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dissertation entitled

Korean Church Music:
Power, Colonialism and Resistance

presented by

Geum-Suk Son

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph.D degreein Musncoiogy

 

 

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Major professor

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TAN CHURCH MUSIC: POWER, COLONIALISM AND
RESISTANCE

By

Geum-Suk Son

A DISSERTATION
A t W- Submitted to
CL“ Michigan State University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

 

Department of Musicology

 
  

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ABSTRACT

  
  

CHURCH MUSIC: POWER, COLONIALISM AND
RESISTANCE
By

Geum-Suk Son

 

This study explores how colonial interest and resistance to colonial

 

authority has shaped musical practice of the Korean Protestant church. It focuses
on the use of traditional Korean music as points of argument about the authority '
of the missionaries and Korean church leaders, and about what it means for
Korean church music. As its core, this work witnesses a group of people in the
Korean church music: the missionaries, Korean church leaders and women, who
have different roles in music and different amount of power and show their
power different ways.

Chapter 1 connects the reception of Western music by Koreans as superior
to the sociopolitical and cultural contexts of the missionaries’ power. Chapter 2
illustrates the history of the Korean hymnal by looking at how the hymnal
received the authority for Korean church music. Chapter 3 examines the
'Metation of traditional music for Korean church music as a way to display

" . _;idemity‘ . through the consciousness of colonization. Chapter 4 deals with

 

 

Copyright

By

Geum-Suk Son

 

 

 

   

m g‘peOple have provided encouragement and intellectual and
, .
'sustemnce for this study. I owe great thanks to my advisor Professor

Wheel L‘lrgey, who provided valuable new insights into the ethnomusicological

 

wplines to help me to discover and clarify research questions for this project.
His academic instruction and personal warmth helped me to shape and complete
the dissertation. This dissertation could not have been done without his
continuous encouragement, attention and advice.

I am grateful to all members of my dissertation committee. Professor
Conrad Donakowski provided his extensive knowledge of church music for the
background of this project. Professor Dale Bonge was deeply concerned with the
process of my project. Professor Bruce Taggart provided detailed comments on
the final version of my dissertation.

My research in Korea was supported by the MSU/Ford Predissertation
Grants for Social Science Fieldwork in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and
Special College Research Abroad Moneys at Michigan State University. I am

grateful for Professor Jung-Soo Hong, who provided me with the office space and

h personal resources and documents on Korean church music during my

 

 

Hill

a;

 

Episcopal Church helped me to germinate my thinking about Korean church
music and women. The church members cared for me with warm understanding
when my strength drooped. I am grateful for Anna Graham’s editorial assistance
with the rough draft of my writing, helping me polish my English.

My family offered a great amount of sacrifice. My mother, Deacon Jung-
Ja Kim, gave me everything that she could, providing me with spiritual and
emotional support through her everyday dawn prayer for my study and my family
during all my student years. She also gave me insight into the women’s world.

My husband, Nam-Deuk (Andy) Kim continuously encouraged me and
waited for me in Korea. He sacrificed having a normal family life for my study. I
was sustained by his love and understanding. Our two loving daughters, Mi-Eun
and Joo-Eun, have endured the long absence of a mother’s care. I am indebted to

my family in more ways than I can ever express in writing.

9p“!

LID;

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1
THE POWERFUL MISSIONARIES
1-1. Image of Missionary
1-2. A Political and Diplomatic Agent
1-3. Wealthy Missionary
1—4. The Musical Uplift of Korea

CHAPTER 2

PITCH AND THEOLOGY: HISTORY OF THE KOREAN HYMNAL
2-1. Hymnal Ownership
2-2. History: Denominational Rivalry
2-3. Language Improvement

2-4. Schism and the Union Movement

CHAPTER 3

TRADITIONAL KOREAN MUSIC AND KOREAN CHURCH MUSIC
3-1. Consciousness of Colonization
3-2. Traditional Music
3-3. Traditional Music and Korean National Music

A

vi

iii

vii

58
62
66
88
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109
111
116
119

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71‘ t‘ING: WOMEN AND KOREAN CHURCH MUSIC
‘ Win and the Hymnal
. .2. History of Women in Korean Church Music
. i‘Women and Music in the Sunday Great Service
‘ #3me and Music in the Praying House

  
 
 

 
 

‘» 7 i‘ CONCLUSION 205

.t’. 1
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DA:

 

 

INTRODUCTION

   

 

My interest in Korean church music began with personal involvement

:M with learning to play hymns at the pump organ from my kindergarten
W at my home church. My mother and I hOped that I would become a sincere
church musician and provide piano accompaniment for hymn singing during the
church services. I believed that hymns of the hymnal are the authentic church
music introduced by the missionaries with the Good News and the Korean church
appreciated them. With these convictions, I was introduced to church music in the
United States.

Whenever possible, I have visited American churches trying to find some
connections with Korean church music in order to confirm the continuity from the
missionaries’ home church to their successful mission field. I though that the
American church whose music has had the strongest impact on Korean church
music could offer a solution to musical controversies about the authentic style of
church music and provide a direction whereby to discern the purest, holiest

worship music from “secularized” church musical practices.

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As I engaged in church music of the United States, I noticed more
. Lfim similarities in the musical practices between these two countries.

-. ilexintnie‘ American churches contrasts with that bale Koren

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., at! also encountered some religious practices in American
practices of indigenous religion in Korea. I came to suspect

' ' of the Korean church not to be confused with indigenous religious

 

'7 Manure related to a type of cultural construction rather than the “pure-
praetice. I recognized that the Korean church has implicitly accepted _
musical practices from Korean indigenous religion’s practices.

1'. As my preliminary research in church music started, I was able to

recognize that the Korean hymnal has received the most musical attentions. For

Korean Christians, it was more than a musical collection of the “confession of the

faith” published for liturgical use. The authority of the hymnal was deeply

imprinted in the minds of Korean Christians with its historical antiquity and

missionaries' authorship.

Chapter one connects the reception of Western music by Koreans as

superior and to the sociopolitical and cultural contexts of the missionaries’ power.
Since Korean church music started with missionaries, their view provided a key to

understand the construction of authority in Korean church music. I thought that

missionaries were people who sacrificed their comfortable lives in their home

to go to a distant pagan land to teach the “good news.” I also believed that

-1 it a; desire to teach the spirit of “rational” music to Korean students,

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in order to legitimize their own definitions of authority in the church.
not missionaries, traditional Korean music was a representation of the
hire from which they wanted to break away.

'ttm Thus the analysis of the relationship between missionaries and Korean
~~tilti‘stians is the first step in understanding Korean church music. My concern in
this study of the missionary is to delineate configurations of social and cultural
meaning that play significant roles in the formation and exercise of power in
Korean church music.

Chapter 2 illustrates the history of the Korean hymnal by looking at how
the hymnal received the authority for Korean church music; it is not a general or
stylistic history of Korean church music. Individual musicians and leaders appear
only as a group of either the missionaries or the church leaders in this account. I
have not included musical transcriptions showing musical styles. Rather I deal with
how power among the people in the church shaped church music in Korea and how

people used power shaping Korean church music especially the language of the

W. I present how power influenced the decisions about so-called authentic

 

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. two different musics. I look at the issue on the traditional music
. music as a way to display a power between conservative and

' of the Korean church. The perception of traditional music reflects

culmination with indigenous religions, like shamanism, while the upper classes are
Wedominantly oriented towards the Western practice of Christianity. Cultural
contact of the urban upper middle class has always been pointed at the United
States. Churches, as well as the government, and school have always been self-
consciously American in orientation. This concentration on Western culture
brought a critique from nationalists as an example of an “absence” of Korean
cultural identity.

The recognition of traditional music for cultural identity for Korean church
music operates in the separation of traditional music from indigenous religions
because of its religious identity. This difficulty of symbolic connection to

indigenous religious practice permits multiple and often conflicting paths of

Wane] music for Korean church music.

 

 

    
  

the intense concerns with women’s musical directorship
,m: ions outside of the Korean church.

Traditionalism, which emphasized the virtue of women in the church to be
> his so deeply imprinted that no one recognized the need to include women’s
mm in the practice of the church music. Many Korean women musicians
id not question their secondary position in relation to their male colleagues.
Rather they were proud of their unpaid positions as an expression of their religious
devotion or their financial stability. The absence of women from the pulpit of the
parish church promotes the ambiguity of the musical canonicity of the women
hymn composers. Furthermore, the minimum of musical directorship in the public
services indicates ambiguity of women’s power in Korean church music.

The Praying House provides a contrasting scene from the parish church for
women’s musical directorship. At the Praying House, which engages a
collaboration of spiritual power and recognition of musical power for spirituality,
the appearance of successful female leaders of the praising time and healing
service is a complex sign to promote a wide range of power of women in the

Ewan church music.

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m' Korean church exhibits a success of a certain powerful group rather than
musical quality. I presume that the Korean hymnal best represents the nature of

power construction of Korean church music.

Method
To investigate the missionaries’ power in Korean church music, I used
their personal letters written in English. Missionaries’ writings varied in content
and emphasis according to the audience addressed. Generally, missionaries left
three types of writings: official reports to the mission board; mission publications;

M personal letters or diaries. While reports to the board tended to be more factual,

“personal letters to family and friends illustrate their personal views on cultural

 

 

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5. their particular needs in the official report. These reports
information, such as the confirmation of the publishing date of

. little evidence on musical practices. The mission publications, which

 

designed to recruit new missionary personnel and to provide more

, information about the mission field such as geography, indigenous
religion, and culture, sometimes included information on music. In their personal
letters, however, missionaries more fully expressed their perceptions about cultural
values, including the practices of traditional music. By analyzing the missionaries’
cultural views as “powerful Westerners,” I try to see how Koreans and missionaries
interpreted and constructed social meanings of music.

This study is based on the blend of all three types of documents, some of
which I obtained from the Institute of Korean Church Music History at Seoul.
Many documents written by the missionaries cover the period from 1898 to 1950.
The writers vary in gender, age, extent of musical education, and the area of the
main mission work. According to the documents, some of them were musicians
who presumably had considerable training in instrumental playing or singing;
teaching music at the private missionary school was their main mission work.

Others included missionaries’ wives, or missionaries, who possessed some

  
 

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" regarding church music among missionaries and Korean church

Fieldwork

In addition to historical documents and numerous writings, I also
conducted field research in Korean churches during summer of 1999. Every Sunday,
churches in Korea were filled with congregations in the parish halls and with cars
in the adjacent small parking lots. At the entrance, I could hear the voices of the
church choir that had a one-hour rehearsal every Sunday morning just before their
service started.

I conducted field research in two ways in terms of the extent of my
involvement. First, as participant-observer, I joined one of the church choirs trying
to participate in all possible formal and informal activities. With their warm
affection and home-like welcome, I could confirm similar practices in other

churches because of their frankness and knowledge. Second, I visited

. . ' tely twenty churches ranging from so-called “leading church [daehung-
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. '5: .Jlale choir administer [chongmu], most of whom welcomed having

 

" mice for the choir.
My identity as a Korean Christian woman musician and a graduate student
marching Korean church music made icebreaking and the initial contact easier.

And my Christian family and friends who are working as church musicians and as
pastors shared their frank thoughts and concerns on Korean church music with me.
Many of them showed their concerns on the uncertainty and ignorance of the
church music. They often honestly told me that “we are confused.”

Pastors acknowledged the role of music for the success of their ministry,
but they hesitated to accept some new musical practices for their parish churches,
mainly because of the fear how to interpret then in terms of theological concerns.

A senior pastor said:

To accept a certain musical style, theological understanding should

proceed to the musical practice. Look at the history of church music! It

. ' ‘Kwang-ok Kim also classified two categories of churches in Korea in
. ms of stability in finance, membership, organization and history. Kim called the
r ‘ mixed church kyechok kyohoe, “the church to open up the wilderness”

   
   

235).
._ of Korean churches have at least two times for the Sunday Great

‘ keep the purity of church music from secular music.

" 7 eflh'istians sacrificed their lives to secure of the right

' . M of the one “Word.” The present Korean church is too loose

 

A‘Hhaep the authentic church music, which was handed from the
0. ehn missionaries, who sacrificed their lives to establish an identity of

mm. Christianity from indigenous Korean religion.

Another young junior pastor ministering for youth said:

I am confused with some new musical practice, which is very popular for
teen-agers. I know that this young generation has totally different musical
preference from their parents. But my senior pastor worries about the
acceptance of the music because he thinks it very dangerous for the use in
the church. Sometimes I myself can not distinguish the music from the
secular or popular music. I agree with my senior pastor that it has a danger
to make us lose the identity of Christianity. But if I use the hymns from the
hymnal for the youth, I will have fewer than ten kids in the youth group.
There is a way for congregation to choose their church. First they listen to

the pastor’s sermon and then, they listen to the music of the church.

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of having well trained choirs, well—known musicians, or
’ equipment such as pipe organ or electric instruments.
' :,- church musicians were puzzled by the use of traditional music for

i w music. Basically, most of them do not like to use traditional music

 

“ ”1‘ because they are Western music-educated and partly because they can not

. haveonvinced of the “safety” of traditional music in terms of theological
legitimization against the heretical musical practice. Young musicians who
experienced cultural nationalism at their college campus after 1980s, were
confused between national identity and universality of church music. One young

conductor of church choir said:

I once brought a music written in traditional musical style accompanied
with changgu,3 but I was told that my senior pastor and the elders
concerned about performing more music of that style. Once they called
me and said that they understood it could be used once for special
occasion, but they did not allow more often use of traditional musical
m. practice. “It’s too liberal.” After that, I was too nervous to pick up that '

kind of music again. I don’t want to make trouble because of the

music. Maybe it would be welcomed in only special

 

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' mm since my middle school age had not changed much. Rather, it was more
strongly embedded in the minds of Korean Christians. I was wondering how this
perception could be so strong despite the prevalent cultural nationalism of Korea in
general.

When I looked at the documents of the missionaries, I was surprised that
this anxiety had existed since the mission age. The hierarchical relationship
between senior pastors and church musicians, who were concerned much about
theological appropriation of the musical repertoire, resembled one between the
powerful missionaries and the powerless Korean converts. The authority of the
missionaries as founders of the Korean church and teachers of the Korean church
leaders persisted through the authority of the church leaders over church musical
practice who were believed to be armed with more theological discipline than

«congregations or musicians. i

As I frequented the Sunday Great Service of Korean churches, I came to

 

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fighurch, the male dominance of the leaders during the

:7 , prompted me to speculate women’s role in the service of Korean
" . ~11, ato-anauy women musicians, who said they did not want a director’s
was considered as no virtue in the church. I was surprised that the

1' the women’s comparative status to one of early mission age, which was

W as a beginning of women’s social liberation.

Throughout the fieldwork and my personal experiences as a church
musician, I noticed that Korean church music is not merely matter of music sound.
Rather it has been a display of human relationships surrounding music, of which
the authority of the Korean church music posited the most. I assume that Korean
church music reflects the symbolic meaning of the social structure between the
powerful and the powerless. By presenting the hymnal as a dominant concern of
Korean church music, I try to discern causative influences for shaping Korean
church music. I also try to see how the power construction of the actors in Korean

church music, from missionaries to women, determined the direction of the hymnal

in which Korean church may develop its conceptions of the Korean church music.

     
   
   
   
   

 

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'g‘ young man believed Jesus, he wore the black band around his arm,

the pastor (missionary) who told about Jesus was wearing it, so I

_ 0_ am going to wear this too. But even after Korean pastor explained about
the culture of wearing black band for the memorial of somebody’s death,

he did not put it off. But after hearing a sermon about the resurrection, he

took it off (Mary L. Dodson to her friends at Nashville, February 4,1930).

Christian Protestant missionaries from the United Stated have had
enormous social, political and cultural influences in the modernization of Korea.
The power of the missionaries derived largely from the fact that they came from a
more technologically advanced and wealthy country and from the particular social
ideology which they brought with them, often reinforced by reference to divine
authority. As their power and authority shaped the Protestant churches in Korea, so
they also shaped Korean church music. The missionaries imposed their personal
interpretation of music and its social meaning upon Korean church music.
a; The missionary’s power was not based on one or two factors; it was

; .. ' x . or weakened by various symbolic and social factors that worked at

;'.. git-social relations. This present study asks why Koreans perceived

    

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their attitude to the foreigner from “hostile Western
' " orient missionary? The formation and exercise of power by
*2 ..- arteries were conditioned by various factors involving not only
" ‘ ~ ties and traits but also complex relations between their home country
' ~ ‘5 mission field.
09001"? "In this chapter, I explore how American missionaries were empowered in
W relations with Korean church. I examine the following factors as crucial for
tile American missionaries’ exercise of power over Korean church music.

First, the political situation of Korea in the late nineteenth century was
related to the formation and exercise of power among American missionaries in the
Korean church. It has long been recognized that the political power of a
missionary’s home country was influential in drawing early converts. This political
symbolism had a strong significance for early Korean converts, because it was a
means by which they justified the perpetuation of the new social order and cultural
values.

Second, the material abundance exhibited by the missionaries’ was related

‘0 the missionaries’ construction of power in the area of musical practices, in that 4

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power to shape Korean church music. Authority is still the

  
 

‘fll‘lne in religious in Korea. The missionaries were acknowledged as

  
 

. v: visible Christian heroes and held the main positions in the
anal organizations of the Korean church. Every Korean Protestant
“emanation had a directorship under the chairman of missionary including the
hmnal committee. The missionaries represented a traditional image of authority,
which gave the missionaries the ability to apply the biblical references to
indigenous culture including musical practices. Thus, under the direction of the
missionaries’ authority, the Korean church followed missionaries’ perspectives on
musical practices without hesitation, and their demands for the exclusive use of

American hymns were unconditionally accepted.

Image of Missionary
There are two extreme views of the missionary: the heroic evangelist on

the one hand, and the “prompter of Western colonialism,” on the other (Hunt 1980:

    
   

x). While the image of missionary as a “chaplain to the capitalist exploiter,” or the

awolder to the imperialist” has been put forth by some native nationalists, the

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lust, and depravity — the forces of “darkness.”
: ies appeared as heroes among their compatriots. Religious
‘- and missionary pamphlets bolstered interest in the missionary field,

1 their work as not only heroic but fascinating.‘ Missionaries’ letters
Him: that they saw themselves as the heroes following Jesus’ exhortation to “go
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit.” Fantasies of far away lands where exceptional persons
performed mighty deeds attracted many to the missionary vocation.’

Korean historians echoed this image of the missionary. In his scholarly
examination of the Protestant missionaries in Korea, Korean church historian
George L. Paik (1929) described American missionaries in terms of the American
frontier spirit, embodying an enlarged world outlook and a pioneering attitude. He
saw missionaries as embodying a sense of moral responsibility toward non-

Christian peoples. Paik suggested that the American frontier spirit provided the

 

‘ In his study of the life of Henry Gerhard Appenzeller, Daniel Davies

1 (1988) gives a list of activities to attract missionary candidates, such as
l Interseminary Alliance meeting, public lectures on the missionaries by renown
Speakers, and mission organizations. A strong interest in the mission organizations
prevailed in the missionaries of theology seminary in the United States. Davies
gives data on the participation of students and faculties in the mission organization
at Drew Theology Seminary. “All the faculty members belonged to and actively
Mcipated' 1n the Missionary Association as well of fifteen of the twenty- -five
Wes of the class of 1885. ”
_ , er MI Appenzeller said 1n :1 letter to Samuel Foster Upham (1875- -one1904),

~ -. professors at Drew theological Seminary:“ The Devil is pretty wen
”his norks of ancestral worship, “customs,”

 
  
  

 

 

 
   
   

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.- missionmtion as the way to enlarge the social impact of

and advanced technology of Western civilization (Paik 1929:

noted the development of a hierarchical relationship between

 

and Koreans after the revival of 1907 but understood it as “a better
‘ming between two.” He wrote:

Because of the difference of background, points of view, and mental
outlook, it had been difficult for the two parties to understand and
appreciate each others’ lives. The missionaries generally took a superior
attitude toward the Koreans and felt they were different from them. On the
other hand, the Koreans believed the missionaries were not only their

teachers but also superior in wisdom and spiritual capacity (Paik, 1929:
3‘15).

Paik’s views on the missionaries’ role in Korea were echoed by later

studies on missionaries that saw Christian propaganda as influencing human

progress through the missionaries’ enterprise (Rhodes 1934; Hunt 1984; Clark

INS); As men of strong religious conviction, great faith, firm courage and

 

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. u Recent works supporting missionaries focus less on them as the standard
berets of “progress.” Martin E. Marty defends the missionary from the charges of
being “the prompter of Western colonialism,” or “handholder to the imperialist.”
He suggests that missionaries were not the group who disrupted the “quaint old
cultures,” but they frequently came quietly, gently, offering an alternative order
and hope in the face of massive social change and cultural shock (Hunt 1980: x).
Everett Nicholas Jr. Hunt supports Marty’s view of missionaries as gentle carriers
of an alternative culture and says that missionaries were not mere carriers of
Western culture, but were the principal channels for “a two-way process of cultural
influence” (Hunt 1980: 2-3). Hunt believes that missionaries were particularly
culturally sensitive and good reporters, thereby helping to shape favorable relations
between the United States and Korea in which they served. He finds that the
missionary’s cultural sensitivity played a significant role in creating both the

American image of Korea, which strengthened the American sense of mission, and

-‘ arable Korean impression of America’s disinterested benevolence.

 

 

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‘1 ”of missionaries tended to be a biased or “one-way process” in
‘ 7 w 1.. (Lee, GY 1987) or “diplomacy of asymmetry” (Chay 1990). In

_» wussumption of the missionaries’ cultural sensitivity, they often

Korean people and their country before they came to Korea or even after they
carted their mission work.

Nationalists have criticized missionaries for overlooking their part in the
assertion of cultural dominance, which missionaries consciously or inadvertently
imposed on their mission field. Nationalists have argued that missionaries
exercised diverse roles and powers in the political relationships between nations
and in the social contexts of the mission field. These studies suggest that rather
than being heroic sacrificing evangelists, missionaries have often been agents who
tried to impose the power of Western cultural values on their mission field,
sometimes by using divine authority to support their own interests.

Some have noted that ignorance and dismissal of local cultures have
hindered the work of evangelization. Harris Mobley (1970) discussed the negative
image of missionaries held by the people among whom they worked. He noted that
the elite in missionized countries often criticized the missionaries for imposing
We that hindered the development of cultural identity. Mobley reports that in

“I ~flample, missionaries presented the Christian faith without relating it

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1 V 1: “joined the missionaries’ wholesale imposition of Western
" name of Christianity, because they realized that the missionary’s
' and interpretation of the gospel regarding indigenous culture were
' .. errors rather than theological flaws.
Korean national musicians also point out the American missionary’s
We impact on the foundation of cultural values of modern Korean music. A
Korean nationalist musician, Dong-Bun Noh (1995: 399), for example, notes that
“the early American missionaries were in their early 20s’ young people who
possessed an immature cultural view on indigenous religion, being heavily oriented
with the concept of the superiority of Western culture.” He also argues that early
American missionaries did not consider the historical implications of traditional
Korean culture but rather accelerated its demise. Further, Noh (1995:403) says that
the American hymn symbolized the “powerful Western language of modernity”
among Korean educators. He indicates that the image of the missionary as an
advocate of American power often functioned to position Protestant church music
in the mainstream of modern Korean art music and served as a mechanism for
maintaining Western power in Korea.

In modern Korea, church musicians have confronted the paradox of the

War role. The missionaries’ image as the carriers of advanced Western

      
    
 

 

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" ‘umiisionaries’ ignorance of indigenous culture. While the
i: iview of missionaries in Korea emphasizes the universal values of the
'7 at Western church music, the emerging and critical view of missionaries
Won the perspective that their authority is a cultural product within a specific
lucid context. Since the movement for cultural identity in the 1980s, Korean
muonflists claimed to reinterpret the missionaries’ role in modern Korea not
merely as evangelists of Christianity but more as political and diplomatic agencies

relating with the politics of their home country.

The Missionary as Political and Diplomatic Agent

Once called “Hermit Kingdom,” Korea opened her diplomatic gate in the
19'” century partly forced by Japan in 1876; the United States became the first
Western country to have a treaty with Korea -- the Treaty of Korea--America in
1882. Because of Korea’s threatened political situation and America’s careful
diplomatic maneuvers, American diplomats had received an unusual welcome from
the Korean court, especially from King Kojong (ruled 1863-1907). According to
early documents, when Lucius H. Foote, the first American Minister
Plenipotentiary, arrived in the harbor at Chemulpo, the Korean court government,
and especially the king, welcomed him with joyful of dancing (Hunt 1980: 8).
a“ It is not surprising that missionary work had a strong and intimate

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“‘ 1 political or diplomatic policies in Asia as in Africa.‘ American
fflisionaries, who were waiting in Japan, China and their home country

'. ” ..‘ to enter into Korea, sought a safe and promising way to start their

Moan missionaries tried to establish cooperation between themselves and the
diplomat, Foote, who guided the missionary R. S. Maclay during his visit to Korea
in June 1884 and later helped missionaries, connect with the royal family of the
court.

The successful mission history in Korea was deeply connected with
politics of Korea specifically the missionaries’ personal relationship with Korean
court. Once the Korean court accepted American missionaries as alternative
political consultants, the court recognized the American missionaries as an integral
part of American political power. The threat of imperialism surrounding the Korean
peninsula made the Korean court and individuals in Korean society relied on more
unofficial channels, such as missionaries, while America maintained a policy of
“disinterested neutrality” after the 1882 Korean-American Treaty.7 In an analysis of
documents pertaining to the far eastern diplomacy of the United states during
1896-1905, Scott S. Burnett concluded that there was no indication that the United

‘ For the case in Ghana, see Harris W. Mobley, the Ghanaian’ s Image of
1 ~11 .1970; for Zimbabwe, The History of Protestant Church in

 

 

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no support Korean independence (Burnett 1989: 13). He
. r Pin the isolated political environment of Korea, it would have been
' 1 King Kojong to identify the personal commitments of American
.~: as evidence of a strong national commitment to Korea. Thus, there
" unique relationship between the Korean court government and American
-flisionaries in that the missionaries were not perceived as colonizers but were
Oldeomed from the heart of the capital and “the seat of power of the Korean
court.”

The missionaries’ frequent involvement in international political issues
helped their mission, making Korea “a productive mission field.” The missionary’s
status was also influenced by the domestic political circumstance of Korea in the
18803. Jeong-Min Suh argues that the rivalry and disagreement on mission policies
among early American missionaries was associated with their connection to Korean
politicians. As the missionaries founded hospitals and schools with favorable
support from the court, there was a controversy about whether to begin teaching
the gospel immediately or to wait. The first resident medical missionary, Horace
Allen, who insisted on delaying preaching and had developed intimate connection
Withthe court, was supported by “the Conservative Party,” while his junior

's. Horace Underwood and J. W. Heron, who wanted more active

    
 

 
 
    
   

assisted by “the Progressive Party” (Sub 1995). Thus, the
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to survive imperialism,“ or from diplomatic skill, American
' . were empowered in the political circles in Korea.
- Micah diplomats also provided political assistance to their missionaries.
-. Liens. Maclay, director of Methodist work in Japan, visited Korea in 1884
,his wife, their interpreter and their cook, they enjoyed a successful
[nihilism visit and safe travel. Envoy Extraordinary, Foote provided them
lodgings, and as a person who was welcomed by the Korean court for his advice as
an international diplomatic consultant, arranged for their safety (Hunt 1981: 11—14).
Whereas the early Catholic mission in Korea had experienced severe persecution
from the Korean court government, the Protestant missionaries first encounters
with the court were made under friendly political circumstances.

The relationship between missionaries and Western imperialism has been
often justified by missionaries themselves as both natural and, more significantly,
providential in making straight the path for the spread of the gospel. Western
imperialism has been best legitimized as one of the powers which God has chosen
for bringing the message of salvation to the peoples. As Johannes Warneck
recognized, European colonial governments represented a way of preparing for the

preaching of the gospel (Warneck 1909: 171-74). Thus, the missionaries’ political

:Won as the means of effective evangelization was not challenged, and its

 

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‘es-old political relations, and diplomatic usage in East Asia had

-~ I'near the end of the nineteenth century. East Asian countries including

  
   
   

 

H ‘ had to experience a “hostile international environment.” After the Chinese

‘hss in the Sino-Japanese War (1884), the prevailing myth about China as the

source of cultural power evaporated among Koreans. At the same time, Western
Behnology and industrial machines attracted the Korean people to inquire into the
sources of Western power (Robinson 1988: 12). As the traditional system failed
repeatedly to cope with the changed international political environment, it became
increasingly clear to some Korean intellectuals that the power and wealth of
Western nations was a model to be emulated for the strengthening and
revitalization of Korea (Robinson 1988:22; Choi 1997). In this transitional period,
the missionary was welcomed as the representative of Western power. This was a
period when Korea was forced to transform itself from a feudal dynasty into a
modern nation.

The acceptance of Christianity in Korea was historically connected to a
political event in the year of 1885, when Horrace Allen, the first medical resident

missionary, who came to Korea in 1884, treated a member of the royal family who

hadheen severely wounded in a political attack.9 Once Christianity was accepted

 

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. '1va in Korea at the personal level, missionary work among the
. having a formative influence upon the shaping of favorable
W Western culture. The assertion of Western culture offered by
missionaries in Korea was a cornerstone for its acceptance.

After American missionaries were accepted by the court and eventually by
“people, the missionaries’ effort was not limited to that of evangelist or preacher
but expanded to play a decisive role in shaping intercultural relations between the
mission field and the home country. Missionary activity, in a wide sense, was not
confined to the efforts of professional mission tasks, but included a direct religious
and cultural impact of their cultural values upon their converts. The music that
missionaries brought with them became identified as a symbol of Western power.
The missionary was viewed as a person who was equipped with a superior culture
and armed with biblical authority in the fallen land. Since missionaries were
offering Christianity to any who would have it, and since their own musical culture
in a sense constituted an exhibit of a Christian civilization, they did not meet any

opposition to imposing their music into their mission field.

The Wealthy Missionary

M For most Koreans, the image presented by the missionaries was one of

   
 

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than: 1991).

V . The missionary rationale for maintaining and even increasing the material
.{pfivilege of missionaries has emphasized the positive advantages of personal health,

comfort, security, and efficiency. Yet, the benefits of affluence often shadowed the

 

costs. The discrepancy between the material affluence of the missionary and the
relative poverty of the local people was a factor in the lack of a fraternal
relationship in the mission church. The missionary could offer a splendidly
packaged gospel but was himself set apart from the converts. This “insular
prosperity,” which enabled the Western church to engage in numerous expensive,
efficient, and even useful activities in mission field, had an inherent tendency to
isolate missionaries from any appreciation of the culture in which they worked.10
Jonathan Bonk (1991) pointed out that the relative affluence of
missionaries might threaten not only to deprive them of evangelical devotions but
also to project their economic well-being and living in comfort as superiority. He

warned that money might cause economic and social disparity, interfering with the

,.ml:ishment of the missionary task (Bonk 1991: xvii). Thus Bank’s thesis on
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"'1; and inculturation of the gospel, which has been considered as the

' ,’ impact of the money on cultural values.

