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Chapter One
ONE STEP CLOSER TO NATURE
T
he 1944 edition of the Harvard Dictionary of Music identifies Korean music as being “the same as Chinese music.” The origin of this error can be traced back to M. Courant, who, in writing “La Musique de Coree” for Lavignac’s Encyclopedie de la Musique, based his research on literary documents rather than any experience or knowledge of Korean music. According to his study of ancient Korean documents such as Goryeosa (History of Goryeo), Akhak Gwebeom (Canon of Music), and Jeungbo munheonbigo (The Augmented Reference Compilation of Documents), Courant wrote that there were “a great number of Chinese instruments in Korea.” The first time Korean traditional music was really introduced overseas was in 1884, when Horace N. Allen, minister of the American legation in Seoul, arranged for ten Korean musicians to perform at the Boston International Expo. At the time, the