Folk Music : Instrumental. Nathan Hesselink

Folk Music : Instrumental Nathan Hesselink

Folk Music : Instrumental 93 Pungmul and Samulnori Introduction Rhythm has always been central to the Korean cultural experience. Music, dance, ritual, and the agricultural cycle have enjoyed an intimate relationship on the peninsula since the inception of the Korean nation, and at the heart of such interactions lies percussion music and dance. Although drumming and dance became an integral component of Korean life on every level of society and in nearly every social context, including formal court ceremonies and large-scale religious celebrations, in this chapter I will focus on such expressions as nurtured and reflected in the everyday experiences of the commoner classes. It is here, close to the earth both literally and symbolically conceived where we continue to witness the rigorous and dynamic interplay between regional loyalties and pan-korean sensibilities. Percussion music and dance as realized in such folk contexts can be further distinguished and understood as existing on a spectrum somewhere between amateur and communal-participational activity on the one end, and professional and presentational activity on the other. Regardless of genre, ensemble, or place of residence, however, it is the tremendous wealth of historical and cultural knowledge contained in Korean folk percussion and dance that drives the tireless efforts of its performers, interpreters, and promoters alike to keep it alive, vibrant, and pertinent to modern audiences, as well as support its status as a potent emblem of cultural identity in South Korean society today. Pungmul: Amateur Considerations Until the turn of the twentieth century, one could have quite readily ventured into the Korean countryside to observe a variety of village functions accompanied by percussion music and dance. Known alternatively as pungmul ( wind objects ) or nong-ak ( farmers music ), this rhythm-based tradition represents a composite art form including theater and song. Typically performed in the past by an ensemble of (male) villagers playing on gongs and drums with little or no distinctions made between performers and onlookers, pungmul served as musical accompaniment in the often overlapping contexts of labor, ritual, and entertainment. Its current popularity in South Korea the practice was most likely discontinued in the North after the Korean War(1950-53) belies the almost insurmountable odds it overcame during the past century. Pungmul survived foreign occupation, world and civil wars, and general societal indifference to reemerge in the later twentieth century to reclaim its previous vitality and appreciation. With the neglect or loss of many of its original social contexts in the countryside, pungmul in modified forms moved into urban spaces at home and diasporic communities abroad athough it never completely lost its foothold in the provinces. Even as late as the early 1900s, 95% of the populace still lived and operated within the confines of a small village setting. Such long-term internal isolation resulted in the formation and maintenance of rich regional varieties

94 Music of Korea Folk Music : Instrumental 95 of food, dialect, personal character attributes, and melodic-rhythmic styles, customs that coalesced in a significant way during the Joseon period (1392-1910). When pungmul was designated an intangible cultural asset (muhyeong munhwajae) beginning in the mid-1960s, distinctions were maintained along similar geographical lines. Today five pungmul groups are recognized as Intangible Cultural Asset No.11, each considered the representative model of a particular regional style distinguished by contrasts in rhythmic patterns, costuming, instrumentation, and performance philosophy. The following list provides the name of the organization, their date of designation, and region/province from where they hail : North Jeolla is noteworthy in that its designations are determined according to geomantic principles, so that looking south from the center, or the capital city of Seoul, udo/right means west, and jwado/ left means east. While a few cultural asset performers receive a full-time (but modest) salary, pungmul continues to be a largely amateur affair. It has also become one of the few public spaces in modern Korean life where both sexes and the different generations can and do participate. Instrumentation, Costuming, and Musical Structure The core instruments of the pungmul ensemble include two gongs and two drums that are either strapped to the body or are held in the hand while the performers simultaneously dance. Although there are almost infinite variations in