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Features 2022 SPRING 1521
At the Vanguard of Innovation Breathing new life into music from hundreds of years ago, pioneers of contemporary gugak (traditional Korean music) spearhead crossovers resonant with energy and inspiration. Here are three notable groups at the vanguard of innovation, each carving a singular path and enticing audiences at home and abroad. Black String“Though you may devote your life to it, achieving the authentic sound of the geomungo is an elusive goal. In a broad sense, this is not much different from what Black String aspires to.” Black String, formed in 2011, creates experimental sounds based on improvisational fusion of traditional Korean music and jazz. Its four members are, from left: Yoon Jeong Heo on geomungo, Min Wang Hwang on ajaeng and janggu, Aram Lee on daegeum and yanggeum, and Jean Oh on guita. © Nah Seung-yull Black String has been gaining recognition at local and global festivals of world music and jazz over the years. As their name proclaims, the four-member group plays music deeply rooted in the geomungo, a six-stringed zither, whose Sino-Korean name literally means “black string.” This native Korean instrument, dating back 1,500 years, creates a modest, solemn tone epitomizing the dignity of traditional Korean music. The group, formed in 2011, consists of Yoon Jeong Heo on geomungo, Jean Oh on guitar, Aram Lee on daegeum (large transverse bamboo flute) and yanggeum (hammered dulcimer), and Min Wang Hwang on ajaeng (seven-stringed bowed zither) and janggu (double-headed drum). Their career took off in 2016 when they signed with the world-renowned German record label ACT, a first for a Korean ensemble. Under their contract, they will release five full-length albums with the company. Together with ECM, ACT is known for its experimental contemporary music with a focus on jazz.Black String’s first album, “Mask Dance,” released that same year, earned them an award in the Asian and Pacific category at the 2018 Songlines Music Awards held in Britain, also a first for a Korean act.Their music may actually seem a better match with the style of ECM, which cultivates a blend of European folk music and meditative jazz. The philosophical reinterpretation of ambient music in the title track of their second album, “Karma” (2019), and the fusion jazz approach explored in “Exhale-Puri” or “Song of the Sea” are close to a Korean-style ECM. Behind the group’s innovative endeavors is leader Yoon Jeong Heo, a prominent geomungo player and professor of traditional Korean music at Seoul National University. She is the daughter of Heo Gyu (1934-2000), a pioneer in madanggeuk (traditional outdoor theater) who significantly broadened the horizons of Korean theater in the 20th century. “Through my father, I got to know masters of traditional improvisational music,” she recalls. “I was greatly inspired by haegeum [two-stringed fiddle] player Kang Eun-il. His performances broke free from the conventional boundaries of our traditional music.”Along with Kang, Yoon Jeong Heo is now at the forefront of free experimentation in traditional Korean music. They formed SangSang Trio with Yu Kyung-hwa, a player of the cheol-hyeongeum (steel-stringed zither), creating music that merges traditional flourishes and rhythms with free jazz or modern music methodology. Yu and Won Il, the composer who collaborated with them, were Heo’s classmates at Gugak National High School. The other three members of Black String are prominent young musicians in the fields of traditional Korean music and jazz, who work on both solo and group projects. They are audacious in their choices, mixing elements from a diverse repertoire spanning traditional folk, shamanic and Buddhist music, and English rock band Radiohead’s “Exit Music – For a Film,” and offering up a dreamy musical concoction. Aram Lee delivers an original, virtuoso performance on the daegeum; Min Wang Hwang has played with Lee on other projects; and Jean Oh is known for his minimalistic yet profound guitar play. Their music demonstrates that they are not mere accompaniments to the geomungo. Those just initiated into the world of traditional Korean music would do well to remember the names of these musicians. “I love to improvise, but our team’s identity isn’t based on improvisation alone. The clear concept and character of a piece are the basic framework and improvisation is the impetus for our performance,” says Heo. In that sense, sanjo, the traditional free-style solo instrumental, is the root and heart of Black String’s music. Jambinai“How shocked you’d feel to see before your eyes an animal thought to be extinct or not of this world, or to catch a deep-sea creature like the coelacanth alive. That’s the kind of thing we’re seeking.” Post-rock band Jambinai is recognized for its blend of rock and heavy metal on traditional Korean instruments. From left: Jaehyuk Choi on drums; Eun Yong Sim on geomungo; Ilwoo Lee on guitar, piri and taepyeongso; Bomi Kim on haegeum; and B.K. Yu on bass guitar.