UC Santa Cruz

This dissertation examines how the secondary position of music to drama in South Korean ch'angjak musicals (창작뮤지컬, originally created musical theater) has been historically and structurally established. Integrating archival research, score analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork in the Taehangno theater district of Seoul, it argues that the genre's production mechanisms, its development processes, the curricula that train its practitioners, and the conventions of its criticism and audience feedback are all organized with dramatic considerations taking priority.The musicians in ch'angjak musicals often experience frustration at this secondary position, and at having musical judgments that diverge from those around them. This dissertation, however, does not read this as a musical deficiency of the genre. Rather, it demonstrates that the resulting sound reflects a negotiation among differently formed musicalities—that of the music team, shaped by musical training, and that of the writers, directors, producers, and fans they work alongside. This negotiation has produced a musical style, aesthetic, and listening practice unique to the genre, one that stands apart from other musical genres and is written into the music itself, note by note.