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One of the most prominent second-generation women composers in Korea, Kim Eunhye (b. 1956) studied at Seoul National University, then distinguishing herself by becoming one of the few Korean women composers to study in France. Kim exhibits considerable variety in her compositional approach, creating works integrating Korean with Western styles, using borrowed material in an original manner, and deriving inspiration from the signs of the zodiac in Korean cosmology. Inspired by the Korean traditional genre gagok, Kayagum is her first composition clearly showing Korean influences upon her music. Dualistic borrowing is seen in her series of pieces entitled Arari, which are based on the best-known Korean folk song Arirang and yet also borrow material from a multitude of Western sources. Seeking inspiration from nonmusical sources, Kim has also composed cycles of works exhibiting her interest in the signs of the zodiac, along with the animals and their corresponding character traits identified with respective birth years. Kim Eunhye’s intercultural tendencies, interest in transformations of Arirang, and fascination with cosmology have helped her to achieve status as one of the most important women composers in Korea.

In this paper, the dynamics of Okinawan performing arts in Nanyo is examined. During the period of Japanese administration (1914-1945), numerous people from Okinawa moved to Nanyo for work. Especially in Saipan, Okinawan performing arts with sanshin accomplishment flourished. In the 1920s, Okinawan ordinary people with sanshin moved to Nanyo. In the 1930s, playhouses of Okinawan performing arts were built in Saipan and Tinian and Ryukyuan classical dance and music disseminated to Okinawan immigrants. Inspired by ballet and the local dance movements, Inkichi Iraha composed and choreographed “Nanyo hama chidori”. The sound of the sanshin filled Saipan. These Okinawan entertainments, however did not influence the local dance and music. On the contrary, Okinawans adopted the Carolinian marching dance as an entertainment around 1940. The dance called tomin/Kanaka odori became popular and was performed at the harvest ceremony of the Nanyo Kohatsu Kaisha. Among the dance materials, “uatorofi” was most popular. The marching dance encouraged Okinawans in Camp Susupe soon after the Pacific war. Returnees revived tomin/Kanaka odori as good memories of a harvest in Nanyo after the 1960s, while keeping a lot of painful memories during the war. At Soki district, Ginoza village, the sanshin, which had become an instrument of the Okinawans since the 1920s was introduced, while at Enobi district, Uruma city, they kept the harmonica as an accompaniment of the dance. The tomin/Kanaka odori look exotic their due to the performers’ make up, attire and dance movements. People imagine the dance and Okinawan town in Nanyo during the Japanese period centrifugally, while enjoying the present dance centripetally. Supported by the Okinawan culture of village entertainment, the centripetal/centrifugal forces works their memory and imagination active, which sustain the champuru Okinawan tomin dance.

The aim of this research is to describe the ethnography of gamelan music of shadow puppet theatre as cultural phenomena and as a social practice. I draw upon Piere Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, physical capital, and cultural capital. The main focus of this research is examining threefold distinction between individual habitus, institutional habitus, and ethnomusicological habitus. Memory is embodied through repeated gesture. The disciplined and rehearsed body of the gamelan musician is one of the most significant resources in the conduct of gamelan music. In this paper I explore some of these issues to make sense of embodied work of gamelan music performance, drawing on my ethnography of the shadow puppet theatre.

The three dances discussed in this article refer to three pieces that were performed both as state ritual music and entertainment court banquet music: The Dance of Seven Virtues (七德舞, qide wu) originally named Prince Qin Destroys Military Formation (秦王破陣樂, qinwang pozhen yue); The Dance of Nine Successes (九功舞, jiugong wu), also named Achieving Success and Celebrating Goodness (功成慶善樂, gongcheng qingshan yue), and The Superior Vitality (上元樂, shangyuan yue). All three dances attributed to the two Tang emperors were newly composed music and dance with undeniable elements of Central Asian music. Through analyzing the waxing and waning of the three dances as state ritual music, this article reveals the tensions and changing balance between employing the three dances as a political gesture to legitimize imperial power and the Confucian concepts that justified the gesture itself. Because according to the Confucian musical concepts, the ruler who ascends the throne and is a benevolent, just, and accomplished leader will create "proper" music that can be incorporated into the repertory of state ritual music. However, Central Asian music as a part of foreign music is criticized for not meeting the criteria of proper music according to Confucian musical concepts. Thus, using music that absorbed foreign musical elements as a political gesture to present legitimacy is fundamentally contradictory to the cultural concepts that justify the gesture itself. As a result of these tensions, the performance of three dances as state ritual music did not endure, rather, their qualification as state ritual music was seriously questioned, and their performance occasions were reduced in the middle 7th century.

The yogo (hourglass drum, literally ‘waist drum’) types have been commonly used in a variety of musical genres in different cultures, particularly in the three countries – China, Korea and Japan. This article focuses on exploring the different types of the hourglass drum referred to the written sources and the currently musical practices: how they were transmitted and used differently among those countries. There are several sources to be traced back to its term and origin. According to Yue Shu (樂書; Book on Music) Vol. 125 written by Chen Yang (陳暘) in the Sung Dynasty, “the yogo types were originated from India (出於南蠻天竺之國也)”. The Nayta Sastra, performing arts manuscript dated to B.C. 2~3rd century in India, confirms this. Reliefs of Ajanta Caves and collections at Sikar Museum, built in the 10th Century in Rajasthan, also support its origin. The hourglass drums of Dunhuang mural painting can be found in the picture of Performing Before Buddhist (佛前舞樂會) portrayed in the Illustration of Pure World (淨土變相圖). f these the percussion instrument can be found in View Wuliangshoujing Disguised Annotations 觀無量壽經變圖 of Cave 127 at Mogao Caves, the Sung and Tang Dynasties and Diangjiazha Tomb (張家閘 317-430 AD) in Gansu, Jiuquan. The oldest sources of the Korea hourglass drum remain in the two relics: one is Gyeyumyeong Amitabha SamjonSamyeonSeoksang (癸酉銘 阿彌陀佛 三尊四面石像; Four Sides Stone Statue of Three Buddhists of Amitabha with Inscription of “Gyeyu Year”), the Unified Silla (673); the other is the real janggu which was excavated at the Isoeng Mountain Fortress (二聖山城) in Hanam City, Gyeonggi Province. The Japanese hourglass drum shown in the relics is the kotsuzumi, the 8th century which is housed in MIHO Museum. It is also found in the painting (855) of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva Statue Halo (觀音菩薩像光背) at the Nigatsu-do (or Hall of the Second Month (二月堂)) of Todai Temple (東大寺). They have been used in Gagaku (Court Music) and Nogaku (能樂; Theatre Music): the hourglasses used in the former are the san-no-tsuzumi and kakko, whereas those used in the latter include the ō-tsuzumi, taiko and ko-tsuzumi . The tsuzumi has been preserved its name and form recorded as the tsuzumi in the old document.