  
 

. . tunic missionaries’ wealth was a source of power. According to Mobley
. 3 , the missionary’s power was mainly derived from wealth, which was

‘ Wed in the patterns of residence, social relations, and vocational attitudes. He

' concluded that zeal for the gospel does not relieve the missionary of the
responsibility of reflecting upon the potential of money to corrupt inculturation of
the message.

Missionaries, upon their arrival in the mission field, found themselves rich.

The writings of many missionaries describing the first impression of the mission
field show the extent of their comparatively immense wealth. When the first
Methodist missionary in Korea, Henry G. Appenzeller, saw Pusan harbor, he wrote
about his first view of Korea: “The houses seem more like large beehives than
anything else” (Appenzeller April 2,1885). After his ship journey from Japan
ended at Chemulpo, the harbor city near Seoul, he described Korea as “desolation
and the dark place.” His remarks echoed those of the first resident medical
missionary, H. Allen about “rows of miserable, temporary huts, occupied by

Wren, the pack coolies, chair bearers and other transient scum” (Allen, 1889:

    
 

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s'were, by standards of that day, well equipped not only while

  
 

' - , "also where they lived in the mission field. The senior missionaries

for their juniors to bring food, cooking utensils, chairs, clothes,

  
    

. ‘ '- beds, hammock and trunks to sustain healthy life in a dirty environment

effie ‘country of the germ.”“ When they could not transport the recommended

   

goods, the relatively high value of their money enabled them to purchase all

supplies, food, house, and furniture. They were among the few people able to pay

 

‘ 'the exorbitantly inflated prices for Western staples such as automobiles, furniture,
l and building supplies. Indeed, in some instances, multinational mission agencies’
1 annual budgets exceed those of the host governments themselves and constitute
those countries’ most significant source of foreign exchange. In the back pages of
mission magazines were advertisements for automobiles sales, banks, and
merchandise directed at missionaries, who were the main readers able to afford
them.

Missionaries enjoyed relatively high standards of living, although modest
by the standards their home country. A missionary’s wife, Lottie Bell wrote how

comfortably they lived during the early mission period in Korea:

Idon’t miss any home comfort except the bathroom, but when we have our

 

 

 

 

    
 

- way than most country people at home. Of course, when two people

  

. three servants to wait on them, they can manage to take things very

. easily. Yesterday morning I bought three chickens for 45 cents silver from

  
  

a Korean, and had one smothered for breakfast this morning. I had hominy

 

.o Km.- with it and such nice gravy and biscuits, and it reminded me of the usual
Tuesday breakfasts at home, and we wondered if you had had it too, only it
was your supper time when we were eating (Lottie to Florence, June

16,1895, Seoul).

Lottie’s letter suggests that missionaries employed quite a number of
people as cooks and menials of various kinds who did many of the more tedious
household chores. In some ways, they lived more luxuriously than they would at
home. They would not have had servants in their home country. For household
chores, they employed women, most of who became Christian sooner or later.
Those women and servants appear as the first and main group of their
evangelization, who watched and gradually attended prayer meetings and learned

singing in the missionaries’ house every morning.

We have prayer just after breakfast every morning on the big “marrow”

.- '. Mining room) and all our servants come to them, and join in the

    

 

. s had picnics, a regular occurrence during the summer season, the
4 {fitted-up everything including chairs, rocking chairs, beds, dishes, and

, "7; 3 -' on their backs to the mountains (Lottie to Florence June 17, 1895,

 

In his biography of H. Appenzeller, Daniel M. Davies pointed out that the
missionaries had all the conveniences available in the United States and generally

lived an American lifestyle:

The missionaries [in Japan] ordered provisions directly from San Francisco.
They maintained their American style of dress, eating, and home
furnishing. In addition to ordering provisions from San Francisco, each
missionary shipped hundreds of pounds of items from their homes in the
United States when going to Japan. The Appenzellers brought items such

as a sewing machine, organ, and furniture (Davies 1988: 143-44).
Davies continues:

4 _' ' “The Methodist missionaries (including the Appenzellers) intended to live

, a meg-i cans in their mission country, not like the natives. The

 

 

'ty as missionaries. Appenzeller, actively worked in Korea

' 4 _‘ Kingdom of God on the earth patterned on the United States.

mailer, in common with many Protestant missionaries in the late

 

nineteenth and early twentieth century, viewed “progress” as a stepladder

to the Kingdom of God on the earth (Davies 1988: 144).

The goods, which missionaries might have intended as models to present
the Kingdom of God in their mission field, were impressive enough to evoke
» astonishment. With admiration, crowds of Korean converts gathered at
missionaries’ house or visited churches. They wanted to know how to acquire a
part of their astonishing wealth. Some missionaries found it unpleasant to have

curious Koreans in their houses. Lottie wrote:

It is not pleasant to have a crowd of them come in for they are so dirty and
they will handle everything. I don’t mind one or two that you can watch

and see that they don’t sit on your bed (Lottie to Vernon July 11, 1895).

It was not only individual missionaries but also mission organizations that
were rich. In 1909, when Presbyterian mission celebrated its Quarto Centennial,

Alisa Clark wrote a detailed financial report, which shows the extent of the

   
      

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flags the Board’s property in Korea now comprises 41 dwellings, 6

minis, 8 Academies, besides schools, class buildings. Altogether its

 

present value is easily more than $300,000. The standard of living in Korea
is far lower than in America so that whereas a laborer’s wage in America is
$1.50 a day, in Korea it is about 20 cents, money is so scarce that a dollar

here is equivalent to $7.50 in America (Quarto Centennial 1909:126).

Using this as a standard of comparison, the Presbyterian mission alone possessed
properties worth of $22,500,000 in American value at that time. The sources of this
wealth included the home country and Korean mission organizations, including
churches, hospitals and schools in Korea. Further, Clark proudly compared the
amount of budget from Korean churches and hospitals to the average amount per
communicant in American church of the year 1908-09. ‘2

Some missionaries did recognize that an economic gap between
missionaries and their converts would preclude an equal fraternal fellowship. As a
missionary to Asia confessed, the economic disparity not only led to an
mansions dominance of missionaries over local people, it also misled the

i$321~u . into believing that the gospel represented the source of material affluence:

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' greatest challenge we face in ministry is struggle against our far

 

mperior standard of living, the status and wealth we have, in comparison
to the primitive people God has given us to minister to. They clearly are
aware of the “gulf between” and desire to attain to that standard of power

and wealth they see in us. ‘3

Many missionaries honestly acknowledged a temptation to use their
massive economic and material superiority as signs of the approval of the power of
the gospel during their mission work. An American missionary to Egypt, Bernard

Quick, confirms the importance of economics to the practice of mission work:

Economic power is still the most crucial power factor in the western
missionary movement. it is still the most important way that the western

missionary expresses his concept of what it means to preach the gospel.‘4

American woman missionary in Korea, Miss Arbuckle critically pointed

out how missionaries’ high standard of living was hindering their spirituality

___

'3 Letter of McAllister to Loge, April 16, 1987,1rian Jaya cited from Bonk
1991: xviii.

. .. ,3“ Bernard E. Quick, “He Who Pays the Piper: A Study of Economic Power

   
 
    
 

2,2 2 , n.d p.52) cited from Bonk 1991: 4.
i ' a hall. an“ Wm: prww

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during their mission work She reported to the Presbyterian Mission Board in

Philadelphia:

1. Thinks salaries are too high (No. 16 Miss Arbuckle - Seoul March 6,

1894)

In the same source, American Presbyterian missionary in Korea, J. B. Adams,
reported to the mission board that he opposed to another missionary’s plan to

purchase a spacious Korean building for his living quarters:

I deprecate strongly the building of houses of foreign architecture — or
large spacious house of native architecture as missionary residences. It
separates us from the people and puts us upon a false basis. Community
interest is made well nigh impossible (No 23. J. B. Adams -—Fusan April 6,

1896).

The mission board summarized:

He [Adams] had to vote against Dr. Avision’s plans for a house - Three
living rooms (sitting room, dining room, parlor, none less than 16 X 16 ft.)
so arranged that they could be thrown into one room 32 X 32 ft. Besides

nine other rooms, a hall and what practically amounts to a conservatory.

36

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Adams reported his observation that the economic gulf had created an

attitude of superiority among missionaries. Adams continued:

“IT IS TOO MUCH” --- “No wonder the Lord doesn’t bless us.”15

Adams felt that the missionary’s immense economic affluence would give
Koreans a false sense of the Christian message as bringing financial rather than
spiritual wealth. He also pointed out that the missionary’s efforts would be
hampered as consequence of this economic disparity. Despite these concerns, some
presented a rationale for the wealthy life style.

The suicide of William J. McKenzie, a Canadian missionary brought out a
controversy about lifestyle among missionaries in Korea. Although McKenzie was

remembered as “a man of strong determination,”‘° his suicide of 1895 was regarded

'5 J .E. Adams -Fusan April 6,1896, Presbyterian Church in the USA.
Board of Foreign Missions; Missions Correspondence and Reports Microfilm
fgries Calendar v. 21 Korea, Philadelphia: the Presbyterian Historical Society,

69).

‘6 William John McKenzie(1861-1895, came to Korea in 1893), the first
Canadian Presbyterian missionary, independently worked at Sorae of Whanghae
Province, in northwest of Korea and lived in the Korean way, which isolated him
from other foreigners. In the History of Protestant Missions in Korea, Paik wrote
McKenzie’s lifve and death as follows: “He was a man of strong determination, as
was shown in his giving to the Koreans a Christmas box of American delicacies,
lest his eating it would spoil his appetite for Korean food. During the summer, he
had sunstroke and fever which caused insanity and on July 23, 1895, he shot
himself” (Paik, 1929: 192-193).

37

2..

as a failure of the idea that a true fraternal relationship could be developed if the
missionary lived on a par with the converts. J. H. Wells, a doctor who investigated
McKenzie’s death, described McKenzie’s mode of living in Korea as a contributing

factor to his suicide. Wells reported in The Korean Repository:

About the first duty as a doctor I was called upon to perform was to
investigate the suicide of Mr. McKenzie who was possessed of the
erroneous idea of the appropriateness of isolation, exile, Korean food and
so forth. He was living alone up in Sorai. Notwithstanding that when he
shot himself he was out of his head from fever, the evidence still shows

that he was a victim to the isolation exile theory (Wells 18962238).

McKenzie’s death bolstered the idea that residential separation and
material superiority allowed for the more efficient performance of missionary tasks.
Again, Lottie’s letter provides a widely accepted view on the justification of

missionaries’ residential segregation from converts:

His [McKenzie’s] death is one more illustration, it seems to me. Of the
fallacy of the theory of missionaries living among the people as one of
them and coming out with no means of support to depend on. He had no
regular support and was trying to live on... He lived with Koreans in a

Korean house, wore their clothes, slept on the floor and ate their food”

38

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(Lottie to Vernon, July 11,1895, Kwan Ak San)

The missionary’s residential separation was also justified as having symbolic
significance for cultural superiority of the country which accepted Christianity. The
missionary’s residential separation was even rationalized by the Korean historian
George L. Paik. He saw the American missionary’s residential separation as a
means to help the early Korean church have independent church leaders. Paik
described the settlement of Protestant missionaries in Seoul as he saw it in the
19205. He justified the separation of the Protestant missionary’s living area as a
contribution to building independent church in Korea. Missionaries’ residences

were located near palace at the center of Seoul:

The Catholic missionaries of early days lived with the people and mingled
with their converts. Thus they themselves became leaders of the
congregations, establishing ecclesiastical uniformity. Protestant
missionaries, however, maintained their own standard of living and lived in
separate quarters. Thus they trained leaders among the people to shepherd

their own flocks, paving the way for independent churches (Paik 1929:60).

In some instance, however, the converts themselves challenged the
residential separation. Harris W. Mobley finds that residential separation can not be

justified in biblical terms in any circumstance. According to Mobley, this spatial
39

division enacted a “dual standard” in the ranks of the leadership of the churches,
denying Christian brotherhood and distorting Christian discipleship (Mobley
1970:74). Mobley’s analysis indicates that various forms of the residential
segregation, for whatever reasons justified by the missionaries and their successors,
is based on the concept of the missionaries’ cultural superiority over the
indigenous people. Missionaries created the impression of cultural superiority by
maintaining geographic distance from the local people.

Personal material and economic advantage remain deeply embedded in
Western missionary practice. New converts who embraced Christianity felt assured
that the immense affluence and wealth displayed by missionaries was part of the
package. As John Mbiti noted in the case of Africa, the wealth of the missionary or
his home church overseas played an important role in helping attract African
converts, because converts often saw the power inherent in money as inherent in all
matters pertaining to Christian faith. ‘7 Mbiti suggests that an assumed power of
wealth may be used to justify other non-religious factors such as a arrogance of
material abundance and eventually prevent from a critical outlook at injustice. A
young Christian community may suffer disillusion and resentment when they
discover that becoming Christian does not automatically improve their material

status .

The disparity between the material wealth of missionaries and converts

, . ‘7 R. Pierce Beaver, ed., The Gospel and Frontier Peoples, South Pasadena:
William Carey Library, 1973: 81.

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often reflected a power relationship: missionaries were wholly associated with
superiority and authority. As Zablon N thamburi pointed out, the visible power of
material affluence was perceived as a natural media in the formation of cultural
hierarchy between missionary and converts (Bonk 1991: xiv-xvi). Based on the
view that economic criteria could be used for the measurement of what the society
values (Bloom 1984), the wealthy missionaries did not hesitate imposing Western
music on the mission field to improve the converts through music. Missionaries’

belief in their cultural superiority related to their beliefs about “musical uplift.”

The Musical Uplift of Korea

The ideology of “musical uplift” in Korea is the basis for the missionaries’
claim that Western music should be authoritative for the Korean church. The
missionaries in Korea viewed musical uplift as a sign of collective social aspiration
and advancement. Musical uplift was offered as a rationale for Korean church
music, in the hope that Koreans would learn and recognize the superiority of
Western music. The missionaries believed that they were replacing “the primitive
musical language,” taking an evolutionary view of cultural progress. For this sense,
a missionary in Korea, Grace Harmon McGary, gives a clear definition of how the

musical uplift was significant for the uplift of Korea:

The two meanings implied in the subject. ‘The musical uplift of Korea’ are,

“The uplift of Korea by music” and “The uplift of music in Korea.” The two

41

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are complementary as one cannot take place without the other (The Korea

Mission Field 1915:103).

Ideology of musical uplift in Korea was not simply a matter of music.
What missionaries saw as problematic about musical uplift was not simply the
difference between two musical systems. Rather the difficulty stemmed from the
construction of cultural difference through cultural hierarchies that had something
to do with the external conditions between the missionaries and converts.
Ultimately, this says more about power, since uplift ideology has also worked to
maintain relations of power and dominance in colonial period.

In the mission of Christianity, the belief in inevitability of progress was the
most pervasive idea for missionary theory and practice. Underlying this approach
to missions lay the assumption that Christianity had been the supreme force in the
cultural progress of the Western world. The task of Christian missions was to
introduce a spirit of regeneration and a Christian consciousness. Studies showed
that Western ideas concerning progress, civilization, and power affected missionary
theory and practice (Bonk 1991). Robert Nisbet pointed out how dominant progress

ideology was at the turn of the last century:

No single idea has been more important than, perhaps as important as, the
idea of progress in Western civilization. From at least the early nineteenth

century until a few decades ago, belief in the progress of mankind, with

42

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Western civilization in the vanguard, was virtually a universal religion

on both sides of the Atlantic (Nisbet 1980:4, 7).

Not only did the missionaries believe in the law of social progress, they
regarded themselves as its true emissaries. They were convinced that the political
and economic powerlessness of native peoples was the outcome of the delay of
progress, which they would eventually achieve by becoming Christians. The
missionaries believed that the musical uplift was primary and prerequisite to
Christian evolution. And musical uplift was regarded as crucial for the uplift of the
religious souls.

I will examine the internal content of “musical uplift in Korea” ideology, and
its external influences, namely the ideologies and social forces that shaped its
concerns and the process by which it shaped and continues to reshape dominant
perspectives on Korean church music. I will discuss uplift ideology largely through
the perspectives and words of the missionaries themselves in order to demonstrate
that their perspective was significant and influential.

As a humanitarian agency, the mission aimed to elevate human society,
modify traditional evils, and introduce reformatory ideals. Informed with this uplift
ideology, singing was regarded as a primary step to uplift Korean souls and lives to
a higher level. The editor of Korea Mission Field, Rev. Allen F. Decamp described

how “true Christians” express their faith through the music giving detailed nature

of the church music:
43

lit] 1

Song is the language of our higher nature; is the vehicle for the expression
of faith, and hope and joy. An angry man cannot sing, nor can a bosom
filled with hate express itself in music. Even some missionaries may never
have realized that our main business in this country is to teach Koreans to

sing, for the true Christian is distinctively a singer (The Korean Mission

Field 1915: 96).

As soon as the missionaries set out to instill music into the hearts of the
Korean converts, they recognized that those converts had their own musical
tradition. The missionaries recognized the difficulties in understanding Korean
music. Building on the missionaries’ cultural theory, an analysis of missionaries’
view on traditional music pays attention to the production of knowledge about
Korean church music, and how that knowledge is institutionalized and contested.
Measured by Western musical system, an “exotic music” could not be grasped
easily. A missionary J. D. Van Buskirk only found the differences of Korean music

from Western music, although he acknowledged the presence of “their own music”:

If you have been in Korea awhile you may be tempted to deny the use of
the word “music” to describe the Korean attempts, but I mean it, there is an
old Korean music in spite of all that l have heard. If you have been to a

Korean church service and heard their enthusiastic but very futile attempts

44

to sing our hymn-tunes, you may be ready to say there is no music in them:

but that is not fair; judge them by their attempts at their own music (The

Korean Mission Field 1915: 100).

In line with the ideas current in their own culture, the early missionaries to Korea
were unable to understand to traditional Korean music. Even those with musical
training could not appreciate music in Korea because they had no framework in
which to analyze it.

Some missionaries, including Hulbert, who possessed an affectionate
attitude about traditional Korean culture, tried to apply the Western notational
system to traditional melody. Their attempts to transcribe a simple melody on a

Western music staff and rhythm within the bars turned out unsuccessful “with

difficulties and insufficient results”:

It would be impossible to represent it with our staff and notes; it did not
have the intervals my ear felt it ought to have, but there was a real tune
with weird intervals and long trills and all the strains in a haunting minor
key. It was very simple melody and poorly sung but it gave utterance to a

glad heart in a way that touched my Western “tenderspot” (The Korean

Mission Field 1915: 100).

There were some attempts to understand Korean music as Buskirk
45

described the instrumentation and musical characteristics of the old orchestra of the

palace that he had heard with selected audiences before the former emperor, but

they did with Western musical terms:

The orchestra has three or four clarinets, a Korean violin or so, two or
three zither-like instruments played by striking with a wire much like a
knitting needle, three or four Korean harps — strange instruments— and a
drum or so, struck with the hand on one end and a switch on the other. The
music began very slow and simple and gradually got more movement, the
harps and drums kept the time and accompaniment in a minor harmony. I
say “a” minor harmony, it would not fit any of our scales; but the effect
was real; the melody sometimes hauntingly beautiful and always so elusive
that I could never even think it, and the strange harmony heightened the
effect. THEY changed the music to waltz time, in spite of waltzing being
absolutely unknown among the Koreans. I only knew it would be the
unexpected pieces changed key without stopping and with a weird
modulation they took up another strain; then they got back to the original
key and melody and stopped, stopped all at once with no proper ending, -

they simply quit. Even telling about it gives me an indescribably strange

feeling (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 101).

And the missionaries’ admiration went for some visible techniques, such as

46

the breath control of a taegeum player from Korean street band:

I always envy the man his breath control, - but the unending part of it
comes from there being two or more of them, each one blowing for dear
life an unbelievably long time. I am not able to say anything in its favor

except to comment their power and diligence; it has no charm for me as

music (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 100).

After missionaries heard various traditional music, from court music, to street band,
to the singing of their coolies and horsemen, they concluded that it could not be
called music because the musical system and style could not be explained by
Western music system. Further, the missionaries’ trials to find the system of the
traditional Korean music was concluded with “missing half-steps,” which was
considered as the most prominent obstacle in giving the ‘advanced musicality’ to
their converts. The absence of half step explained why they could not appreciate a

true sense of harmony and tonality. Buskirk also pointed out the emptiness of

harmony being labeled “proper church music”:

I have never heard any attempt at harmony even by companies of Koreans
singing. Old Korean music has not possibilities along the line of
harmonization, but I should be sorry if it were lost; I feel it has something

to give to world music (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 101).
47

lam

Among musical characteristics of traditional Korean music, the concept of

harmony by missionary asserted the relegation to a “primitive music”:

Even though it seems almost impossible for us to accomplish much for the
country churches directly, a great opportunity is open for us in the mission
centers. It is a duty placed on us to raise the efficiency and standard of the
church music of the country. That is its redeeming feature. In general, the

people are not used to hearing four-part singing (The Korean Mission Field

1915:109).

What Mowry implied was against the use of traditional musical style in order to
raise musical standard of Korean church, since traditional music was primitive,
especially the absence of harmony. To them, it was “exotic music” and, as such, it
was defined in terms of “absence” of harmony and half steps rather than difference
of musical content. They spoke of Korean music not in terms of what it was but of
what it lacked, and it was not Western music. Because the music “lacked” the
harmony and half tones of Western music, it was seen as inferior.

And the absence of harmony and half steps explained the “weird interval,”
which, they believed, produced the sound of “a haunting minor key.” The
missionaries concluded that the “haunting minor key” was not appropriate for

church music, which consisted of joyful praise and happy songs. The sound of
48

traditional music appeared to them to have no joyful sensitivity; rather, it made
their “spirits drooped. ” Paul Grove reported his first impression after listening to

Korean congregational singing:

I shall never forget the shock that came to my musical sensibilities that
first Sunday in Korea, upon hearing one of our largest native
congregations in Seoul, many hundreds of them, vociferously voicing their
praise, according to their individual notions of what the author of “Ring
the Bells of Heaven,” had in his mind, when he gave this melody to the
world. It did not strike me as funny, as did many other new experiences, it
made me sad. My spirits drooped, and as I looked into the future, I shrank,
for I saw there some of the agony that would come to me as a result of
enforced listening to, and participation in just such heinous offences
against the laws of harmony. The slaughter of the century-old Doxology, in
no wise mitigated my despondency, but confirmed me in my hopelessness

(The Korean Mission Field 1915: 110).

A. F. DeCamp identified the minor sounding of the traditional music as the

emotional result of the delay of civilization.’

Do you know, children, that most of the people in the world cannot sing?

They long to sing and try to sing but cannot, except in what is called the

49

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minor key which is a sort of crying and worse than nothing as a means for
expressing gladness. The reason is that their lives are so starved and
hopeless that they have nothing to make them glad and prompt them to
sing - this is true of most of the Eastern world and it is true of Korea. The
missionaries teach this people about Jesus Who [sic.] gladdens their hearts,
so that conditions improve and now the people are learning to sing; not in

the sobbing but in the glad way! (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 120).

As the missionaries examined traditional music for the use of church music,
the fear of missionaries had emerged alongside understanding traditional Korean
music. From their findings that traditional Korean music was closely connected
with the ritual practice of indigenous religions, a negative perception of traditional
music strengthened their denial to use it for church music. Consequently, the
“holy” task to uplift Korea by music was primarily teaching correct pitch of
Western hymns.

Based on the rationale of musical uplift in Korea, American hymns began
to represent the best alternative Korean church music. The initial teaching of
American hymns and subsequent copying of Western style music was considered as
a Prerequisite to the musical uplift in Korea. When the missionaries taught Western
hymns to the Korean congregations, they observed the “mistake” of missing half-
S‘CPS in congregational singing. Rev. William Kerr remarked that the more

enthusiastically the congregation sang, the worse were the mistakes. What he

50

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worried about was that the enthusiasm of the congregations’ singing did not assist

in teaching ‘half—steps’:

This is great disappointment at the Class if an hour is not set aside
expressly for music. If missionary is present and wants to save his voice
for other work, he must ruthlessly thrust aside some heart-tending appeals.
The enthusiasm is both help and hindrance in the way of improving, the
quality of music. The hymns have been sung so assiduously that it is
almost impossible to correct the mistakes, which are made (The Korean

Mission Field 1915:106).

Along with Kerr’ efforts, the missionaries emphasized the necessity and
the difficulties to teach correct pitch through their writings on music. When
congregational singing did not improve in correcting half-step, missionaries moved
their endeavors to the education of children’s singing. Eventually missionaries

adopted teaching the correct half—step as a new stage in an attempt to uplift Korea

by music.

This, together with the fact that there are no half steps in the native music,
makes the work in Public School Music during the first few years rather up
hill business. The reason the school has such an important part to play is

because of the nature of the difficulties we have to meet. The greatest

51

difficulty, you will all recognize, is the half steps of our scale. The
importance of school music, and the difficulties to teach the half steps of
western scale. I believe the only hope for the half tones is through the
cultivation of the voice and ear of the school children. At present it seems
to me that the two things worthy of the most emphasis in teaching small
children, is (1) a very careful working for the half steps in our scale with
fully as much time spent on listening as singing. 2) Emphasizing day after
day that shouting is not singing, and that we want quality rather than

quantity (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 102-104).

The goal of social regeneration was to be reached by converting
individuals to Christianity and teaching of ‘more advanced’ half steps in singing
and harmony. Musical uplift gave the missionaries the vision that Korea would be
enabled to uplift the country starting from teaching students. Mrs. E. M. McGary

summed up their vision concerning teaching music:

We have to remember that what we call music is new in Korea. A general
uplift need not be expected until the seed that has been sown has had a
chance to grow and bear fruit and scatter more seed through many seasons.
It is ours now to instil music into the hearts and lives of the fathers and
mothers and leaders of the coming generations — the students. The uplift

musically of the educational centers will come long before the uplift of the

52

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“SAUL

country, because the smaller towns and villages must be reached almost
entirely by the students. Not until you and I can succeed in creating a
musical atmosphere which, through the students returning to their homes,
will permeate the town and village life, will we have succeeded in our

undertaking (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 103).

With the conviction of the faith in progress, and social reform, the missionaries
engaged in teaching all musical matters such as singing half-step. The missionaries
spoke out on the necessity of teaching Western musical system and were “very
happy hearted and so, by their lives, they teach the people to sing” (The Korean
Mission Field 1915:120). The missionaries became confident for their mission

Visioning the fruits of the seeds:

As we are getting our school work all over Korea better and better
organized, let us speed the day that we give this one Christian art its due
emphasis... The more I teach in the schools, the more I have hopes for the
musical uplift of Korea, providing we are willing to pay the price, namely,
that one of the missionaries teach music in each of our main public schools,

at least once a week (The Korean Mission Field 1915; 102-3)

Musical uplift in Korea was rationalized that “more superior” Western musical

language could uplift the heart with charm of “soothing the savage breast.”

53

There is a psychological something in music that touches an answering
chord in the human heart. That music hath charms to soothe the savage
breast is not fancy but fact. It will require our combined sympathy,
patience and consecration for the task of bringing them out, but it can be
done, and I maintain that Korea has as great possibilities in musical
development as any other people ever had at the beginning when the note

was first sounded (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 105).

With understanding of either the social or musical values, the missionary

proceeded to introduce the “real music of the West” into a society in which already
a musical tradition existed. This missionary’s musical value, like the interpretation
of Western material affluence posited after considerable amount of process of
observation and finally rationalization. While responding with negative

appreciation for traditional music, missionary called attention to American hymns
that they brought in. Since “there was not much music,” judged by their standards
from the coolie’s songs to court music of Korea, missionary was impelled to teach
American hymn to lift up the souls of Korean Christians. For the missionaries,
there was no reason to question imposing Western music to their mission field as

enthusiastic as they endeavored in the evangelization.

54

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Conclusion

Given the missionaries’ power in Korean Christianity, the missionaries
inevitably shaped the Korean church music. A recognition of the missionaries’
authority for church music alerted the Korean church to the self—critique of the
current musical practice. The missionaries’ activities in Korea revealed that they
played a role as part and parcel of cultural colonialists reinforced by their religious
authority either given or taken by the Korean church. Although the “missionaries
openly spoke of their intention to claim the spiritual realm of God, leaving intact
the secular powers of the natives” (Commaroff 1992: 255), they did not leave the
advantage of diplomatic agency of the colonialism. Rather, their active
participation in the political exploitation provided the rationale to impose their
cultural values on the Korea music, although they did not visibly pave the way for
the formal colonization of the country by their home government.

The image of the wealthy missionaries opens up opportunities to question
the dominance of Western music in the Korean church music. One of the greatest
needs for the missionaries as well as the minister at home with regard to the
missionary effort was to justify the eXpense in life and money of the evangelism
reaching halfway around the world. Since the first requirement of the conversion
experience was the presence of the more powerful spirit replacing the old values of
native culture, their material abundance of the western technology was consciously
or unconsciously symbolized the superiority of Western culture. The missionaries

did not need to have any sympathy with native culture; rather they only
55

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emphasized the character of the native culture as immoral, heathen, full of strange
customs, and abnormal vices, dirty, and eventually to be thrown away. The
missionaries, whether they realized or not, were effectively developing an image of
the Korean traditional culture as a heathen practice.

Furthermore, the ideology of musical uplift appeared in quite assertive
tones associated with missionary’s position as a wealthy imperialist claiming
divine authority for the superiority of the Western culture at its worst. What is not
so well-known, however, is the impact of the missionary on the cultural values of
the mission field. At least three reasons may be suggested to account for this lack
of knowledge. First, most of the church leaders or social elite in modern Korea
were closely associated with the missionaries’ courtesy or self-interest. Many
leaders were shaped in missionary schools and benefited from missionaries.
Secondly, Western interpreters have minimized or dismissed the critiques by the
native converts because they were too closely connected with political aims and
were consequently considered as avoidable. Thirdly, these same western writers
proceeded to construct interpretations and to make their analyses largely on the
basis of Western interests, partly because of the paucity of revelations or
observations in the native sources.

Many studies explored to support the heroic image of missionaries as
caring for the sick, or teaching the pagan, while at times consciously omitted
telling the side of the missionized people regarding enforced cultural values, of

which church music represents the example. Consequently the impression of
56

missic

trim

missionaries as a pioneer of cultural colonization provides an opportunity for a
critique of the dominance of Western music in Korean church musical practices

The extent to which prevailing Western-superior ideas concerning progress,
civilization, and power affected missionary theory and practice is obvious. Just
how missionaries’ ideas may have embedded on Korean church music is not
difficult to measure. And it is not hard to see how important for the missionaries to
initiate publishing the Korean hymnal to uplift Korea by music despite some

denominational jealous.

