Cambridge University Press Music of the Korean Renaissance: Songs and Dances of the Fifteenth Century

Koreans of the fifteenth century recorded for posterity a large body of music which has been preserved to the present day. This book presents that music in transcription, with an introductory section providing detailed background on the music itself and on the sources, the song texts, court dances, musical instruments and possibilities for performance on western instruments. The fact that the song texts are translated makes this the largest published anthology of early Korean verse in translation. The book concludes with a detailed bibliography and glossaries including the original Chinese for the titles of the pieces, names of the instruments, etc. Though its origins are distant from us in both time and place, the fifteenth-century Korean repertoire is immediately appealing to the occidental ear: hence this collection will be of interest not only to the student of Asian music but also to any musician with a taste for the unusual.