instrument design and costuming depending on the troupe and region, here I will concentrate on the standard models of the core instruments, headgear, and musical structure (see <Figure 2/3>). My discussion is based primarily on entertainment-oriented performances (pan gut), the most common type of pungmul performance encountered today (see below). The use of the double-reed wind instrument the hojeok/taepyeongso is beyond the scope of this chapter. <Figure 2> Yoengdong Pungmul Troupe (janggu, jing, gokkal) N.Hesselink <Figure 1> The Five Regions of Pungmul Activity as Recognized by the Cultural Asset Preservation Law 1. Jinju Samcheonpo Nong-ak (1966) from South Gyeongsang province, yeongnam ( south ridge ) region [D] 2. Pyeongtaek Nong-ak (1985) from Gyeonggi province, uttari ( upper leg/bridge ) region [A] 3. Iri Nong-ak (1985) from North Jeolla province, Honam udo (Jeolla-province right side/way ) region [B] 4. Gangneung Nong-ak (1985) from Gangwon province, yeongdong ( east ridge ) region [E] 5. Imsil Pilbong Nong-ak (1988) from North Jeolla province, Honam jwado (Jeolla-province left side/way ) region [C] <Figure 3> Uttari Pungmul Troupe (janggu, buk, chae sangmo) N.Hesselink

96 Music of Korea Folk Music : Instrumental 97 Gongs The leader of the ensemble has traditionally been the sangsoe, or lead soe player. The soe ( iron or metal ), also known as the kkwaenggwari (an onomatopoeic designation), is a small, hand-held gong made of brass. Soe are produced by either pouring heated metal into a mold or by forging, the latter process considered superior in quality. The instrument is struck on its front surface by a mallet held with the free hand, while the hand holding the soe manipulates the sound through a number of available damping techniques. Soe are commonly divided into male and female soe, the former generally associated with a higher and sharper toned pitch and the latter with a lower and more subdued one. It is customary for the lead soe player to play on a male soe, accompanied by the second soe player (busoe) on a female soe, continuing on in such alternation down through the rest of the section. The companion instrument to the soe is the jing, a large, hand-held gong also made of brass. The jing is struck with a padded beater, producing a good after-tone characterized by three undulations that in Korean is referred to as sampa-eum ( three wave sound ). Jing strokes tend to coincide with the first beat (or downbeat) of each rhythmic pattern, serving as the sonic glue that binds together the rest of the gongs and drums. The sound of the jing has also been employed as a signal for retreat within the military and a means of sounding an alarm in village society. It is believed to be capable of changing the bone structure of an unborn child in the womb of a shaman. Drums Perhaps the best known and easily recognized instrument of the pungmul ensemble is the janggu ( stick drum ), a double-headed, hourglass-shaped drum. The body of the janggu is hollow and is usually carved from a single piece of paulownia wood (odong namu), then spun on a lathe. Janggu are customarily finished with a clear varnish or are lacquered a deep red or maroon color. Two circular drumheads made of cow, sheep, horse, or dog leather are then stretched over the bowls and are secured with rope or cotton cords. The larger, lower-pitched side of the drum is struck with a mallet fashioned from the root of a bamboo tree and is associated with the earth and female energy. The smaller, higher pitched side, in contrast, is struck with a stick carved from the stalk of the bamboo tree and is associated with the heavens and male energy. Janggu are strapped to the body securely with white cotton cloth so that both hands are free to play while dancing. The sound of the janggu is supported by the buk, a double-headed, barrel-shaped drum. Considered the only indigenous percussion instrument in a pungmul troupe, the body of the buk is constructed with interlocking slats of wood. Leather skins (usually cow) are then stretched over both openings and laced together with rope. Tension is maintained by optional wooden chucks wedged between the rope and the body of the instrument. The buk is generally suspended from the performer s shoulder by a long cord of cotton cloth and is struck with a stick made of hardwood. Many pungmul groups also feature a number of performers on the sogo, a small, double-headed frame drum with a handle. The sogo is primarily used as a dance prop; its method of construction and manner of playing result in very little sound production. Hats Even more than the distinctive instrumentation, the colorful and elaborate headgear worn by pungmul performers