Isang Yun, also spelled Yun I-sang (17 September 1917 – 3 November 1995), was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany.

Early life and education

Yun was born in

Sancheong Sancheong County (''Sancheong-gun'') is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, county in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. History After the unification of Silla, the Danseong region was known as Jipumcheon prefecture(知品川縣), and ...

(Sansei),

Chōsen Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offici ...

(today part of independent South Korea) in 1917, the son of poet Yun Ki-hyon. His family moved to

Tongyeong Tongyeong () is a coastal city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. In 2010, it had an area of and a population of 139,869 people. It is divided into 1 eup (town), 6 myeon (township) and 11 dong (neighborhood). Chungmu city and Tongyeong cou ...

(Tōei) when he was three years old. He began to study violin at the age of 13 whereupon he composed his first melody. Despite his father's opposition to pursuing a career in music, Yun began formal music training two years later with a violinist in a military band in

Keijō Keijō, or Gyeongseong, was an administrative district of Chōsen that corresponds to the present Seoul, the capital of South Korea. :ko:경성부, -(Seoul of Korea under Japanese rule) Honmachi The central district of Gyeongseong was ...

(present day

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

). Eventually his father relented once Yun agreed to enroll in a business school while continuing his musical studies. In 1935 Yun moved to Osaka where he studied cello, music theory, and composition briefly at the Osaka College of Music. He soon returned to Tongyeong where he composed a "Shepherd's Song" for voice and piano. In 1939 Yun traveled again to Japan, this time to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in order to study under Tomojiro Ikenouchi. When the Pacific War began in December 1941, he moved back to Korea where he participated in the

Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Empire of Japan, Japan. After the Japanese Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance pe ...

. He was arrested for these activities in 1943 and was imprisoned for two months. Yun was interned at

Keijō Imperial University , colloquially referred to as , was an Imperial University of Japan that existed between 1924 and 1946. This university was established in 1924 in Gyeongseong, known as Keijō during the period of Japanese occupation of Korea, now modern-day S ...

Hospital for complications resulting from tuberculosis when Korea was liberated from Japanese rule in August 1945. After the war he did welfare work, establishing an

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or ab ...

for war orphans, and teaching music in Tongyeong and

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

. After the armistice ceasing hostilities in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

in 1953, he began teaching at the Seoul National University. He received the Seoul City Culture Award in 1955, and traveled to Europe the following year to finish his musical studies. At the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

(1956–57) he studied composition under

Tony Aubin Tony Louis Alexandre Aubin (8 December 1907 – 21 September 1981) was a French composer. Career Aubin was born in Paris. From 1925 to 1930, he studied at the Paris Conservatory under Samuel Rousseau (music theory), Noel Gallon (counterpoint) ...

and

Pierre Revel Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, and

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

(1957–59), and at the Musikhochschule Berlin (today the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universit ...

) under

Boris Blacher Boris Blacher (30 January 1975) was a German composer and librettist. Life Blacher was born when his parents (of German-Estonian and Russian backgrounds) were living within a Russian-speaking community in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang () (h ...

Josef Rufer Josef Rufer (1893–1985) was an Austrian-born musicologist. He is regarded as a significant figure mainly on account of his association with and writings on Arnold Schoenberg. Rufer was a pupil of Alexander von Zemlinsky and Schoenberg in Vien ...

, and

Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling (9 May 1904 in Hannover – 9 December 1985 in Berlin) was a German composer. The son of a chemical manufacturer, Schwarz-Schilling embarked upon his musical studies in 1922, first in Munich and – interrupted by sev ...

. In 1958 he attended the International Summer Courses of Contemporary Music in Darmstadt and began his career in Europe with premieres of his ''Music for Seven Instruments'' in Darmstadt and ''Five Pieces for Piano'' in Bilthoven. The premiere of his

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...

''Om mani padme hum'' in Hanover 1965 and ''Réak'' in Donaueschingen (1966) gave him international renown. With "Réak" he introduced the sound idea of Korean ceremonial music as well as imitations of the East Asian mouth organ saenghwang (Korean), sheng (Chinese) or shō (Japanese) into Western avant-garde music.