57

CHAP

CHAPTER 2: PITCH AND THEOLOGY: HISTORY OF THE KOREAN HYMNAL

In 1983, the Hymnal Committee of the Korean Protestant Church
published a unified hymnal, Chan-song-ka, in collaboration with a number of
denominations to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Protestant mission.18 In the
preface to the hymnal, the committee remarked on the theological significance of
publishing the hymnal as an effort to achieve unity in the Korean church. This
statement is meaningful for this study in that it conveys the notion that the Korean
hymnal is more than a collection of music in the Korean church; it has theological
meaning in terms of denominational distinctions.

The Korean hymnal is the epitome of the collectivity of the Korean
church. When Korean Christians express the desire to have a unified Korean
hymnal, they see the hymnal as representing the ideal of the oneness of Christianity,
whose believers profess “one God, one Lord, and one Holy Spirit” (Preface to
Chan-song-ka, 1983). The ideal of all Korean Protestants to sing the same hymns
with the same words reflects the presence of schism in the history the hymnal. As
an embodiment of the theological complexity of the Korean church, richly
embedded with social and historical meaning, the Korean hymnal is a complex sign
that comes to stand for denominational schism. The complex nature of theological

perception demonstrated by the hymnal and the process of the schism itself links

‘8 This is the third unified hymnal, following those of 1908 and 1949.

58

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the Korean hymnal to the power relationship regarding its authorship between the
missionaries and the Korean church leaders.

The Korean hymnal operates as a sign that can be interpreted in the light of
denominational rivalry. The choice of language for translation of hymn texts then
represents meaning as result of denominational schisms. First, the missionaries’
authority prevails in the selection of the words to translate theological terms and in
revisions of the translations as their proficiency in the Korean language has
progressed. It is a projection by the missionaries presented to the converts and
makes given authority by the missionaries’ selection of music and translation of the
Korean hymnal. Second, the authority of the hymnal granted to the missionaries, is
understood differently by the Korean church, interpreting the music of the hymnal
with a unique set of accumulated social and cultural experiences. The experience
includes the Korean church’s schism and how denominational competition shapes
the Korean hymnal, which represents the Korean church music. The process of
revision to refine hymn text is an evaluative interpretive activity engaged in the
authority of Korean church music.

Thus the history of the Korean hymnal itself becomes a new symbolic
system created in the minds of the interpreters as a way to understand the
relationship between the first author of the Korean hymnal, the missionaries and
the Korean church leaders. Specifically, the choice of the language is valued or
criticized by different groups of Korean Protestants in terms of how they value or

criticize the text of the hymnal. Some valued the older translation of the hymn text

59

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because it represented an accumulation of the historical experience of the Korean
Christians, while the missionaries acknowledged the necessity to revise it in line
with their increasing proficiency in the Korean language. But some rejected the
older translation of the hymn text because it did not wholly present the Korean’s
experiences in the faith of Christianity. Therefore, the word of the hymnal
indicated the power dynamics from which and through which the history of the
Korean hymnal derived.

In this chapter, I argue that musical authority is not an adjunct to musical
style, but embedded in it as a social construction. The connection of social
privilege to musical authority meant that the author’s social status became a reality
in the authorship of the hymnal. As with any church, convictions were molded by
those who planted the seed. It was the missionaries who brought the Western
hymns to the Korean church and gave their music an authority as the most
authentic worship music for Korean church. The missionaries’ impact on shaping
the Korean hymnal continued well after the first publication of a Korean hymnal in
1892, even though “Christianity has become now a Korean religion” (D. Clark
1986).

It is not hard to see how much the missionaries’ power affected the Korean
church music considering their social relation to the Korean converts. The
missionaries did not permit Korean church leaders to direct theological guide of the
Korean church until 1927, when the first Korean professor was appointed at the

first Korean Theological Seminary (Pyeng-yang Theological Seminary) forty-five
60

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years after the first resident missionary entered Korea in 1884. The missionaries’
involvement in the theological direction of the Korean church gave them ‘too much
power and the Korean too little’ (Conn 1966z4). The missionaries’ exclusive
theological guidance was only one indication of how strongly they affected the
Korean church in general and the Korean hymnal in particular. It was not until
1931 that Korean church leaders served on the hymnal committee.

The missionaries considered their authorship of the Korean hymnal as a
way to connect it with the tradition of the church music, and criticizing missionary
authorship was regarded as blasphemy. The social distance between the
missionaries and the Korean church leaders became a ground to shape the nature of
the Korean hymnal.

The hierarchical relationship between the missionaries and Korean
converts surrounding the Korean hymnal is an appropriate starting point for
understanding the complexity of Korean church music, of which the missionaries
represented as the main actor for a one way cultural imposition of the colonial
power. The Korean hymnal, as the most authoritative music of the Korean church,
provided a source to inquire about the music as a display of human relationships,
presenting a sense of denominational rivalry in the hymnal itself. Although the
hymnal did not itself contain theological discourses, its authoritative position as
the collection of church music was enough to introduce denominational rivalry and
inspire theological controversy in relation to the hymn texts. These served as the

multiple dimensions of the power dynamics of the Korean hymnal.
61

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I emphasize that my focus on the power dynamics does not intend to
diminish the significance of the musical discourse. The Korean hymnal is
musically interesting: the style of the hymns can be analyzed in terms of harmonic
integration and sources; performing hymns in the Korean church is of enormous
importance; and many introductory compositions have been motivated to study the
style of four part traditional harmonization from Korean hymns. It is a part of a
history that links Western music and modern Korean music. Further, there are
reasons for the historical significance of the Korean hymnal: it was the first
substantial musical collection in a modern context introducing Western music in a
systematic way; its long history preserves the music history of modern Korean

music started in the late 19‘h century in Korea.

Hymn Ownership

Possessing one’s own hymnal and carrying it to church meetings is a
hallmark of Christian identity in Korea. Even though ministers often chastise
peeple for not regularly reading the Bible and not opening the hymnal at home,
every Korean Christian is obliged to have her/his own hymnal and Bible and to
carry them to church. This external appearance of Christian identity produced the
expression “chundosa kabang” (evangelist’s bag), a middle-sized bag, in which the
Korean Christian carries the heavy Bible and hymnal. There are hymnals varying in

size from palm-sized to octavo. Some hymnals are bound with the Bible in one

62

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binding so that church-goers can not forget to bring both to the church meetings.19
Not carrying the Bible and hymnal to the church meetings is like being a disarmed
soldier who does not carry his weapon to the battlefield. When a new convert has a
ceremony of confirmation or baptism, he or she is presented with a gift of the
hymnal and the Bible.20

The desire to own a hymnal is longstanding for Korean Christians. Many
early Korean converts, who were illiterate commoners, found hymn singing an
easier way to approach the doctrines of the Christianity than the Bible. They
learned about the Gospel through singing hymn texts. Missionaries’ writings show
how significant it was for early Korean converts to possess a hymnal. Lottie Bell
wrote in her letter to her friend: “One day the gateman of our house asked me to
lend him a hymn book to read” (Lottie April 11, 1895). Especially for commoners,
the hymnal provided a source to learn the gospel from the words of the hymn as
well as to provide the pleasure of singing. The hymn was not only a song to sing
but the gospel itself.

Thus, many early Korean converts wanted to buy a hymnal before buying
the Bible. It was not easy for common people to afford a hymnal, which cost more
than the daily wage. A woman missionary, Lillian Austin, wrote in her letter to her

'9 In Christian families, parents teach their teen-age children to carry the
hymnal to services, so as not to be a pseudo-Christian.

2° In the Korean church, the Bible and hymnal are presented as the gift or
the award for ordination service, confirmation service, or for the recognition

among the church communities. I was presented by my church with the Bible and
hymnal when I left for the United States.

63

friends about a new woman believer, for whom possessing a hymnal meant being a

real Christian:

I want to tell you of one little woman whom I saw pass from death into life.
the last morning she came into my room said, “I have come to say
goodbye.” I asked what had happened, if she couldn’t possibly study that
last day. She said she wanted to, but she __m_u_st have a Hymnal, (they always
get a hymn-book first, learn to read from that and then get a Bible) -— while
the pastor was there to sell them and she was going to work in the field all
day, husking rice, and get 6 2/3 cents. I said, “but the hymn-book costs 8
1/3 cents.” She thought she could borrow that. It was a temptation to give
her the money and let her study but I didn’t dare. She was making that
sacrifice in order to learn about her new Master, so I gave her the 1 2/3
cents to make out the price and she went on her way rejoicing (Lillian

Austin, April 1, 1936).

For many Korean believers, as with this woman, possessing a hymnal was powerful
sign of being a Christian. It was more important than finishing the last day of the
Bible class, than daring to ask to borrow money from a missionary and working in
a rice field all day. Enthusiastically learning hymns from the hymnal, these early
converts perceived the words of the hymn text to be as meaningful as the “Word.”

Hymn singing was available to all - servants, women, and children - while

54

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reading the Bible remained accessible to the few people who were literate. Early
documents inform us that it was not unusual for Koreans to sing hymns for an hour
before prayer meetings or at informal meetings (Lottie, SeptemberlO, 1895). This
practice of singing is still prevalent in Korean church. Every meeting where more
than two persons are gathered starts with singing hymns or gospel songs regardless
of time, location, and purpose of the meeting, or age and gender of the group. The
significance of the words of the hymn singing can be observed from the leader’s
comment that “while non-Christians sing secular and popular songs, we Christians
have the privilege of singing praise to God. Let’s sing hymns loudly while
meditating the words.”

For the missionaries, who found that their converts were eager to sing and
who were not able to master the language, teaching hymns was considered as the
most effective way to evangelize even before they mastered the Korean language
enough to preach. Korean converts learned Christianity and missionaries learned
the Korean language through the lyrics of the hymns as they sang together. For this
purpose, the hymn “Jesus loves me” was the most popular hymn for both Korean
converts and the missionaries, who considered “Jesus Loves Me” as the essence of
the gospel. The text of the hymn was a way for converts and missionaries to
communicate. The letter of a missionary’s wife, who boasted of her improvement
of Korean language to her friend, sheds light on the missionaries’ perception on the

converts through language:

65

me:
Chi

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as:

Ker

I can read the hymns a little now and can nearly always sing some at
prayers every morning. Perhaps you would like to see the chorus of “I am
so glad that Jesus loves me” so I copy it for you. Begin at the right to read
and read down the page. You see there is nothing to show when one word
ends and the next begins, which is rather perplexing at first. I believe the

words we sing to this are “Yes, Jesus loves me (Lottie to Vernon, July 11,

1895, Seoul).

The fact that Korean Christians considered owning the hymnal as not

merely possessing a musical collection but as an indication of their identity as

Christians influenced missionaries and the Korean church both to see the hymnal as

having evangelical as well as theological significance.

History of Korean Hymnal: Denominational Rivalry

Since Protestant missionaries published the first Korean hymnal for
efficient evangelization and for liturgical functions in 1892, more than 10 versions
of hymnals have appeared in the principal denominations in Korea.21 Despite
numerous revisions and new hymnals, the Korean hymnal has been criticized by

scholars of church music as a tool of schism and a hindrance to the unification of

2‘ Various kinds of hymnals were published by minor denominations such
as the Salvation Army. However, in this study two principal denominations in
Korea will be considered: Presbyterian and Methodist.

66

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the Korean church (Moon 1991; Seo 1992; Paik 1929). Schism in the Korean
church was deeper in the Presbyterian denomination, which had been divided into
many divisions according to the interpretation of theology and participation in
social concerns. The history of the Korean hymnal, however, shows the
contradictory view that congregations have always expressed a desire to have a
unified Korean hymnal.22 The following is a history of the hymnal which was
associated with denominational rivalry of the missionaries of two main

denominations, Presbyterian and Methodist, and later was related to the schism of

the Korean church after 1945.

Chan-mi-ka [Psalms and Hymns] (1892): the Hymnal as First Tool of the
Evangelist
The first Korean hymnal, titled Chan-mi—ka, was published in 1892 by a
Methodist missionary, Rev. Herber Jones.23 It was the predecessor of the successive
revisions of the Methodist Hymnals of 1895, 1898, 1899 and 1902. It was a

collection of 27 hymns“ with words based on the “popular use” among Korean

#—

22 In a 1975 poll, 99.8 % of Protestant Korean congregations wanted a
unified hymnal (Sec 1991). During my fieldwork, all the interviewees appraised of
a union hymnal.

2’ It was published under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Mission
and financially supported by the Girl’s Korean Mission Band of Asbury Church
Rochester, N.Y..

2‘ According to the preface to Chan-mi-ka (2nd edition of Chan-mi-ka of
1892), 1896 and Underwood “it contained some thirty in all.” (Preface to Chan-

yang-ka, 1894).
67

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converts after 10 years of missionizing.” Before a hymnal was published, Korean
churches used a large scroll on which the translations of hymns were written in
calligraphy, so that all in the room could read or see the one copy in front of the
congregation (Underwood 1894). The use of a large scroll instead of a hymnal was
found until recently in the churches of rural areas, especially for Sunday school or
Summer Bible camp, for which new music is always provided.26

Although it is not clear that Methodist missionaries planned to publish a
Korean hymnal for general use, the fact that the next Presbyterian hymnal refers to
Chan-mi-ka in its preface suggests that Chan-mi-ka was used in the early Korean
church regardless of denomination. Chan-mi—ka was a collection of popular hymns
that early converts liked and was primarily aimed at efficient evangelization rather
than denominational competition. The publication of a Korean hymnal by the
Methodist missionaries stimulated the Presbyterian missionaries, however, who

were sensitive to denominational rivalry in every domain of mission works in

Korea.27

Chan-yang-ka [Hymns of Praise] (1894)

Less than two years after the publication of Chan-mi-ka, a Presbyterian

2’ Underwood, “Preface” to Chan-yang-ka of 1894.

2" Personally, I also learned my first hymns from a similar type of scroll
hanging on wood stand that my home church replaced for Sunday school. Recently,
an overhead projector has replaced the scroll at the Sunday school.

27 The denominational rivalry has been recognized in the studies on

missionaries (Hunt 1984; Min 1970).
68

Hymnal, Chan-yang-ka, was published by the Presbyterian missionary Horace
Underwood in 1894.28 Its manuscript collection of hymns was printed in Japan,
financially supported by Rev. Underwood’s brother (Paik 1929: 248). This was a
product of personal effort rather than a denominational project of the Presbyterian
mission. When Underwood’s project to publish a Presbyterian hymnal became
known, it caused theological disagreement among the Presbyterian missionaries,
although the music it included and the translations were regarded better than Chan-
mi-ka. Underwood did not inform his fellow missionaries and as his wife states, he
“glowed with the thought of the delightful surprise” (ibid.). The publication of
Chan-yang-ka created a controversy over the translation of “God.” The word
“Hananim,” which was understood as a compound of two words, “Heaven (sky)
and “Master,” was the most commonly used word for God among missionaries
(Rhodes 1934: 47). But, Underwood insisted on not using “Hananim,” because he
understood it as having been used for a god of indigenous religion. Instead,
Underwood used “Sang-je” [the Supreme Ruler], “Father” and “Jehova.”

This controversy among the missionaries presented a theological concern
for the translation of hymn text. Underwood angrily blamed the Mission Council
for the rejection of his hymnal in the report to the Mission Board of his home

country:

‘—

28 The year of the preface of Chan-yang-ka, which Underwood wrote in
1893, informed us that the editorial work was completed by 1893. Considering the
amount of editing, including translation, Underwood had started the project
immediately after the publication of the Methodist hymnal, Chan-mi-ka.

69

About my Hymnal. They (the mission) tried to tie my hands in the Lord’s

work, I ask you as a Board to tell them to st0p. 2"

Later, the other missionaries’ grounds for the rejection of Underwood’s hymnal

were revealed by Paik (1929):

The grounds for the rejection of Underwood’s collection were that it was
contrary to the previous arrangement for a unified hymnal, that Mr.
Underwood did not secure permission for the use of translations made by
others, which he had used and had freely corrected, and that the term for
God, which was then in controversy, was omitted throughout the book and

either Father or Jehovah was substituted (Paik, 1929: 248).

Underwood’s hymnal presented 117 hymns according to theologically-
oriented subject: Praising God Father, Praising Son of God, and Praising Holy
Spirit etc., laid out in a manner intended to educate congregation about doctrine.
The liturgical prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the

Apostles creed, were added at the end of the hymnal; these were included with

.—

29 H. Underwood, Feb. 9.1894, Seoul, Presbyterian Church in the U. S.A.
Board of Foreign Missions Correspondence and Reports Microfilm Series,
Philadelphia: The Presbyterian Historical Society, 1967: Calendar v. 21.

70

their own music. Chan-yang-ka was the Presbyterian hymnal until 1908, when the
first union hymnal was published. It contained 7 hymns newly composed or written
by Koreans.3o Chan-yang—ka was published in two different versions for the Korean

convert’s convenience: text only and with music.

Chan-sung—si (1895)

After the controversy over the translation of theological terms, the North
Presbyterian Mission, which was most active in the northwest of Korea, published
its own hymnal in 1895, which they titled Chan-sung-si. It was expanded from 54
hymns in the first edition to include 83 hymns in the second edition (1898) and 87
hymns in the third edition (1900).

In the English preface, the Committee of the Presbyterian Mission stated
the reason for the additional Presbyterian hymnal in a conciliatory tone. They
wished to pr0pose a “less controversial” translation for a “possible secure

uniformity” among missionaries:

With a desire to as far as possible secure uniformity a Committee of the
Presbyterian Mission was appointed to compile a book of such hymns as
were most desired for use by the missionaries. With this in view the

Committee has selected only those translations most easily understood,

3° In her comparative study of Chan-yang-ka with American hymnals,
Sook-Ja Cho (1992) provides the source of the hymns from the American hymnals.

71

01

with a few which after long use seem acceptable to the Koreans (Preface to

Chan-sung-si, 1985).

Chan-sung-si was popular only in the northwest of Korea, the station of the

North Presbyterian Mission.

Revision of Methodist Hymnal, Chan-mi-ka

The controversy over the translation of God drew attention to the
theological potential of the hymnal. After recognizing the theological significance
of Underwood’s “enthusiastic” Presbyterian hymnal, the Methodist Mission
independently revised its own hymnal, updating the language, and added a
liturgical appendix at the end of the hymnal. The addition of liturgical prayers
made the hymnal resemble Underwood’s Presbyterian hymnal, Chan-yang-ka. The
Methodist missionaries G. Herber Jones and Miss Rothweiler were appointed as the
committee for the revision and compilation of the first revision of Chan-mi-ka
(1892) (Paik 1929: 248). The second edition was published in 1895 with hymns
selected according to “the main themes of the gospel” (Preface to Chan-mi-ka
1895). Three more revised editions of Chan-mi-ka followed in 1897, 1899, 1902,
which were either “simply a reprint” (1897) or an enlargement (1899) of the
previous edition. According to the preface, the Committee explained that the
reason for successive revisions of Chan-mi-ka lay in the improvement of

missionaries’ knowledge of the Korean language. The statement of the preface
72

dc

suggests that as missionaries progressed in the Korean language, they needed to
differentiate some sensitive terms from those of other denominations. For example,
the Methodist hymnal consistently used “Chan—mi,” while the Presbyterian hymnal
used “Chan—yang” for the English word praise or praising. And “Sung-sin [Holy
Ghost]” was used by the Presbyterian hymnal while “Sung-ryung [Holy Spirit]”
was used by the Methodist hymnal, in addition to the distinction of the translation
of God, for which “Hananim” was used. The revision of the hymnal made more
denominational distinctions in terms of the choice of translations.

Later revisions of the Methodist hymnal included “The Ritual for Baptism
and the Lord’s Supper” in addition to the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, and
the Ten Commandments. The 1902 revision of Chan-mi—ka added a number of
prayers for children’s baptism, confirmation, weddings and funeral services, in
addition to the new version of the ritual for adult’s baptism and communion.

Thus The Korean Repository (1896:376) announced that there were three
hymnbooks in active circulation among the churches: the revised Methodist hymnal,
(Chan-mi-ka), the Presbyterian hymnal edited by Underwood, (Chan-yang-ka), and

the North Presbyterian Hymnal (Chan-sung-si).

The First Union Hymnal, Chan-song-ka (1908)
In 1908, the first union hymnal, Chan-song-ga, was published, inspired by
the union movement. According to the agreement between the Presbyterian Council

and the Methodist Mission on September 15, 1905, having a union hymnal was
73

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considered as “the first matter of the co-operation” of the General Council, which
was organized in 1905 as a result of resolutions of a Joint Committee. Missionaries
from the two main denominations, Presbyterian and Methodist, were chosen for the
committee: Mrs. W. M. Baird, Rev. F. S. Miller, Mr. D. A. Bunker.

When the General Council published the union hymnal, Chan—song-ka, the
committee emphasized in the preface the necessity of having a union hymnal for
Christians who believe in one God. It was agreed that “Haninim” would be used
for God, and the Presbyterians’ term “Sung-sin [Holy Ghost]” was accepted. The
first hymn of the hymnal indicated, however, the difficulty of the two
denominations reaching an agreement on the translation for certain hymns, that
potentially included theological terms.

The first two hymns of the Chan-song-ka had the same music but different
translations. The doxology, translated from “Old Hundredth” included some
controversial theological terms: God, the Holy Spirit, praise, and angel. The two
denominations had used different translations of the same hymn for more than 15
years, and it seemed that denominational concern was too strong to allow an
agreement for the selection of the words and even the order of the translation of the
Korean hymn texts. The controversy was settled by including both translations.
The Presbyterian version was the first and the Methodist translation followed as the

second in the union hymnal. 3'

¥

. 3‘ The following are the two versions of Korean translation of “Doxology”
written by Thomas Ken of the tune of “Old Hundredth.” The principle meaning of

74

Inclusion of two hymns translated from one English hymn suggests that the
two denominations could not come to an agreement for the vocabularies or for the
order of the words. Subsequent publications of the hymnal have included both
translations, either as two hymns of as two verses of the same hymn.

Although the two principal denominations had disagreements about the
translations of theological terms, the first union hymnal, Chan-song-ka (1908) was
very popular from its publication, a time during which the Korean church was
experiencing “wildfire growth.” It was used in Bible class and revival meetings,
where converts were gathering regardless of denominational distinctions, as well as
in the church services.

With the growth in popularity of hymn singing, missionaries established
publishing businesses, which became an important aspect of missionary activities
of the Literature Society. They published pocket-size hymn books and the small
hymnal attached to the pocket New Testament. Undoubtedly, mass-publication
enabled Koreans who could not afford expensive hymnals to own a hymnal. At the
same time, it established a mode of literary production and patterns of mass
consumption accessible to common pe0ple. By 1931, when the next new hymnal
was published, the union hymnal saw more than forty editions (Rhodes 1934; 418)
in four different versions: a text only edition, the music edition, a pocket edition,

and the small size edition bound with the pocket New Testament. In the 43 editions

two translations is same, but the choice of Korean translation and order of word are
different.

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from 1908 to 1930, the union hymnal published 695,000 copies of words only,
111,000 copies of the pocket edition, and 68,500 copies of the music edition, a
total of 874.5000 copies (Preface to Sin-jung-chan-song-ka, 1931: 332).

The popularity of the union hymnal and “wildfire growth” of the Korean
church eventually raised the issue of the financial significance of hymn publication.
In the over 20 years of its publication, the rights of publication of the union
hymnal, Chan-song-ka, moved from the General Council (1908-1911), through the

Federal Council (1912-1918) to the Literature Society (1919-1931).

Sin-jung—chan-song—ga [Newly Selected Hymnal] (1931)

After the Great Revival of 1907 and the Million Souls Movement in 1910,
it seemed that the establishment of one united church in Korea could be achieved
under the direction of the General Council. In 1909 the two major missions and the
General Council held Quarto Centennial Conferences at Pyeng Yang to celebrate
the beginning of Protestant Missions in Korea together. Yet, as the Korean church
underwent rapid growth and the missionaries from different denominations
increased, denominational interests became the most important concern among
missionaries.

In its seventh meeting in 1911, the General Council voted to reorganize

into a Federal Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions. In his study of history
of the Korean mission of Presbyterian church, Rhodes (1934: 453-4) recalled the

Federal Council as “a delegated body for work which can better be done in union
76

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than in separation.” He pointed out that it had “advisory powers only and no
authority to draw up a common creed or form of government or worship.” Rhodes
noted that the progress of the union movement was as very difficult from its early
years, although it had started under “the definite guidance of the Spirit.” According
to Rhodes’ observation, the missionaries’ denominational rivalry was too strong to
be united only for the sake of an evangelical union of the Korean church. He

further stated that missionaries must bear the responsibility for the failure of

church union in Korea, which was enhanced by Korean church leaders after the
missionaries left Korea.

While the importance of the union movement declined among missionaries,
the Federal Council continued to work on the revision of the union hymnal (1908).
The same number of Committee members were appointed from the Methodist and
the Presbyterian missions: Henry Dodge Appenzeller, Chairman, and Pyun, Sung~
Ok for Methodists, and Mr. Kim, In-Sik, and Rev. William C. Kerr, with Rev. W. J.
Anderson serving for a time during Kerr’s absence on furlough for the
Presbyterians.

For the first time, two Korean church leaders participated in the hymnal
revision. The inclusion of the Korean church leaders on the hymnal committee was
associated with their more active involvement in the social and political
movements after the March First Independence Movement in 1919 and after the
first seven students had graduated from the Korean Theology Seminary at Pyeng-

Yang in 1907. Korean leaders participated more in the process of hymnal revisions,
77

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but the relationship between missionaries and Korean church leaders was
dominantly hierarchical. Missionaries were respected as messengers of God,
teachers and leaders, and thus their authority was much greater, especially for the
selection of music for the hymnal. The fact that Koreans served on the hymnal
committee did not necessarily mean that they were highly influential in the
production of the hymnal.

The missionaries’ musical authority was demonstrated in the English
preface and the English musical index. The insertion of an extensive English index
by subject, meter of tunes, the tune, and first lines and titles demonstrated a
conception that American hymns were considered the authentic and original source
for the Korean hymnal. This use of English maintained the authority of the hymnal
by evoking its continuity with its missionary origin. Placing the English original
title at the top of the Korean hymnal was visual evidence that the missionaries’
language was more “sacred,” and the translation of hymns was perceived as a
version of the “word,” which could not be easily changed. Inclusion of the English
preface, which was not necessary for Korean Christians because the preface to the
hymnal was also written in Korean, functioned deliberately to communicate the
missionaries’ authority over the Korean hymnal and the Korean church leaders.

According to the preface of the Sin-jung-chan-song-ka, the Committee
focused on two issues for the revision. First, it included new hymns for young
Christians, who had different musical preferences from the older generation. There

was a demand to include many popular hymns from the “Hymnal for Korean

78

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Youth,” which was edited by the missionary, Miss Mary E Young.

Second, a more immediate demand for a new hymnal arose when the great
earthquake of 1923 destroyed the printing house in Yokohama, Japan, and the
matrices for the hymnal were lost in the subsequent fire. After 7 years of
cooperation (Hong, ed. 1992: 344), committee made a selection based on the
existing hymnals. Over half of hymns included were borrowed from the Chan-
song-ka (1908), and some 70 hymns from the Hymnal for Korean Youth were used.
A small number were newly translated; and 6 hymns were written by Korean
authors, who were the winners in a contest for the hymnal.

When the hymnal, entitled Sin-jung-chan-song-ka, was published in 1931,
however, the Presbyterian Council rejected it, and only the Methodist churches
used it. The Presbyterians’ rejection of the hymnal resulted in great controversy.
After the General Meeting of the Presbyterian Council in 1931, when the Council
announced the “optional use” of the revised union hymnal, Sin-jung-chan-song-ka,
Presbyterian churches continued to use the old hymnal of 1908, along with 50
hymns borrowed from Sin-jung-chan-song-ka (1931). Soon the Presbyterian
churches started to work on their own hymnal and in 1934 published one entitled as
Sin-pyun-chan-song-ka [Newly edited hymnal] (Hong ed. 19922353).

The Presbyterians gave several reasons for denouncing Sin-jung-chan-
song—ka. A music instructor at Pyeng Yang theology seminary, Tae-hui Kwon
criticized in changes in Sin-jung-chan-song-ka (1931) compared with the old union

hymnal of 1908. He said that the page numbering, different from the old hymnal,
79

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caused confusion for congregations trying to find very popular hymns. He
criticized the exclusion of five hymns with Korean tunes and ten favorite spiritual
hymns and the inclusion of non-spiritual songs such as “Hear the Pennies
Dropping” (hymn no. 302) and “Temperance Song” (hymn no. 230). He opposed
inclusion of the hymn, “Let’s Move to Work for Our Home Country,” as being
concerned with social, rather than religious content. Regarding the use of
traditional Korean music, Kwon (Hong, ed. 1992: 353) stated, “it is regrettable that
the new union hymnal eliminated five hymns, which were ‘using old Korean

music,’ and expressing musical nationality based on Korean Christians’
experiences.” But the hymnal Committee explained that the exclusion of old

Korean music was due to the opposition of Korean members of the committee:

When the matter of using old Korean music was brought up, it was the
Korean members of the committee who opposed it, on the ground of the
bad associations connected with such tunes (Preface to Sin-jung-chan-

song-kn, 1931).

Kwon’s writing strongly implies that the main reason for the hymnals
rejection by the Presbyterians lies not so much in musical matters as in
denominational conflicts, which he said “could not be written in my article” (Hong
ed. 1992: 354). On the surface, the official reason for the Presbyterian churches’

rejection of the new union hymnal was that Methodist leaders had published it
80

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without the agreement of the Presbyterian churches. Yet, the Presbyterian and
Methodist churches did not have any reason to sacrifice their denominational
distinctions because the Korean church was growing rapidly.

In 1933, after the disagreement, the Federal Council decided to publish a
new union hymnal under a cooperative committee from the two denominations.
Each denomination selected 7 committee members, and they planned a five-year
project to produce a new hymnal. Yet, in the Presbyterian General Council Meeting
of 1934, the Presbyterian churches formed their own hymnal committee; they used
the old union hymnal until a new Presbyterian hymnal could be published.
Consequently, the Methodist churches refused to c00perate with the Presbyterian
churches because they did not want to undergo the expense of publishing a new
hymnal when the old one had been out only three years (Seo 1991).

The Presbyterians acquired the rights to publish hymnals from the Federal
Council of Mission, as missionaries were losing their influence on the Korean
church because of suppression by the Japanese colonial government.32
Consequently, they became increasingly concerned with publishing the hymnal as a
money-making venture. The Presbyterian church’s official denouncement of the
union hymnal of 1931 was financially motivated also; it should be noted that
Presbyterian churches outnumbered Methodist congregations during the 1930s and

therefore they did not feel compelled to c00perate.