© Kang Sang-woo Hellfest, a global metal music festival with a rather scary name, brings tens of thousands of hot-blooded youths to a small town in France ever y June. The main acts are hard rock and heavy metal bands, such as Iron Maiden and Cannibal Corpse. So in 2016, the audience was puzzled at an array of Asian instruments brought on stage. They were for a performance by Jambinai, a five-member post-rock band from Korea.Jambinai, formed in 2009, consists of Ilwoo Lee, a versatile player of the guitar, piri (double-reed oboe) and taepyeongso (conical oboe); Bomi Kim on haegeum; Eun Yong Sim on geomungo; Jaehyuk Choi on drums; and B.K. Yu on bass guitar. Their music evokes a bizarre bedlam of Korean goblins and ghosts. When the jagged sounds of the geomungo’s loop, created by striking the body and strings with the plectrum in one stroke, meet the ghostly screech of the haegeum and roar of the electric guitar, the audience is hit by a feeling of horror and suspense that is unlike anything in heavy metal. The frictional and affricate sounds produced by the haegeum and geomungo are unfamiliar yet electrifying. The aesthetics of postrock, shoegazing, metal and traditional Korean music clash in unpredictable proportions.The group’s key members – Ilwoo Lee, Bomi Kim and Eun Yong Sim – chose to pursue traditional music at a young age. They were classmates at the Korea National University of Arts’ School of Traditional Korean Arts. But Jambinai was born from Lee’s defiance of Korea’s musical tradition. He began playing the piri in seventh grade and took up electric guitar in ninth grade. While studying traditional Korean music at school, he watched Metallica performances at home, dreaming of becoming a rocker one day. Prior to Jambinai, he played in the screamo band 49 Morphines.“They say that traditional Korean instruments can’t blend with band music, and that traditional Korean music is boring and only belongs in places like hanok homes. I wanted to break such prejudices,” Lee says. “To do that, I had to come up with a powerful sound. I got an idea from ‘Roots,’ an album by Sepultura, a band that melds traditional Brazilian music with metal. Other influences were the industrial rock sound collage in ‘The Downward Spiral,’ an album by Nine Inch Nails, and the post-rock genre where diverse instruments, from violin and cello to bagpipes, mesh smoothly with the rock sound.”In 2014, Jambinai was invited to the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, United States. The group had an audience of two people to start with, but in some 30 minutes were playing to a full house. For me, seeing this in person was among my most intense concert experiences. In 2015, the band signed with British record label Bella Union, and the following year, globally released their second album, “A Hermitage,” to rave reviews. Their dramatic sound, which starts off like a candle flame then grows into a wildfire, encompasses a wide spectrum – from the fierce (“Time of Extinction” from their debut album “Differance,” “Wardrobe” off their second album “A Hermitage” and “Event Horizon” from their third album “ONDA”) to the meditative (“Connection,” the last track on their first album).Before COVID-19, Jambinai had more than 50 overseas performances each year. They mesmerized audiences at international music festivals, including WOMAD UK, EXIT in Serbia and Roskilde in Denmark. They gave a spectacular performance at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Dongyang Gozupa“I believe that our shortcomings are what spur us to be more creative. Although it’s just us three, we want to be a team that fills the space completely with our music alone.” Dongyang Gozupa, formed in 2018, is known for its wild and jarring style, as suggested by its name which literally means “high frequency from the East.” From left: Jang Do Hyuk on percussion, Yun Eun Hwa on yanggeum and Ham Min Whi on bass guitar.© Kim Shin-joong When it comes to being unconventional, the trio Dongyang Gozupa doesn’t fall behind the previous two groups. For starters, the band’s eccentric name says a lot: it literally translates as “high frequency from the East.” Jang Do Hyuk, the percussionist, explains he conceived the name from the signboard of a neighborhood electronics repair shop. He thought it suited the band’s wild and jarring musical style.The group debuted in 2018 with the release of an EP titled “Gap.” Dominating first impressions of their music is the sound of the yanggeum played by Yun Eun Hwa, which pounds down like a squall. Her performance visually overpowers the downpicking guitar pelting down like a rainstorm, as seen in Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.” Ham Min Whi’s deep bass guitar and the swift interplay of Jang Do Hyuk’s percussion complete their sound, dashing forward at breakneck speed. The clear timbre of the yanggeum bounces around like raindrops falling