기사 제목: Holy, Romantic Music Conveys Spirit of Tripitaka K 보도 매체 : Korea Herald 보도 일자 : 1998-06-01 조회수:872   In an outstanding combination of Oriental depth and Western diversity, ``Palman Taejangkyong (Tripitaka Koreana),'' an album recently released by Kim Soo-chol is an exquisite balancing act. Aimed at popularizing a proud cultural heritage, the music is soulful and passionate, holy and romantic, and timeless and contemporary, all in one. Tripitaka Koreana, a Buddhist scripture carved in 81,258 woodblocks, is one of the most prominent treasures of Korean Buddhism and was placed on Unesco's World Cultural Heritage List in 1995. But the world's oldest and most comprehensive Buddhist canon is actually inaccessible to most people because it is written in Chinese, extremely expansive and fragile. Kim's album is part of the project by a nonprofit organization to make it more familiar to ordinary Koreans and foreigners. The Research Institute of the Tripitaka Koreana, which has produced CD-Roms of the Buddhist canon since 1993, commissioned Kim to transform its spirit into music in 1995. Kim, 41, is a popular singer-composer who is well known for his talent in handling diverse genres and devotion to popularizing traditional Korean music. ``It is the most difficult piece I have ever written,'' says Kim, whose credits include about 30 albums and over 35 pieces of movie and TV drama theme music. Kim, a non-Buddhist, at first had no idea how to put into music the profound meaning of the Tripitaka Koreana. He tackled the problem by researching Buddhist texts and quizzing experts. To get inspiration he frequently visited Haein Temple, in Hapchon, South Kyongsang Province, which houses the Tripitaka Koreana, and recorded the sounds of the temple: its bell, the chanting of sutra, running water, wind and birds singing. He even quit smoking and drinking so he could ``purify his body and mind.'' ``But the most helpful thing was talking with Rev. Chongnim,'' Kim says. The Buddhist monk is the director and founder of the institute who requested him to do the composition. One day while Kim was working on the project, the priest visited him and said that because of financial difficulty there may not be much financial reward for his work. ``I was a little disappointed. But his smile has the power to move people. Just the fact I worked with such a respectable man made me happy,'' Kim says. Kim was given the minimum costs of producing the work. Kim has been known to be able to make 4 1/2-minute songs in just three minutes. But the music took more than two years to write. Besides musical translation, making the music appeal to a broad audience varying in age and nationality was very difficult, he said. ``My task was to make the Tripitaka Koreana better known among ordinary people and foreigners,'' Kim said. ``This piece is based on traditional Korean music, but to broaden its appeal, I couldn't make it either too Korean or too traditional.'' Kim drew influences from Western classical music, Korean traditional music and contemporary popular music to write the work, while trying not to compromise integrity. ``There isn't any combination of Western and Korean music whose roots are fundamentally different. There is just a harmony between them,'' Kim says. ``Palman Taejangkyong'' consists of four acts which are based on ``harmony'' between the different musical genres. The theme centers on the history and lessons of the sutra. The Tripitaka Koreana was produced with the purpose of enlisting the power of Buddha to help fend off invading Mongol during the Koryo Dynasty(918-1392). The first act starts with simple and quiet melody depicting peaceful Koryo, and changes into a tense rendition of percussion instruments and synthesizers. In the second act depicting disastrous war scenes, musical instruments used in Korean, Chinese and Western church music weave into a haunting tapestry. The third act proceeds with synthesizers to represent the repentance of those who were involved in the war and their hope for Buddhist compassion to salvage the earthly world. The last act combines Western orchestral sounds with traditional Korean music to depict the peace and harmony which came after the completion of the Tripitaka Koreana. The hopeful melody played with Western musical instruments is repeated by solo performances by Korean bamboo flutists to conclude the 42-minute-long work. This album is the first in a series of Tripitaka Koreana-themed music for Kim who is planning to produce threemore albums. The second and third albums will be targeted for youth and foreigners featuring diverse contemporary styles including rock, reggae and dance music. The fourth album will contain the sounds recorded around Haein Temple. For information about the album, call 3785-0632 at the Research Institute of the Tripitaka Koreana.