often steals the show. A number of different hats are worn throughout the peninsula, but for the sake of simplicity and clarity we can arrange them into two families: jeollip and gokkal. Jeollip ( battle/felt conical hat ) refers to a basic rounded-top hat with a wide brim modeled on headgear worn by the Korean military during the Joseon period. An appendage (often rotating) called a sangmo constructed of wound wire or thread is then attached to a wooden or metal knob on top of the jeollip. If a long paper ribbon is attached to the sangmo, the hat is called a chae sangmo; if the ribbon is replaced by a tuft of feathers or paper, it is called a bupo sangmo. Both types of sangmo create fantastic geometric designs traced in the air, often at lightening-fast speeds. These gestures are all prescribed and named, with their execution intelligently appreciated and criticized by knowledgeable performers and audience members alike. The gokkal in its unadorned form is a white triangular paper hat linked to Buddhist monks. Pungmul gokkal are distinguished by their use of paper flowers sewn to the top of the hat. Depending upon the troupe, these flowers come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Individual instrument families tend to wear either the gokkal or the jeollip. Rhythmic Patterns Pungmul distinguishes itself from other indigenous performance arts by its central focus on rhythm. At its foundation are rhythmic patterns known as jangdan ( long and short ) or garak ( strand or finger ), the essential building blocks of a pungmul performance. Rhythmic patterns are determined by models consisting of a series of accented and unaccented strokes or beats, various metrical and repeat structures, range of tempos, and lengths of phrases. A collection of rhythmic patterns makes up a movement (madang), a kind of discrete and self-contained piece in which the rhythms and their accompanying danced ground formations are consistently performed in order. A collection of movements creates the particular event. Performance practice dictates playing through an entire movement without breaks, taking a short pause before moving on to the next. It is also customary for the lead soe player to signal the beginnings and endings of each movement, provide cues for moving from one rhythmic pattern to another, and regulate the overall tempo. A typical example of a single movement from the pungmul repertoire is presented as follows. The sample represents a simplified rendition of the first movement of Iri Nong-ak s entertainment-oriented performance, the pan gut (Honam udo region, or B on <Figure 1>): 1. ochae jilgut ( five-stroke road ritual ) 2. ujilgut ( right road ritual ) 3. jwajilgut ( left road ritual ) 4. jilgut ( road ritual ) 5. yangsando (named after the Gyeonggi-province folksong rhythmic pattern) 6. transition, samchae ( three strokes )

98 Music of Korea Folk Music : Instrumental 99 7. jajin samchae ( fast samchae ) 8. maedoji (a cadential pattern) Pungmul s collection of rhythmic patterns reflects a fertile meeting ground of local and pan-korean influences, borrowings from village ensemble and itinerant troupe performances (see Pungmul: Professional Considerations below) that draw on such diverse sources as shaman and Buddhist ritual, communal labor activity, and aristocratic music and dance genres. Current Learning and Performance Contexts Most of the day-to-day teaching, performing, and theorizing of pungmul takes place in the countryside and around regional provincial centers, largely outside of the gaze of tourists and the media. Here primary- and secondary-school children, community organizations, university drumming clubs (dong-ari), village inhabitants, and government-designated cultural asset teams perform for their respective communities pleasure and well-being. The locus of pedagogical activity is the jeonsugwan, or pungmul training institute. Most institutes are owned and operated by cultural asset organizations, attracting students of all ages from Korea, North America, and Europe during winter and summer term breaks. In the past lessons were taught solely by oral transmission, without the aid of notation or recording devices; today one quite readily encounters textbooks and numerous audio-visual aids. Like its performance aesthetic, pungmul is taught primarily in a communal and supportive atmosphere. Before the onslaught of foreign religious and cultural practices, technology, and the rise of popular culture that occurred during the first half of the twentieth century, pungmul was enjoyed as part of communal labor teams, ritual fund-raising efforts, and village folk festivals. Entertainment-based performances born of