__

’2 Byung-Min Paik, “On the revision of Hymnal,” The Korean Messenger
3.20.1935, Hong, ed. 1992: 358.

81

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In 1935, the Presbyterian churches published Sin—pyun—chan-song-ka with
the assistance of a Presbyterian missionary. The political climate during Japanese
colonialism in the late 19305 compelled the transfer of the authorship and
editorship of the Korean hymnal from the missionaries to Koreans.33 The
publication of the Presbyterian hymnal was made under Korean directorship, but
the missionaries’ participation in the Presbyterian hymnal helped legitimize the
undertaking.

Sin-pyun-chan-song—ka contained 400 hymns borrowed mainly from the
old union hymnal, with some from the new American Presbyterian Hymnal, and 40
hymns from the revised union hymnal, Sin-jung-chan-song-ka (1931) and other
gospel songs (Seo 1991). The Presbyterian Council demanded that Methodist
churches use the new Presbyterian hymnal to comply with the union movement; the
Methodists declined.” The records concerning the revision of the hymnal suggest
that having a union hymnal was as a symbol of the union movement was a
predominant concern among Korean churches in the 19305. Despite these wishes,
the practical establishment of a union became increasingly unlikely.

The Presbyterian Council seceded from the Federal Council of Missions in
1935. Hymnal authorship was taken over by Korean church leaders from

missionaries. The new Presbyterian hymnal, Sin-pyun-chan-song-ka, was a result

—_

33 The Japanese colonial government forced American missionaries to
leave Korea by 1937.

3" “Methodists Perspective on Hymnal,” The Christian Messenger
11.20.1935, Hong, ed., 1992: 371

82

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of the denominational schism between Presbyterian and Methodist churches in

Korea during the transitional stage of the authorship.

Hap—dong-chan-song-ga [The Second Union Hymnal] (1949)

After liberation in 1945, the Korean church agreed to have a union hymnal
regardless of denominational differences. The decision was also affected by the
social movement that emphasized oneness as a nation in reaction to the Japanese
colonial period and the rise of Communism. There was a need for spiritual
rehabilitation after liberation and the Korean War (1950-3). Following the War, a
great Easter sunrise service was held on the site of the former Shinto Shrine in
Seoul. Many Christians had been forced by the Japanese colonial government to
bow to the shrine. Korean Christians gathered to commemorate the Victorious
Christ with “one voice.” In these inter—denominational Christian meetings, the
Korean church felt the necessity to have a union hymnal to sing with one voice and
same words. A union committee of the three denominations, Methodist,
Presbyterian and Holiness (Clark 1961: 238), prepared a union hymnal of 586
hymns. It was approved by the governing bodies of the three churches, was entitled
Hap-dong-chan-song-ka, and has been in general use since 1949.

The committee consisted of Korean church leaders and Korean musicians.
As the preface states, the committee principally aimed for the inclusion of the
different hymns as many as possible of the three denominations to avoid

denominational cleavage. It says, “principally all hymns, which were used in each
83

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den

denomination are included, and the texts of hymn, which were used in all
denominations are modified with agreement...” (Preface to Hap-dong-chan-song-
ka 1949). It comprised a mixture of three hymnals of the three denominations.
Denominational identity had already be established in the Korean church by use of
different theological terms such as those for God and the Holy Spirit and by
changes in the word orders of translations. The parts of the union hymnal could be
separated whenever denominational distinction was necessary.

After liberation, the Korean church had to confront the issue of allegations
of heresy by those who had submitted to Japanese colonial religious policies. One
of the most serious of these had to do with those pastors or leaders who had bowed
to the Shinto shrine. After Liberation, some felt that for leaders of the church, there
must be severe discipline and definite repentance before they could again take their
places of leadership. They were to stay out of pulpits for at least two months and
then make public confessions (Clark 1961). During the controversy over
repentance, Presbyterian churches experienced a schism over whether the penitence
would be accepted or not. A conservative group, which had many martyrs,
separated from a group that had agreed to bow to the shrine. They were opposed to
using the same hymnal as the “inauthentic” churches.

During this period of controversy among the Presbyterian churches, a
progressive group declared that the hymnal was a symbol of an ecumenical
movement, which prompted the conservative group to have their own hymnal. The

conservative group criticized the translation of the older hymnal for its lack of the

84

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“spirituality.” The conservative Presbyterian group published its own hymnal,
entitled Sae-chan-song-ka [New hymnal] in 1962. It excluded new hymns
composed or written by Koreans because the schism between the conservative and
progressive groups depended on the acceptance of indigenous theology as an
ecumenical movement (Min 1970: 51).

After the separation between conservative and progressive factions of the
Presbyterian church over the issues of bowing to the shrine and accepting of
indigenization, the progressive group decided to revise the older union hymnal of
1949. They focused on a reexamination of the language of the translations and the
avoidance of repetition. Since they did not need to reconcile the theological terms
of the translations with those of conservative groups, the progressives enhanced
their denominational identity in terms of language and content of the hymns. They
published their own hymnal, entitled Gai-pyun-chan-song-ka, in 1967, with 600
hymns. Its inclusion of 27 hymns composed by Koreans contrasted with the
conservative hymnal, which had no Korean-composed hymns.

Sin-Young Ahn, the chair of the text committee for the progressive hymnal,
said that the Gai-pyun-chan-song-ka (1967) was necessary primarily because of the
unnaturalness of the fit between words and the rhythms of the old hymnal. But, the
refinement of the words and content of the hymn text implied that two factions
could not comply when the necessity to have a union hymnal was raised later. The
words and order of the translation was both a product and a symbol of the schism

in the Presbyterian church. After 1967, there were three different hymnals used in
85

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the Korean churches; Hap-dong-chan-song—ka [Union Hymnal], Sae-chan-song-ka,
and Kae-pyun-chan—song—ka.

Throughout its history, the Korean hymnal was a crucial tool for the
missionaries’ denominational rivalry, and theological distinctions were reinforced
through its texts. These two concerns were interrelated because rivalry between
missionaries intrinsically required a denominational differentiation. The difference
was expressed through the word choice of the hymn translations. When
missionaries initiated hymn publication, they consciously focused on the choice of
the language for translation of complicated theological ideas because they looked
at the texts of hymnals as the essential expressions of the theological doctrines.

A historical review of the Korean hymnal demonstrates that the hymnal has
undergone numerous transformations for theological reasons. The Korean hymnal
reflected social and historical changes after Korean church leaders took over the
authorship of the hymnal from the missionaries after the 19305. The historical
complexity of the schism made the hymnal a voice to present the denominational
interests. The Korean church leaders recognized the significance of the words of
the hymnal.

Thus, the simple identification of the Korean hymnal with a branch of
Western music or a Christian liturgical music is not much help in understanding the

social meaning of the Korean hymnal.” Rather focusing on the language for the

h

3’ Some Korean scholars have debated whether the Korean hymnal is a
derivative of the American hymnals. See Sook-Ja Cho (1994) and Seung-hee Kim

86

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Korean hymnal is to understand the social meaning of Korean church music
through how the “words” shaped the construction of theological significance in the
hymnal and how the language impacted the relationship between missionaries, the
first authors, and Korean church leaders, the successor authors of the hymnal.

The history of the hymnal confirms that the Korean hymnal was a highly
theological statement through which the missionaries were enabled to make certain
musical claims and initiate personal strategies in the context of denominational
relations. The theological function of hymn singing helped reinforce the social and
religious conditions within which Korean hymnal has been developed.

The significance of the hymnal for efficient evangelization provided a
forum for missionaries to compete in mission achievement. As the hymnal operated
as visible evidence of the initiation of mission works, its history of revision and
republication put it at the center of the history of missionaries’ denominational
competition. The missionaries’ observation that hymns were more significant for
teaching theological distinctions than for the music itself emphasized the choice of
words for the translations. When missionaries first used the hymnal to teach the
gospel in a more effective way, the hymnal came to represent the source of
missionaries’ social authority and their musical authorship. In Korea, which has
been dominated by the hierarchical order of Confucian ideology, the politically and

economically powerful missionaries were naturally perceived as the most

_k

(1996).

87

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authoritative class in Korean society. They were also God’s messengers, leaders
founders and teachers for the Korean church.

When the early missionaries had published the early Korean hymnal, they
had not mastered the Korean language. The Korean hymnal had to be revised to
clarify theological terms as the missionaries progressed in their knowledge of the
Korean language. For Korean church leaders, who did not participate in hymnal
editing until 1931, the language already established by the missionaries, despite
their being novices in the Korean language, had the same amount of theological
authority as the missionaries’ social authority. The order and the words of the
translations selected by missionaries represented “The Word,” which could not be
changed easily or lightly. Thus the attempts of Korean church leaders to refine the
missionaries’ translations always entailed a controversy as to whether to keep the

old translation or to update it to modern Korean.

Language Improvement
The history of the Korean hymnal paralleled the level of improvement of
missionaries’ skill in the Korean language. As soon as missionaries arrived at their
mission field, they realized that the success of missionary work would depend on
the ability to communicate with people and the improvement of their language
skills. Since Korea had hardly been known to most American missionaries before
the 18803, the missionaries were not ready to communicate in Korean when they

left for the mission field. They had their first lessons in the Korean language when

88

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they had to stop either in Japan or in China while they nervously waited until
political upheavals in Korea ended.

Once communication was feasible, translations of liturgical, doctrinal, and
biblical literature and hymnals soon followed in order to initiate mission works. It
is at least imaginable that these efforts to transpose the Christian message through
translations into Korean language should have remained a principal preoccupation.

Teaching hymns was pursued because hymn text was the most efficient
tool both for evangelization and learning language. To disseminate the gospel, the
missionaries undertook to teach hymns that carried the content of the evangelical
message in the simplest translations into Korean as they learned the language.

Missionaries worked on revising the hymnal and dictionary at the same
time and with the same amount of energy.36 Examination of the translation of
hymns as well as literature such as dictionaries reveals certain expected patterns,
such as “modest beginnings and later improvements.”37 Since the “naturalness” of
the translation was one of the most important issues as the missionaries found
mistakes in the older translations, the missionaries worked on the Korean language
through the revision of the Korean-American dictionary.

One of the main reasons for revision of the early Korean hymnals was

3” Underwood’s A Concise Dictionary of the Korean Language (1892), and
his publication Chan-Yang-Ka (1895), and revision of 1892’s Chan-Mi-Ka in 1895;
the second edition of James Gale’s Korean-English Dictionary (1897) in 1911 and
the unified hymnal, Chan-song-ka in 1908; the third edition of Gale’s Dictionary in
1931 and Sin-jung-chan-song-ka of 1931.

37 For the missionaries’ project in Korean—American dictionary, see the list

89

 

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achieving “naturalness” in the usage of honorifics. In the missionaries’ preaching
and hymn translation, the absence of honorifics in relation to God perplexed the
Korean converts. There are anecdotes about the missionaries’ confusion of the
honorifics, which made Korean congregations laugh or become uncomfortable
when the translations did not use the proper honorifics for praising God.

The committee of the Sinjung-chan-song-ka (1931) showed concern with
propriety in the guiding principles for revision of the hymnal: “choice of the right
and honorable word for appropriate Christian thought and doctrine.” After the trials
to improve the naturalness of Korean translation, Kwon, Tae-Eui, an instructor of
music at Pyung—yang Seminary, evaluated the sophistication of language and the
content of the New Hymn Book as better than those of the older hymn book (1908)
(Hong, ed. 1992:353-355).

Musical elements also influenced the unnaturalness of the hymn translation.
The rhythmic structure of American hymns did not fit well with Korean
translations of the words since many American hymns started with an upbeat
rhythm. English sentences commonly begin with an article, which puts the first
strong beat on the important noun. Korean does not use the article so the important
noun comes at the first note in the upbeat rhythm, and one noun of the Korean
translation is broken into two beats which sounds different or unnatural because of

its different intonation and accent of the music. Many Korean church musicians

__

of the J. Gale’s work (Rutt, 1972: 373-374).

90

in

have pointed to the imbalance between the Korean language and upbeat Western
music for the unnaturalness of the hymn words (Moon, IH 1967; Moon, SM 1999).
The disagreement between two denominations on the translations of the first hymn
of the first union hymnal of 1908 derived from this incompatibility. For the Korean
translation of the first phrase of “Old Hundred,” the Presbyterian translation added
a prefix “man” meaning “all” in English so that the most important word, “bok
[blessings]” would come on the first strong beat of the music, while the Methodists
who did not want to add any other words started with “bok [blessings],” although
the music was on an upbeat.38

While the missionaries’ improvement in language skills provided a reason
to revise the hymnal to improve the naturalness of the hymn texts, the Korean
church perceived the older translations the missionaries left behind as the more
“authentic” and not easily amenable to change along with the history of the
Christianity in Korea.

Korean churches showed “strong conservatism” in preferring the older
translation when Sin-jung-chan-song-ka (1931) was published after an effort of two
denominations to modernize the older hymn translations. But according to the
explanation of the Presbyterian church, whether to accept an improved translation

or to keep the older translation was one reasons to reject the new hymnal (1931).

38 In the Korean translations of hymns, there are numerous examples that
do not match with upbeat rhythm or add Korean prefix to match musical accent
with the words.

91

 

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He

When the Gae-pyun-chan-song-ka, which has been valued as the best
updated, modern, and natural Korean translation by many Korean church musicians
(Moon SM 1999; Moon, IH 1967) was published in 1967, Moon, Ik-whan, a pastor,
poet and one of the hymnal committee surveyed the response of individual
churches to 1967 hymnal. According to the survey, the main reason that the Korean
churches did not like the hymnal was the change of the familiar words despite of
the unnaturalness (Moon 1970: 31-32). Rev. Moon pointed out the tendency to
prefer the old translation to the new one as one of “the strong conservatism of
Korean church.”

This “strong conservatism” toward the hymnal texts was criticized when
many church musicians found the language of the union hymnal (1983) was an
‘awkward’ translation returning to its proceeding hymnal (Kwak 1997). One of the
leading Korean church musicians, Kwak, Sang-Soo, criticized “a conservative
attitude prevalent in Korean church, which do not want to change even for better
choice, just because it is new” (Kwak 1997: 46). What his remark suggested was
that the conservative attitude repeatedly caused a controversy about changes in the
words, but the words of many hymns kept the older rhetorical expressions despite
many revisions of the Korean hymnals.

How was the return to the older language of a certain hymnal possible?
How could the old translation achieve authority despite a desire for modernization
of the language of the hymnal texts?

Korean churches valued the older hymnal editions as the source for the

92

revisions of the Korean hymnal. This preference was formed under the
missionaries’ guidelines when they directed their last Korean hymnal in the Sin-
jung-chan—song-ka (1931). The committee emphasized keeping the original for
translations as well as for musical elements. The following are the guiding

principles that the committee had to keep in mind during the revision:

Are the Korean translations reasonably similar in thought to the original?
Is the music score correct in the old music edition? 15 the key used in the

old music edition satisfactory? (Preface to Sin-jung-chan-song-ka, 1931).

The tendency of the Korean church to put higher values on the older
translations was carried on by the Korean church leaders who took over after the
missionaries were forced by the Japanese colonial government to leave in the
19305. Despite the missionaries’ several earlier revisions, the last stage of the
missionaries’ translation was transmitted to the Korean church as the “authentic
word” to consult with whenever the Korean church needed a hymnal revision. This
version then, became the most authoritative translation. During the process of
refining awkward translations into a more modern expression, Korean leaders often
doubted the fidelity of the newer translation and presumed the missionary’s
authorship as better and more authentic. Thus missionary authorship endowed their
translations with religious authority and these translations could not be easily

changed without the unanimous agreement of all Koreans.
93

The missionaries’ initial authorship of the Korean hymnal contained the
communal concern for deity in authority that has been a major component in
Korean church music. After the Korean church leaders took over the hymnal
authorship, they hesitated to be a critical of missionaries’ translations and
authorship, partly because of their hierarchical relationship with missionaries as
messengers of God and founders of the Korean hymnal. The respect for the
missionaries’ authorship of the hymnal made the Korean church leaders hesitant to
question the authority of the missionaries’ translation. To change the older
translations was to question the missionaries’ authority.

The newer Korean hymnal often looked for its authority in the continuity
of the earlier hymnals. The image of missionaries as founders of Korean church
was interpreted as granting them the highest authorship. The union hymnal (1983)
included 96 hymns from the 118 hymns in Underwood’s Chan—yang-ka (1894),
almost intact in music and words (Cho 1994). The survival of 96 hymns from
Chan-yang-ka (1894) through Chan-song-ka (1983) shows that Korean churches
perceived the older hymns not only as a significant liturgical heritage left by
missionaries but also as one of the most authentic forms of church music, which
Korean church should preserve.

Further, the strong conservatism of the Korean church in its opposition to
the newer texts is associated with the message or methodology of conservatism,
which is recognized as a contributing factor to the success of Korean

evangelization (Conn 1966: 5). In his study of the history of the theology of the
94

Presbyterian church in Korea, Conn pointed out that the conservative theology in
the Korean church meant adherence to the Bible as the very Word of God. Thus
strong fundamentalism was applied to the hymnal texts. The opposition to the
refinement of the older words of the hymnal reflected the theological conviction
that the “very Word of God” could not be changed. Thus, despite many revisions to
refine older translations, the missionaries’ translations remained to a large degree.

In the process of translation, the choice of language often operated as a
signal reflecting the social relationship between the missionaries and the converts.
As Fabian recognized the social definition of language in the colonial context, the
hierarchical implication between the languages of the powerful colonizer and the
powerless colonized is established (Fabian 1986). Despite the unnaturalness of the
missionaries’ early translations, the notion that Koreans perceived the
missionaries’ translations as more “authentic” signifies the hierarchical
relationship between the missionaries and “native workers” as well as between the
original language and the translation.

Hymn translation was based on the communicative practice and experience,
which had its own internal dynamics between missionaries and natives. It can be
characterized by a “gradual shift from descriptive apprOpriation to prescriptive
imposition and control” (Fabian 1986: 136). Learning from the natives, collecting
words and useful phrases, and noting a few grammatical observations, were the
missionaries’ principal activities during the initial phase of settling in and

establishing contacts with natives. The missionaries, who had not mastered Korean

95

language enough to translate all detailed words, had to rely on a level of
descriptive appropriation of the language for the communication with Korean
converts. The collection and translation of hymns, the missionaries soon
established the authority to impose their perceptions on the content of hymns and
choice of words. Although the translation of the hymnal began with the
cooperation of native converts, the contribution of native co-workers diminished as
the missionaries made progress in the language.

There was also a difference between the missionary’s language learning,
which aimed to impose an advanced civilization on the “undeveloped mission
field,” and the convert’s learning the missionaries’ language, which enabled him to
participate in an “advanced civilization.” For the early Korean converts, learning
English was a symbol of “modernization” and a channel to achieving the social
status the missionaries enjoyed.

Missionaries’ awkward translations of English hymns into Korean were not
considered uninformed but were thought of as having a “mystique” with the
authority of the new religion, Christianity. The missionaries were not embarrassed
by their lack of knowledge of the Korean language. Instead, they often blamed the
language itself for the “primitive linguistic structure” that hindered their
evangelization of the mission field and their ability to give advantage of the
“civilization” to Koreans (Lottie July 11, 1895). As the missionaries’ language
skills improved, they were convinced that “religious works, more than others, will

serve to make the primitive language more refined and to elevate them - languages
96

which hitherto lacked almost everything that expresses ideas of a moral and
spiritual order.” In religious teaching, the original text of hymns in English was
thought to be the best vehicle for transmitting Christianity and Western civilization.
The missionaries saw their awkward translations as an effective way to preserve
the message of Christianity, and their translations were not questioned.

The translation of the Korean hymnal often entailed a hierarchical
relationship of languages, because the process of translation presupposed the
hierarchical order between the original and translated. The original lies above the
translated, forcing the original to remain intact without considering different
interpretations. The original language is even more powerful when the transmission
of a new religion is involved. The absence of words in the native language for
concepts in the new religion deprives the native language of value. The
missionaries sang hymns in their own language. The interpretation given to the
missionaries’ translations of hymns into Korean and the authority granted to their
authorship demonstrates how the Korean hymnal operates as a sign of social values.
This authority, hard to change when once established, often operated on a
continuum, justifying even missionaries’ linguistic misunderstandings as God’s
will to find an authentic language for Korean hymnals. The older translations of the
hymnal, under the supervision of early missionaries, acquired an unchangeable
authority.

Furthermore, the missionaries’ translations, which were transformed into

an exclusive privilege for the choice of theological terms as their language skills

97

improved, made the Korean hymnal a symbol of denominational schism in the
Korean church. From the missionaries’ emphasis on denominational distinction
through the hymnal text, the Korean church acknowledged that the choice of words
carried theological significance. In this context, in which changing a letter of the
hymnal texts can be considered as changing doctrine, the Korean hymnal has
operated as a symbol of the schism and subsequent union movement of the Korean
church

The English headlines of the first line of the hymn on every hymn, either a
direct quotation from the English or an English translation from original Korean or

Chinese words, symbolized controls as they were imposed in specific ways on a

specific means of communication.

Schism and the Union Movement
The missionaries’ authorship of Korean hymnals Operated as a forum for

denominational distinctions among the missionaries. A desire to distinguish
between denominations, especially between Presbyterian and Methodist
missionaries, was noted from the very beginning of their missions in Korea. As
missionary E. Hunt (1984) pointed out, early Methodist and Presbyterian
missionaries differed on mission policy and on having the mission work in every

domain. According to Hunt, the c00peration of the Methodist missionary Henry

Appenzeller with the Presbyterian Horrace Allen in medical work was understood

as a mission strategy to avoid unnecessary embarrassment to the Korean court
98

government, which did not allow mission work in Korea at that time.

The denominational competence among early missionaries was clear from
their personal denominational backgrounds. For Appenzeller, who converted to
Methodism from reformed Presbyterianism, the differentiation of principle between
Methodist and Presbyterian theology was an important issue. Hunt noted that
Appenzeller was an enthusiastic Methodist. He often said “We went to Korea

planning for the success of Methodism.” And he was conscious of pioneering:

This work at the foundation does not show but it is very necessary. Gladly,
will I spend my life laying the foundation stones of our beloved church in
Korea... Methodism will flourish in the land of the morning calm”

[Appenzeller, August 1885].

Missionaries, who were sent by the board of each denomination, were
necessarily affected by the mission policies of the secretaries in New York, who
were “equally jealous of place” (Hunt 1984: 43). When a union movement of the
Korean church arose among a few missionaries, it was natural that it had “to be left
to the children of their creation to decide whether or not they would continue in the
footsteps of their fathers” (Rhodes 1934: 454).

The theological significance of the Korean hymnal started with an issue of
the Korean translation of “God” in Underwood’s Chan-yang-ka (1894). The

rejection of Underwood’s hymnal by the Mission Council has been unanimously
99

considered as a starting point of the schism history of the Korean hymnal (Paik
1929; Moon 1970). Prescriptive imposition by the missionaries wielded more
authority when a “new religion” needed a new translation. Christianity in Korea
was a new religion and it demanded a new language. The translation of God was
the first issue that the missionaries faced to clear theological concerns at that time.
In his study on J. Gale’s Bible translation, Rutt (1972: 26) described the

controversy over the translation of God among early missionaries:

The books that were published show the difficulty the missionaries had in
deciding which word to use for the Godhead. After having tried a
transliteration of the Latin Deus (Teusu), and the Chinese term Chunju
used by the Roman Chatholics and Anglicans, they finally settled on the
term Hananim, which eventually became the accepted Christian word for
God. The arguments on this subject were bitter. At one point Underwood
alone stood out for Chunju... Moffett and Gale were for Hananim, though
they pronounced it as Hananim, a dialectal variant... The Anglican
decided to use Chunju because it was used in the neighbouring anglican
missions of North China. They probably also favored it because the highly
successful Roman Catholic missions had adopted it. It is hard to avoid the
suspicion that this was the very reason why most Protestant missionaries

were determined not to use it (Rutt 1972: 26-7).

100

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Underwood and Gifford opposed the usage of “Hananim” for God because the
word had been used for gods of heathen religions. Above all, the translation of God
was about denominational competition, whether between Catholic and Protestant or

between the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations.
One study suggests that in spite of the controversy over the translation of
God, the two major Protestant denominations intended to compile a union hymnal.
But before the controversy over the translation of God settled down, an
“enthusiastic” Presbyterian missionary, Underwood, published Chan-yang-ka as his
own project, while the Methodist committee was on furlough. Paik (1929)

described the situation:

The Presbyterian and the Methodist Missions favored the compilation of a
union hymnal and G. H. Jones of the Methodist Missions and H. G.
Underwood of the Presbyterian Mission were appointed a committee to

prepare one. Soon after his appointment, however, Mr. Jones returned to
America (furlough). The enthusiastic Underwood went ahead by himself
and collected such hymns as he could find. When the project was made
known to the missionaries at the meeting, he certainly gave them a great
surprise, but received an equally great one himself when the Mission
entirely rejected the book. The grounds for the rejection of Underwood’s
collection were that it was contrary to the previous arrangement for a union

Hymnal, that Mr. Underwood did not secure permission for the use of

101

translations made by others which he had used and had freely corrected,
and that the term for God, which was then in controversy, was omitted

throughout the book and either Father or Jehovah was substituted.
While some of the missionaries used the book in their churches, a fresh
committee was working on a new book. The Methodists appointed their

own committee, Mr. G. H. Jones and Miss Rothweiler who compiled a

Methodist hymnal in 1896 (Paik, 1929: 248).

Whether deriving from personal enthusiasm or denominational rivalry,

Underwood’s hymnal marked theological disagreement on translation of the

hymnal text. But the preface to an early hymnal promoted the obscuring of

denominational differences.” In the preface of 1894 hymnal, Underwood
remarked on the co-work with competing missionaries without reference to

theological controversy:

A larger work was in progress under the direction of the Rev. G Heber

3’ Contrasting to the Underwood’s angry report, the Methodist committee

expressed their indebtedness to Underwood’s collection and translation in the
preface of Chan-mi-ka (Hymnal of 1896), which was commissioned after the

rejection of Underwood’s Hymnal (1894): “Since 1892 a great step in advance has
been taken in the effort to create a hymnology for the Korean Church. Rev. H. G.
Underwood D. D. than whom no one has contributed more to this line of work,
published his Chan Yang Ka in 1894 and a short time ago our brethren of the
Presbyterian Mission issued a Hymnal through their editorial Committee. We

desire to acknowledge our indebtedness of Chan Yang Ka. ” (Preface to Chan-mi-ka,

1896)
102

Jones, appointed by the Methodist Episcopal Church for this purpose, and
the Rev. S. A. Moffett of the Presbyterian Mission, and fifty hymns had
been collected. These were all the hymns then in use in both Missions and
about a half of them had been translated by myself before my return to

America (Underwood “Preface,” Chan-yang-ka, 1894).

The second version of the Methodist hymnal, Chan-mi-ka (1895) editied by Rev.
Jones and Ms. Rothweiler, however, denied cooperation deepened denominational
competition. The committee emphasized the “idiom in a suitable word” as the

reason for the revision:

Chan-mi-ka [1892] was the first book of Christian hymns published for the
Church in Korea. It consisted of a booklet containing translations of 27
hymns and was marred by defects in meter construction and idiom in a
suitable word. The present work is a revision and enlargement of this

first imperfect effort and was ordered printed by the annual meeting of our

Mission, held January 1895 (Preface to Chan-mi-ka, 1895).

In addition to expanding the previous hymnal to 81 hymns, as the English
Preface puts it, “idiomatic but appropriate word” was the urgent issue to be
addressed. To differentiate it from the Presbyterian hymnal, Chan-yang-ka (1894),

the Methodist hymnal, Chan-mi—ka, used “Hananim” for God, “Sung-ryung” for the
103

Holy Spirit, and “Chan-mi” for praising, while the Presbyterian hymnal used
“Chun-ju,” “Sang-je” for God, “Sung-sin” for the Holy Ghost, and “Chan—song” for

praising.

The significance of the translations of the hymnal for denominational
differences derived from an essential characteristic of vocal music. Unlike Bible
translation, the translation of hymns faced the difficult problem of having the text
fit the musical accent. The different linguistic structures of Korean and English
made it hard to preserve the original accent of music. The missionaries tried to
keep the musical accent of the important words by changing the normal order of
the Korean translation, which sacrificed the naturalness of the Korean.

Underwood stated the problem of placing the accent on the more important

words in a general way:

In the present volume all the older hymns have been gathered together,
many more have been translated and added, and they have been arranged
with the music. An attempt has been made to make the accent come on the
more important words and in some cases it has been necessary to slightly

modify the music (Underwood, Preface to Chan-yang-ka 1894).

The committee of the Sin-jung-chan-song-ka (1931) gave detailed

instructions about methods of ensuring correspondence of the accent and phrasing

104

to the original hymn tune (Preface to Sin-jung-chan-song~ka 1931: 333). So that a
word might not break the accent of the original English hymn, the Korean
translation changed the grammatical order of the language. Further, the linguistic
order of the Korean translations was perceived as denoting a denominational
distinction when other translations were available.
The doxology, borrowed from the tune of “Old Hundredth,” typified the different
order of the translation and the different vocabulary. Two versions were used for
denominational differences in Methodist and Presbyterian hymnals. It was first
published in Underwood’s Presbyterian hymnal, Chan-yang-ka (1894) in the hymn
number 6, and the Methodist hymnal, Chan-mi-ka (1895) as the first hymn. I give a
comparison of two translations of the first line of the “Praise God from whom all
blessing flow” in terms of the order of the words.
English text was “Praise God from whom all blessing flow”
The Methodist translation was in this order:
“Praise God blessings flow from [chan-mi-ha-na-nim-bok-keun-won].”

While the Presbyterian translation was following:

“All blessings flow from God [man-bok-eui-keun-won-ha-na-nim].”
The main difference rested on whether to keep the order of the original English text
or whether to fit to the order of the Korean language. The Methodists’ translation
followed the order of the English, while the Presbyterians’ translation used a more
natural order of the Korean language.

The two different translations were both included in the Korean hymnals
105

until the 1983 hymnal, which contained the Presbyterian translation only as the
first number. This shows that not only the choice of the words but also the order of
the words was perceived as representing denominational differences in the hymnal.
When the Korean church revised the hymnal, they had to face opposition to
changing any of the words.

The relation of the Korean hymnal to the schism in the Korean church
provided a clue as to how music worked as the social meaning reflecting a
hierarchical relationship between the missionaries and converts and how Korean
church applied this perception to the hymnal revision. These controversies
exhibited a thrust of the Korean church. Here, however, a debate of hymnal
revision was phrased in terms of denominational cleavage. For instance, the
preface to Chan-song-ka (1983) warned against always equating hymnal with the
denominational sections. This statement appeared in response to calls of the

congregations to have a unified hymnal as a union movement of the Korean church.

