Lee Kunwoo's songs were mostly compiled in his two songbooks. The first one is The Golden Turf published in May 1948. It contains five songs based on Kim Sowul's poems. The second book is The Mountain Path published in November 1948. It has six songs based on the poems of various poets, including Park Seyeong, Lee Yongak, and Jeong Jiyong. In addition to the printed works, three more songs are kept in Lee Kunwoo's autographical manuscript("The Anger", "The Blood", "Nodle river"). All of these were written for men’s low voices. His songs utilized a quite modern composition style, which is hardly found among his contemporary composers in 1940’s except Kim Sunnam, who, like Lee Kunwoo, crossed over into North Korea after 1947. In spite of the uniqueness observed in his composition style, Lee Kunwoo's works have been rarely studied. One of the reasons would be political. His works were officially prohibited from any academic research until 1988. In this article, I will explore the textual and musical characteristics of his printed songs, particularly the song, “The Red Tide”, which is selected as an example for a structural analysis. The relationship between the modern composition style and the folklike melody, which are combined in his songs, will be given a special attention in this study.