly regarded composers of her generation. A number of her works express a balance between Eastern and Western music. More than anything else, her music reflects her great love of Korean traditional music. The purpose of this treatise is to provide essential knowledge of Korean traditional music as it is applied in selected works by Yong Nan Park that bridge the gap between Western compositional styles and Korean traditional philosophy and musical elements. I will examine how the composer translates Eastern and Korean ideas into music to help the listener better understand these philosophies. I will also introduce Korean musical terms (collected in a glossary of terms in the appendix) and the Korean musical instruments applied in Park's works.