Korean hymnody

Hymnody of the Catholic Church The first hymn poems in Korean, called ChunjooGasa (Chunjoo means ‘Lord of Heaven’, and Gasa is the traditional narrative song of Korea), are the ‘Ten Commandments Song’ written by YakChun Chung and two scholars, and ‘Praise Song for the Lord of Heaven’ by Byuk Lee written in 1779, over one hundred years before the Protestant hymn was introduced. Chunjugasa's metrical pattern is usually 4.4.4.4, a kind of Long Metre in terms of Western poetry. It is a confessional literature into which the dogma and doctrine of the Catholic Church is planted and the faith of Christians expressed. It is important to acknowledge that these hymn poems had been written before...