Introduction to the Special Section Music That Moves: Sonic Narratives in Modern Korea

Abstract

The starting place for the papers in this special section is music. Music is not bound to material forms as is painting and sculpture or to language like literature and poetry. It travels as waves with kinetic energy through space. Music is governed by organizational principles, to be sure, but the porosity of its delivery and the purported universality of its form — no prior knowledge is required to experience it — makes music one of the most effective conveyors of human emotion.