Abstract

This paper examines the modern soundscape of theater and gramophone to prove that ‘vividness’ was recognized originally by the experience of gramophone, not by live performance in theater. by 1900 in Seoul, performance on the street and in the market was banned. When the first theater opened in the middle of Seoul, people regarded the sound of theater as ‘noise.’ They complained about the noise which continued over midnight in the theater. Every evening, the loud sound of the instruments like jing(gong), kkwaenggwari (small gong), Taeppungso (bugle) resounded in the city. When the sound of theater was got used to, another sound began enchanting the citizen. The gramophone gave an amazing spectacle at first. People thought and felt the sound were vivid, despite its sound were bad actually. And according to the development of sound reproduction technology, people regarded the reproduced sound as the original sound. Also, the sound of gramophone was thought and felt as the immortal. The faith in the immortality and perfectness of the gramophone was the faith in the modern technology virtually. And it was towards the distant future, which the modern technology would bring in someday.