This essay was originally presented as the keynote speech at the Keimyung International Conference on Korean Studies in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Keimyung University entitled, “The Korean Beat: In Search of the Origins of Korean Culture.” In his speech Professor Hwang Byung-ki [Hwang Pyŏnggi] provided a rapt audience with a magisterial overview of the role of percussion and percussion instruments in traditional Korean music and daily life. In this essay he introduces the major instruments from the various musical traditions of Korea, including Shamanism, Buddhism, the Confucian court, the yangban literati, and the farming community. Both the defining characteristics of instruments such as the hourglass drum (changgu), clapper (pak), barrel drum (puk), and also the major Korean rhythmic forms are explained with admirable clarity, making this complex subject easily accessible to the non-specialist. The essay concludes with a brief examination of the ways in which rhythm has permeated the daily life of Koreans in such simple acts as the woodcutter beating out a rhythm on his A-frame carrier with a stick or a woman enlivening her chores in the kitchen by beating on an upturned water scoop made from a gourd. By cherishing and cultivating these rhythms, the author argues, Koreans will open up “a new era in musical creation.”
키워드
Korean musicpercussionrhythmpercussion instrumentsBuddhismConfucianism
저자
HWANG BYUNG-KI [ Professor of Music at Ewha Womans University ]
한국연구원은 1970년 5월 한국 민속의 각 분야에 걸친 자료의 수집과 학술적 연구를 목적으로 '한국민속연구소'로 출발하였다. 그 후 1973년 5월 연구 분야를 확대하며 민속뿐만 아니라 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 위해 '한국학연구소'로 개편하였고, 다시 1989년 3월 한국의 국제적 위상의 부상과 함께 한국학 연구의 중요성이 높아짐에 따라 '한국학연구원'으로 확대, 개편하였다. 한국학연구원은 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 통해 지역과 민족문화 발전에 기여하며 한국학의 세계화를 위해서 학술활동을 강화하고 나아가 내·외국인에 대한 한국문화 교육을 담당하고자 한다.