in a tropical rainforest. This hammered dulcimer is the band’s centerpiece. It is made with metal strings, whereas the geomungo in Black String and Jambinai has silk strings. Yun produces metallic sounds on the instrument that are suggestive of heavy metal.The yanggeum originated in Persia. Over time, it was adapted and modified in diverse ways, and was given names like zither, dulcimer and cimbalom. It was introduced to Korea by way of China and was dubbed yanggeum, which means “string instrument from the West.” Along with the saenghwang (freereed mouth organ with 17 bamboo pipes), it is one of the few traditional instruments that can play the scales and harmony used in Western music.Yun, who heads the Korean chapter of the Cimbalom World Association, had her instrument custom made. “The traditional yanggeum is smaller and produces only a narrow range of notes, which makes it unsuitable for playing diverse genres,” she explains. “My yanggeum has a much wider range, covering four and a half octaves, and is capable of producing the chromatic scale like Western musical instruments. So it can play just about any genre of music. I added a pickup that amplifies the sound, as well as effects pedals to expand the expressive range.”Yun began studying music at the age of four in China, where she learned to play the North Korean yanggeum, and majored in percussion at college in Korea. Her idiosyncratic style was honed through years of practice and study, assimilating the merits of percussion and string instruments of the East and West, and of North and South Korea.Jang Do Hyuk, meanwhile, is a unique percussionist. He doesn’t play a foot-operated kick bass drum; instead of playing with both hands and feet, he has created a signature style using hands alone to express the entire spectrum of percussion sounds, from low to high pitch. A former member of Danpyunsun and the Sailors, a band that combines rock and Eastern influences, Jang says, “Limitations are what allow me to create my own distinctive sound. I love the challenge.”Ham Min Whi’s bass guitar flows smoothly from weighty to agile movements, reminiscent of the American nu metal band Korn or the punk rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.In 2021, Yun Eun Hwa received the Soorim New Wave Award given by the Soorim Cultural Foundation. This prestigious award is presented each year to just one young traditional musician or team specializing in experimental styles. Other recipients include Kwon Song Hee, vocalist of the alternative pop band LEENALCHI, and Ak Dan Gwang Chil (ADG7), a folk-pop group that puts a modern spin on shamanic ritual music from Hwanghae Province, located in present-day North Korea.Dongyang Gozupa was the first Asian band to be invited to the global music festival WOMEX for two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021.#Korean traditional music
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Features 2022 SPRING 994
Varied Experiments, Unexpected Delights Young musicians blazing new trails with contemporaneity in mind expand the horizons of traditional Korean music. Here we review a selection of albums that present the idiosyncratic styles of talented, ambitious artists experimenting with diverse sounds and methods. © Kim Hee-ji “Born by Gorgeousness”HAEPAARY; Flipped Coin Music [June 2021]Formed in 2020, HAEPAARY is an alternative electronic duo consisting of Minhee (Park Min-hee) and Hyeon (Choe Hye-won), who both majored in gugak. While respecting the minimalist aesthetics of traditional Korean music, they also set out to dismantle its patriarchal aspect. On this digital album, the duo incorporates electronic beats in their reinterpretation of “Jongmyo Jeryeak,” the music and dance performed during the rites conducted at the royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Designated as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the rites continue to be reenacted to this day.The eerie electronic sounds in the title track, “Born by Irreproachable Gorgeousness,” offer a feast of ominous minimalism, evocative of German krautrock of the 1960s and 1970s. Minhee’s vocals, which blur gender distinctions, are symbolic and bizarre. Traditionally, gagok, a genre of lyric songs, has been divided into male and female parts. But using an effector, Minhee sings in both voices simultaneously, and by putting the female voice at the forefront, subverts and reappropriates the ancient context. © Courtesy of BISCUIT SOUND Jung Eunhye La Divina Commedia-InfernoJung Eunhye; BISCUIT SOUND [August 2021]This album is a polished recording of a pansori (narrative song) sound project that premiered in 2017. It’s a type of “sound theater,” where the sonic architecture serves as the accompaniment to the pansori singing and reading of Western classics. The 17 tracks on the album, including “The Gates of Hell,” “The River of Charon” and “The Devil’s Prey,” were inspired by Dante’s “The Divine Comedy: Inferno.” They consist of the