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This article outlines the compositional development of the piece “Yŏngdong Nongak” for samul nori ensemble. Based on fieldwork conducted with Kangnŭng Nongak during the summer of 2006, the author describes the process by which he transformed a regionally based, communally oriented group dance performance into a smaller scale, presentational, and musically focused event for the concert-hall stage. The primary goals of this project were to bring a long overdue appreciation to the yŏngdong region and its musical practices, and to stimulate a revival of new works written for the traditional percussion quartet while building on the established canon.

Western music and musical elements have played a major role in Korea—not only in the direct performance of Western classical and popular music, but also in the varieties of hybrid mixes and interactions involving Korean and Western repertory, instruments, and stylistic features. From the popular shin minyo and t’ŭrot’ŭ songs that first appeared during the Japanese colonial period to the composer-based art music known as ch’angjak kugak that has flourished in the years since independence, Korea has developed a broad array of music that is distinctly “Korean” and yet also clearly indebted to foreign (primarily Western) music. Among these an increasingly important category is “p’yujŏn” (“fusion”) music, which differs from ch’angjak kugak in its emphasis on commercial appeal and popularity. But while Korean fusion music has been growing in popularity in Korea, and Korean fusion musicians have been making international tours, its reception overseas is not uniformly positive. This article explores the international exposure that Korean fusion music has experienced in recent years and proposes some reasons for its mixed reception. The findings of the article are based on evidence of various fusion musicians’ international tours, international collaborations, availability of recordings abroad, and a small sample of reactions by non-Korean audiences to Korean fusion music by Seulgidoong (Sŭlgi-dung), Samul Nori, Sagye, Kang Eunil/Haegum Plus (Kang Ŭnil/Haegŭm P’ŭllŏsŭ), and others. The paper seeks to uncover what aspects appeal to foreign audiences and what aspects are disliked. Central to the ambivalent reactions is a combination of orientalist expectations and a sense that some hybrid mixes use harmonic clichés, grating or shrill timbres, or overly sentimental arrangements. Individual tastes differ even among audience members of similar backgrounds, but it seems that foreign audiences are more likely to be drawn to traditional kugak than to Korean fusion music, seeing the latter as inauthentic and shallow, even though many Koreans find traditional kugak to be strange, boring, or linked to a past they feel they have long left behind and therefore would prefer fusion as the Korean music of the present.

The South Korean government preserves traditional arts at the national, city and provincial levels, through Munhwajae Pohobŏp (Cultural Property Preservation Law), with the aim of preserving the wŏnhyŏng (original form). Specifically, it designates the relevant properties and, for the Intangible Cultural Properties the relevant artists, as “Poyuja (Holder).” However, the government’s intention behind the cultural policy is not often realized in the actual performance context. To address this, I examine how local artists perceive the wŏnhyŏng (original form) in the case of a local art from South Kyŏngsang Province: T’ongyŏng Ogwangdae (Mask Drama of T’ongyŏng). The existing literature on cultural policy in South Korea tends to deal only with the tense relationship between the national government and local artists, focusing more on government acts than on the response of local artists. This research concentrates on illuminating how local artists perceive the original form, in comparison with the investigator(s) for designation. For the Intangible Cultural Properties, the government sets forth as a premise that it can discover “nativeness” in the sector of “folklore” from Korea. In the case of the music of the Mask Drama of T’ongyŏng, the investigators define the original form as the oldest surviving form that, in their perception, has local features. However, the local artists regard it as the original, functionally-intended form, focusing more on “functional intention” that on “physical form.” From this perspective, they show differences from the oldest surviving version in terms of tempo and rhythms. If their essentialism is involved in stronger essentialism, there will be a danger that the governments and the local artists will become estranged and the relationship between them become difficult. To prevent this danger, and to enable them to coexist, I argue that ethnomusicologists might play a positive role as mediators.

