What you're listening to is the "haegeum sanjo" -- a genre of folk music involving the traditional Korean string instrument, haegeum.

A master of the genre was Ji Young-hee, who is referred to in Korea as the father of Korean folk music.

It may not be a familiar name, but Ji, honored in his country as an intangible cultural asset, is considered a legendary figure who made great contributions to Korean music.

Born in 1909, Ji spent most of his life preserving and developing folk music.

"Ji Young-hee created jobs for musicians who were mistreated at the time and helped foster an environment for them to be respected. And if it hadn't been for his efforts to transcribe the music, Korean folk would never have existed."

Ji also took his passion to the international level.

Through performances in Europe and America, including at Carnegie Hall in 1964, he was able to demonstrate the excellence of traditional Korean music.

"Ji Young-hee had a dream of disseminating our traditional folk music to the people in America and across the world. When he went to France, he did a traditional performance and the coordinators were overwhelmed by the music. They actually complimented him, saying, 'Your music exceeds our music and it is even greater than ours.'"