Yun Bok-jin(1907-1991) wrote many works as one of the main
children's writers in Korea. Composers wrote songs by using his
works, Pak T'ae-jun(1900-1986) is one of the typical composers.
According to what I have found so far, Pak T'ae-jun wrote 59 songs
by using musical piece Yun Bok-jin wrote, and I confirmed 50 musical
pieces. I illuminate 106 musical piece of lyrics by Yun Bok-jin from
this article, I examine it by presenting score of 96 songs among them.
Especially I wondered that what kind of relationship between Yun
Bok-jin and Pak T'a-jun they had, resulting in creating such numerous
59 songs. I was also interested in what lyrics were used in writing
musical pieces.
So far, there hasn't been deep research on Yun Bok-jin. The main
reason is that he defected to North Korea as a writer. I have been
mainly researching his life and works between the period of writing
songs in 1925 and the period before defecting to North Korea. I strived
to reveal the musical lyrics created by Yun Bok-jin by presenting
initial score. 59 songs composed by Pak T'ae-jun(66.2%), 15 songs by
Hong Nan-p'a(16.8%), 5 songs by Kang Sin-my?ng, 4 songs by Kw?n
T'ae-ho, 1 song by Kim S?ng-t'ae, 1 song by Sin Ko-song, 1 song by
Yun Bok-jin, 1 song by Yun S?k-jung, 1 song by Ch?ng Sun-ch'?l, 1
song by William Shakespeare Hays(1837-1907), 1 song by Kokusakawa
Sin(1893-1948) come under this category.
Japanese colonial era was a time when composers came to know
children's poem through weekly or monthly magazine. For this reason,
Pak T'ae-jun naturally got along well with Yun Bok-jin who was not
only the member of choir, but the junior of Keisung School. He was
able to compose the lyrics of songs composed by Yun Bok-jin without
any difficulty. There are collections of songs ⌈Chungchung-ttaettaejung
⌋ (1929), ⌈Yangyang-b?mb?gung⌋ (1931), and ⌈Mulsae-baljaok⌋ (1939)
created in such a relationship. Yun Bok-jin composed lyrics of 16 songs
for ⌈Chungchung-ttaettaejung⌋, 14 songs for ⌈Yangyang-b?mb?gung⌋ ,
and 13 songs for ⌈Mulsae-baljaok⌋. Afterward he composed 16 songs,
he composed 59 songs in total(66.2% out of total 59 songs).
Meanwhile, Yun Bok-jin rewrote “Molly Darling” composed by W.
S. Hays into “Manghyang”(Kohyang-saenggak), and he wrote
“Pikokmy?ngsan?i-mo” created by Japanese composer, Kokusakawa
Sin(草川信) to “Kohyangjip” lyric. and “Muncha-bog?pga” by Hong
Nan-p'a couldn't score because I couldn't find a sound source.
“Dolmaengi”, “Padagaes?” and “Kohyang-han?l” were composed by
Pak T'ae-jun and Hong Nan-p'a, “Songaji-P'all?-ga?njip” was
composed by Pak T'ae-jun and Kang Sin-my?ng, “Ch'amsae” was
composed by Hong Nan-p'a and Kang Sin-my?ng. The lyric of
“Mulsae-baljaok” composed by Pak T'ae-jun and the lyric of “Paljauk”
composed by Kang Sin-my?ng is the same. Therefore, lyric employed
is 73 songs.
Lyric composed with seven-tone scale is 21 songs(21.9%) among 96
songs, songs with pentatonic scale are 40 songs(41.7%). Such
phenomenon is the result of trying to express Korean sentiment from
the composers. Besides, songs without 'fa' are 10(10.4%) songs and
song without 'si' are 20 songs(20.8%) and songs expressing the effect
of pentatonic scale are 30 songs(31.3%). And songs with two-four time
are 31 songs(32.3%), songs with four-four time are 32 songs(33.3%). It
is considered that this phenomenon is due to the effort to express quick
and cheerful songs mainly sung by children.