the pan the communal village meeting spaces known as pan gut, however, have come to define almost all current pungmul activity in South Korea today. Most students and performers align themselves along regional lines established by cultural asset policy, seldom venturing into foreign (and sometimes rival) territory. Pungmul: Professional Considerations At the close of the Joseon period during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there emerged from the shadows of official history a professional class of entertainers known as the namsadang ( male temple group ). Rooted in centuries-old traditions of integrating ritual practices with itinerant troupe performance culture, the namsadang call to mind elements of the circus, carnival, and traveling gypsy group fused into a composite whole. A society composed exclusively of males, they enchanted and inspired their rural Korean audiences through highly polished and artistically refined performances of percussion music and dance (pungmul/pan gut), bowl spinning, acrobatics, tightrope walking, mask dance, and puppetry (see <Figure 4>). <Figure 4> Namsadang Troupe (janggu, soe, chae sangmo, bupo sangmo) N.Hesselink The presence and activities of the namsadang suggest a number of important trends that anticipate later developments of the twentieth century. Loved by the populace but largely dismissed by the aristocracy, the namsadang were Korea s first true superstars, performers who served the role of mass entertainment long before the days of radio and television. As master percussionists, actors, and acrobats they supported or were a part of a broader movement toward professionalization and presentational-style music making in the folk arena that was occurring at an accelerated pace in the fertile waning years of the Joseon period. The namsadang also provide a much-needed explanatory logic for the existence of similar, if not identical, rhythmic patterns found across the various provinces at a time when village inhabitants engaged in extremely limited travel and displayed strong regional alliances. A cultural repository of early pan-korean identities, aspects of their costuming, acting, and musical repertoire influenced untold generations of local musicians, dancers, and actors. (The namsadang are credited with first developing and using bupo and chae sangmo hats in pan gut performances.) The institution of the namsadang formally came to an end under Japanese rule in the early twentieth century, though revivalist groups in modified form resurfaced in South Korea during the 1950s at the close of the Korean War. Today two cultural asset namsadang troupes are active: a national team located in Seoul, and a regional team based in Gyeonggi province. Both organizations offer group and private lessons to the general public in drumming, bowl spinning, and tightrope walking, and both troupes have toured extensively throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. The release of the highly successful 2006 commercial film The King and the Clown (Wang ui namja in Korean), a period piece featuring namsadang performance arts in a historical context, helped boost their public profile and resulted in a surge of new students at both training institutes. In the context of folk percussion and dance, the namsadang form the crucial link between rural, amateur pungmul and its urban, professional counterpart found in the genre of samulnori.

100 Music of Korea Folk Music : Instrumental 101 Samulnori In February of 1978, four up-and-coming percussionists evoked the sound and spirit of the countryside on a concert-hall stage in downtown Seoul. Playing one each on the four core drums and gongs of pungmul, and employing rhythms and performance techniques directly inspired by this tradition, their adaptation of folk music to this context was in many ways bold and unprecedented. What the quartet had accomplished, almost literally overnight, was the repackaging and revitalization of a familiar, yet struggling, age-old rural practice for the entertainment of city dwellers in the heart of the bustling capital. Their connections to namsadang performance troupes were deep, with key founding members Kim Duksoo (Gim Deoksu) and Gim Yongbae having spent their childhoods with namsadang or namsadang-related groups. What began as a humble, grass-roots movement has since grown into an internationally acknowledged phenomenon. Soon after their stage debut, the original team chose the designation SamulNori to mark their entrance into the traditional music world. The choice of name was based on the group s instrumentation and performance philosophy: samul ( four objects, a reference to the two gongs and