Kidnapping

From October 1959, Yun had been living in

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

im Breisgau and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. With a grant from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, he and his family settled in

in 1964. However, due to alleged acts of espionage, he was kidnapped by the South Korean secret service from West Berlin on 17 June 1967. Via

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

he was taken to Seoul. In prison he was tortured, attempted suicide, forced to confess to espionage, threatened with the death sentence – and in the first instance sentenced to life imprisonment. A worldwide petition led by Guenter Freudenberg and Francis Travis was presented to the South Korean government, signed by approximately 200 artists, including

Luigi Dallapiccola Luigi Dallapiccola (February 3, 1904 – February 19, 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical serialism, twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current ...

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

Heinz Holliger Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, composer and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classic ...

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...

Joseph Keilberth Joseph Keilberth (19 April 1908 – 20 July 1968) was a German conductor who specialised in opera. Career He started his career in the State Theatre of his native city, Karlsruhe. In 1940 he became director of the German Philharmonic Orches ...

Otto Klemperer Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

, Arne Mellnäs,

Per Nørgård Per Nørgård (; born 13 July 1932) is a Danish composer and music theorist. Though his style has varied considerably throughout his career, his music has often included repeatedly evolving melodies—such as the infinity series—in the vein o ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

, Igor Stravinsky, and

Bernd Alois Zimmermann Bernd Alois Zimmermann (20 March 1918 – 10 August 1970) was a German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera ''Die Soldaten'', which is regarded as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, after those of Berg. As a ...

. Yun was released on 23 February 1969, returning to West Berlin at the end of March. In 1971, he obtained German citizenship. He never returned to South Korea. From 1973 he began participating in the call for the democratization of South Korea and the

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governm ...

of the divided country.

Teaching

Yun taught composition at the

Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (german: Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, italics=unset, abbreviated to HMTMH) is a university of performing arts and media in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. Dating ...

(1969–71) and at the

Hochschule der Künste The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universit ...

in West Berlin (1977–85). Among his students are Kazuhisa Akita, Jolyon Brettingham Smith, In-Chan Choe, Conrado del Rosario,

Raymond Deane Raymond Deane (born 27 January 1953) is an Irish composer and co-founder of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Biography Deane was born in Tuam, County Galway and brought up on Achill Island, County Mayo. From 1963 he lived in Dublin, ...

, Francisco F. Feliciano, Masanori Fujita, Keith Gifford, Holger Groschopp,

Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio ''Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima'' ...

, Sukhi Kang, Chung-Gil Kim, Wolfgang Klingt, Erwin Koch-Raphael, Isao Matsushita, Masahiro Miwa, Hwang-Long Pan, Martin Christoph Redel, Byong-Dong Paik, Bernfried Pröve, Takehito Shimazu, Minako Tanahashi, Masaru Tanaka, Michail Travlos, Jürgen Voigt. After 1979 Yun returned several times to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

to introduce new Western composition techniques as well as his own music. In 1982, the first Isang Yun Festival took place in Pyongyang. In 1984, the Isang Yun Music Institute opened in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

. An ensemble had been founded there under his name. Yun promoted the idea of a joint concert featuring musicians from both Koreas in

Panmunjom Panmunjom, also known as Panmunjeom, now located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea or Kaesong, North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, was a village just north of the ''de facto'' border between North and South Korea, where the 1953 Korea ...

, which failed in 1988, but South Korean artists could be invited to Pyongyang in 1990.

Later life and death

Two concerts with works of Isang Yun had been performed in Seoul (1982) by

, Ursula Holliger, and

Francis Travis Francis Travis (9 July 1921 – 28 April 2017) was an American-born Swiss orchestral conductor. Born in Detroit, Michigan, his advanced musical studies were at the University of Zurich, with a Ph.D. in musicology after writing a dissertation on ...