Conclusion
The Korean hymnal alerted the Korean church to the denominational
schism and the blind respect for the missionaries’ older translation. The authority
of the Korean hymnal as the music for the worship resulted from the authority of
the missionaries as the first author of the Korean hymnal. On the one hand, this
opens critiques on Korean church music, since other music of the Korean church

has followed issues in the hymnal. Translation of the Western gospel songs and

106

anthems is a variation of the hymnal. On the other hand, the hymnal encourages the
appropriation of Korean church music by the congregations’ acceptance as a means
of establishing the Korean hymns.

There are patterns of perception in the way the social orientation of the
Korean church relates to how the Korean church views the hymnal for its social
meaning. The first significant dimension relates to the missionaries’ authorship of
the Korean hymnal. Although missionaries are respected as delegates of
Christianity, missionary authorship of Korean church music can be seen as critical
in shaping a distorted tradition of Korean church music during the history of
publication of Korean hymnal.

The second dimension refers to the missionaries’ strong and affirmative
denominational competition represented by arguments over the choice of words in
hymn translation. The question remains whether the missionaries were loyal to
their theological distinctions or not; their denominational rivalries prevented
Koreans from having active participation in the hymn texts.

Another interacting dynamic is the Korean listeners’ social relationship
with toward the missionaries. The Korean church leaders received the
missionaries’ orientation toward the hymnal as their mission achievements without
sanctions against denominational schism. Here theological cleavage rather musical
diversity is more significant. In the progressive sectors, the hymnal tends to be
criticized as barrier to their doctrines. The conservative side rates the hymnal

highly because of the continuity of authority. That is, those whose values and

107

social meaning fall within the musical domain and, accordingly, value hymns as
transcendent liturgical music, may well reject the hymnal as religiously pure
artistic musical endeavor.

The Korean hymnal is a composite sign. The theological discourse
surrounding the hymns is as complicated as the musical construction. The
missionaries interpreted the layers of musical meaning into the efficient tool for
evangelization. The Korean church leaders constructed around the hymnal forms of
a denominational schism. The congregations then mediated their individual
experiences in the hymns through socially determined religious authority about the
change of the words of the hymnal.

The enormous popularity of hymn singing can thus be accounted for by
examining the connection of musical layers with theological signs. The hymnal is
not a separate musical domain. Neither is the theological domain. They are
interrelated. The theological interests of the hymnal are simultaneously articulated

with musical significance to create a next Korean hymnal.

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CHAPTER 3: TRADITIONAL KOREAN MUSIC AND KOREAN

CHURCH MUSIC

On October 3, 1994, a Grand Prayer Rally was held at Yeudo Plaza in

Seoul, Korea, under the slogans “Pentecost Now” and “Heal Our Land.” The rally,
with a congregation of one million gathered from 133 countries, opened with a
newly composed gospel song, written in traditional Korean musical style, and sung
in traditional Korean vocal style with eleven female Korean kayakeum [Korean
zither] players performing. The singers wore traditional clothing and sat on the
floor in two lines. The theme of the gospel song’s words was “Let’s Go to the
Mission.” During the rally, Korean Christian actresses performed a traditional
Korean dance in luxurious royal costumes. Other music performed by orchestra and
choir included the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s Messiah and gospel songs
with clapping. During the opening ceremony, male Korean taekwondo experts
demonstrated basic techniques on the ground. Both English and Korean were used
throughout the session for foreign attendants and “twenty millions of worldwide
listeners” who could watch the rally on the cable channel of the host denomination,
World Assemblies of God.

Opening a world-stage Christian ceremony in Korea with a gospel song written
and performed in traditional Korean style is significant. The traditional musical
Style is perceived as representing the cultural identity of the Korean Protestant

church. At the same time, the Korean church has always had a strong Opposition to

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traditional Korean music because of its connection to the musical practices of
indigenous religions and secular culture. Thus, the Korean church faces a dilemma
between the ideal of preserving the purity of the Christian gospel by distinguishing
the church from indigenous religions and the reality wanting to inspire Korean
national identity.

The church’s perception of the connection between traditional music and
indigenous religious practices was strong from the beginning of Christianity in
Korea. Concerned and fearful about losing Christian identity, the missionaries and
Korean church leaders rejected traditional musical practice whenever it was seen as
challenging their theological thinking. The missionaries’ ideas about indigenous
religious practice were expressed in their ideology of “musical uplift” in Korea.
They considered traditional Korean music to be a less advanced cultural product
associated with “heathen” tradition. Thus they thought that “primitive” traditional
music was of less merit than the church music that they introduced and that was
soon accepted by Korean church leaders. Since missionaries and early Korean
church leaders saw Christianity as a “cultural advance,” they could not permit it to
be associated with “primitive” music.

A group of Korean nationalists questioned the cultural identity of the
Korean church and objected to the exclusion of traditional musical practices by the
church. This group was marginal, however, and was suppressed by both
missionaries and powerful Korean church leaders. All missionaries and church

musicians had to deal, in one way or another, with the traditional musical practices,

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asserting a contradictory relationship between traditional musical style and
Western-style hymns.

The complex of traditional music links to a cultural nationalism current in
modern Korean music, itself a product of years of Japanese colonization and
American-based Western cultural colonization after liberation. As a composite of
cultural nationalism, traditional music becomes a complex sign that comes to stand
for the consciousness of colonization. The use of traditional music for cultural
identity connects Korean church music to the significance of the consciousness of

colonization in terms of cultural nationalism.

The “Consciousness of Colonization”

Many anti-colonial studies have discussed the significance of the
consciousness of colonization for cultural nationalism. In his study of colonization
and language of South Africa, Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1987) remarked that
colonialism imposed its control of social production not only through military
conquest and political dictatorship, but also, most importantly, through domination
of “mental universe of the colonized” (Thiong’o: 1987216). Colonization operates
through the mental control and eventually operates in the level of consciousness of
the oppressed as well as external oppression. The goal of colonization, as
Commaroff (1991) states, is the colonization of consciousness, which operates by
destroying or deliberately undervaluing the culture of the colonized through the

conscious elevation of the colonizer’s culture. Thus, the consciousness of

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colonization receives preceding factors for cultural nationalism as power.

The stress for nationalism lies in overcoming enormous historical forces of
ideology in the effort to formulate an awareness of the changing world. The
consciousness of colonization invoked nationalists of the consciousness as a “force
in the making of form, intention and outcome of colonization” (Comaroff 1992:237).
The colonization of consciousness provided a rationale for the colonizer’s cultural
imposition on the colonized and shaped the cultural formula into the form desired
by the colonizer. Consequently, the consciousness of colonization started its
counteraction by urging the repair of distorted cultural values.

The nation that has experienced colonization seeks to seize its symbols and
to reconstruct them in their own image by questioning authority and integrity.
Sometimes resistance is in open defiance with striking acts of political subversion,
and sometimes it is in silent resistance through cultural re-presentation. The
significance of culture for the consciousness of colonization operates as an attempt
to escape the dominant order since domination came by means subtle and diverse
in cultural creations and social reactions of colonized peoples toward those who
ruled them. The impact of the colonizer on the suppression of traditional culture

lay in the level of consciousness which was “simultaneously symbolic and practical,
theological and temporal” (Commaroff 199229).

In this chapter, I presume that the complex relationship between Korean
church music and cultural nationalism was associated with interpretation of

traditional music in Korea in general, and the discourse on Korean national music in

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particular. The relationship had long been translated into the music for both national
identity and Christian identity in the history of the nation, once colonized and later
post—colonized.

Under this relationship, I will situate the traditional music in the context of
the consciousness of colonization. For this purpose, I will analyze the meaning of
traditional music by focusing on contemporary nationalist Korean musicians and
Korean church musicians, both of whom emphasized the significance of the
traditional music by means of national identity in music. Focusing on the meaning
of traditional music will show that Korean music has attempted to construct a
cultural account of nationalism. As a symbol of the Korean’s cultural heritage,
traditional music works with the meaning of national identity through the concerns
of the present primarily in creative musical composition.

The complexity of Korean cultural nationalism derives from its dual
colonial experiences. While the experience of direct political Japanese colonialism
operated to invoke anti-Japanese sentiment in the domain of cultural market,"0
cultural nationalism faced an “implicit structure” in the dominance of American-
based Western culture in the post-liberation period. This duality of Korean cultural
nationalism drew on a notion of an “implicit structure” of cultural colonization

since Japanese colonialism was manifested in its external political oppression

4° National consciousness of Koreans about the experience of Japanese
colonization prevented an open policy on Japanese culture. Korea partly opened its
gate to cultural imports, such as movies and popular music in 1998. The
controversy continues as to whether Korea should open wholly or should close

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while Western culture often represented at least a cultural alternative to the
Japanese colonial regime."l

This dualism of the colonial experience of Korea was reflected in the
contradictory role of the Korean church in terms of nationalism. In the early
colonial period, most Korean people identified Christianity with Western power,
which was believed to provide at least a refuge for enduring the suffering of
Japanese colonization. Christian leaders were prominent in the organizations of
resistance to Japan, and during the harsh colonial period, the church was seen by
many Koreans with “gratitude” and as an alternative to Japan, the directly
threatening force of colonization (D. Clark 1986:51). The March First Movement
in 1919 demonstrated how the Korean church played in an active role as a national
institution that produced many Christian national leaders for the resistance
movement against Japanese colonialism. ’2

Christianity, however, was criticized by some nationalists for neglecting
national consciousness by not actively participating in the resistance movements

and instead focusing on spirituality. During the 19205 and 19305, the Korean

Protestant church was charged by the nationalists with compromise, opportunism,

more tightly against Japanese cultural trade.

4' On the relation of the Korean church to imperialism, Kyung-Bae Min
stated that Christianity in Korea is a unique case in mission history in that
Christianity worked against the imperialism of the Japanese colonial government
(Min 1983:108).

’2 Relating to the missionaries’ role in nationalism, Wi-Jo Kang (1984)
suggests that that after Korea lost her sovereignty to Japan, the Koreans looked to
the American missionary community for inspiration in the search for independence.

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and even passive collaboration with Japanese colonialism because of the elevation
of universal cultural reconstruction over political action (Wells 1990:14).

In this context, cultural nationalism in Korea came to emphasize the
consciousness of colonization through a series of discourses on national music,
because the dominance of Western culture posited the “implicit structure of cultural
process” (Thomas 199422) rather than explicit political colonization. Thus any
attempts to understand Korean cultural nationalism kept being drawn back to the
colonization of consciousness because colonization was not merely a political state
but rather a state of being.

The experience of Japanese colonial rule and the residence of the US army
as the “Cold War superpower” of the post liberation period have shaped cultural
nationalism in Korea. The history of modern Korea is the ceaseless struggles of
Korean people between the “colonial tradition and resistance tradition” (Thiong’o:
1987:2) to liberate themselves from the Japanese colonialism and the influence of
Westernization. The “resistance tradition,” Nation [Minjok], and nationalism
[Minjok-jooeui] have been applied to all areas, including music, which was named
“National music” [Minjok Eumak]. “3 The colonizing experience of modern Korea
provided a persistent motivation for its people to reexamine their cultural

environment in order to confirm a national identity, because the colonizer has been

’3 In Korean language, “minjok” embraces various meanings depending on
the case, although it can be translated as “ethnic,” or “national.” Nationalist
musicians often presented the meaning of national music [Minjok eumak] as music
reflecting national consciousness (Cho, SW 1992:5-8).

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so pervasive in every real life.

During this double colonization, the influx of western values and the
indiscreet imitation of western culture led nationalists to the view that the powerful
dominance of western culture was not only weakening Korean national

consciousness but also relegating traditional culture to obscurity.

Traditional music

As cultural nationalism took its significance in the colonization of
consciousness, music also expressed its meaning as a representation of a “symbolic
struggle” of national consciousness (Comaroff 1992:235). Music, as an integral
part of cultural modes, is often a symbol to express the national spirit. When the
consciousness of colonization became an object of the cultural nationalism,
nationalist musicians responded by recognizing that the colonizer suppressed
traditional music to destroy national spirit of the colonized.

Traditional music was valued as one of the lost history, which should be
restored for the “construction of classical past” (Chatterjee 1993:95). It was the
“vehicle to seek changes of the hearts and minds, the signs and practices, which
were distorted by the colonizer” (Commaroff 1992). Traditional music received its
cultural value as the source of the national consciousness handed from its past, the
pure history before colonization.

The significance of traditional music as spiritual source derives from its

longevity and its antiquity; it cannot be easily damaged by external forces,

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including colonial power. The past can be recognized and the traditional culture
restored as evidence of a glorious heritage. Chatterjee (1993), in his study of
nationalism in India, spoke of past as spiritual energy. According to Chatterjee
(1993:95-97), a forgotten past, even though historical sources are fragmented and
unreliable, the past can provide spiritual energy for the construction of a new
tradition. Traditional music, promising the glory of the past, can be considered as a
“historical property” to prove national existence and the possession of a powerful
heritage.

Traditional music signifies a counter response to the material abundance of
the nation resulting from the growth of western capitalism and technology. The re-
presentation of the traditional music for cultural nationalism invokes what
Chatterjee (1993: 6, 26) describes in Indian nationalism as a focus on the “inner
cultural domain” of the cultural heritage against the “outer material domain.” The
national discourse emphasizes fortifying the “inner spirituality” derived from the
traditional culture against the western colonizer’s “material superiority.”
Nationalist musicians presented traditional Korean music as a spiritual source of
national identity to defeat the dominance of the “material domain” of the western
colonizer. Rather than imitating western technological skills in the material domain,
finding a distinction of inner domain provided nationalists a way to convey the
“difference of one’s national spirit.” Thus, the use of traditional music became a
new way to understand the national consciousness of Korean cultural nationalism.

Tradition does not exist as static transmission. Tradition changes and is
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reshaped by reinterpretation according to its relation with the present. The relation
of tradition in music to the present has been stressed by its symbolic construction

in the creation of national music. Traditional music, as the antiquity of the Korean
culture, had various meanings for cultural nationalism in Korea. When the

Japanese colonial government attempted to oppress the national spirit of Koreans
under a colonial policy of cultural rule, they suppressed traditional music by
imposing the combined values of western and Japanese music on its colony.“ After
the decline of the Chosen dynasty, where traditional music had its greatest
prosperity and during Japanese colonization, traditional music was seen as the
“music of the lower class or music of the entertainer at the drinking house” (Moon
1995; Noh 1991). The suppression of traditional music was as a symbol of the
oppression of national consciousness manipulated by the colonizer. The military
regime of Park Jung-Hee used traditional culture to secure political rule (Moon, SS
1998).45 Student movements against the military government used traditional

culture to express discontent with the political system (Kim, KO 1994).“ With the

4"Under the cultural project of the Japanese colonial government, the
western musical system was imposed in public education, and the Japanese musical
style permeated popular music (Noh 1995).

’5 Moon, SS gives a detailed construction of tradition during Park’s regime
to legitimize his rule (Moon 1998); Choi, CM also refers “to the use of the antiquity
of Korean tradition under state nationalism during the Olympics ceremony, which
was held under the new military government. Choi pointed out that the deployment
of traditional elements aimed to portray the nation as having achieved “real
independence” for “global viewers” (Choi 1998:18—20).

“In his study of traditional ritual on the campus of the University in Korea,
Kim, KO shows how traditional instruments and traditional masks symbolize the
people’s resistance to the military regime.

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rapid industrialization of Korea since the early 19605, traditional musical practices
have symbolized cultural pride in the context of nationalism to distinguish the
nation from other countries. Many government—sponsored international ceremonies
use traditional musical practices to demonstrate national pride. At the opening
ceremony of the Asian and European Meeting, held in Seoul, Korea, in October of
2000, political leaders from Asian and European countries entered to the
accompaniment of the music of a kayakeum ensemble. Tradition is not only about
the past; it is formed in the present from the ideas in the past and it shapes the
present (Largcy 2000).

Traditional music often has been restored as greatness rather than as
frustration of the past providing an ideal for Korean national music. The past and
Korea’s glorious history are recognized as the main storehouse from which
nationalism derives its dynamism for changing the present and creating the future
(Fishman 1972: 8). The traditional culture provided emblems to represent the
nation as a whole and evolved a form “to resist to the intrusive colonizers’ cultural
forms in their own terms” (Comaroff 1992:235). In this way, traditional music

could be used as a symbol in the process of resistance.

Traditional Music and Korean National Music
In the late 19705, when a group of musicians criticized contemporary
Korean music as an internal colonization of western culture, they accused the

music dominated by western forms as lacking in cultural identity. Nationalist

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musicians saw the exclusion of traditional music as the absence of national
consciousness. As the view of western culture was revised from being seen as a
welcomed presence to being seen as threatening cultural identity, traditional music
also fluctuated from being viewed as “primitive, undeveloped music” to being seen
as a cultural heritage and a spiritual source to enhance the consciousness of
colonization."7

Musical nationalism in Korea was part of a more general nationalist
discourse. As the discourse on Korean music emerged as accounts of nationalism
for modern Korean music, nationalist musicians accounted for their own
nationalism in the formulation and dissemination of colonized “self-images.” Their
accounts of the self-examination of Korean musical culture were the vague
sentiments of national identification and lack of national consciousness.

Although the discourse on Korean national music started with Lee, KS as
“personification for the moment what is only the product of active speakers and
interpreters” (Handler 1987: 26), it was widely accepted among other Korean

musicians.“ Begun with the Discourse on Korean Music [Hanguk eumaknon], it

’7 Many studies show the changes in modern Korea, especially in education,
women’s position, medical work, literacy and spread of Hangul [Korean language]
as a result of introduction of Christianity. Choi, Myung-Keun (1997); Clark (1934);
Paik (1928). Enlightenment, reformation, and leading national movements are
considered as important contributions of Christianity in Korea (Kidokkyo sasang
ed.l986(1983)).

’8 In this paper, I call them Korean nationalist musicians, who are
distinguished by their emphasis on the national identity of Korean music. They
focused on develOping a national discourse and, gradually, were identified as the
musical intellectual elites.

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expanded to the Discourse on National Music [Minjok eumaknon].’9 In the
beginning of his book, 5° Lee, GY defined the discourse on national music as
awakening the consciousness of the present, for which he looked to the “dominance

of Western music”:

Why do we pursue national music?” we need an answer for the
questions about national music, since we have to confirm the pertinence of
the reason for the ideology, before we speculate how to achieve it.
Nationalism applies in different ways depending on the context of the
situation. For now [in Korea], nationalism is no more than the
consciousness of the current musical situation (Noh and Lee, GY 1991: 11-

12).

Lee asserted that discussing national music in Korea required a
consciousness of the musical situation itself, not a critique (1991:12). Nationalist
musicians agreed that in order to solve the current problem of the dominance of
western music, Koreans must first be made conscious of musical colonization.

Thus national music was recognized as not merely an issue of the music itself, but

“9 Although many studies separate the two discourses by using different
terms (Kwon 1992; Hwang 1999), for this study, I look at these two discourses in
the same context especially for dealing with the consciousness of colonization and
the use of traditional music. See Hwang (1999) and Kwon (1992) for a detailed
discussion of the distinction between the two discourses.

5° Discourse on National Music was named for the title of the book co-

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also one of musicians’ consciousness of the social and political context of music
(Lee, GY 1991). The significance of the discourse on Korean national music was a
declaration that consciousness signifies the most for Korean national music both in
the domain of cultural colonization and in the social reality of the division of the
nation.

The view that the nationalist discourse used colonial rhetoric assumed that
the existence of sentiments of national independence by overcoming cultural
colonization was often based on “patriotic ideologues and visionaries” (Handler
1987: 26). By applying colonial metaphors to modern Korean music, the
dominance of western music was considered evidence of the conscious elevation of
the colonizer’s culture. Thus, the first position that all nationalist musicians took
was that current Korean music is the result of the cultural colonization of western
music forced by the invasion of foreigners. The mission statement of the Society

for the Study of National Music states:

Now we musicians should create national music that overcomes foreign
influences, that pursues reunification, and that is relevant to people’s lives.
We should seek true music by repudiating the anti-democratic nature of
western classical music which is enjoyed only by a few elite who are

indiscriminately steeped in it (National Music 1990: 10).

—¥

authored by Noh, DE and Lee, GY in 1991.

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They viewed that the dominance of Western music in the same context as the
capitalism, which made a gulf between social classes, which was a harmful element
for national music for the people.

When nationalist musicians criticized the current musical environment of
Korea as cultural subordination to Western music, it was accepted as the
“awakening” of consciousness of colonization (Hwang 1999). The awakening of
consciousness was applied to reexamination of all musical activities, including
composition, performance, music education, and the terminology of both art music
and popular music. The significance of awakening consciousness for Korean
national music derived from the notion that the colonization of consciousness was
the final objective of colonizer and colonization (Comaroff l991:4). The
nationalist musicians’ emphasis on the consciousness of colonization
acknowledged the distorted Korean musical culture resulting from the completion
of the colonization done by the colonizer.

Nationalist musicians’ critical commentaries on the absence of
consciousness of colonization in music demonstrated that by resisting the dominant
western culture, they have embraced traditional music because of the link it offers
them to a spiritual domain of salient signs and symbols. By referring to the
traditional music, they were able to claim the Korean national music as a history
for the national identity.

In an article well known in the Korean music community, “Korean Kakok

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[art songs], its Genuineness and Quasiness,” Lee, KS noted the conflict between

western music and traditional Korean music:

A sharp disagreement prevailed between proponents of the alien Western
style and those who defended the traditional Korean style which had a
history of at least a thousand years. In these musical debates, the Western
style usually received stronger support. This was an apparent result of the
government-sponsored policy of westernization that affected certain key
social and educational circles, rather than from any inherent superiority of

Western music (Lee 1977 : 70-71).

The “traditional Korean style” in this quotation referred to Korean music
employing traditional musical languages in “rhythm, form, melody, harmony, and
text.” Lee’s remark suggested that traditional Korean music had a longer history
that western music in Korea and was not inferior to it. Discrimination against
traditional music was a result of social construction rather than musical quality.
Lee further offered a search for genuine Korean music through indigenous music,
which was visible in the traditional music. Lee distinguished between “quasi-

Korean music” and “genuine Korean music” as:

(However), compositions of the “Pongsunhwa” [a Korean vocal music]

type may be referred to here as “quasi-Korean” as they use a Korean text

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with strictly Western melodic types. By genuine is meant that type of
music which is uniquely Korean, that which canonly be understood and
explained in terms of traditional Korean culture. In other words, music in

this category is Korean indigenous music (Lee, KS 1977: 71).

According to Lee, genuine Korean music was rooted in traditional music and
contained all the musical elements of the traditional music. Lee concluded that
songs we called Korean art songs were not Korean songs because they used
western musical style, scale, form and even singing style but Korean text. They
were western art songs with Korean text. Traditional music represented the
neglected “historical property” to be recovered for the compositional process of
genuine Korean music.

But soon, dealing with traditional music as the compositional material for
national music faced a conflict regarding the authenticity of the traditional music.
Emphasis on authenticity tended to put more value on the antiquity of form, which
could not match with the national music, characterized as the “music of the
future.”" Lee, GY explained the difficulty in claiming traditional music as a source

of national music:

While traditional music may provide a new source for invention the

. 5‘ Nationalist musicians claimed that Korean music was not yet established
In a concrete form, but was still in the future.

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Korean national music, certain problems remain. First, if traditional music
meant the older music, new generation who were absorbed into Western
music could not easily access to traditional music. Faced with a
contradiction in reality, both directions are required: this generation should
assimilate, more precisely, restore traditions and traditional music should

be changed according to this generation. Considering this generation

had already experienced Western music, traditional music itself can not be

Korean music (Lee, GY 1987: 48—9).

The lack of production of compositions of traditional music since the late 19‘h
century deprived it of the authority to represent the genuine Korean musical
tradition. Lee, GY (1987) concluded that because of its stagnation in compositional
creativity, traditional music could not be accepted as the model for Korean national
music, but that only the spirit of the traditional music should continue while its
musical style would change according to the social context of the music. By
claiming only spiritual ownership of the traditional music, Korean nationalist
musicians gave traditional music a sense of belonging to the contemporary nation.
Nationalist musicians’ selective adoption of traditional music rendered the
present a rational continuation of the past. Nationalism, as Fishman (1972) noted,
“sought and created a usable past,” whereby nationalist musicians reconciled the
difference between the “glorious past” and the “colonized present” to create

national music. Lee, GY (1987: 142—4) asserted that Korean contemporary
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musicians have to distinguish “stylistic continuation” from “contextual
continuation.” Stylistic continuation stressed textual changes, preserving purity and
authenticity, while “contextual continuation” reconstructed the past “with respect
to current and future challenges” (Fishman 1972: 9). Selective preservation of
traditional music demonstrated the many ways in which Korean nationalist
musicians reinterpreted traditional music in opposition to the dominance of western
music without moving backward into the past.

The nationalist musicians’ claim that western music and traditional music
have taken contradictory positions as the spiritual musical source for national
music suggests another point: the making of the Korean national music has
involved a long battle for the possession of salient signs and symbols, a bitter,
drawn out contest of conscience and consciousness (Comaroff 1991: 4). The
nationalist musicians’ recognition of difference of two musics persuaded them to
put the consciousness at the priority as the potential source for a national identity
than the compositional borrowing of the musical style from traditional music. The
superiority of traditional music was observed and evaluated and considered more
as the inner spiritual source for national music than as compositional material.

The discourse on Korean nationalist music drew its claim of the
consciousness of national identity for the compositional creativity. In her study of
cultural identity of contemporary Korean composers, Kwon (1992: 191-197)
classified composers who were concerned with the establishment of “Korean”

music into three groups according to their methodology: the Active Set, the Passive
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Set and the Nationalist Set. All three groups shared the significance of traditional
music, but differed by the extent of the intention of using traditional music and the
consciousness of social problems in their compositions.

According to Kwon, the Passive Set was concerned less intentional and
less conscious in expressing Korean characteristics even though they
unconsciously used traditional music. Thus Kwon concluded that the subconscious
use of Korean characteristics and only their recognition of the influence of culture
did not satisfy national Korean music, since their unconsciousness expression
emphasizing the feeling often brought the use of Western musical materials for
Korean identity (Kwon 19922194).

The Active Set was a group that believed that music was inseparable from
the social and cultural aspect, and made conscious effort to express Korean
characteristics and Korean identity by employing the elements of traditional
Korean music for “Korean” music. They effectively applied traditional music in
their compositions (Kwon 1992:191). However, according to Kwon, who
distinguished between the Active and Nationalist Set according to the presence of
the consciousness of social problems and of the intention of social concerns, the
conscious use of traditional musical languages could not guarantee for being

“Korean” music. Kwon remarked the difference of two groups of composers:

The composers in the Active and the Passive Set deal with the style of

music and the application of the elements of traditional Korean music.
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On the other hand, Lee Geon-Yong, the only composer in the National
School, is more concerned with the problems of South Korea than with
those of Korean music. He used to devote himself to using of
characteristics of traditional Korean music in order to express Korean
identity. However, he realized that the problems of Korean music could
be solved when the national and social problems of South Korea were
solved. Therefore, he makes efforts to compose music which makes
Korean people realize the national problems and which helps bring

solutions to national and social problems (Kwon 1992:196).

The National Set, for which Lee, GY was presented, was highly evaluated
for their recognition of the national problems and for their effort to bring solutions
to national and social problems. For this purpose, vocal music than instrumental
music received the potential of Korean national music because instrumental music
was regarded as a social reason for specialization, alienation and materialization in

music of Korea (Kwon 1992:196).

What kind of as traditional music possessed a source of creativity, its
validity as stylistic sources depended on the expression of individual composers’
consciousness of social concerns. Based on the nationalist musicians’ view on
traditional music, Kwon observed the different understanding about ‘traditional

music’ among contemporary Korean composers. Along with critical consciousness

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of contemporary Korean music, nationalist musicians put more values on the
notion of national consciousness than compositional construction of traditional

music for national Korean Music.

Traditional Music and Korean Church Music

Nationalist musicians, who viewed the entry of Christianity into the historical
landscape as a beginning of the dominance of western music, criticized Korean
church music for its absence of national consciousness. The missionaries, who
were the most ambitious ideological and cultural agents, were identified as a
symbolical cultural agency of the dominance of American-based western music.
For cultural nationalism, the history of Korean church music held “a key to the
symbolic and material processes involved in the colonial encounter and to the
modes of cultural transformation and ideological argument” (Commaroff 1992:236).
The hymns of the Korean church emerged as symbols of the colonization process.
Nationalist musicians criticized the hymns for playing a role in the domination of
American culture that was fostered by the missionaries. Nationalist musicians saw
the encounter with American hymns as representative of cultural imposition,
changing Korean musicality toward western sensitivities by accepting hymns
without historical consciousness (Lee, GY 1987: 156).

The national musicians viewed the initial imitation of American hymns and the

subsequent copying of western anthems as subjection to the new form of cultural

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colonialism. They saw Korean church music as fully receptive of western influence
and chaotic with identity crisis. Christianity was negatively criticized in terms of
nationalism, and the Korean hymnal and the prominence of western music in the
Korean church have been reexamined with a view to their nationalistic significance.
Nationalist musicians criticized the exclusion of traditional music from church
music that resulted from Japanese colonial cultural policies, under which Korean
traditional music and musicians were suppressed and designated as “lower music”
or “music of the lower class’ (Noh 1993; Moon, SM 1995). The stronger cultural
nationalism in Korean music became the more criticism Korean church music
received.

While nationalist musicians generally highlighted traditional music as
representing and expressing the consciousness of colonization in terms of cultural
nationalism, the Korean church responded to it as more of a symbolic configuration
of the religious spirit. This partly explains why the Korean church rejected
traditional music. Attempts to employ the traditional musical language for church
music have confronted opposition from the inside of the Korean church.

Traditional music was valued or criticized by different groups according to
the interpretation of the social meaning of traditional music in the Korean church.
It was opposed if its symbolism emphasized matters related to indigenous religious
practice, while it was acclaimed if the symbols could be valued as contributing to a
national heritage or the cultural identity of the Korean church. Constant

controversies over the interpretation of traditional music have demonstrated the

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significance of traditional musical language either as a theological reflection or as
a source of cultural identity.