main text being narrated and sung in pansori.The voice of Jung Eunhye, which floats around like a ghostly echo in the stereophonic space, at times accompanied by percussion instruments, cello, guitar or piano, transports the listener to a damp and gloomy basement theater. Jung melds the plaintive aesthetics of Korea’s musical storytelling tradition with Dante’s depiction of hell.Jung is a singer and actor who is active in changgeuk (pansori opera) and theater. She began studying under pansori masters at the age of seven and majored in traditional Korean music at Seoul National University. In 2013, she joined the National Changgeuk Company of Korea, where her lead performances brought her into the spotlight. © Park Jin-hee “Hi, We are Jihye & Jisu”Jihye & Jisu; Sound Republica [March 2021]“Hi, We are Jihye & Jisu”Jihye & Jisu; Sound Republica [March 2021]This is the debut album by percussionist Kim Ji-hye and classical pianist Jung Ji-su. Kim studied traditional Korean music from a young age and dreamed of fusing her music with other art genres; Jung thirsts for creative pursuits and popular appeal. The two first met at Berklee College of Music as jazz composition majors and have since been collaborating to explore their potential as performing artists as well as music creators.Their music has no hint of serious and esoteric experimentation, nor does it contain digitally altered sounds. The seven tracks on the album make for an acoustic concert of simple sounds that deliver the original tone of the buk (drum), janggu (double-headed barrel drum) and piano. The album is based on personal experiences and inspirations from their travels in Spain, and sparkles with energy from beginning to end.The rhythms used in traditional Korean folk music collide with the funky rhythms and odd-number beats of jazz. Listening to the fast-paced fifth track, “Ronda and Me,” on the way to work is sure to be an invigorating start to the day. The last two tracks feature impressive guest performers on saxophone and percussion. © Daniel Schwartz, Micha “Greekorea: Greeting the Moon”The Gugak Jazz Society; Sori-e Naite Music Company [March 2021]The Gugak Jazz Society is an ensemble of musicians from Korea, Greece and the United States. It was formed in 2019 in Boston while the musicians were collaborating on the project “Pansori Cantata with a Jazz Orchestra.” As the title suggests, their music is a chemical synthesis of the traditional music of Greece and Korea, with jazz as the catalyst.The Greek-Korea-U.S. project, spearheaded by Boston-based pianist Mina Cho, creates multidimensional soundscapes out of a diverse array of instruments, from old Korean instruments such as the janggu, kkwaenggwari (small gong), saenghwang (free-reed mouth organ with 17 bamboo pipes), gayageum (12-stringed zither) and taepyeongso (conical double-reed oboe); to the Greek lute; the Middle Eastern percussion instruments bendir, riq and darbuka; and drums and bass. The striking vocals of Lee Na Rae, also a member of LEENALCHI, move fluidly from Korean folk to Middle Eastern sounds, while the rhythms and harmony distinctive to each region blend smoothly. The unique tripartite project, with musicians based in Seoul, Athens and Boston, offers a music palette that is unparalleled. © Void Studio “Pseudo Science”SB Circle; Plankton Music [August 2021]This is the second album from the group SB Circle, whose name is a compound of the names of two members: jazz saxophonist Shin Hyun-pill and gayageum player Kyungso Park (the surname can also be spelled “Bak”). The other two members are bassist Seo Young-do and drummer Christian Moran. SB is also an abbreviation of the Korean slang word sinbak, widely used by the younger generation, which means “novel and ingenious.”This “novel, ingenious” group eschews simply adding jazz harmonies to the monophonic scale of traditional Korean music. Instead, they have achieved a fine collaborative creation that is light-hearted but not frivolous. “Fan in the Room,” the album’s first track, fuses the saxophone and the monophonic scale of the gayageum, which glides along like a sedan on an empty highway by the Han River. The texture of the music is smooth and chic, and the rhythms of Seo’s bass and Moran’s drums are delicate yet controlled. The unusual, ear-catching melodies of “Flat Earth” and “Negative Ions” are sure to captivate fans of urban jazz regardless of nationality or musical background.#Korean traditional music
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Features 2022 SPRING 1214
