Korean music expert Heyman dies at 83

Alan Heyman

By Fred Jeremy Seligson

Alan Heyman, a composer and reputed expert of Korean traditional music, died after a long bout with spinal problems at his home in Seoul, Saturday. He was 83. Heyman, who adopted the Korean name Hae Eui-man, is survived by his wife Choe Ok-ja, their daughter, Hay Laam, a professor at Canada’s York University, and two sons.

Born in March 16, 1931, to Jewish parents Charles and Lillian Heyman in New York, Heyman studied pre-med at the University of Colorado and arrived in Seoul in 1953 after being drafted to serve in the Korean War (1950-53).

He served as a medic in the original M.A.S.H. (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) and had many life-endangering experiences rescuing and caring for injured soldiers of the United Nations Joint Forces.

While surrounded by Chinese troops hidden in the hills at night, he later recalled he would hear the clatter of their drums and the blowing of their strange and eerie wind instruments. These sounds so fascinated him that when he returned to America after the war he entered Columbia University and earned an M.A. in Music Education, focusing on piano and composition. At that time Korean music was virtually unknown to American academia.

While at Columbia, Heyman met a Korean scholar and told him about his war experience and his fascination with the Chinese “music.” The man urged him to go to Korea and study the music firsthand. And so, he became one of the few American civilians to fly back to Korea after the war.

There he went to Insa-dong in Seoul and introduced himself to the National Music Academy. In exchange for English lessons, he was allowed to study every subject they had. He learned how to play the “janggo” (hourglass drum), “pili” (reed flute), 12 string “gayagum,” the “Farmer’s Dance,” the Buddhist “Crane Dance,” “Mask Dance” and other forms of Korean performing arts. His teachers included musicians who would be later designated as intangible national treasures by the government.

Heyman is considered as the first composer to score Korean traditional music Western-style. He was also among the first Westerners to perform throughout Korea with a Korean troupe, playing the oboe-like traditional instrument “taepyeongso” at events in Daegu and also at the yearly National Folk Arts Festival.

He was the first person to bring a troupe of Korean performers, including future “living national treasures” to perform at venues throughout the United States, and also on another occasion throughout Europe. Later, he brought the first Korean shaman, the celebrated Kim Kum-hwa, to perform in Washington, D.C. and in New York City.

Heyman did ground-breaking field work on Korean performing arts, and recorded and scored folk songs that otherwise would have been lost. He collected priceless documents now stored in library archives. He translated the first material on Korean music and shamanism, and wrote several books on these topics, such as “The Traditional Music and Dance of Korea, and Muga” and “The Ritual Songs of Korean Shamans.”

He gave numerous presentations for Koreans and the foreign community on Korean folk, shaman and court music and dance, such as at Gyeongbok Palace invited by President of Korea Yun Bo-seon in 1960, and numerous times for the Royal Asiatic Society (RASKB) which made him an “Honorary Lifetime Member.”

He got prestigious awards from Korean presidents, including the late Kim Dae-jung and Lee Myung-bak, for his cultural contributions.

A whole generation of older Korean musicians has known and revered him. Toward the end of his life he never complained about his health and with a calm heart and good humor accepted the gradual decline. His was a life of service to others, in the name of Korean folk music, its joyful and sad melodies and ever-changing feelings. He loved Korea so much that he became a Korean citizen. Alan’s body was dressed in a gold silk hanbok, and cremated on Monday morning. Condolences can be sent to his former address Alanheyman@yahoo.com

Fred Jeremy Seligson is a councilor of the Royal Asiatic Society in Seoul. — ED.

One Comment

1. lauren deutsch

   January 22, 2015 at 9:02 PM

   He was a generous, sweet man. Thanks Jeremy for writing this obit.

   Reply