Earticle

This study aims to identify the origin of saengso byeongju (笙簫竝奏), the saenghwang (笙簧) duet, the only extant traditional polyphonic wind instrument and the danso (短簫), researching written accounts and examining musical materials of the Unified Silla. Records about the saenghwang date back to as early as the Three Kingdoms period, and little work has been done on the early saenghwang music and its origin while current studies about it are focused largely on manuscripts and their translations and folk music of the late Joseon and the Japanese colonial period.

Ritual (‘gut’) of mental patient (michingut) is another word for ritual of goblin (Dokkaebigut), which, along with antaekgut, is the most important of anjeungut from the Chungnam region. It is a full scale gut and takes about three to seven days to perform entirely. Most of the stages for an antaekgut can be found within the ritual of michingut and they can be described as follows. On the first day of gut, the antaek is performed, that is, to report on the reasons for performing the gut which pays tribute to the eight house gods and ancestral spirits. The purpose of the ritual is to appease the spirits and wish for their blessing. From the second day on, four major scriptures (Okchugyeong, Cheonjipalyanggyeong, Okgapgyeong and Gimungyeong) as well as other chants (Sinjangchuksagyeong, Gwisinchaksugyeong) are sung in order to driving away the evil spirit. Unlike antaekgut, the days required to perform a michingut depend on the state of the (mentally) sick person for whom the ritual is performed. For accompaniment for the chanting in anjeungut, buk (a barrel drum) and ggwaenggwari (a small gong) are used. Using these instruments, the rhythmic patterns for the chanting is mostly dumachi-jangdan, consisting of three sobak (divided beats: ‘so’= small; ‘bak’ = beat)-eight bak. Sometimes three sobak-four bak, often called oemachi-jangdan, and its variations (three sobak-five bak, three sobak-six bak, or three sobak-seven bak) can be employed as well. Also, semachi-jangdan (oemachi-jangdan in its essentials but played in a faster tempo), makgojang (perpetual beating of regular beats), and motgatchun- jangdan (miscellaneous rhythmic cycles) are used. The tonal structure consists of mi'-la'-do''-re'', which is the same as menari-tori, in that the main tones mi'- la'-do'' show 4th and minor 3rd progressions. However, compared to a typical menari-tori sigimsae, which vibrates on the first note (mi') and has a glissando from re' to do', it shows these features less often. The overall tempo is about ♩ . = 96~184. Two octaves are used for the chanting in general. For the overall structure, it shows the slow-fast progression, which is a general characteristic for Korean music. In terms of putting text to music, in the faster section of Toesonggyeong, most of the text is syllabic. However, in the slower sections, syncopations and melismatic melodies are also featured. On the musical characteristics of michingut, no prior studies have been made. The reason is as follows; first, in our modern society, mental illness is mostly dealt with in mental hospitals or nursing homes. Second, even the beopsas (chanters) tend to avoid performing this ritual, since its process comprises some dangerous elements. Therefore it is very difficult to preserve and promote this very important ritual of Korea. Its present distortion process in our modern setting is quite serious, which is my conclusion after seven years of field research.

Taiwan Bangzi originally came from Henan province in China. Within the evolution in Taiwan society, it reveals a strong tendency of localisation in the past ten years. This paper will examine three contemporary operas from three perspectives: content of scripts, stage-performing methods and music, in order to demonstrate the ongoing and strengthening process of localisation and crossover of Taiwan Bangzi in this decade. The intention and evidence of localisation in Taiwan Bangzi can be found through the analysis in this paper from three aspects and a comparison in figures and music examples.