Opposing traditional music by disregarding indigenous cultural practices
and instead evaluating western music in terms of its “universal artistic value,” was
almost solely a response of the conservative Korean churches. The controversies
over traditional music always involved the social and religious context, because the
presentation of cultural identity through musical style was subject to modification.
At risk was losing or diffusing the particularity of the religious identity of
Christianity. Conservative Korean Christians have been afraid of using traditional
musical elements because of their association with indigenous religious practices,
such as shamanism. ’2

The process of abstracting traditional music from social context of the
Korean church was an essential component of the enlightenment principles, which
identified traditional culture as linked to the feudal system of the Chosen dynasty
(1392-1910). During the 19205, the Protestant self-reconstruction principle also
laid the foundation of the Korean church’s view of traditional culture. The
traditional ideas were frequently interpreted by Protestants in a way that was

inconceivable within the tradition, then used as weapons with which to overthrow

neo-Confucianism (Wells 1994).

 

52 According to interviewees, the most common response to questions
about the reluctance to use traditional music was that it reminded the listeners of
the atmosphere of indigenous ritual. This opposition was stronger among pastors
and the older generations than among laity and the younger generations.

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The opposition within the Korean church to traditional music for the
hymnal appeared in the preface to the hymnal, Sin-jung-chan-song-ka (1931).
According to the preface, written by the chair of the committee, Appenzeller, when
“the trial to include hymns written in traditional musical style was considered,”
Korean committee members did not want to include them because of their
“association with bad social customs.” Viewing traditional music as related to “bad
social customs” shows that Korean Christians saw traditional music as related to
secular profane culture, such as music in the drinking house [sooljip] or the music
of Kisaeng [Korean woman entertainer], a view that was manipulated by Japanese
colonial cultural policy. 53

Some commentary supports the idea that traditional music could be used to
support a Korean Christian cultural identity. A cultural identity for Korean church
music was both a musically and culturally motivated goal. Musically, traditional
music afforded the chance to expose the musical languages through scale, and
rhythm. Culturally, traditional music positioned Korean Christians in a space that
facilitated Korean-written hymns flowing in cultural identity for Korean church
music. This significance was articulated by missionaries C. Vinton and J. Gale,

representing the Literary Department, in an article in The Korean Repository, a

missionary magazine with a missionary readership. Vinton, pointing out the

’3 Noh, DE and Moon, SM state that the connection of traditional music
with low culture was forced by Japanese colonial cultural policies (Noh 1993;
Moon 1995: 42-45).

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inappropriateness of translated hymns, suggested that Korean hymns be written by

Koreans and in Korean musical style:

This volume [third edition of Chan-yang-ka 1896] contains a number of
hymns newly written or translated. Foreign work can hardly form a
model for composers in an oriental language. It is with interest, therefore,
that we look to see what forms native hymn-writers naturally fall into. A
careful examination affords little light upon such an inquiry. It leads
rather to the belief that the native hymn-writer, he whose devotional
though spontaneously falls into rhythm, from whose heart the graceful
melody of praise and prayer wells unsolicited, is yet to appear. The
productions of Korean writers display the same stilted and unpolished
phraseology as do the translations of foreigners. And not unnaturally. For
all are revised by the “teacher,” that indispensable aid, that destructive
bane. ...It is not too much, surely, to expect that the hearts of some among
them will yet flow out into genuine song-language, and that the grandest
products of our hymnology may come to be paralleled in their tongue

(Vinton 1896: 377).

Vinton’s criticism of the unnaturalness of translating western hymns for
into Korean suggested that natural sounding music and immediate feelings were

linked to traditional music to produce cultural identity as wholeness. All positive

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Korean musicians’ commentary on traditional music indicated that Koreans shared
one reason for their favoring of traditional church music. They embraced
traditional music because of the link it offered them to cultural naturalness by
expressing a claim to the equality of traditional music

James Gale embraced traditional musical practice for early Korean church
music. Gale, who had the most extensive knowledge of the Korean language from
working on Korean literature and editing Korean-American dictionaries,54 insisted
that the “chant-like” hymn singing of Korean converts and the writing hymns in the
traditional musical style be encouraged. His knowledge of and enthusiasm for
Korean culture enabled him to appreciate traditional music and’to adopt traditional
singing for hymns. When Gale was working at Wonsan (1892-1897), in the
northeast of North Korea, he did not force western singing on his Korean converts.
In his biographical study of Gale, Richard J. Rutt explained Gale’s idea about
traditional musical practice. According to Rutt, Gale would not teach western hymn
tunes to Koreans, but instead he allowed them to chant Christian lyrics in their own
style, although his missionary colleague, Sally Swallen complained that “the way
the Koreans sing is dreadful grating on our ears” and set about removing this
inconvenience by teaching hymn-tunes to the boys” (Rutt 1972: 24-5). Gale saw the
chant style of Korean lyrics followed a more natural flow of the language, and the

poetic naturalness of Korean language lyrics enable its use in church music. Gale

 

5" Rutt lists all literature works studied and written by Gale (Rutt 1972:
357-384).

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thought that the sound of the traditional musical style made Korean congregational
singing more flowing and pleasant in “sweet easy-flowing Korean” (Rutt 1972: 72).
To avoid the unnaturalness of translated hymns, Gale insisted on developing hymns
written by Koreans employing traditional musical style. A Society for the Study of
Korean Music [Chosen eumak yonguhoe, 1917—19] was organized to support the use
of traditional music for Korean church music (Moon 1995217; Kim, SC 1993: 43-48;
Rutt 1972:49).

Traditional music, however, meant more than a musical style that could be
used for church music. When Gale supported the use of traditional musical practice,
he was often criticized by his missionary colleagues for his “liberalism,” especially
for his sympathy towards traditional culture, including indigenous religions.”
Gale’s interest in traditional culture is demonstrated by his respect for Buddhism in
his English translation of a popular Korean life of Gautama Buddha (Rutt 1972:

62) and in his address on traditional religions at the party. In that address, he said:

Confucianism, b[B]uddhism, Taoism - the more I study them the more
I honor the sincerity, the self-denial, the humility, the wisdom, the devotion
that was back of the first founders, great priests of the soul. In this will

we are all alike, c[C]onfucian, b[B]uddhist, c[C]hristian - all brothers...

’5 For instance, Gale lost his long friendship with Samuel Addison Moffett
(1864-1939), who founded, organized, and guided the study of theology at the
Pyungyang Seminary, the first theology seminary in Korea, working as its president
from its beginnings in 1907 until 1924.

136

Christ came to fulfill the ideals of each and every one of us. In Him,
whatever our religion may be, we shall find the ideal of the soul. May He

unite us all (Rutt 1972:79).

It is not hard to see why Gale’s colleagues, who had strong negative attitudes about
traditional religions, responded his seemingly lesser concern about dogmatic
theology and spent time on literary pursuits, and learning about traditional Korean
culture, thus, “neglecting attendance at Presbytery and other meetings” (Rutt
1972:60). Gale’s enthusiasm for traditional Korean culture and literary works went
hand-in-hand with openness in his daily life.56

The religious symbolic configuration of traditional music was seen by most
missionaries as being in opposition to that of what they considered church music.
To use traditional Korean music in the Christian church was impossible because of
its relationship to “heathen” religious practice. It implied a dangerous heresy.
Traditional music, seen as the musical practice of indigenous religions, invoked
concern about the danger of liberal theology in the Korean church; liberal theology
would emphasize the necessity of interpretation of the Christian liturgy based on

the cultural context (J00 1992). Later, the process of musical style in its theological

5” Rutt (1972: 61) reported that Gale and his family spent every summer
vacation at the temple of Tosonsa, near the fortress of Pukhan, in Seoul throughout
his missionary career. His regular visits to Buddhist temples raised doubts and
brought criticism from his colleagues for being too theologically liberal, forcing
him to resign from his position at Pyengyang Seminary in 1916.

137

 

context was an essential component of indigenization theology of the “liberalism”
that valued traditional music as a necessary cultural element for the
contextualization of the gospel.

Once the social implications that traditional music was music for the lower
classes and for indigenous culture had been diffused, it was considered ideal that
this view could take the aesthetic vieWpoint of progressive theology. The
progressive churches criticized that the conservative churches, predominantly
comprised of the people who possessed high economic and cultural capital,
dismissed the spiritual needs of the lower class and focused on the western-
oriented church music, which only the educated people could enjoy with some
appreciation. The progressive churches responded to the neglect of the theological
focus of the lower classes by using traditional music in the process of the
indigenization of church music. This involvement in indigenization theology gave
traditional music both support and opposition. The progressive churches supported
traditional music as an endorsement of indigenization theology attempting to shape
Korean church music in a way that is native to Korean culture (J00 1992). It was
opposed when conservative churches acknowledged it as a way to accept the
“dangerous spiritual dogma” of liberal theology, which valued traditional music for
indigenization theology.”

Church musicians who emphasized the musical aspects of traditional

’7 Hak-sun Joo presented Samulnori [Farmers band music] as a model to
use traditional music in terms of theology of indigenization (100 1992).

138

Korean music as a support for the cultural identity of Korean church music,
separating it from its religious symbolic configuration, contributing to a shared
history and feeling for Christian congregations, whose character is a collective

mass. The evaluation of traditional music as a culture of the collective mass in turn
legitimated their musical significance and, from that point, endorsed traditional
music as a part of Christian culture. The process of separating the music from its
theological context was an essential prerequisite for the church musicians to be
musically autonomous. According to Moon’s work on indigenization of hymns, the
use of Korean traditional music required a detachment from a certain radical

groups in the Korean church:

So far, indigenous hymns have been regarded by most Christians as a
music which has been exclusively possessed by a few radical groups of
liberalists supporting the social activities. Another factor is that there has

been no indigenous hymn for the majority of Christians who follow the
conservative and moderate lines. The problem is that the more
conservative the Christians are the more they despise indigenous hymns
and favor Western ones. Furthermore, radical groups who interpret the
gospel from a different angle, adopting more radical lyrics to hymns,
prevent the conservatives from singing the hymns [written in traditional

musical language] (Moon 1995: 185).

139

To separate indigenization of Korean church music from the theological
concerns, the shared experience of Japanese colonialism provided sociopolitical
reasons to restore the cultural values of traditional music. Japanese colonial

cultural policy had emphasized relegating traditional music to the Kisaeng and in
the drinking house (Moon 1995 2 317-18), and thus it became “lower music” (La
1964:9). Church congregations had shared with traditional Korean music a history
of cultural suppression. Thus, Korean church music did not merely quote the
traditional musical language directly, but also shared the national sentiment of the

people. Moon, SM noted that:

Korean church music did not have to stick to the pentatonic scale,
because making contextualized Korean hymns did necessary mean making
hymns into Korean classical music. A strict use of the pentatonic scale

might still produce a song far from Korean. On the other hand a combined
use with the pentatonic scale can create a melody which can turn out to
bring out Korean mood. The question is not which scale we are to use, but
which idiom we employ to reflect the characteristics of our traditional

music and its atmosphere (Moon 1989: 143).

In this way, church musicians were able to validate their positive evaluation of the
traditional music despite its religious and social orientation. As composers, they

endorsed their evaluation of traditional musical elements without introducing their

140

theological question.

Access to traditional music was maintained in the Korean church by
constructing national musical heritage for the “the weak” congregation, which
required separating traditional music from its position as a symbol of progressive
theology. The opposition to traditional music was positioned as the neglect of
traditional music by the educated upper class (Moon 1991; 1995). According to
Moon, SM, the suppression of traditional music was associated with the increased
western educational opportunities for upper class congregations, who did not show
any discomfort with western style hymns. The notion that musicians came from the
upper class and chose a western hymn style in order to express their social prestige
(Moon, 1991), was given as the reason for the preference for western style hymns.

Moon’s analysis of the Korean’s “wrong pitch” in hymn singing among
“uneducated congregations” (Moon 1995: 133-151) was an attempt to restore the
“natural Korean pitch,” which was distorted by the missionaries’ ideology of
“musical uplift in Korea.” Moon’s view was that the Korean congregations’
“wrong” singing of western musical styles proved that singing hymns in the
traditional musical style was more natural for most Koreans. Music in the
traditional style was not only easier for Korean congregations but the ease and
naturalness meant that the traditional musical style had the potency of the musical
idioms for indigenized hymns. The Korean congregations’ “wrong pitch” was a
repository of shared traditions, history and collective identity that marked the

social group as a distinct entity bound by common practice. Church’s support for

141

traditional music was achieved only when church music aimed to embrace all
people rather than just socially privileged class.

To encourage national acceptance, Korean church musicians sought to have
the folk music incorporated into the atmosphere of the all Christians congregations.
The focus on the “Korean mood” of traditional music required the accessibility of
the hymnal to the whole congregation, regardless of differences in background, age,
locality, and education. Wide accessibility, which was an essential part of the
aesthetics of congregational singing in the Protestant church, met its ideal in the
folk music [minyo].

The recognition of folk music as the link between common emotional
experience and the potency of cultural expression has been explicated by La, Un-
young (1922-1993).58 Folk music was recognized as a primary source for national
culture, preserving the cultural heritage of the people (La 1974:25; La 1964:9) and
the potency of cultural expression for the congregation (Moon 1995:46-49; Kim,
SH 1996: 98-99). The potency of folk music increased with increasing acceptance
of hymns written in traditional musical style.

La’s perception of folk music as a “musical dialect,” compared with the

national music as a “global tongue” (La 1975217) noted that folk music was a

 

5” In addition to 1300 works of church music, La (1922-1993) presented his
ideas on traditional music in his countless articles, which were published four
books: Joojewa byunjoo [Theme and Variation] Seoul, Minjoonseokwan, 1964;
Dokaeckwa daehwa [Monologue and Discourse] Seoul: Minjoonseokwan, 1970
(1972); Style and Idea, Seoul: Voice, 1975; The Lord is My Shepherd, Seoul:
Sekwang Publications, 1985.

142

i_-_.___..

dynamics of most common people’s lives. In pursuit of creating traditions and
believing that folk music was more integrative than court music with more
relations to other domains, such as dance and religion, folk music was claimed as
the music of the people. La went in search of folk music because he believed that
folk music is the highly intact original music of the collective people. The fact that
different musicians have imagined different possibilities from folk music shows
that the interpretation of traditional music holds more subjectivity than objective
facts.

La, who worked exclusively on church music and especially hymns since
1975, saw hymns as the best musical genre to generalize his ideas of folk music for
indigenization of Korean music (Hong 1995:143). La added the discourse on
church music to this national music because he looked the church as the site to
achieve popularity of his ideas on national music. The recognition of hymns for
national music came from the notion of accessibility to more Koreans. La
developed indigenized hymns as an emotional expression of popular culture that
was instantly moving to the people. La tied the intuitive and immediate capacity to
embrace cultural popularity to the way feeling and believing occurred at the same
time.

The support for indigenious sounds in Korean church music was directly
related to the congregations’ demands for the modernization of Korean church
music. The dialogue between the value of musical indigenization and the need of

modernization placed the use of traditional musical languages in a pivotal position

143

musically and stylistically. In this regard, La’s slogan “first indigenization and
later modernization” [sun-tochkhwa, hoo-hyundaehwa] (La 1985: 60-61) has
successfully driven Korean church music in Korean way. Although La began to
borrow the theological term “indigenation” for the style of his newly composed
hymns to reflect the idea of national music, his musical language was distinguished
from the Liberals’ theological emphasis by expressing only musical concerns
(Hong 1995: 140). La viewed traditional music as prerequisite musical material to

achieve the modernization of Korean music:

To create national music, we have to follow this process of “first
indigenization, later modernization.” Thus Korean composers have to
know how to apply the folk material to compositions. There are some
who insist on “first modernization,” but it is wrong, because it brings a
mere imitation, piracy of western compositions. Finally, I strongly insist
that the incorporation of “national ideas” with “modern style” leads to the

creation of genuine Korean national music (La 1985: 14, 18).

The fact that indigenization was carried along with modernization indicates that the
stability and mobility of traditional music was a significant feature of Korean
church music as national music. As La (1985) pointed out, the national music
tended to be universal music on the world stage, but it should also embrace the

cultural forms of the particular locality, which La sought from traditional music to
144

satisfy both cultural restoration and the expansion to universality of national music.

The recognition of the stability of traditional music articulated the need for
the reform of the current traditional music. In his “Seven Reformations of
Traditional Music,” La suggested a reform of traditional music in instruments,
scale, notation, and performance techniques (La 1964: 13-21) for traditional music
to be practically used for “Neo Korean Art Music” [sin-hankuk-kojeon-eumak]. For
the compositional process to employ traditional musical language and its prospects,
La did not take traditional music for what it was believed to be, but asserted what it
should be, not accepting the literal preservation of traditional music. The mobility
of traditional music was demanded by social change and cultural diffusion. The
process through which this happened was essentially a larger social mobility of the
tradition, signifying an urgent step to preserve the past. Korean church musicians
found that working on indigenization of hymns could achieve this goal.

Church music composers have approached traditional musical language for
compositional purposes although no certain musical style has been conceived for
indigenized hymns. Church musicians tried to fabricate iconic musical elements
from the rhythm and scale of traditional music.’9 For instance, they specify
stylistic characteristics of traditional music: use of triple rhythm, and starting on

59 La, Un-young presented his construction of harmony under the
traditional musical melody (La, four books) and Moon, SM also proposed the
integration of traditional musical elements into Korean hymns (Moon 1995: 185-
188). In addition to these two composers, many church musicians employed

traditional musical language, of which scale and rhythm received the most
attention.

145

downbeat, fitting to the structure of the Korean language. Regarding harmony,
Korean church musicians acknowledged the difficulty of constructing harmony in
the western musical sense. For example, Moon suggested the use of four-part
harmonization for piano accompaniment but not for congregational singing. By
putting the melody employing a traditional scale on the top part, the melodic
simplicity of the hymns having the “traditional atmosphere” was achieved. Moon
called it “adopting the process” of western harmony (Moon 1995: 187), because he
recognized that traditional music does not have harmony in the Western musical
sense, which makes indigenized hymns complicated. Moon named his style of
harmonization for indigenized hymns “contrapuntal harmony,” not following
western harmony but giving each part independence and not subordinating to the
other parts (Moon 1995:145).

La, who stressed western musical style as a source of external form to
transform the antiquity of the traditional music into modern times adopted the
concept of western harmony for indigenized hymns. In his study of La’s
harmonization, Hong (1995) described the process of harmonization of traditional
musical language involved in La’s compositions. The terms of harmonization were
named in Korean since La avoided traditional western harmonization for the

harmonization of traditional music."0 It is notable that La chose harmonization to

6° There are two representative studies of La’s harmonization theory. Hong
(1995) praised La’s harmonization theory as an effort to transform traditional
music into modern Korean church music, while Lee, GY (1996) viewed La’s work
negatively because La’s harmonization theory was based on the idea that the

146

achieve modernization because harmony is clearly a musical element that makes
traditional Korean music different from western music. According to La, the
introduction of harmony into traditional Korean music produced recognition and
remuneration resulting from having international musical style. It meant that
artistic rewards were available for the musicians in the larger world music.
Korean church musicians who claimed the significance of traditional music
for cultural identity asserted that national self-consciousness was strengthened
through the appropriation of features of indigenous music. Traditional music was
used to construct and legitimate a national heritage and identity. The musical
development justifying traditional music as spiritual source of the Korean church

music combined with a more modern desire to compete internationally.

Korean Church Music and National Korean Music
The significance of traditional music for Korean national identity lies in
the notion that the relationship between traditional music and western music has
been conceived as two different musics in a sharp tension. The introduction of
western music as a vehicle of social change relegated traditional music to the
position of the “lower class’s music” or “the music of the older feudal system.”
Cultural nationalism, on the other hand, saw western music as music to be

separated from to overcome internal colonization. This perception that two were

‘_

absence of harmony in traditional music was something that needed to be
“improved.”

147

competing has shaped modern Korean music and church music.

The Korean church was challenged by the outsiders for neglecting the
consciousness of colonization as well as its foreign origin. In spite of the negation
of Korean church music as Korean national music, Korean church music has
signified its cultural identity by using traditional musical languages. By associating
the potent symbols of traditional music as the music for the people with national
identity, Korean church music asserts its position in cultural nationalism. By
employing various Korean traditional musical languages in the indigenized hymns,
Korean nationalist church musicians asserted the cultural identity in the religious
order of the Korean church.

Despite the inner critique by the conservatives, church music included
debates and attempts to cause attitude about the association of traditional music
with indigenous religions or “radical” theological concerns. Opposition to use
traditional Korean music for church music did not mean the absence of the
consciousness of internal colonization of the nation. The opposition was related to
the insiders’ concerns about having the identity of Christianity because the sacred
power of music was perceived in its religious configuration. Korean church
musicians could achieve national identity using traditional music only by focusing
on musical elements, while nationalist musicians emphasized more on the
consciousness for national Korean music. Separation of the church music from the
emphasis of the conscious level did not hinder Korean church music for being a

national Korean music, rather Korean church music pursued to use traditional

148

music more in the creativity of the musical compositions. Thus it is possible for
national Korean music to be achieved not merely when it questions the
consciousness of colonization but more when it embraces musical compositions
employing traditional musical languages.

Ironically, the interests of nationalist musicians and the Korean church
musicians appeared in the recognition of traditional music under cultural
nationalism. Nationalist musicians viewed traditional music as a tool to measure
the consciousness of the colonization, while Korean church musicians saw
traditional music as musical source to achieve national music. Only the
consciousness of colonization operated in different way for Korean church music;
it was embodied in the musical compositions, but was not limited in the
consciousness level.

Traditional music provided a way to carry the weight of Koreans’
conceptions of cultural nationalism. Many musical attempts and musical
compositions show that the Korean church resisted the dominance of western-
oriented church music. Cultural nationalism is not exclusively limited to the
discourse on Korean national music. Korean church music shares the endeavor to
establish cultural identity by looking to the music of the people.

Examining traditional music provides an opportunity to see Korean music
as a social product shaped by the symbolic configuration of musical power. The
Korean church, where conservatives held more authority, was challenged by the

insiders for neglecting the cultural identity and the consciousness of colonization
149

Church music can not exist without taking into account the cultural experiences
accumulated throughout the long history of Korea. Traditional music is no longer
seen as the music of indigenous religion that Christians must separate themselves

from to preserve the religious identity of Christianity.

150

CHAPTER 4: SILENT BUT SINGING: WOMEN AND KOREAN CHURCH

MUSIC

The story of women walking twenty and thirty miles over rough roads to
attend these [Bible] classes. As they passed along the road with their
new found treasures, the Bible and book of Christian hymns tied by a
broad piece of cloth around their waists, ridiculed and threatened by

unbelieving husbands, sons or parents (Quarto Centennial 1909: 49).

The long musical tradition of Christian liturgy has provided opportunities
to develop various musical practices. Women played an important role in making
music during the service either as group or an individual. And women expressed
their experiences through the music and women have found such an opportunity in
the church music. The presence of a woman’s voice in music proves the social and
cultural world in their musical experiences. This presumes that women’s
experience in possessing their own aspirations and claiming power is different
from men’s. But patriarchal mainstream scholarship either has neglected to ad0pt a
view from women’s perspective or has treated them as “a type of Other,”
classifying women’s world as deviant or inferior. In the most musical cultures, the
gender discourse, which contribute and affect all other human relations has been

recognized that the public display of power and presentations of musical practices

151

have been in the male domain. 6‘

Focusing on the women’s experience in terms of gender discourse asserts
the existence of power relationship. The power relationship in the inter—gender
discourse is represented in the theme of the formation of musical canonicity
(Citron 1991; 1993), since the power in musical practice primarily depends on
“what is in and what is out.” In her study of musical canonicity, Marcia J. Citron
(1993) decries women’s absence from the canonic position in the Western art music
as a result of the gender construction. She demonstrates that the canon represents
the variety of interests of cultural power, as it encodes and perpetuates ideologies
of some dominant group or groups. Citron remarked that the construction of
musical canonicity operated as a way to reveal the exclusion of women from the
“received canonic position by setting standards what was considered worthy of

inclusion” (Citron 1993215).

“Canonicity” and the Korean Hymnal
The power once wielded by the canon, as a cultural consensus, is
enormous: its contents are presumed best and thus hold a greater value. The

formation of musical canonicity has set separate standards for women’s work “to

6' Ellen Koskoff’s (1987) Women and Music in Cross-cultural Perspective
and Marshall, Kimberly ed. (1993) Rediscovering the Muses: Women ’s Musical
traditions provide sources on the relationship between gender and music of many
different cultures. Renee Cox (1991:32) claims that how tonality of western music
is associated with gender description, such as unstable and chromatic dissonance
for women’s seductive, deadly sexuality in opera.

152

be socialized into the smaller musical genres.” In the power of musical canon is
expressed in the repertoire by including work most deserving of reiteration in
performance in organized institutions and excluding the Other (Citron 1990: 102).
Musical canonicity operates in two ways for women in the Korean church
music. First, it is established in the standard repertoire, that is, in the way the
music from the hymnal are exclusively allowed for the Sunday Great Service.62
The dominance of the hymns in the Korean hymnal presented in The Sunday Great
Service underlines the issue of formation of musical canonicity in Korean church
music in terms of the standard repertoire. Second, musical canonicity presented in
the hymnal is absence of Korean women’s compositional works from the Korean
hymnal. The exclusion of women’s compositional creativity was systematically
assumed because of the absence of women’s public musical directorship. It is a
projection by male dominant Korean church presented to the authority of the
hymnal and made apparent in the relegation of women leaders to subsidiary status
during the service. Relating musical canonicity to the Korean hymnal is an evaluate
interpretation of power engaged in women’s musical experiences in Korean church.
Power, gender, and music interlock in a complex and ever-changing continuum.

In this chapter, I choose to study two public spaces of Korean Christianity;

 

”2 The Sunday Great Service [iooil-daeyebae] distinct its characteristics
and significance from many other congregational gatherings in the ways that it
represents each church in the attendance of the most church memberships, stressing
on the engagement of church choir and instruments, and senior pastor’s sermon. It
is called “Jooil dae yebae” [Sunday Great Service] or “Jooil bon yebae” [Sunday
Main Service] differentiating from other worship services and prayer meetings.

153

the Sunday Great Service and the Praying House, 6’ assuming that the musical
practices of two locales best represent the nature of the inter-gender relations of
Korean church music in terms of musical canonicity. I also assume that the Korean
hymnal clearly appeared as the musical canon in the musical creativity,
professionalism, and reception in the public space, and received the musical
authority. Derived from male dominant social structures and conventions, musical
canonicity of the Korean hymnal provided a powerful tool for their self-
perpetuation. For this context, the Sunday Great Service and the Praying House
demonstrate that music and power are interconnected answering questions of who
controls music and of how they achieve their authority.

Recent studies on women and music reveal that the history of European
music has been dominated by masculine perspectives in professional musicianship
of performers, composers, patrons, and instrumentalists.“ Christianity excluded
women as singers beginning from the fourth century under the “Pauline
injunction,” in which the idea “let women keep silence in church” was enforced.
Even in separate spaces, such as convents, women were prohibited from main

institutional positions (Yardley 1987).

 

”3 In Korean, it is called “kidowon” literally meaning ‘garden of praying,’
because of its geographical location on the hillside or mountain. It functions a
place of retreat center, where Korean Christians visit for personal meditation,
special purpose of prayers, such as healing. Various English words have been used
for the “kidowon,” such as prayer mounts (Hwang 1994), prayer center (Sun 1992)-

“ Carol Neuls-Bates (1996) points out women’s restriction in the Western
music history, such as singers, instrumentalist, professional opportunities, and
composers.

154

This inequality shown in accounts of women’s musical activities has been
observed worldwide. The absence of women from the various musical cultures
derives from male dominance in determining approaches, methods (Nettl 1983:
334-5), and activities (Koskoff 1987).

Although women are represented in the literature on music, the picture is
fragmented or marginal with little focus on women’s status, inter-gender relations,
or the effects of a society’s gender arrangements on women’s musical behavior.
Some have often presented a cultural description of women’s musical activities
(Lee, BY 1979). Some have referred to women musicians’ status to support other
arguments (Noh 1995). Some have noted links between women’s sexuality and
music behavior. And some, especially in the case of Korean professional women
musicians, have commented upon the frequent association of women’s musical
activities with implied or real prostitution (Kim, CS 1993; Noh 1995).

Feminist musicologists seek to recover the value of women’s musical
experience.“ They argue that there is no universal musical category for women
and they reject the universal subordination of women. Further studies center on the
social context that simultaneously enabled and restricted the careers of women,
recognizing music as a motivating power to reflect and construct social meanings

‘5 Since 1980’s, scholars have studied on music from a feminist perspective
rediscovering women in music throughout history and considering the social
Circumstances in which women were embedded. For review of the history of
feminist musicology, see Susan C. Cook and Judy S. Tsou, “Introduction: “Bright

Cecilia, ” Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music, Urbana
and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991: 1-14.

155

and inter-gender relations. These explorations generally reveal the presence of
oppression and a constructed imbalance with male culture as the norm and female
culture as the periphery in relation to the prevailing culture. The dominance of
masculine disciplines in music signifies the existence of power relationship
between women and men in music.

Gender imbalance is revealed as a socially and culturally constructed
assumption. Ideology concerning gender in terms of the hierarchical concept is an
artificial concept, which has generally worked to the detriment of women in the
public sphere. This recognition of gender construction necessarily involves some
consideration of the issue of power, since human relations are often permeated by
the display and mediation of power. Even when consensus is achieved, the power
to control is held by those who can state or perform their arguments with
persuasiveness (Robertson 1987: 226).

Every culture exercises a particular kind of power in music. In her cross-
cultural examination of music, Robertson (1987) points out that women’s
performances are distinct is their cultural assets, which are individually shaped by
the beliefs of the society, including gender role expectations, restrictions of
behavior, and access to certain kinds of social control. The belief system that
legitimizes the power structure of gender is so strong that changing the gender
balance requires a profound alteration of the belief system that has given credence
to the ways in which male groups and institutions wield authority over those

persons they seek to control. When these gender restrictions operate in a

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institutionalized system, including the church, the performance tends to exhibit
characteristics of the coercion as a “replication of social relations and a potent
symbol on their behalf” (Citron, 1993: 1).

At larger mixed-sex public spaces, where musical practice takes place,
gender relations in music operate in the hierarchical formation among musical
genres. In this process, certain musical style receives higher artistic value and as it
represents the most values and unchangeable authority it positions as a canonic
symbol. A hierarchy in music is often associated with musical aesthetics.
According to Citron, gender discourse of the sonata aesthetic worked to prohibit
women’s being composers of the sonata, the most privileged genre of the 19‘h
century (Citron 1994: 16). Thus the gender associations of a certain musical
genre are not simply musical elements but rather are reflections of social
circumstances, which often display women’s absence from the canonic music and
authority.

The process of the formation of musical canon is interrelated with gender
ideology, which is constructed by cultural and social configurations of music and
women. Within an institutionalized system, gender provides a forum to explore
musical practice in the definition of social values and cultural processes by
investigating a series of situations in which the imbalance is apparent. The history
of women’s experiences in the church music has some pattern: from active
participation in the beginning to the extensive limitation after the growth of the

church. In the early centuries of the Christian church, as the church grew, so did

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the opposition to women’s participation in liturgical rites. As sacred singing
schools were established, the performance of church music increasingly became the
province of trained male singers and of the priesthood. Despite of speaking of
equality, the Christian church often gave a limited space to women with its
extensive musical practices. In the case of Korean church music, women’s musical
activities in the public services were limited to certain province as the Korean
church witnessed the explosive growth. A brief history of women in Korean church
music seeks to recover women who have participated in musical activities as main

musical actors.