, later by Roswitha Staege and

Hans Zender Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festival ...

. Yun was invited to attend a festival of his music in South Korea in 1994, but the trip was broken off after internal and external conflicts. Yun was told by South Korean officials that to return, he would have to submit a written confession of “repentance,” which he refused. On 3 November 1995, Yun died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The International Isang Yun Society was founded in Berlin in February 1996. Yun has often been criticized for his "pro-North Korean activities", i.e. musical activities in North Korea, and his close ties with the

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

regime.

Oh Kil-nam Oh Kil-nam (born 1942) is a retired South Korean economist, who was offered a job as an economist in North Korea, and so South Korean defectors, defected to North Korea with his wife Shin Suk-ja and daughters, then left them behind when he obtaine ...

has said that Yun persuaded him to relocate to North Korea with his family. When Oh's wife Shin Suk-ja and her little daughters were imprisoned in Yodok camp, Yun helped them and took photos and a tape from North Korea to Berlin (for further details and Mr. Yun's own comments see the website of International Isang Yun Society). It was only in 2006 the entire East Berlin Spy incident in which Yun was among the accused, was finally declared by the Korean Government a fabrication of the intelligence services.

Music

Yun's primary musical concern was the fusion of traditional

Korean music Korea refers to music from the Korean peninsula ranging from prehistoric times to the division of Korea into South and North in 1945. It includes court music, folk music, poetic songs, and religious music used in shamanistic and Buddhist traditi ...

through Western avant garde musical techniques. After experimenting with 12-tone techniques Yun developed his own musical personality beginning in his post-serialistic "sound compositions" of the early 1960s. Yun's music employed techniques associated with traditional Korean music, such as glissandi, pizzicati, portamenti, vibrati, and above all a very rich vocabulary of ornaments. Essential is the presence of multiple-melodic lines, which Yun called "Haupttöne" ("central" or "main tones"). Yun's composition for symphonic forces started with "sound compositions", i.e. of works in which homogeneous sound planes are articulated and elaborated: ''Bara'' (1960) until ''Overture'' (1973; rev. 1974). A period of discursively structured instrumental concertos followed, beginning with the Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1975–76) and climaxing with the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981). From 1982 until 1987 he wrote a cycle of five symphonies, which are interrelated, yet varied structurally. Striving for freedom and peace is above all Symphony V for high baritone and large orchestra (1987) with texts by

Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German-Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of he ...

. In 1984, he developed also a new, intimate "tone" in his chamber music. At that time peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula was his political goal. His lifelong concern with his native country and culture was expressed in several of his compositions, including the orchestral piece ''Exemplum in Memoriam Kwangju'' (1981) which he composed in memory of the

Gwangju massacre The Gwangju Uprising was a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju, South Korea, from May 18 to May 27, 1980, which pitted local, armed citizens against soldiers and police of the South Korean government. The event is sometimes called 5·18 (M ...

, ''Naui Dang, Naui Minjokiyo!'' (My Land, My People) for soli, chorus and orchestra (South Korean poets, 1987), and ''Angel in Flames'' (Engel in Flammen) for orchestra, with ''Epilogue'' for soprano, women's choir and five instruments (1994). Otherwise Yun himself stated often that he was not a political composer but only following the voice of his conscience. In both Europe and the United States, Yun developed a strong reputation as a composer of avant-garde music, assigned those signature elements of traditional Korean musical technique. The technical as well a stylistic difficulties of performing his very elaborate and ornamental music are considered formidable.

Memberships and awards

* Culture Prize of the City of

(1956) * Member (1968) and Honorary Member (1992) of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg * Member (1973) of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin * (1969) * Commander's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

(1988) *

Goethe Medal The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honoring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". It is an offici ...