Maverick Creates Musical Potpourri Music performer, director and composer Jang Young Gyu spans the full range of mediums in the performing arts, compiling a remarkable portfolio of critically acclaimed works. Since the early 1990s, he has organized and led a series of bands, posing questions and conducting experiments that stretch traditional Korean music with catchy rhythms. Jang Young Gyu set out on his musical journey by organizing a band with his elementary school friends. The band played tambourines and melodions, and as he recalls, it was “ludicrous.” Today, many words can be used to describe Jang’s music. “Ludicrous” is not one of them.Jang, 54, became known to international music fans while performing with SsingSsing, a band fusing rock and minyo, or traditional Korean folk songs. He has also won awards at domestic and international film festivals; in all, he’s been involved with more than 80 films, including the international smash hit “Train to Busan” (2016) and notables like “The Wailing” (2016), “Tazza: The High Rollers” (2006) and “A Bittersweet Life” (2005). As if that weren’t enough, Jang’s eclectic scope also extends to dance and theater productions.Much of his attention nowadays is focused on his duties as the music director and bassist of LEENA LCHI, an alternative pop band that became a global sensation in 2019 with the song “Tiger is Coming.” The success has raised Jang’s profile in the musical world even higher, though he isn’t comfortable talking about himself. Though he describes himself as a poor conversationalist, he was clear and succinct discussing his career and music at his studio in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, the incubator of his musical adventures. At the forefront of contemporary experimentation with traditional Korean music, Jang Young Gyu has worked with artists from various fields since his youth. The experience, he says, has helped him broaden the range of his music. When did you get into traditional music?Won Il, the traditional Korean composer and instrumentalist, showed me the way. I met himin the early 1990s. We worked together in Uhuhboo Project, which formed in 1994, until the band’s first album was released. At the time, I had an immense curiosity about new sounds. Won Il introduced me to his friends and colleagues, with whom we carried out various projects.My interest in traditional music deepened when I started to work with modern dancer Ahn Eun-me. Her dance company offered me an opportunity to make music on my own terms, encouraging me to approach it in a drastically different way. Working on projects such as “New Chunhyang” and “Symphoca Princess Bari – This World,” I was finally able to distinguish the three genres of traditional vocal music – that is, pansori (narrative song), minyo and jeongga (classical vocal music) – and came to appreciate the different qualities and charms of the sounds.Wanting to delve deeper into the tradition, I organized a seven-person band called Be-Being in 2007. We worked on projects of Buddhist music, mask dance and court music, regarding them as a process of learning. As a music director, what do you think pulls you to traditional music?I’m enchanted by what’s created over a long passage of time. And I also think that the circumstances under which you listen to music, or the way in which you appreciate it, can make a lot of difference. I was fortunate to be able to meet musicians in person and listen to their performances up close. That means I could immerse myself in aspects of our traditional music that differed from what people usually feel while listening to records or going to concert halls, where sounds are amplified by microphones. This is something you cannot experience without being at very close range. I hope many people will have such experiences. SsingSsing, a minyo (traditional folk song) rock band, captivated audiences with groundbreaking music and funny performances. Formed in 2015, the group included three singers, a drummer and two guitarists, including Jang Young Gyu. It disbanded in 2018. Courtesy of National Theater of Korea What do you think of crossovers?Last year, working as a judge at an audition, I had a chance to watch the performances of over 60 teams of musicians. Throughout, a question lingered in my head: “What do they want to do?” Most traditional musicians are technically proficient because their art requires a long period of training. But music isn’t all about refined skills – that’s my honest opinion.For the last several years, a growing number of bands have fused traditional music with other genres. Last year, a TV audition program for traditional musicians was even broadcast, further accelerating the crossover trend. But I’m not sure if this is all good. I’m worried that people who aren’t well-informed might tend to mistake the crossover pieces featured on the TV competition for true traditional music and only seek out music like that. We should soon find a way to expose them to the fun and charms of authentic traditional music. What is your view of music that fuses traditional music and other genres?I grew up listening to a collaboration record by the percussion quartet Kim Duk-soo & Samulnori and the multinational jazz group Red Sun. I thought it was excellent music. Later, I was attracted to Percussion Ensemble Puri and Yang Bang Ean (aka Kunihiko Ryo). Although Yang couldn’t have expected it, almost all traditional