Developed as a solo instrumental performance during the final days (around 1890) of the traditional music of the Chosŏn dynasty, kayagŭm sanjo is a genre that shares many similarities with p’ansori (a form of music that combines vocals and percussion performed by a singer [sori kkun] and drummer [kosu] respectively) in terms of its musical idiom, and particularly in terms of its melodic structure, rhythm (changdan), and musicality (sŏngŭm). While kayagŭm sanjo were generally learned entirely by heart and transmitted orally for two generations, in the modern era they have increasingly been taught based on staff notations. The standardization of rhythm (changdan) has been regarded as the most important element in terms of the musical framework of sanjo (lit. scattered melody). In this regard, this article seeks to identify the musical framework of sanjo. The majority of chinyangjo (lit. slow-style melodies or rhythms, one of the various types of changdan) employed within the school of kayagŭm sanjo developed by Kim Ch’angjo, the individual widely regarded as the creator of kayagŭm sanjo, consist of four modes: ujo, tolchang, p’yŏngjo, and kyemyŏnjo. As the melody found at the beginning and end of the individual sections of these modes and the structure of the melodic progression found in each section exhibit certain commonalities in terms of their melodic type, many have concluded that a standardized musical framework already exists where the kayagŭm sanjo is concerned. Based on this reality, this article begins by analyzing existing studies related to kayagŭm sanjo from the standpoint of their musical frameworks, and then applies the results of this analysis to kŏmun’go sanjo in order to be able to conduct a comparison of the commonalities and differences that exist in terms of the musical frameworks of kayagŭm sanjo and kŏmun’go sanjo. This exercise in turn reveals that while kŏmun’go sanjo consist of the same four modes (ujo, tolchang, p’yŏngjo, and kyemyŏnjo) as those found in kayagŭm sanjo, minute differences can nevertheless be found between the two in terms of the composition of their individual sections. Briefly stated, while the ujo mode of kayagŭm sanjo consists of three sections, the ujo mode of kŏmun’go sanjo consists solely of one section. That being said, the melodic development method, which is generally performed a perfect fifth above in the case of kŏmun’go sanjo, is in fact very similar to the musical framework of kayagŭm sanjo. Moreover, while the progression of the tolchang mode that serves as a bridge from the ujo mode in kayagŭm sanjo is performed a major second below much like in kŏmun’go sanjo, the latter features a smaller number of tones and, therefore, does not have a long cadence. Much like kŏmun’go sanjo, the p’yŏngjo mode of kayagŭm sanjo opens with a melody performed a major sixth above. However, the melodic flow of kŏmun’go sanjo has more in common with the tolchang mode of kayagŭm sanjo than with the p’yŏngjo mode. Meanwhile, the kyemyŏnjo mode tends to exhibit significant variations across the numerous schools of kayagŭm sanjo. While the kyemyŏnjo mode of kŏmun’go sanjo exhibits frequent changes in basic tone, the kyemyŏnjo mode of kayagŭm sanjo consists of melodies which progress differently throughout their various subsections, namely p’yŏng kyemyŏn, pyŏn kyemyŏn, sŏkhwaje, and saeng samch’ŏng.

This article investigates the genesis of ancient Korean music in the rituals of heaven-worship and Shamanism. Through a new interpretation of the Sino-Korean word, “sin (神, god),” this article presents the results of a search for the origin of Korean music within the ritual of heaven-worship as a primitive composite art by reconstructing the indigenous Korean words for “god.” “Sori (sound)” and “norae (song),” were derived from the indigenous Korean words for the sun, “sal” and “nal.” Thus sori and norae reflect the complementary nature of the sun as the origin of life and heaven as the god worshiped by ancient Koreans. According to this interpretation, the true identity of the origins of ancient Korean music can be revealed. The core assertion of this article is that the ancient concepts of music in Korea as the worship of heaven as a god are revealed in its musical terms. This demonstrates that ancient Koreans worshiped heaven and used the principle of heaven (sun) as a philosophical axis in forming their indigenous musical tradition. When we consider that ancient Korean music was derived from the rituals of heaven-worship, which began in the Neolithic period, and that sori and norae refer to the life and actions of human beings, the philosophy of ancient Koreans appears even more remarkable.

The purpose of this article is to consider the strong probability that the highly celebrated court artist Kim Hongdo (1745–died c. 1806) received some inspiration from illustrations in the important seventeenth-century technical Chinese book known as Tian gong kai wu (The creations of Nature and Man) written by Song Yingxing (1587–died c. 1666). Although this book is not well known among scholars in Korean art history, it contains the most comprehensive descriptions of virtually all the major industrial techniques of its time. They include subjects such as agriculture, textiles, salt, sugar, ceramics, transportation, paper making, metallurgy, and weapons. Richly illustrated with 152 black-and-white woodblock print engravings, these prints may be regarded as the finest of any prints produced in China on industry and technology. This article will propose a new view that Kim Hongdo came in contact with Song Yingxing’s celebrated book and that he was familiar with the illustrations in this work. In order to show the possible influences of Tian gong kai wu on several of Kim Hongdo’s genre pictures, attempts will be made to identify specific examples of Chinese engravings that the artist might have seen. Subsequently, important aspects of his five album leaves will be analyzed to demonstrate the probability that Kim Hongdo made creative transformation of imported book illustrations, to portray new depictions of commoners’ manual labor conveying a distinctly Korean artistic taste.