Byungki Hwang (1936-2018) was a pioneering contemporary gayageum composer. Hwang made prolific and remarkable contributions to the modern history of Korean traditional music and its repertoire through his main instrument, the gayageum. Though his works are firmly rooted in Korean traditional music, they rely extensively on the vocabularies of Western classical music. In this manner, Hwang’s music is both idiosyncratic and unconventional as his compositions fuse tradition with innovation.This thesis examines five representative works – Chimhyangmu, Pidangil, Migung, Sigyetap, and Hamadan – of Hwang’s from different stylistic periods, and traces Hwang’s search for his own compositional voice. His work achieves syncretism by 1) assimilating tradition with the modern; 2) by merging of Eastern and Western musical aesthetics; and 3) by taking inspiration from ancient history as well as current affairs, thus bridging time.