History of Women in Korean Church Music

Gender relations in Korean church music are conditioned by various
factors involving the social meaning of music. By having a clearer picture of
musical activities and accomplishments in the historical contexts, it is possible to
study in greater detail the circumstances that simultaneously enabled and restricted
the powers of women in Korean church music. The history of women in the Korean
church is a consequence of Korea’s complex religious and cultural experiences, but
so is the fact that women’s activities remain a vital component of Korean religious
and cultural life.

It is acknowledged that Korean women have been deeply involved in
religious matters as living cultural forces. The statistics show that women in the

Korean church always outnumber men. In addition to the quantity of involvement

158

in the Christianity, the integrity of Korean women’s religious activities, in general,
is noted in contemporary scholarship.“ Manifested in the shaman’s ritual
performance, women’s role in religious practice can not eliminated from the
central impetus to explore contemporary Korean culture just because of Korean
literati’s long-standing discomfort with indigenous custom and Confucian
ideological devaluation of women. In the realm of church music, however,

women’s directorship has been oppressed.

Korean women have been involved in church music from its beginning as
individuals or as groups, as professional musicians and as participants in musical
practices of Korean church. Although scholars have tried to trace the form of
musical practices in the early Korean church, the lack of historical documents and
the scattered evidence for musical notation for early church music performance
leave most scholarly arguments about the development of Korean church music
inconclusive and fragmentary.

No explicit mention the presence of Korean women’s voices in church
music is found in historical documents until an American Methodist missionary,
Mary Fitch Scranton, founded Ewah Hakdang (Ewah school) for Korean girls and
women in May 1886. Considering the role of Christianity in the status of Korean
women generally, however, we might assume that Korean women had been actively

involved in church music even during the period of the self-built Korean church,

k

6" Many studies pointed out Korean women’s religious involvement,
especially in the hosts or guests of the shamanistic rituals (Kendall 1985).

159

before American missionaries came to Korea in 1884. Choi Pil-sun’s study on early
Catholic church music [Chunjookasa] in Korea suggests that women were actively
involved in the ‘contrafactum’ of the early Korean Catholic church music practice
(Choi 1993). For the women of Chosun Dynasty, who suffered from social
oppression, the teaching of the Christianity, either Catholic or Protestant was a
solution to their social bondage. Recent studies have acknowledged the
development of early Catholic church music [Chunjukasa] in its significance for
the active acceptance of Western music and for its process of borrowing from
traditional Korean folk tunes or vocal music (Choi 1992; Noh 1995: 363-358). The
development of early Catholic music might have been conducive to the formation
of a musical practice that would support women’s active performance.
Nevertheless, there is no specific reference to women’s musical activities in terms
of their own experiences, either as professional musicians or as congregational
participants .

The first mention of Korean women’s participation in Western music
during the early Protestant mission period (after 1884) was recorded as an occasion
to “cheer the inner man” of the president of the Foreign Office of the Korean court.
According to Hunt (1980: 69-70), in fall of 1886, H. G. Appenzeller (1858-1902)
invited officials, including the president of the Foreign Office, who had made
extensive inquiries about the school and remarked the need for an official name for
the school. When these officials arrived, Mary F. Scranton, the first woman

missionary of the of Methodist Episcopal Church, arranged to entertain them with a

160

“stereopticon show,” a performance by some of the girls then studying with her. ”7

Although it is hard to know what kind of music the Korean girls performed, we
assume that at least they sang American hymns, either in English or translated into
Korean. Teaching hymn singing was the only musical curriculum for missionaries
who aimed to spread the gospel along with singing hymns.

American missionaries continued their missionary work in the medical and
educational fields until 1898, when the Korean court government allowed
evangelical work, including preaching (Min 1982; Paik 1928; Hunt 1980). With
professional and “denominational jealousy” (Hunt 1980:42), early missionaries
competed to begin educational work, receiving informal support from Korean court,
which recognized the necessity of Western education to c0pe with international
situations (Hunt 1980; Robertson 1988).

To help evangelize and educate Korean women, the early missionaries in
Korea called for women missionaries in addition to missionaries’ wives as co-
workers because separation by sex in public spaces was the practice in Korea.68
Most of the missionaries’ wives and women missionaries were educated in the

period of the social gospel movement of the late 19‘h century in America. To a

”7 Hunt says that after this “pleasant event,” the official reported back to
the king. The Korean king and queen gave the name, Paejae Hakdang to the
Appenzeller’s school for boys and the name Ewha Hakdang to Mrs. Scranton’s
school for girls. This act constituted an official approval of the court missionaries’
educational work (Hunt 1980: 69).

“3 Missionaries were competing to gain the attention of the powerful
Korean queen. After missionaries from both the Methodist and Presbyterian
denominations asked to send women to do medical work as soon as possible, a

161

great extent, their mission theology copied scientific ways of thinking and
evolutionary theories of progress. Women’s education was considered their
primary mission, actively embodying participation in social advancement (Kim,
YC 1977). As many missionaries’ reports demonstrate, the Korean mission policies
emphasized working for Korean women and educating Christian girls and training
them to be free from the harsh social bondage of Confucian ideology (A. Clark
1961: 84).

Most of Korean women’s musical education was through contact with
missionaries’ wives. In the early mission stage, some Korean women worked as
housemaids in missionaries’ homes doing housework, cooking, or cleaning. Later
some Korean women were hired as assistants to women missionaries and
functioned. as intermediaries between the people and the missionaries, who had not
yet mastered the Korean language (Lee, HC 1977: 47). These women assistants
were later called “Bible women”[chondo-puin], since they studied at the Bible
classes and worked to minister to Korean women. It was during 1892-93 that the
first Bible women were hired as “native helpers.” According to the statistics, the
number of Bible women increased substantially after the nationwide revival
meetings of 1907. There were nine Bible women in 1900, eighteen in 1907, and

thirty-nine Bible women in 1908 in North Presbyterian Church, ”9 but more than

_‘

Presbyterian nurse, “Dr. Ellers” arrived (Hunt 1980: 64-65).

”9 Clark, Allen, “Table of Statistics for the Whole Quarter Century,” Quarto
Centennial papers read before the Korean Mission of the Presbyterian Church in
the USA. at the Annual Meeting in Pyeng Yang, August 27, 1909: 142-144.

162

three hundred Bible women worked in the Southern Methodist Church alone in
1922 (Sun 1992: 187). As their experience in mission work accumulated, Bible
women gradually came to function as independent church workers, especially when
ordained ministers were not available.70 Early Bible women had responsibilities in
evangelizing, teaching the Bible and hymn singing especially for women. While
they were attending Bible class for as short a period as a week or as long as three
months, Bible women received some training from missionaries in music, with
emphasis on learning new songs or on correcting hymn tunes. After they learned
hymns from Bible classes, Bible women began to teach hymn singing and engaged
in organizing numerous musical practices in their ministering.

Early Korean women converts were also introduced to church music
through frequent contacts with missionaries’ wives and visits to their homes which
were used as gathering places for services and prayer meetings. Hunt described the

visit:

Mrs. Heron always took the women on a tour of the house. The ladies were
invariably curious about the organ, the sewing machine, and the kitchen

furniture (Hunt 1980: 63).

Korean women converts heard the melodies of hymns from missionaries’ wives

7° In 1907, the first seven Korean men were ordained.

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singing in Korean, and, as missionaries wrote, learned them “by heart,” and
memorized the words immediately. Among popular hyms that Korean women
learned from missionaries’ wives, “Jesus Loves Me” was the most attractive and
popular hymn for early women converts to learn the gospel and for missionaries to
practice their Korean language.“ Music, especially hymn singing and teaching was
an important tool of communication and contact between missionaries’ wives and
women missionaries and Korean women converts in their daily lives.
It was only after 1895, however, that numerous accounts of women’s
musical practices appeared. According to several missionaries’ letters, Korean
women were eager to learn and sing hymns. The wife of one of the missionaries,

Lottie, said in her letter to her friend Florence in 1895:

I have a Korean hymn book now, with an English Index, so I can generally
find the hymns by the tune, and try to sing a little, but this morning, Mrs.
Miller’s ahmah would point out the words to me in her book and as she
does not read very well, the woman next kept correcting her, and then she
would sing the words over, regardless of where the rest were, so I gave Up
singing as an impossibility under those circumstances (Lottie to Florence

June 16,1895).

7' In her letter of July 11, 1895, Lottie wrote the Korean pronounciation of
the hymn; Clement (December 3,1898) WTOIC her friend about her progress in
Korean language, saying “I have also learned the words of the hymn, ‘Jesus loves
me ’ [lasso nary] sarang hasirn]. ”

164

Early Korean women converts were eager to practice hymn singing at every
occasion both informal and formal. In the missionary’s house, Korean women
could sing hymns more freely than in their own houses since they were not being
hindered by their unbelieving families. Prayer meetings and Sunday services
became a place for Korea women to come out of the limited boundaries of their
houses. At these meetings, Korean women sang with men, although they did not
see each other because there was a curtain between the sexes.

As opportunities were given to women to sing hymns, women also
participated in writing texts for the Korean hymns. The Korean Christian Advocate,
a Christian weekly magazine published by the Methodist Mission Board in Korea,

announced that the second edition of Chan-mi-ka (1895) included a hymn co-
written by several students of Ewha hakdang (Ewha school) in addition to their

72 Another record shows that

involvement in translating hymn texts into Korean.
an Ewha student wrote a hymn for Christmas, although neither the tune nor the text
was mentioned (The Korean Christian Advocate 12.21.1898). We do not know
whether she also composed a new tune or borrowed a Western hymn tune and
added new text; the latter is more likely considering the practice for hymn writing

at that time. Regrettably, the names of these women remained anonymous, and

Korean hymnals had no more hymns composed by Korean women until 1967.

’2 Hong, ed. 199221.

165

According to the self-government and self-support rule of the Nevius
Methods, the missionaries established Bible studies, which later expanded into
Bible conferences or Bible Institutes, depending on their size and regularity. These
Bible Institutes were intended to teach the Bible to all church members and
eventually provided leadership for a short period for the local churches. For the
missionaries who lacked professional music training and did not consider music as

the first mission priority, Bible classes were the only time to teach music in a

systematic way:

Everyone [missionary] was busy with so many other duties that they can
give but little time to teach music save at some of the Bible classes,

unconsciously and unwillingly, I seem to have drifted into a line of work,

for which I am very ill prepared to do. .. when I was asked to teach

singing in a ten days Bible class, I felt that it was one of the lesser duties,

but since then I have changed my mind very much about the matter (The

Korean Mission Field 1915 : 107).

Despite missionaries’ reluctance to teach music, music became an

important portion of the curriculum in the Bible classes. The following described a

typical daily program in the Bible classes of a village:

[In the morning,] assembly with prayer and singing, division into two or
166

more classes for the study of some book of the Bible, assembly for a
singing lesson, then another period of Bible study, after lunch, house to
house visiting, evening for further study or for evangelistic services (A.

Clark 1961:89).

The evening evangelical service always started with hymn singing.

At many classes an hour is set aside after the afternoon [Bible] study for
the teaching of music. But winter, women should go to prepare the evening
meal and it [music] always takes time away from the afternoon evangelistic
work which is so characteristic 3 part of the Korean Bible class. A very
satisfactory time is the half an hour or more before the beginning of the
evening service. All are present in a united body and are apt to want to
work off some surplus energy at this time. This serves another purpose in
making the people alive to the service which [is] to follow (The Korean

Mission Field 1915: 107).

W. Kerr’s observation on the Bible class portrays the p0pularity of hymn
singing, especially within Korean women’s Bible classes. It demonstrates that
Korean women were enthusiastic about singing, which inspired missionaries to
devote time to singing and teaching music before and at the beginning of the

evening evangelical services, a practice which continues today.

167

Educational institutions, such as missionaries’ schools, Bible classes, and
church activities, were segregated by sex. The separation of the sexes in public
gave Korean women a chance to develop and practice their own leadership in
teaching, organizing, and especially in performing music, which helped them in
c0ping with the harsh reality of their lives. The women’s Bible class was generally
divided according to age, and marital status: girls, young married women “up to
forty” and old women (Parker to her friend, March 25,1929). As women had been
given equal chances in hymn singing, their enthusiasm for music expanded toward
playing the instruments that accompanied the singing, such as the organ.

As music became one of the powerful inspirational features in large
gatherings and for the new believers, the missionaries and church leaders
emphasized the need for more trained musicians. Instrumental playing generally
requires more professional musical knowledge and practice than joining in
congregational singing. At the women’s Bible classes as well as at girl’s schools,
women were able to learn to play the pump organ and, later, the piano. They could
teach congregational hymn singing and lead the services by playing the organ in
their local churches.

With the popularity of organ playing and women’s prominence in this
domain, organ playing was accepted in public places, such as public schools and
public ceremonial occasions, as well as in Christian communities. The historical
references to organ playing in public space appeared more often after Japanese

Educational Policy in 1907.
168

The earliest historical record of organ performance goes back to the early
Korean Catholic Church. Dong-Bun N oh suggests that during the 18505 the popular
“Bible Organ” was introduced by a Korean Catholic priest, Choi Yang-Up, who had
considerable musical knowledge, including the ability to read the neumatic
notation of Gregorian chant, and to play the organ during mass (Noh 1995:364).
Since the early Korean Catholic church had suffered from severe persecution by
the Korean court government, the organ could not be played in public. The use of
instruments, including the organ, in church music was revitalized only after the
entrance of Protestant missionaries in the 18805. The missionaries brought a small
folding organ, or pump organ, from their home country as a mission work item. In
1898, the woman missionary Clement wrote a letter privately expressing her wish

to have a small, portable organ to help her mission work:

Now I might briefly tell you of my wants so that you may help me seek
them of the Great Giver — Wanted — An outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon
us & this town, a revival of prayer & Bible study among us,... a house for

medical dispensary and a small organ. A lady missionary on the boat had a
small one that could be folded up in the shape of a valise & I was much
pleased with it. I feel that it would be helpful to us (Clement to her sister,

December 3, 1898).

While missionaries assiduously worked to correct the “wrong pitch” and

169

rhythm of congregational hymn singing (The Korean Mission Field 1915: 103-109),
the missionaries found that the human voice was not enough to lead large
congregations. A musical instrument, cornet [or trumpet] was introduced and then
organ was used to give the leader the right pitch and key. Soon the small foot-
pumping organ, which could not produce a big enough sound to lead a crowd of
enthusiastic Korean singers, was gradually replaced by the piano after 1912.73

Women with interests in music began to learn organ playing at the Bible
classes. The mission schools began to provide more extensive training in organ
playing for women as the Korean church demanded more professionally trained
instrument players, which created a distinction between Bible women and more
professional women musicians.

Women who were not able to receive intensive musical training in the
mission schools for a longer period of time learned organ playing at the Bible
classes. Since Bible classes were held for a limited time, some women and girls
sought to take additional private lessons from women missionaries or missionaries’
wives, or were self-taught by ear. The common goal of studying organ was to be
able to play hymns during the Sunday service and prayer meetings at local
churches with a certain level of technical proficiency.

Before the Japanese colonial government adopted Western music as the

. 7’ The frequent reference to the piano in Christian newspapers during this
time shows that piano replaced organ (Hong ed. 1993).

170

musical curriculum in Korea, 7" private mission schools played a central role in the
study of Western music, including Christian hymns. Although music was taught at
both boys’ and girls’ schools, it was viewed as more girls’ or women’s domain
since more women were actively engaged in musical activities at the school and
church. Missionary Grace Harmon McGary’s exclusive reference to girls suggests
that girls’ schools had more organized and intensive curricula than boy’s schools
(The Korean Mission Field 1915: 103-5). According to McGary, the curriculum of
music at girls’ schools consisted primary of written examinations, singing
examinations, recital and public work. For the singing examination, which was
emphasized more than other parts, each girl stood before the class and sang a solo,
in a duct, or in a quartet with different parts. They were graded on “self-possession
and appearance, accuracy and quality of voice.” Organ or piano players were
required to have a public and private recital after learning the basic techniques of
scales, exercises and pieces written by Western composers, such as Handel,
Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schumann. It was the hymnal, however, that every
student had to have practiced as the primary textbook for both singing and
instrumental playing, and this occupied most of their time and effort. Some
advanced students and graduates became professional musicians, teaching in the
schools and working for the church as organists or pianists (The Korean Mission

Field 1915: 105).

7" Japanese pre-colonial government proclaimed “the School Order” in
1906 and “the Second Order” in 1908.

171

Japanese colonial educational policy, which had imposed the Western
musical system on their colony, also affected the popularity of the organ. 75 After
promulgation of the First School Order in 1906, followed by the Second School
Order in 1908, organ playing became a requirement at public high schools and
teacher’s colleges, primarily to accompany singing and to provide marching music
for outdoor gymnastic classes. Organ players were invited to demonstrate the
effective use of organ playing for music education at public school (Noh 1995:
579-80).

The ability to play the organ meant more than a technical ability to master
a certain musical instrument. Organ players were recognized leaders in the
churches and schools. Their names were announced in the newspaper, church
magazines, and on the front cover page of the church bulletin beside the pastor’s
name. Organists were invited to officiate in ceremonial meetings, such as the
consecration of church buildings and the commencement ceremonies of colleges.
Church leaders were proud of their churches’ having an organ” and organ player. It
symbolized the capacity, prosperity and growth of the church or the association
that had the charge of the ceremony.

The symbolic position of organ or organ player produced a new liturgical

7’ Japan had already accepted Western musical educational system in its
country since they opened the gate to the West in 1848. For a derailed source about
the goal of music education by the Japanese colonial government in the Korean
public school, see Noh 1995).

7” The foot-pump organ has been still used. The pipe-organ, in modern
technology, was installed after the 19703 in Korean churches.

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function for organ playing in the Korean church. The Christian ceremonies always
opened with organ playing, which eventually replaced the hymn singing that
previously opened ceremonies. The opening music by organ was called “Joo-ak,”
literally meaning “instrumental performance.” A Korean church music scholar,
Hong, Jung-Soc remarked on the liturgical significance of “Joo-ak,” saying that
“this is a unique musical practice in the Korean church. There is no exception at
the formal service; when the church choir is not available, the leader announces
that the service will open with organ or piano playing for the meditation during
prayer.”77 Judging from the descriptions of the ceremonies and other historical
documents, it started after 1913 and was rapidly accepted as a liturgical order. 78

In addition, playing the organ was recognized as conferring a certain social
status; it marked a person as belonging to an educated and enlightened social class
in church as well as in society. Janet Crane, a woman missionary who worked in
Chunju, in the southwest of Korea, noted how Korean society perceived women
who could play the organ as socially desirable candidates for marriage at the time.
“The position in life often is depending upon whether the girl can play a march and
a few familiar hymns, what kind of a husband she gets and what position in the
country churches and schools” (Janet Crane 11.28.1930). As Kendall pointed out in

77 Personal interview in 1999.

7’ “Consecration Service of at KaeSung in the Province of Kyungki,” The
Christian Advocate, 12.29.1913; “Commencement of Soongsil College,” The
Christian News, 6.17.1913; “The First Commencement of Bible School at

Kyungsung,” The Christian News, 6.24.1913, cited from Hong (1992). All organ
players were women with their names announced.

173

Getting Married in Korea, for women marriage was viewed as significant in terms
of social status, either as an affirmation of status or as a means of advancement
(Kendall 1996: 130). Casual chat among church-goers often evokes the image of
the organ or piano accompanist as a good candidate for marriage, even today.

Once organ playing was acknowledged as a symbol of an upgrade in social
status among Korean women, many girls and women sought to study the organ.
Miss Janet Crane reported to her mission board about the enthusiasm for and

popularity of studying the organ and piano among Korean women:

Every Korean women who comes to our schools and Bible Institutes wants
to learn music [playing piano or organ] and in a short time. Their
persistence in practicing is wonderful if the ear can stand the same old
mistakes over and over again, but there is no one in this station teaching
the girls or the women. They help each other and likewise learn their

mistakes along with it (Janet Crane November.28,1930).

As the number of congregations increased dramatically after the Great
Revival of 1907, and the Korean church was financially stabilized, the piano took
over the position of organ in the church. In every revival meeting, the congregation
was counted in the thousands. The small sound capacity of the foot-pump organ
could not take a leading role for large groups in congregational singing.

Consequently, it was gradually replaced by the piano, which had been brought from
174

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the missionaries’ home country mainly to teach their own children. Missionaries’
letters report that by the late 19105, most of the missionaries’ children were taking
piano lessons and small family recitals became one of the social gatherings among

missionaries. A missionary, Tom, wrote a letter to his mother proudly describing

his daughter Marion’s piano recital:

Marion made her debut yesterday as a musician. Mrs. Rufus gets up these
children’s musicals to which the parents of the children are invited.
Yesterday one was held at Mrs. Morris’ and Marion was down for two
numbers, one a duet with Marion Morris and a little simple piece alone.
She did all right and considering that she has only been taking lessons for
four months, I think it rather creditable that she could do anything. It really
is fine for the children to have this, as it were, semi-public performance.
The audience is certainly sympathetic and uncritical. As Dr. Avison said
yesterday after the performance, “haven’t we a fine lot of children” that is

the sentiment of all (Tom to his mother January 21, 1917).

The symbolic value of playing the piano, which began in the Korean church,
prevails in the current musical environment of Korea. From its beginnings in the
church to lead congregational hymn singing, it became a symbol of modernization
and Westernization, Western musical education, and economic privilege to afford

expensive lesson fees.

175

 

The historical fact that the music was packaged with the social status
indicates that women’s musical engagement is a significant feature of music in the
public space. It is notable that the missionaries, including women missionaries,
chose women for the liturgical church music from hymn singing through playing
organ, the most significantly perceived musical practice for the public service.
Women’s contribution was distinctive and clearly part of the particular kind of
musical practices. But it was interrelated with the cultural values toward women’s
role in the religious life in general, and gender dualism in particular.

Scholars examining the religious life of Korea agree on existence of a dual
religious organization by gender: men practiced the solemn and formal Confucian
ritual, and women engaged in private and emotional shamanistic house rituals
(Kendall 1985;Sun 1993: 9-15). Study acknowledged that various ritual forms have
been developed according to the political and social situation of modern Korea
(Kim, KO 1997). Most studies of the Korean church, however, have focused on the
various ritual forms in terms of political or social context, rather than the gendered
nature of religious rituals, for which musical practice best represents.

The gendered distinction of musical activity in the Korean church is
associated more with where the ritual is performed than with the particular
denomination of the individual church. During my interviews with Korean pastors,
they acknowledged that there is little denominational distinction in liturgical order

or musical style in the various services, and in musical practice, the liturgical

distinction between different denominations is not significant. Instead, different

176

spaces, which are operated by different ritual functions, play a more decisive role
in musical practices.

Music plays a significant role in the formation of gender dualism of the
religious rituals of Korean church, since musical activities engage the inter-gender
nature. Feminist musicologists confirm that this dualism is linked with the display
of a power in musical activities (Kerber 1987). During past 100 years, as the
church grew, women expanded their musical activities in Korean church. Starting
with the private and informal evening prayer meetings at the beginning of a
mission, women became full participants in public services including the Sunday
Great Service. However, as the Korean church grew more organized in the liturgy,
the Sunday Great Service became a public space of the projection to the exclusion

of women from canonic position.

Women and Music in the Sunday Great Service
My interest in women and music in the Sunday Great Service started with
my personal observation about its symbolic position as a liturgical canon and the
absence of women as main actors during the whole service. I assume that its
solemn and authoritative mood is associated with its exclusive use of hymns, 79and
some restrictions on musical practices. I also became convinced that the extent of

the restrictions on women is parallel with how music other than hymns is excluded

*

79 Here, hymn(s) exclusively means the music included in the published
Korean hymnal.

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as authentic worship music. I now suspect that this restriction in women’s roles in
the Sunday Great Service is related to the gendered nature of the musical genre,
which has interacted with the process of canonic formation of the hymns in the
Korean church in terms of composition, performance and repertoire.

The Sunday Great Service of the Korean church reflects the cultural values
involved in canon formation. Analysis of the musical practice in the Sunday Great
Service shows how the conventions and subtext of the authority of hymns have

privileged the masculine and thus given lesser value to women. A detailed picture
of the ritual forms of the Sunday Great Service helps us understand how the hymn
has emerged as a powerful representation of the interrelationship among ideology,
representation, and musical practice.
In his study of ritual forms of Korean church, Kwang—ok Kim described the

appearance of the male pastor in the Sunday Great Service:

A description of a Sunday service as it is seen in almost all churches in
contemporary days... Inside the chapel, a cross in hung on the front wall
behind the pulpit, which is made of imported oak.... The [male] pastor

appears in a black velvet ceremonial gown that resembles the academic
robe of a Ph.D. He begins his preaching in a calm, low voice and gradually

his voice rises with occasional trembling...(Kim, KO 1997:230).

In addition to the solemn mood of the male pastor’s gestures, the whole

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service was filled with male representatives. Male elders were sitting in the front
row of the sanctuary wearing dark-color suites and one of them was sitting on the
long-back chair covered by elaborately stitched cushion. The pulpit under the
lighted-cross heightened by the stairs symbolized a “holy land” where only male
ordained pastors for sermon or leading the service and elders of the Representative
prayer80 could stand on. Male music directors were standing for the opening
doxology, prayer responsorial, anthem and closing doxology of the choir. Female

pianist and organist 8‘

were sitting on the corner of the sanctuary usually to be
seen at the least. Women did not stand individually, and they were always in the
group.

The Sunday Great Service exclusively uses the hymn as the authoritative
music: the congregational singing, organ prelude, two choir doxologies and
sometimes for anthem. The power of the hymn is to a large extent connected with
the cultural dynamics of the Sunday Great Service. As the Sunday Great Service
has emerged as the liturgical authority, the same musical status has been assigned
to the hymn; it has become the only music accepted during the Service.

~ The canonic formation of the hymns in the Sunday Great Service reflects

the patriarchal structure of social relations in terms of musical canonicity. Among

various types and functions of service in Korean church, the Sunday Great Service

8° The service includes a prayer time, for which a male elder brings his
own prayer on behalf of the whole congregations. It is called Daepyo-kido
[Representative Prayer].

8' Korean church employs both piano and organ accompaniment at the

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has been acknowledged as the most exemplary, representative, highly acclaimed

and focused worship by ministers, musicians, and congregations. Its liturgical
primacy places the music used in the Sunday Great Service in a canonic position.
The music used in the Sunday Great Service is a religious symbol for the musicians,
the clergy and the congregation. From the notion that the Sunday Great Service is a
potent symbol for the dominant group in the Korean church, the music used in the
Sunday Great Service has similarly found a musical canon as a standard repertoire.

Musical canonicity, as gendered discourse and codes, is primarily
connected with musical genre, since genre is a powerful category that shapes
values through preevaluation and exclusion. In the hierarchy of liturgical music,
the hymns are regarded as higher than other musical genres for their musical style,
their longevity among Christians, and their authority of reception as official
publications. The long controversies over whether to allow gospel songs used in
the Sunday Great Service show that published hymns received the canonic position
in the Korean church.

The process of the formation of a canonic repertoire in musical genre is
prompted by certain conditions on creativity in the society. As Citron (1993)
recognized, compositional creativity has operated as a primary stage on a path to
canonicity in music. There are many examples of the restrictive traditions

concerning women’s ability in composition in Western art music. For instance, the

same time for all the music of the service.

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dominance of masculine association with the sonata aesthetics, which stands as a
symbol of Western patriarchal values, forced women to avoid major works of
sonata aesthetics, such as symphonies, sonatas, and chamber music (Cook ed.
1994).

For compositional creativity in church music, the possibility of women’s
composition in the canonic musical genre reflects the theological understanding of
the Bible of Korean Christians. During the Sunday Great Service, women are
prohibited from the leading roles in delivering sermons, and celebrating the
Eucharist based on a male-centered theology. Male pastors do not hesitate in their
sermons to present an image of women lacking holiness, being more prone to
temptation, and being cursed to be obedient.

The father figure, a prominent figure of Christianity, is a major ingredient
in the stereotype of women’s lack of creativity as composers. In the Korean church,
which emphasizes the fundamentalist Protestant interpretation of the Bible, women
are not recognized. For the Protestant church of Korea, which claims Catholicism
as heresy, the image of Mary is negative, because admiration of Mary itself is a
heresy. Nor is there a daughter in the church. There exist the Father and the Son.
And the Father, as God, as the Creator, is the model for man as the creator, who is
a likeness of God. As the exclusive bearer of God’s image, only man is validated as
a creator, not woman. Metaphorically, therefore, men’s exclusive occupation of the

central stage is legitimized for the composition of worship music as well as for

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ministering in the mainstream.82
The absence of women from published Korean hymnals replicates the

gender construction of power with the absence of women as major actors in the
Sunday Great Service. In the Korean Hymnal of 1983 [Chan-song-ka], there are 35
hymns composed by Koreans. Through the more than 100 years of history of the
Korean hymnal, there has rarely been a Korean woman’s hymn composition: one
hymn in the hymnal of 1897; one hymn text in 1983 hymnal”. Once it was agreed
upon to include newly-composed hymns by Koreans, the selection was assigned to
male Korean church authorities. No woman’s composition is included in the
hymnal of 1983. As a result, women’s hymn compositions are marginalized, placed
among “the Gospel Songs,” “the Supplement,” or “the Appendix to the Hymnal.”
Women’s hymn compositions are considered always too humanistic, too spiritual,
or too emotional to be included in the hymnal. The exclusion of women’s hymn
compositions from publication in the hymnal has made it impossible for them to be
regularly included in the Great Sunday Service.

Many studies on musical cultures have attributed the absence of women
composers in the canonic works to the fact that women had an unequal access to

institutional training.“ Yet in Korea, from the beginning of Christianity, women

“2 Soon-Wha Sun ( 1993) analyzed how Korean ordained women ministers
were forced to work on marginal areas such as healing services and ministry with
the oppressed.

83 The text of the hymn 461, “In the Stormy Night,” was written by Korean
woman, Hwal-lan Kim in 1921.

8" In the Western music history, the Royal Academy of Music, England,

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have found a certain compatibility between their musical ability and education. In
mission schools, girls showed more enthusiasm than boys for learning music and
were more actively involved in musical performances in the church. A view that
the musicianship embedded feminine traits became prevalent in Korean
Christianity as the liturgical order was established. Influenced by Confucian
practice of the Chosun period, which identified professional women musicians with
entertainers or with lower-class origin despite more freedom in higher music
education than other women (Lee, BY 1987), women were denied access to the
higher positions in the church. The educational quality did not guarantee a higher
institutional authority for Korean women musicians because music as the
embodiment of theology and replication of the cultural values became more
systematized to the exclusion of women. In Korean church music, patriarchal
tradition has overpowered the rhetoric of equality in Christianity.

