Cultural fusion in the music of the Korean-German composer Isang Yun: Analysis of Gasa fuer Violine und Klavier and Sonatina fuer 2 Violinen

The purpose of this study is to introduce a Korean-German composer Isang Yun, one of the most creative modern composers who successfully combined the distinctive features of traditional Korean music with Western compositional techniques.; I have chosen two of his violin works---Gasa fur Violine und Klavier (1963) and Sonatina fur 2 Violinen (1983), which are from Yun's different work periods. Gasa is a work for Western instruments, violin and piano, based on the Oriental conception of Taoism, while at the same time freely using 12-tone techniques. Sonatina is also written based on the Taoist principles of yin and yang. However, this work is different from his Gasa in regard to form, pitch material, and motivic development. Through an analysis of these two works I examined how Yun utilizes Oriental and Korean ideas in his music as well as their form, motivic analysis, and style difference between Yun's Gasa and Sonatina. Along with this study I also briefly introduced Taoism, the history of Korean music, general characteristics of Korean music, and some traditional Korean instruments which are most frequently used in Korean music as well as related in Isang Yun's music.