(1995)

Works

All compositions are published by Bote & Bock / Boosey & Hawkes, Berlin. Source: ;Operas * ''Der Traum des Liu-Tung'' (1965) * ''Die Witwe des Schmetterlings'' (''Butterfly Widow'') (1967/68) * ''Geisterliebe'' (1971) * ''Sim Tjong'' (1971/72), written for the Olympics in Munich, with William B. Murray ;Vocal / Choral * ''Om mani padme hum'' for soli, choir and orchestra (1964) * ''Ein Schmetterlingstraum'' for choir and percussion (1968) * ''Vom Tao'' for choir, organ and percussion (1972/88) * ''Memory'' for three voices and percussion (Du Mu, 1974) * ''An der Schwelle'' for barione, women choir, organ and ensemble (Albrecht Haushofer, 1975) * ''Der weise Mann'' for baritone, choir and small orchestra (1977) * ''Der Herr ist mein Hirte'' for trombone and choir (Psalm 23 / Nelly Sachs, 1981) * ''O Licht...'' for violin and choir (Buddhism / Nelly Sachs, 1981) * ''Naui Dang, Naui Minjokiyo!'' (My Land, My People) for soli, orchestra and choir (South Korean poets, 1987) * ''Engel in Flammen. Memento and Epilogue'' for orchestra, soprano, and women choir (1994) * ''Epilogue'' for soprano, women choir, and five instruments (1994) ;Orchestral * Symphonies ** Symphony No. 1 in four movements (1982/83) ** Symphony No. 2 in three movements (1984) ** Symphony No. 3 in one movement (1985) ** Symphony No. 4 ''Im Dunkeln singen'' in two movements (1986) ** Symphony No. 5 for high baritone and orchestra in five movements (Nelly Sachs, 1987) ** Chamber Symphony No. 1, for 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings (1987) ** Chamber Symphony No. 2 ''Den Opfern der Freiheit'' (1989) * ''Bara'' for orchestra (1960) * ''Symphonic Scene'' for large orchestra (1960) * ''Colloïdes sonores'' for strings (1961) * ''Fluktuationen'' for large orchestra (1964) * ''Réak'' for large orchestra (1966) * ''Dimensionen'' for orchestra and organ (1971) * ''Konzertante Figuren'' for small orchestra (1972) * ''Harmonia'' for 16 winds, harp & percussion (1974) * ''Muak'' for large orchestra (1978) * ''Exemplum in memoriam Kwangju'' for large orchestra (1981) * ''Impression'' for small orchestra (1986) * ''Mugung-Dong (Invocation)'' for winds, percussion and double bass (1986) * ''Tapis'' for string orchestra (1987) * ''Konturen'' for large orchestra (1989) * ''Silla'' for orchestra (1992) ;Concertos * Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981) * Violin Concerto No. 2 (1983–1986) * Violin Concerto No. 3 (1992) * Cello Concerto (1975/76) * Flute Concerto (1977) * Clarinet Concerto (1981) * Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp, and Chamber Orchestra (1977) * ''Fanfare and Memorial'' for orchestra with harp and flute (1979) * ''Gong-Hu'' for harp and strings (1984) * ''Duetto concertante'' for oboe, English horn, and strings (1987) * Concerto for Oboe (Oboe d'amore) and Orchestra (1990) ;Chamber (seven and more players) / Ensemble * ''Music for Seven Instruments'' (1959) * ''Loyang'' for ensemble (1962) * ''Pièce concertante'' for ensemble (1976) * ''Oktett'' for clarinet (bass clarinet), bassoon, horn & string quintet (1978) * ''Distanzen'' for ten players (woodwind & string quintets) (1988) * ''Kammerkonzert No. 1'' (1990) * ''Kammerkonzert No. 2'' (1990) * ''Wind Octet with double bass'' (1991) ;For one instrument * ''Five Pieces for Piano'' (1958) * ''Shao Yang Yin'' for cembalo or piano (1966) * ''Tuyaux sonores'' for organ solo (1967) * ''Glissées'' für violoncello solo (1970) * ''Piri'' for oboe solo (1971) * ''Etudes I-V'' for flute(s) solo (1974) * ''Fragment'' for organ (1975) * ''Koenigliches Thema'' for violin solo (1976) * ''Salomo'' for alto flute solo (1977/78) * ''Interludium A'' for piano (1982) * ''Monolog'' for bass clarinet (1983) * ''Monolog'' for bassoon solo (1983/84) * ''Li-Na im Garten''. Five Pieces for Violin solo (1984/85) * ''In Balance'' for harp solo (1987) * ''Kontraste''. Two Pieces for Violin solo (1987) * ''Sori'' for flute solo (1988) * ''Chinesische Bilder''. Four Pieces for Flute or Recorder solo (1993) * ''Seven Etudes'' for Violoncello solo (1993) ;For two instruments * ''Garak'' for flute and piano (1963) * ''Gasa'' for violin and piano (1963) * ''Nore'' for violoncello and piano (1964) * ''Riul'' for clarinet and piano (1968) * ''Duo'' for viola & piano (1976) * ''Espace I'' for violoncello & piano (1992) * ''Inventionen'' for 2 oboes (1983) * ''Inventionen'' for 2 flutes (1983; arr. 1984) * ''Sonatina'' for 2 violins (1983) * ''Duo'' for cello & harp (1984) * ''Intermezzo'' for cello & accordion (1988) * ''Contemplation'' for 2 violas (1988) * ''Rufe'' for oboe & harp (1989) * ''Together'' for violin & double bass (1989) * ''Sonata for violin & piano'' (1991) * ''Ost-West-Miniaturen I-II'' for oboe & violoncello (1994) ;For three instruments * ''Gagok'' for voice, guitar & percussion (1972) * ''Trio'' for flute, oboe & violin (1972/73) * ''Piano trio'' (1972/75) * ''Rondell'' for oboe, clarinet and fagott (1975) * ''Sonata'' for oboe (oboe d'amore), harp, and violoncello (or viola) (1979) * ''Rencontre'' for clarinet, cello & piano (or harp) (1986) * ''Pezzo fantasioso'' for two (melody) instruments and bass instrument ad libitum (1988) * ''Trio'' for clarinet, bassoon & horn (1992) * ''Espace II'' for oboe, cello & harp (1993) ;Four instruments * ''String Quartet No. 3'' in three movements (1959) * ''Images'' for flute, oboe, violin, and violoncello (1968) * ''Novellette'' for flute and harp with violin and violoncello (1980) * ''Quartet'' for flutes (1986) * ''Quartet'' for flute, violin, violoncello & piano (1988) * ''String Quartet No. 4'' in two movements (1988) * ''Quartet'' for horn, trumpet, trombone & piano (1992) * ''String Quartet No. 5'' in one movement (1990) * ''String Quartet No. 6'' in four movements (1992) * ''Quartet for oboe and string trio'' (1994) ;Five instruments * ''Concertino'' for accordion & string quartet (1983) * ''Clarinet Quintet No. 1'' for clarinet and string quartet (1984) * ''Flute Quintet'' for flute and string quartet (1986) * ''Tapis'' for string quintet (1987) * ''Festlicher Tanz'' for wind quintet (1988) * ''Woodwind Quintet I and II'' (1991) * ''Clarinet Quintet No. 2'' (1994)