During the workshop for the church choir, male instructors often cite
biblical references in which only men and boys were allowed to serve in choirs
during the period of the Old Testament, justifying the absence of women’s musical
directorship during the Sunday Great Service. During the sermon, male ministers
warn women not to express their spiritual enthusiasm too much during the Sunday

Great Service, so as not to disturb the holy atmosphere. In the special Devotional

¥

chartered in 1839, did not admit women musicians to take certain compositional
classes. Ethel Smyth was the first woman to have permission to study composition
at the conservatory in Leipzig in 1877 (Judith Tick and Jane Bowers eds. 1986:5-7).

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Service for the church choir, male musicians and ministers stress that the ideal
liturgical music can be achieved only through the male musician’s voices by
quoting from the history of early Western music. The interpretation is that the
“authentic church music” ceased after the Enlightenment, which was the time when
women’s voices began to appear in the church choir.

As the Sunday Great Service is dominated by the solemnity associated with
masculine culture, it is assumed that the composition of hymns belongs to male
composers. Women’s musical contributions in Korean church music have always
been recognized those of performers in congregational singing, as choir member,
and as accompanists, but not composers. The evidence documents considerable
musical activity by women in Korean church; however, the documents, mostly
written by men, except for women missionaries, reflects the gender construction
that pervaded virtually all writings.

My comparative experience in the American church shows that the
Sunday Great Service itself inscribed the social meaning of music. I also learned
that its solemnity and exclusiveness forced women to sacrifice their spiritual power
through the powerful church leaders who adopted and imposed the Confucian
restrictions on women in order to legitimize their own definitions of the order and
morality of the Bible. This endeavor of the Korean church justified the negation of
women’s directorship in music, which was a representation of the disorder that
they wanted to correct.

As a place displaying the most established religious rituals, the Sunday
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Great Service in Korea epitomizes complex social values in the observable musical
practice. The gendered nature of musical activities links these phenomena so
closely as to provide an ideal forum for the exploration of musical practices as a
key to social meaning.

The canonic position of the Sunday Great Service and its musical
representative, the hymnal, does not mean that women have been silent as
performers, directorship, and participants in other facets of public space.
Nevertheless, the church’s condemnation of women’s musical leadership, which
has been predominant for the last century, could not stop the populace from
recognizing women’s musical engagement.

Focusing on studies of what women do, rather than on what symbolic
valuations are given to them, demonstrates that women actually possess and wield
a considerable amount of power in musical practice. The perspective that the
cultural value given to women and men are merely competing, subversive or
exclusive power relationships, can often fail to reflect that gender conceptions are
highly constructed statements through which individuals claim certain power in the
context of particular sets of social and cultural relations. The Praying House is the

place of these facets to confirm women’s presence with certain amount of power.

Women and Music at the Praying House
Studies of Korean women have tended to focus on the notion that

Confucian ideology socially constrained Korean women (Chung ed. 1986; Kim, YC

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1977; Mattielli ed. 1977). This view maintains that all Korean women are
powerless victims of Confucian ideology. However oppressed and confined, these
victims of social bondage were not powerless. The powerless expressed power
either by refusal or resistance against established values, or by seeking a
complementary way to conduct their lives. Laurel Kendall and Mark Peterson
(1983:5-17) challenge conventional views on Korean women, pointing to the
diverse roles and various amounts of power that women have exercised in different
historical periods and social contexts of Korea. They demonstrate that Korean
women have not merely accepted the powerless position, but have often tried to
maximize their power by making the best of the oppressive historical forces
surrounding them, sometimes by manipulating the Confucian gender division in
their own interests.

Unlike the strict hymns of the Sunday Great Service at the parish church,
the music practiced at the Praying House enables congregations to express their
emotions more freely. While a solemn and quiet mood dominates the Service,
elements of excitement and improvisation are exaggerated during the praising time
in the Praying House. The contrasting scene of musical practice in the Service and
praying house reflects the existence of gender duality in religious life in Korea;
Kendall points out, the shamanistic ritual represents and presents the power of the
Korean women, while ancestor worship became the domain of the Korean men
(Kendall: 1985). Many previous studies of Korean church music, however, have

tended to stress on the significance of music in liturgical function such as at the

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Sunday Great Service neglecting the presence of the sound at the Praying House.
By associating the gender duality of religious life in Korea with the musical
practice of the Praying House, I will demonstrate how women draw their
spirituality and their directorship through musical power.

The growth of Christianity in Korea has been interrelated with the Praying
House, which allows the healing ministry, speaking in tongues, and personal
experiences of the Holy Spirit regardless denominational differences. The visitors
to the Praying House comprise all levels of Korean Christians regardless of
denomination, position at the church, age, or gender: ministers, church leaders,
women and men, young and old, the healthy and the sick. Like the membership at
the parish church, women visitors outnumber men. People stay either one day or
several days with fasting prayer [keumsik-kido], praying all night [chulya—kido],
‘mountain prayer’ [san-kido], or meditating. With these diverse purposes, crowds
gather coming and going every day. Generally, the Praying House offers three
scheduled meetings: the dawn prayer at 5:00 a.m., Morning Meeting at 10200 a.m.,
and Evening Meeting at 7:00 p. m., as well as an optional vigil, the whole night
prayer. During these various types of prayer meetings, music is recognized as
having a particular power which is realized through the embodiment of the Holy
Spirit, through healing, or speaking in tongues.

The musical practice at the Praying House is considered a commodity that
can inspire the congregation’s spiritual power and satisfy visitors’ spiritual desires.

All meetings and services at the praying house open with the “praising time”

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[chanyang sigan] lasting about half an hour but less than one hour. And in the
middle of the healing service, music operates in the most powerful way to console
the sick and the healing minister.

Since the praying house encourages emotional expression of the
spirituality, the leadership of the praising time is essential for a success of gospel
singing leaders. The leader helps the religious spirit by encouraging the
congregation to console their souls during the singing. In the praying house,
women are more visible than in the Sunday Great Service: women healing
ministers, the women directors of the praying house [wonjangnim], and women
music leaders of the praising time. The healing service, which proves the power of
spirituality than other practices, empowered women ministers regardless of
ordination or institutional training in the seminary. In the praising time, women
leaders are preferred for their easier accessibility to the women congregation’s
spiritual needs. For Korean women, who are more frustrated and stressed by the
family concerns, disease, and social boundaries than men are, the praying house
often offers a consolation of their burdens. Women, moreover, are naturally more
sympathetic to women’s suffering. The dominant presence of women at the Praying
House suggests that women can use their isolation to develop their own repertoire
and to accomplish limited social change.

The Praying House is an “invisible place” located away from the city or
village. Among Christians in Korea, visiting the Praying House is simultaneously

viewed positively since it shows a devotion to prayng or meditation, as well as

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negatively since it implies that they have trouble or problems which can not be
solved in a normal way. Thus the praying house becomes a place to allow
intolerable behaviors and religious practices which can not be accepted in the
individual parish church. In the praying house, people do not wear formal dress.
Casual wear allows them to sit on the floor for a long time and to vent emotions
during the prayer.

Actions of the congregation such as putting their whole energy into singing,
clapping hands, moving their body rhythmically, crying out, shouting, or jumping
are equally tolerated and even encouraged. The music performed at the praising
time belongs to a different category from the music used for the liturgy of the
Sunday Great Service. In the praising time at the Praying House, leaders select
well known gospel songs either individually published collection of gospel songs
[bokeum sunggajip or chanyangjip] or hymnal. Most of the selected gospel songs
take duple rhythm or marching rhythm suitable for hand clapping. The leader is
lining out the words to the congregation between each phrase over the electronic
sounds of the instruments and congregation’s voice.

The leader also encourages the congregation’s participation in standing up
or raising arms. They ask the congregation to raise their hands as a sign of the
submission to the Lord, and to signal the confession of sin and expectation of the
coming of the Holy Spirit. The congregation stands up and follows the dancing
motion with the leader and other members of the gospel singing group. The

problems of the congregation are identified and expressed openly.

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Korean church authorities including ministers and church musicians find
that musical practices have significant implications for their authority. They often
try to control or adopt the musical practice of the praising time at the Praying
House for their ministry, to enhance the spirituality of the congregation for the
services at the parish church. Some churches have their own gospel singing groups
consisting of church members. Sometimes, a gospel singing group is invited to lead
and perform the praising time for special meetings or services of the parish church.
Leaders at parish churches encourage their congregations to go the Praying House
because the Praying House is perceived as a place that provides a more powerful
spirituality. Consequently, the congregation becomes more accepting of the Praying
House and the Praying House becomes prouder of its function.

On the other hand, church leaders also suppress the musical practice of the
Praying House when they perceive it as resemblance to “shamanistic.” Because
they want the identity of Christianity to be “modern” and different from indigenous
religions, they are reluctant to encourage some musical practices inherited from the
indigenous religion. Mystical experiences, healing, and encouraging a great deal of
noise is also perceived as shamanistic, too mysterious or too dangerous.

However, most of the visitors find that music at the Praying House satisfies
their personal needs by allowing more emotional freedom in musical expression
during the praising time. The music performed during ‘the praising time’ is distinct
from the main body of the music during the Sunday Great Service in its use of a

manner of improvisation in the performance, fast duple rhythm, electronic

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technology and even reminiscence of a shamanistic trance. It is sung in an ecstatic
style that is a mixture of song, praying, hand-clapping, and wailing. Despite its
planned manner by the leader, the time of praising is not primarily a ceremonial
expression of the religious spirit, but first and foremost an emotional and personal
expression of catharsis.

The praising time often accompanies a group of singers and instrumental
players [chanyangdan]. Likewise, at a church service, a leading musical group
either professional or amateur hired for the occasion, stays with the preacher for
the couple of days of the engagement period, leading the praising time with gospel
singing before every meeting [iiphoe].

The musician’s power as mediator and invoker is also indispensable during
the praising time to ensure that the congregation is ready to “receive the grace of
God [eunhyerul batta]” through the guest preacher. During the praising time, the
congregation is often encouraged to prepare for the meeting by actively
participating in singing. The leader presents a song with fast rhythm accompanying
loud volume and music often helps speaking in tongues during ‘the loud prayer’
ltongsung-kido]. The most prominent role of the praising is said to invoke
spirituality both for congregation and preacher.

The praising time is part of the larger sphere of Korean church music and
continues today in most church meetings. Despite its long tradition back to the
early mission period, the practice of singing before the prayer meeting is usually

connected with musical practice of indigenous religions. The loud invocations of

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the woman leader seem to encourage a spiritual freedom, a trance-like state:
imploration of God for mercy, miracles and forgiveness. The context of the songs,
a fusion of invocation of the spirit, confession of the sins, asking blessing, and
seeking a solution of the problems, enables congregation to experience of ecstatic
and to re-evaluate the role of the leader as a religious specialist.

These responses relate to the women leaders positioning in terms of
directorship, style of the musical selections, and engagement of music as
configuration of religious power. The description below includes my fieldwork at
the Praying House in Korea, which all Korean Christians are accountable to one of
these broadly defined practices. It examines the commentary presented both in the
praising time and the healing service.

In the middle of July 1999, when I was wondering which praying house to
visit, my aunt recommended a famous Praying House run by her parish church. She
told me many cases of miracles happening in that Praying House, and that some are
invited to give witness of their healing experiences to her church during the
Sunday Great Service. I visited the Praying House, located on the outskirts of
Seoul. Before, I myself had visited several Praying Houses as a member of my
church for special holidays such as the New Year’s resolution prayer, a summer
retreat, or individually with my family, often guided by my mother.

The name of the Praying House has a prefix after the name of the city, in
which it is located, and it belongs to the parish church, which has many branches

of the praying house in other areas in Korea. The Seoul branch Praying House
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provides a charter bus from the parish church. During the trip in the bus, I heard
gospel songs on the cassette recorder of the bus all the time with some instructions
on fasting and recovering. At the mountain site of the Praying House, I heard
gospel songs through the outdoor Speakers. The Praying House had the Sanctuary
[dai sungiun, literally meaning “great temple”] which can accommodate more than
ten thousand people at once and many smaller sanctuaries and several dormitory
buildings for patients and visitors staying long-term.

Several people were walking slowly toward the entrance of the sanctuary,
carrying Bibles and hymnals. At the entrance, a couple of women handed out a
bulletin, which included the texts of the gospel songs selected by the gospel
singing leader. It was a good handy size to carry. When I entered the sanctuary,
several thousands of people were already gathered to attend the special meeting
praying, singing, or reading the Bible; every week has a special program titling
after the name of preacher, or occasion, such as Special Prayer for the Nation or
Fasting Prayer with the Pastor Kim.

Inside the sanctuary, there was a grand piano located beneath the platform
on the floor horizontally facing the congregation. During the meeting, the sound of
the piano was amplified with an electronic system. The sanctuary had two sections:
the floor and stadium-like seats. Floor seating was more pOpular than the upper
stadium seats, because people could stay there longer, for the night prayer after the
meeting. The platform was already set with musical instruments. Inside the

sanctuary, there were two huge speakers on both sides of the platform and a big
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white glass cross was hung on the center of the front wall behind the pulpit, which
was also made of white glass.

Male instrumental players appeared in bright beige tuxedo-style suits. Each
player was seated at his position of drum, guitar, and keyboard. The female singing
group appeared in a Western style long dress with a hat of the same color. The
gospel group comprised female singers and male instrumental players, but only the
singers were actually members of the group. When the leader wanted to change
instrumental players, she temporarily worked with another instrumental group. The
group leader, a female pastor, Maria Cho {Mary Cho], greeted with “Hallelujah!”
and then the congregation responded with “Hallelujah!”

The music minister Cho, Maria is well known for her singing style in
leading her gospel singing group, Yesu-chan-yang, lPraise, Jesus]. Her title as a
pastor, in the biography in the program of the concert which I attended, suggests
that she was ordained. Although there is no clear information about her theological
background, most of the peOple around her belonged to the same denomination.
And the advertisement of theological institutions in the program of the concert that
Cho led suggested that she has some association with those private seminary
institutions.

Many musicians around her told me that she has been leading the Gospel
group, Yesu-chan-yang for more than 10 years, which made it the oldest among
gospel singing groups in Korea. The group is comprised of five other women

singers. Officially the group belongs to a parish church, but they are frequently
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invited to meetings of the praying house and are asked to lead congregational
gospel singing during the praising time before the meetings. She looked to be in
the early 30’s, Western looking with heavy make-up wearing high heel shoes,
although she is very tall compared with the average Korean women.

Back stage, before the praising time started, Cho was giving detailed
instructions about diction and music to the members. She looked like a mother or
very strict high school choir conductor, although the members were not much
younger than she was. All the mechanical technicians and instrumental players
were listening to her instruction with attention. After the meeting, one member
informed me that she had a powerful talent to lead congregational singing at the
praying house. And one of junior male music ministers approached to Cho and
whispered her that the senior pastor, who had preached at the meeting and was
known as the most spiritual minister in their denomination, was very satisfied with
her leading style.

As soon as the male instrumental players started the introduction, the
congregation started clapping with body movement, and pastor Cho shouted the
title of the gospel song. Her voice was piercing with a high metallic sound. She
recited each phrase of the text of gospel songs, which helped congregation keep
their eyes closed without reading the text from the big white screen on the pulpit. It
gradually rose and reached a climax. Having reached the high pitch of emotional
trembling, the congregation sang gospel songs in a duple march rhythm with

clapping. The acoustics of the sanctuary resembled an indoor stadium, with many

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echoes. I could not discern any words but pastor Cho’s shrieking voice.

Pastor Cho started to jump on the platform with clapping which helped to
accelerate the emotional elevation of the congregation. Every song was repeated
and was sung without pause. Most of the songs had a refrain and a simple musical
structure. All songs were duple meter in a marching rhythm. Cho marked the beat
with her whole body. Some people were standing, stamping with their feet, closing
their eyes, clapping and singing in husky voices. Some people were sitting but
moving their bodies furiously. When pastor Cho announced the next song, her
voice was very high, sharp, and clearly marked. She did not sing on pitch, but
stayed at the highest pitch only with the rhythm, which sounded like an order. As
soon as a song ended she continued the next song with her high-pitched first phrase
of the next song. The instrumental players immediately followed her song, without
any pause. It seemed not to be hard to initiate the next music, because all the music
had the same pattern of beat, and the harmony was limited tonic, subdominant and
dominant. But when Cho started a new song, the congregation’s emotional level
was raised with an accelerating tempo. Cho did not change the beat and pitch of
her singing. Rather she led the congregation to sing faster, louder, and higher. It
lasted for 40 minutes. The congregation was ready to receive the gracious Word
through the preacher. Cho suddenly dropped the tempo of the final gospel hymn,
which was included in the present Korean hymnal. The slow tempo made a
dramatic change for the congregation’s responses. Congregation stopped clapping,

but just moved their bodies, closing eyes, and was changed to a meditating mood.

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At the end of the meeting, healing service was announced for next day.
When I returned from the evening service to my room, I greeted four other female
roommates. Mrs. Park, who was taking care of her mother in her 705 years, asked
us to pray that her mother be cured or at least lessen her pain from the cancer on

tomorrow’s healing service.

Healing Service and Music.

The healing service functions as an embodiment of the most powerful
spirituality employing singing, loud prayer, and healing. The healing, considered
an experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit, and receiving an answer for prayers
allow the Praying House to practice their own ritual forms and music associated
with women’s power. Directors of the most praying houses are women who are
famous for the healing ministries in particular. Healing ministers are believed to be
called by God with a distinctive spiritual experience which provides the women
ministers more authoritative position at the Praying House.

The authorities at the parish church tried to downplay the significance of
the healing ministry at the Praying House suspecting the source of spiritual power
’5 because it resembled shamanistic practices. But the its p0pularity as a faith and

belief of the Christians offered Korean Christian women healing ministers a way to

 

85 Sun, Soon-wha points that while women healing ministers exercise their
healing power, they also try to consciously legitimize the divine source of their
healing power at the same time (Sun 1993: 280-296).

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have more power in the development of its own ritual forms and musical practice.

During the whole healing service, music, especially singing, was tied to a
concept of healing. Music was equated with healing power, inspiring spirituality of
the sick, the congregation and the healing minister. Gospel songs and gospel
hymns86 were thought to arise from a carefree heart, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
GOSpel songs and gOSpel hymns allowed much repetition, textual elaboration and
improvisation. The distinct musical style associated with the healing service at the
praying house combined frequent repetitions with some substitution of key words
and flexibility of the tempo according to the status of the healing operation. The
healing minister employs a variety of monophonic strophic gospel song melodies.
Generally the music at the praying house had duple rhythmic structure with a
tendency to stress marching rhythm and dotted rhythm. But dotted rhythm was
switched to the triple by a big congregational singing.

Studies have observed that music has been employed to invoke spiritual
power for healing, such as shamanistic ritual for the sick (Sun 1992). During the
healing service at the Praying House, different musical practice was employed
according to the phases of the healing service: the laying on of hands prayer; when
the spirit operation was, the moment of the healing or spirit operation, and after the

operation. In each phase, the characteristic of the gospel songs changed tempo,

8" Korean church music distinguishes gospel hymns from gospel songs in
the fact gospel hymns are included in the published Korean hymnal.

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rhythm, volume and instrumentation; music played a role in invoking spirituality,
consoling patients’ suffering, and supporting the healing minister.

After a praising time, a healing service started with the healing minister’s
entrance into the sanctuary followed by the minister’s prayer for the laying of
hands on the sick. At that moment, an invited female singer led the congregational
singing asking to support the healing minister’s spirituality. During the singing, the
congregation could hear the healing minister’s prayer through the electronic
microphone in her hand. Once the leader picked up one gospel song, the
congregation repeated it until the leader started another gospel song. The leader
started in a slower tempo and congregation joined in quietly quite voice. The leader
was also one of the witnesses of the spirit operation of that healing minister. When
she mentioned about her own experience, instrumental accompaniment expanded
its volume and congregational singing responded quickly getting louder.

Sun, Soon-wha, in her study on women healing ministers in Korea,

described one of the healing service:

While Evangelist Han was laying her hands on the sick, the congregation
supported her by singing. A male seminarian who had been cured by her
led the singing. The audience clapped and sang many hymns and gospel
songs without pause. Some were crying out “Lordl, or Amen!” with their

two hands raised. Others were kneeling and crying (Sun 1993: 283).

199

After laying hands prayer on several patients, the healing minister took the leading
the gospel singing with her husky voice. All songs were about the Holy Spirit
asking to come, “Come, Thou Burning Spirit, Come [Hymnal No. 173]” and
“Hover o’er me, Holy Spirit” [Hymnal No. 177].

The congregation sings over and over again with clapping until the healing
minister finishes the laying-hands prayer and appears on the pulpit. During this
phase, the leader and the healing minister led congregational singing alternately.

The rhythm of the gospel hymn was getting faster all turning to duple meter with

clapping.

As soon as the prayer was finished, Evangelist Han began to sing a hymn
about the Holy Spirit. While the audience was joining in her singing, the

next patient was brought in (Sun 1993: 286).

People expressed themselves through all sorts of movement. The members in the
congregation raised their hands, stood, jumped, and cried out. During this time,
instrumental accompaniment was dropped out, partly because it has been thought
that mechanical sounds interrupt the flowing of spiritual mood when they
introduced new song or partly because the excitement of congregation hindered
matching with the instrumental accompaniment. The leader picked the first pitch of
the next gospel song without assistance of instrumental accompaniment. This gave

the healing minister more freedom to select gospel songs without worrying about
200

agreement with instrumental players on the repertoire. Even the piano lost its role,
because the sound of it was not audible against the huge congregation’s loud
singing.

Once the healing minister stood on the platform, she took the lead in
gospel singing. She picked up songs from well- known gospel songs or gospel
hymns that everyone sang in memory without any assistance for the text. Most

songs are about “Come! The fire of Holy Spirit” or “What can wash away my sin.”

Then, while jumping, Evangelist Han led the singing of a gospel song,

“The fire of the Holy Spirit will come down here” (Sun 1993: 285).

The healing minister adOpted the faster tempo, and she moved around on
the platform with microphone in her hand. Her motion gave a rhythmic pattern for
the congregational singing and clapping. Each time before a new patient was
brought in, the healing minister led another gospel song about the Holy Spirit.
During this time, music functioned as an invocation of the spirit. The healing
minister herself led alternating prayers and songs, with some preaching style of
remarks asking to help her feel whether the power of the Spirit has come and
fulfilled. When she felt she needed more spiritual power, she continued leading
songs. The spirit operation was delayed until the healing minister felt ready.

It was very common to see that all songs performed at the Praying House

about the Holy Spirit changed the rhythm either completely or partially. All were
201

transformed into duple rhythm. The process of transformation to marching style
resembled the rhetoric of the text about the Holy Spirit as approaching, and moving
about. In the hymnal, these songs had tempo suggestion in the slow tempo or a
moderately fast in the hymnal. When these songs were selected at the Sunday Great
Service, where they were rarely picked up, congregation sang in a moderate tempo
with piano or organ accompaniment. While the Holy Spirit was perceived as a
peaceful dove at the parish church, it was transformed into a strong fire implying
movement at the Praying House.

As the tempo of the songs were getting much faster, its micro rhythmic
distinction disappeared. If the song was originally written in duple rhythm, people
clapped on every beat, but soon on every other beat. During this process of
rhythmic change on clapping, the already fastest tempo itself stayed, but then the
speed of people’s clapping was accelerated. Singing with clapping without pause,
the audience showed their faith in the Holy Spirit, their expectancy of healing with
their whole energy despite of their experiences of hopelessness for the sick. People
were allowed or encouraged to shout “Lord!” or “Amen” louder and louder, and
singing became faster until healing has occurred.

The second phase occurred during the operation itself. The healing
minister could not lead the singing, since she put her whole energy into the
operation. The leader as an invited witnesses, in most cases a woman, sang a hymn
in a spirit-filled voice; she seemed to have musical training, considering her

singing style, employing a slight improvisation but preserving the main structure of

202

the original music. She generally sang about the witness, faith and the power of
Jesus’ blood, while she was accompanied by electric keyboard in a slow and quite
manner. During this operation, solo singing brought a certain amount of tension
among the congregation, because people were watching the operation. But the
congregation kept praying loudly with crying out, “Lord! Father!” and “Amen!”
The female singer restarted leading the congregational singing. Singing and loud
prayer supported a successful operation. Sun also reported the different mood of

the soloist’s singing:

A woman was singing a hymn in a clear and spirit-filled voice behind the
organ. She sang every time Evangelist Han conducted the operation which

was done on three persons that day (Sun 1993: 285).

The last phase of the operation was full of thanks for the successful
operation and healing. While the patient who got the spirit operation was moved to
the back, other healers were dancing and kneeling on the floor. Immediately after
coming back from the operation, the healing minister took over leading singing
three of the gospel songs consecutively. Followed by a testimony of the healer, the
healing minister led the singing of gospel songs all about “Salvation by Jesus’
blood” or “All glory to God,” the grace of God, the benevolence of God, and a
promise of devotion. With a relatively slower tempo, but same duple rhythm, the

congregation was singing with folding hands and clapping. The healing minister
203

resumed her short sermon about the sin and thanks to God (Sun 1993: 289).

The healing minister asked the congregation to shout loudly, “Lord!” three
times, which was immediately followed by individual loud prayers. The light was
dimmed out, and the leader started singing quietly at first, but with an increase in
volume later on. With the signal of the healing minister’s singing, the congregation
stopped praying and joined in the gospel singing in a slower tempo.

After the service was closed with the Lord’s Prayer,87 the congregation
departed humming one of the gospel songs which they had during the service. And
some of the congregation stayed for further personal praying, some of them stayed

through the night on the floor.

87 Only ordained pastor can give blessing at the end of the service in Korea.
Many women healing ministers are not ordained.

204

PROJECT CONCLUSION

In this dissertation, I have examined Korean church music as having been
shaped by colonialism as well as resistance to colonial authority. In each of the
scenarios I have described in this dissertation, Korean church music has been the
focal point of both Western colonial interest and Korean national pride.

The missionaries endeavored to impose Western-oriented church music on
Korea in the name of Korea’s “musical uplift.” Koreans, however, received
missionaries’ teachings and musical idioms without question, because the
missionaries’ authority transcended Korean national identity. The social privilege
of the missionaries inclined Koreans to receive the Korean hymnal as the most
authentic model for church music. The powerful missionaries proclaimed that
Western-oriented music would give Koreans a potential vision of a modern,
Christian Korea.

However, this did not mean that the missionaries’ teachings were always
received without resistance. Korean traditional music offered a way to awaken
resistance to colonial power; both nationalist musicians and church musicians used
traditional music to resist Western dominance of modern Korean music. Within the
church, the introduction of indigenous musical practices created conflict between
liberal and conservative theology.

The reinterpretation of Korean traditional music as a potential source for

Korean church music opened the possibility of an indigenously inspired Korean

205

church music. At the same time, so-called Korean traditional values worked as a
way to control women in the domain of Korean church music. Although the limited
acceptance of indigenous Korean music was more or less successful in restoring
traditional musical language for Korean church music, it also operated to limit
women’s musical opportunities. The older virtues of women to stay invisible were
evident in the prohibition within the church music, especially in the appointment of
female music directors, the payment of the women musicians, and publication of
women’s compositions in the Korean hymnal. Despite the fact that the revival of
traditional culture limited many women’s musical opportunities, some women saw
similarities between their plight and the way in which traditional Korean culture
acted as a bulwark against colonial domination. If Korean traditional music could
provide a form of cultural resistance against Japanese and American hegemony,
perhaps it, too, could provide a template for Korean women’s immediate
experience.

From the start, colonialism shaped modern Korean music, and wherever
it could, Korean cultural values were replaced by the foreign ideas. Some Korean
church leaders, elevated by their social privilege, were inclined to go further and
developed a more thoroughgoing identity with Western-oriented church music. Still,
some resisted Western-dominated musical culture to reconstruct Korean traditional
music as their own expression of faith. Hence they struggled to retain control over

consciousness, language, and tradition.

In the Korean church, participants have different roles in music and

206

different amount of power and they show their power different ways. The power
relationship among those people mainly occurs in the interpretation of tradition for
Korean church music. Above all, traditional Korean musical language depends on
the interpretation of the Korean church leaders, who have more authority to
evaluate and appreciate theological distinctions relating to the practice of church
music. But the process of theological legitimacy of traditional Korean music has
been a highly subjective form of cultural translation in which indigenous music has
been re-presented to them as “lower” or “evil” music. It is no wonder that issues
about the interpretation of traditional music create “confusion” between different
generations of Koreans. Members of the younger generation who did not
associate traditional music with indigenous religion became self-conscious about
traditional practices as a distinct heritage of Korean culture.

The conflict between the musical cultures of the colonized and the
colonizer inscribed the unequal power dynamics between Korean and Western
music. The concept of superiority of Western musical languages revealed that the
missionaries’ impact on the cultural values and musical views was enormous
because of their power as cultural colonizers. On the one hand, Korean church
music has been profoundly shaped by the forces of cultural colonization. On the
other hand, Korean church music has been used as an anti-colonialist symbol of
resistance. The social configuration of Korean church music, its religious
symbols, and its attitude toward the powerful, all contribute significantly to the

different issues and powers surrounding the Korean church music.

207

The movement to link Korean national identity to traditional culture
brought a suppression of women within the Korean church music. In the beginning
of Christianity in Korea, the church often operated as a way to release Korean
women from their Oppression within the older society. In some instances, it
resulted in more freedom and more opportunities in social activities. However, the
modern Korean church excluded women from musical directorships. The emphasis
of the traditional Korean virtue for women operated to relegate women to be silent,
since the traditional virtues of the Confucian ideology, that worked to oppress
women’s public activities were over-evaluated for the growth of the Korean church.

Women’s singing power is silently embedded in the diverse forms of
music making in the Praying House. This is especially evident in the prosperity of
the Praying House and an active role of women in “other” musical activities. On
the one hand, Korean church openly uses the practices of the Praying House at
their disposal to strengthen their spirituality. On the other hand, Korean church
fears losing a boundary between indigenous religious practice and Christianity. In
this intentional image between women’s musical power in the Praying House and
indigenous religious practice, the Korean church rejects women’s musical
directorship once again.

I have suggested that forms of power are associated with coherent
expressions of value and meaning in music. The powerful strive to convince the
powerless of their ideological messages. By recognizing the social significance of

music in political and cultural colonialism, it is possible to see Korean church

208

music as not merely having a liturgical function but also as a symbol of human

relationships between the powerful and the powerless.

209

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