two drums of pungmul ensembles) + nori ( playing, a broader term encompassing folk entertainments). As the quartet s popularity grew dramatically in South Korea, particularly among urban youth, so too did numerous similar such groups proliferate, constituting a substantial musical movement referred to by the same name (often romanized in italics as samulnori). Samulnori in various incarnations is now a prominent fixture of the Korean musical landscape, seen on television broadcasts and in concert halls, disseminated on CD, VHS, and DVD recordings, studied in chapters of music history and appreciation textbooks, and taught at the primary, secondary, and collegiate levels throughout the peninsula. Viewed in tandem with their performances around the globe, including high profile appearances at the United Nations and the 2002 World Cup, this portrait only begins to depict the depth of their influence and appreciation in Korea and abroad. From very early on in their professional development as an ensemble, SamulNori employed a two-pronged approach, looking to preserve and transmit traditional music to local Koreans while at the same time introducing this heritage to the outside world. As with their predecessors the namsadang of old, touring was part and parcel of their operational worldview. Early excursions to neighbouring Japan were quickly augmented by much more ambitious travels to the United States and Western Europe; by 1994 SamulNori had performed 1500 concerts in seven foreign countries. Educational institutes and seasonal workshops were soon to follow, with permanent schools now established in Korea, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland. Untold numbers of American and European drumming clubs have also benefited from founding member Kim Duksoo s visiting masterclasses. SamulNori released two series of instructional materials in the 1990s that drew upon their extensive travels and teaching experiences, notably published in both Korean and English. In February 1978, a SamulNori concert was held at the Space Theater (Gonggan Sarang), a venue conceived and designed by the architect and cultural activist Gim Sugeun. The purpose of SamulNori s performance was simple enough, namely, to adapt the experience of pungmul to a concert-hall stage, albeit with modifications that were mostly dictated by the performance space (a box-style theater with roughly 120 seats). The relatively small and confined stage was not conducive to large groups and loud noises, so the members played only one each on the soe, jing, janggu, and buk. Since audiences accustomed to Western concert-hall etiquette could not be expected to sit through a typical two- or three-hour rural-style event, SamulNori condensed the event down to a twenty-five-minute piece. Significantly and without precedent, the group performed from a seated position, which freed them from the dancing and focused their energies solely on musical aspects like dynamics and tempo (see <Figure 5>). The concert showcased a level of virtuosity seldom seen in rural pungmul performances (but characteristic of the namsadang). <Figure 5> Samulnori Group NCKTPA Repertoire and Musical Structure Within the first few years of its existence, the original SamulNori group had formed a canon of five pieces, compositions that came to serve as the core repertoire and model for other groups as samulnori increasingly developed into its own genre. SamulNori had two central concerns at their founding: 1) to raise public awareness of and appreciation for folk percussion music and dance; and 2) to discover and/or preserve rhythms and movements from the pan gut that had become neglected over time (pan gut were the specialty of the namsadang, and in the late 1970s only one of the currently recognized five cultural asset pungmul troupes had been designated). The first piece ever played was titled Uttari pungmul, based on the rhythms of Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces (region A on <Figure 1>). The choice was appropriate and obvious, as uttari rhythms define the namsadang repertoire of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. (In a kind of circular logic, students who study with the namsadang in Seoul are taught SamulNori s uttari piece.) To this were added two more regionally based compositions Yeongnam nong-ak (rhythms from the Gyeongsang provinces, region D) and Honam nong-ak/honam udo gut (rhythms from the right or western counties of the Jeolla provinces, region B) as well as a Gyeonggi-province narrative prayer ( Binari ) and a piece for four hourglass-shaped drums combining rhythms from the three geographical areas mentioned above ( Samdo seoljanggu garak ).