music bands played his pieces on stage. Many groups emulating his music style emerged at the time and significantly influenced the traditional music scene.If we talk about Jambinai, I don’t think their music can be called traditional, but they have a clear orientation and original musicality. They’re playing a prominent role in the music scene. There’s also 2nd Moon, a seven-person band that’s good at discerning popular taste. It’s a good phenomenon that various groups are appearing. LEENALCHI performs at Strange Fruit, a live theater near Hongik University, in December 2021. The alternative pop band formed in 2019 with seven members. “Tiger is Coming,” based on pansori (narrative song) reinterpreted into pop music, became an international sensation. Front: (from right to left) bassist Jang Young Gyu and singers Kwon Song Hee, Lee Na Rae, Ahn Yi Ho and Shin Yu Jin. Rear: bassist Park Jun Cheol and drummer Lee Chul Hee. © LIVE CLUB DAY, Azalia What ultimately determines the value?I think good music offers something different. As for me, I also try to always keep in mind how to extract something different from what I’m doing. Does that mean you try to avoid clichés?Working on a constant series of projects, I once worried about fixed styles and repetition. At some point, however, it occurred to me that having a style wasn’t necessarily bad, and I was freed from an obsession with always being new. With my style, I can seek new methods depending on content. How does LEENALCHI differ for you?For other projects, I usually have a clearly defined role and a distinct purpose, but LEENALCHI opens up everything. The typical process of making a song goes like this: first, I compose basic rhythms and patterns, after which the four singers get together to find matching melodies from pansori works. Sometimes, we listen to and review all the five major pansori works so as to fit their melodies and verses with the composed rhythms and our musical intent. It’s interesting to capture what comes up unexpectedly in this process and build it up into a song. What we do isn’t rearranging one of the existing pansori works but creating a new one in our own way. Has LEENALCHI’s success changed you?I had a vague idea that it would be great if my music were well-received in the pop music market, but I didn’t think about what I would have to do for it to happen. Since our first album, “Sugungga” (Song of the Underwater Palace), was re-leased in 2020, I’ve had heaps of work in front of me that I would have hated to do, that I would have never done before. But then it occurred to me that I shouldn’t say I wanted to be “successful commercially” while avoiding those things. The biggest change, I guess, has been my acceptance of the things that would have formerly made me wonder, “What does all this have to do with my work?” I’m trying hard to adapt. By the way, LEENALCHI isn’t successful yet. “Is our work consumed as band music?” I ask myself, and the answer is “no.” There’s a long way to go. What more do you have to do?In fact, there’s no market for band music in Korea, so just making good music doesn’t ensure success. It makes no sense, either, to wait indefinitely to be recognized. Optimal circumstances don’t magically happen, so each band should try hard to make themselves heard. Are you planning to perform overseas?For the band to survive, we should continue to find ways to get closer to domestic audiences while also trying to secure our place in the international music scene, as markets for bands do exist there. Yes, we’re having concerts overseas this year. What about your second album?I never expected to be so busy, with so little time to work on the album. And I thought I could make something more out of the five pansori works, but now I’m doubtful. I wondered if telling a new story would be enough to appeal to contemporary listeners when the means to tell the story remain unchanged, with parts of the existing pansori works simply cut and pasted. Then I realized we should find new musical methods of making sound, not to mention new stories to tell. The second album is primarily intended to present creative pansori reflecting all these thoughts, so it will take longer. I’ve set a goal to release it at the end of this year, if possible.#Korean traditional music
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Features 2022 SPRING 921
