Isang Yun's Duo for Viola and Piano and Korean Traditional Music

The twentieth century in Western European music was a time of experimentation and the role of the viola changed greatly as many new pieces for solo viola were written. Musical trends such as Nationalism, Modernism, Neoclassicism, Serialism and Minimalism emerged quickly, one after another. Seemingly every kind of compositional strategy and language had been tried at least once by the end of the century. Importantly for new experiments, composers such as Olivier Messiaen and Cage had found musical sources in Asian music. Influence went both ways and Korean-German composer Iang Yun pioneered the combining of Eastern with Western elements in, for example, his Duo for Viola and Piano, where he created an Eastern sound using Western elements. Although this piece is of an advanced level, the study and performance of Duo opens the way to understanding Yun's musical ideas and his more obscure philosophies that join East and West. The purpose of this treatise is to propose an interpretation of Yun's Duo for Viola and Piano, in order that players of his work better understand compositonal methods and style in his music, and achieve nuanced performances that reflect the intentions of the composer.