102 Music of Korea Folk Music : Instrumental 103 A common compositional strategy of SamulNori was to extract a representative movement from a regional pan gut often the most technically challenging and structurally complex and repackage it as a self-contained piece. Internal orderings of rhythmic patterns may or may not be maintained; in the case of Honam udo gut, for example, the structure is adhered to quite closely. If one recognizes the alternate namings of jajin ochae jilgut (#2) for ujilgut (pungmul #2), and pungnyugut (#4) for jilgut (pungmul #4), SamulNori s version is nearly identical to the first movement of Iri Nongak: 1. ochae jilgut 2. jajin ochae jilgut ( fast ochae jilgut ) 3. jwajilgut 4. pungnyugut ( refined ritual ) 5. gutgeori ( section of ritual ) 6. yangsando 7. transition, samchae 8. jajin samchae 9. maedoji Pan-Korean aspirations are apparent in the above-named Samdo seoljanggu garak ( Janggu Rhythms of Three Provinces ) and the later addition of Samdo Nong-ak ( Nong-ak [Pungmul] of Three Provinces for gongs and drums). While it is the seated repertoire that put SamulNori on the map, they also developed a standing/danced piece aptly titled Pan gut. New Horizons While the original SamulNori quartet expanded their sights in the 1980s and 90s to include collaborative projects with Euro-American, Japanese, and Korean classical and popular musicians including a concerto for samulnori and orchestra they nevertheless seldom strayed from the rhythms and their ordering as established in the core repertoire. It was these new contexts for the folk percussion instruments and rhythmic patterns, however, that breathed new life into the tradition. In this last section I will concentrate on the most successful and longstanding of their fusion efforts. In the spring of 1987 SamulNori traveled to Western Europe to take part in a grandly conceived ethnic percussion project. It was during theis series of concerts that they came into contact with the Austrian alto saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig, an accomplished jazz improviser and enthusiast of East Asian musics. Kim Duksoo and Puschnig were so impressed with each other that an invitation was extended to Puschnig to come to Seoul that fall to begin a more ambitious collaboration in earnest. Upon his return home to Austria he formed a Western jazz counterpart to SamulNori, a quartet composed of an alto saxophone, female vocalist, electric bass, and piano (later electric guitar) called Red Sun. Over a period of roughly nine years (1988-1997) SamulNori and Red Sun Group carried on a fruitful dialogue through meetings, workshops, and performances, ultimately culminating in the release of four joint recordings: 1. Red Sun - SamulNori (1997 [1989]), Polygram, DZ-2433 (see <Figure 6>) 2. Then Comes the White Tiger (1994), ECM, ECM-1499 3. Nanjang: A New Horizon (1995), King, KSC-4150A 4. From the Earth, to the Sky (1997), Samsung, SCO-123NAN <Figure 6> CD Cover of Samulnori Fusion Album N.Hesselink As a useful point of reference, the second track from the last release, titled The Road Ahead, features the first three rhythmic patterns of SamulNori s piece Honam udo gut (as well as the first movement of Iri Nong-ak s pan gut): ochae jilgut, jajin ochae jilgut, and jwajilgut. Conclusion Today many Koreans view samulnori and pungmul as essentially identical and hence interchangeable designations. Distinctions in presentation and performance practice continue to blur, particularly among college drumming groups and clubs, where rhythms and approaches have begun to meld into something not entirely one or the other. Namsadang troupes now teach samulnori pieces and have begun to perform from a seated position; Kim Duksoo s group has added the namsadang s bowl spinning act to their danced Pan gut performance. Though differences exist in scope, performer motivation, and audience response, in all of these musical expressions we witness a kind of artistic and aesthetic thread of continuity that winds its way through the various developments and expansions of the folk percussion tradition.

104 Music of Korea Further Readings Hesselink, Nathan. 2006. P ungmul: South Korean Drumming and Dance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Howard, Keith D. 1989. Bands, Songs, and Shamanistic Rituals: Folk Music in Korean Society. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch..1991. Samul Nori: A Re-Interpretation of a Korean Folk Tradition for Urban and International Audiences. In Tradition and Its Future in Music: Report of SIMS 1990 Osaka, edited by Yoshijiko Tokumaru et al, 539-46. Osaka: Mita Press. Kim Duksoo (editor), Kim Dong-won (writer), and Pak Shin-gil (translator). 1999. Samulnori Textbook. Seoul: Overseas Koreans Foundation, Korean National University of Arts. Kwak Young-kwon, Kim Dong-won, and Suzanna Samstag Oh. 2003. The Story of Samulnori: A Fairy Tale for Children. Seoul: Sakyejul Publishing.