Notes

Essential Bibliography

* Hinrich Bergmeier (ed.): ''Isang Yun. Festschrift zum 75. Geburtstag 1992.'' Bote & Bock, Berlin 1992. contains: Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer: ''Identität und Wandel. Zu den Streichquartetten III-VI.'' . * Ae-Kyung Choi: ''Einheit und Mannigfaltigkeit. Eine Studie zu den fünf Symphonien von Isang Yun.'' (= ''Berliner Musik Studien.'' Volume 25). Studio Verlag, Sinzig 2002. * Insook Han: ''Interkulturalität in der neuen Musik Koreas. Integration und Hybridität in der Musik von Isang Yun und Byungki Hwang.'' (''Studien zur Musikwissenschaft.'' Volume 23). Dissertation, Universität Graz 2009, Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2011. *

Hanns-Werner Heister Hanns-Werner Heister (born 14 June 1946) is a German musicologist. Life and career Born in Plochingen, (Baden-Württemberg), Heister studied musicology, German literature and linguistics in Tübingen, Frankfurt a. M. and Berlin, received his do ...

, Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): ''Der Komponist Isang Yun.'' edition text + kritik, München 1987. (contains more than 30 articles on Isang Yun, Isang Yun's Salzburg conference „Über meine Musik“, a chronology of Yun's works, bibliography, discography). – Korean Editoon: Hang’il, Seoul 1991. – Italian edition: ''Isang Yun. Musica nello spirito del Tao.'' Ricordi, Milan 2007. * Keith Howard: ''Music across the DMZ'', in John Morgan O’Connell, Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (eds.): ''Music in Conflict.'' University of Illinois Press, Indiana 2010, S. 67–88. * Kunz, H.: "Yun, Isang" a
Grove Music Online
*

Jürgen Maehder Jürgen Maehder (born 1950) is a German musicologist and opera director. He discovered Franco Alfano's original version of the finale for the third act of Puccini's ''Turandot''. He has lectured and staged opera internationally. Career Born in Du ...

, ''Konvergenzen des musikalischen Strukturdenkens. Zur Geschichte und Klassifizierung der Klangfelder in den Partituren Isang Yuns'', in: ''Musiktheorie'', 7/1992, pp. 151–166. * ''MusikTexte.'' Nr. 62/63. Köln, Januar 1996 (contains 17 articles on Yun). * Luise Rinser, Isang Yun: ''Der verwundete Drache. Dialog über Leben und Werk des Komponisten Isang Yun.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1977. * Gesine Schröder: ''… fremden Raum betreten. Zum Europäischen in Yuns Musik.'' Hochschule für Musik und Theater „Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy“, Leipzig 2001/2011
(online)
* Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer: ''Isang Yun.'' In: Hanns-Werner Heister, Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): '' Komponisten der Gegenwart.'' edition text + kritik, München 1992ff. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer/Hanns-Werner Heister(eds.): ''Der Komponist Isang Yun'', Edition text + kritik, 2. edition Munich 1992. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): ''Ssi-ol. Almanach 1997 der Internationalen Isang Yun Gesellschaft e. V.'' Berlin 1997. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): ''Ssi-ol. Almanach 1998/99 der Internationalen Isang Yun Gesellschaft e. V.'' edition text + kritik, München 1999. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): ''Ssi-ol. Almanach 2000/01 der Internationalen Isang Yun Gesellschaft e. V.'' edition text + kritik, München 2002. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): ''Ssi-ol. Almanach 2002/03 der Internationalen Isang Yun Gesellschaft e. V.'' edition text + kritik, München 2004. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (eds.): ''Ssi-ol. Almanach 2004/09 der Internationalen Isang Yun Gesellschaft e. V.'' edition text + kritik, München 2009. * Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer: ''„Im Dunkeln singen …“ Luise Rinser und Isang Yun'', in: José Sánchez de Murillo/Martin Thurner (eds.): ''Aufgang. Jahrbuch für Denken – Dichten – Musik'', vol 9, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2012, pp. 104–121. * Ilja Stephan: ''Isang Yun. Die fünf Symphonien'', edd. Heinz-Klaus Metzger/Rainer Riehn, Edition text + kritik, München 2000 (= ''Musik-Konzepte'', vol. 109/110). * Shin-Hyang Yun: ''Zwischen zwei Musikwelten. Studien zum musikalischen Denken Isang Yuns.'' Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2002.

External links

Internationale Isang Yun Gesellschaft e. V., Berlin

July 1987

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yun, Isang 1917 births 1995 deaths People from South Gyeongsang Province 20th-century classical composers Korean composers South Korean opera composers German people of Korean descent Kidnapped South Korean people South Korean emigrants to Germany Male classical composers String quartet composers 20th-century male musicians Berlin University of the Arts alumni Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the National Reunification Prize