Joyous Feast of Creative Artists The Yeo Woo Rak Festival, hosted by the National Theater of Korea, is a joyous feast of music. Launched on the premise of popularizing traditional Korean music through modern interpretations, the annual celebration arouses the imaginative spirit of musicians from a variety of genres, inspiring them to experiment with bold creations. GongMyoung, a first-generation world music group, performs at the Yeo Woo Rak Festival held at the National Theater of Korea in July 2017. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the group presented a broad repertoire. The annual festival interprets and blends traditional Korean music with other genres.Courtesy of National Theater of Korea Every July, the month-long Yeo Woo Rak Festival occupies the National Theater of Korea in the heart of Seoul. The name is an acronym; the literal meaning is “It is our music,” implying “traditional music that can be enjoyed by modern audiences.” Now in its 13th year, this festival at the foot of Mt. Nam is where artists from different fields freely exhibit bold experiments with traditional music.Yeo Woo Rak has enjoyed remarkable success compared to other traditional Korean music concerts. Tickets sell out regularly, and as of the end of 2021, attendees totaled 66,098 (viewers of online performances during 2020 not included). On average, they filled 93 percent of the seats. Considering that traditional music has been a largely marginalized genre accounting for an insignificant share of the music market, the festival’s success is both unprecedented and encouraging.But the significance of the festival doesn’t lie in its strong ticket sales alone; it deserves credit for spurring a renaissance of traditional Korean music. Pushing beyond the boundaries of a musical heritage that needs government support to survive, it assembles musicians and ignites their creative prowess. The result is a modern spin on tradition, and a way of reaching out to global audiences.Prominent artists have served as the festival’s artistic director in previous iterations. Among them were pianist-cum-composer Yang Bang Ean (aka Kunihiko Ryo), jazz musician Youn Sun Nah, composer-cum-conductor Won Il and cheol-hyeongeum (steel-stringed zither) player Yu Kyung-hwa. Heading the festival since 2020 as creative director is geomungo (sixstringed zither) player Park Woo Jae. Yang and Nah have carved out successful careers in jazz and popular music, while Won and Yu are renowned artists acclaimed for their experimental and creative collaborations based on distinctive styles that are rooted in traditional music. This impressive lineup of artists crossing multiple genres truly embodies the three key concepts that define the festival: experimentation, collaboration and popular appeal.The featured performers can be broadly classified into three groups. The first group includes virtuosos – certified holders of National Intangible Cultural Heritage or the equivalents, such as master pansori (narrative song) singer Ahn Sook-sun and shaman Lee Hae-kyung, who leads the communal rite handed down in Hwanghae Province. Their role is to preserve and uphold musical heritage. Posters for the Yeo Woo Rak Festival, which was founded in 2010. Every July, musicians from various genres stage creative works at the National Theater of Korea. Their concerts regularly sell out. Courtesy of National Theater of Korea The second group consists of young musicians who have studied traditional music. These are the festival’s central acts. They collaborate, working with many different genres, from jazz, avant-garde and popular music to Western classical, and their work combines artistry, experimentation and mass appeal. The group has included artists such as gayageum (12-stringed zither) player Kyungso Park and world music bands GongMyoung and Sinnoi.The third group is populated with jazz and pop musicians known for their creative endeavors. These are veterans of collaborative projects that fuse contemporary and traditional musical elements. Some notable musicians in this group are pianist Lim Dong-chang, composer Jung Jae-il and rapper Tiger JK.The festival also features many artists from other fields, such as photographers and visual designers, offering audiences a richer, more profound experience.#Korean traditional music
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Features 2022 SPRING 1386
The Advent of ‘Joseon Pop’ Fusing Western pop with gugak (traditional Korean music), a new genre nicknamed “Joseon pop” is coming under the spotlight. This musical variant is poised to expand the boundaries of K-pop, but it didn’t appear overnight. sEODo Band performs at Olympic Park in Seoul in December 2021, during a nationwide concert tour, a follow-up to “Pungnyu Daejang” (Masters of Arts), a TV audition program for pop and gugak crossovers on the cable network JTBC. The popular survival show brought traditional music to the attention of a wider general audience. © JTBC, ATTRAKT MJTBC “Gugak is the music of Koreans, but it’s also the music farthest from Koreans,” said a novelist and music lover, pointing to the reality of traditional Korean music since the 20th century. The native music of Koreans, although shared and passed down for centuries, had departed so far from contemporary sensibilities as to be nearly extinguished. It had become deeply engraved in people’s minds as quaint and out of date.This preconception was a major obstacle to the transformation and evolution of traditional Korean music, but ironically, it also served as a catalyst for the recent “Joseon pop” trend. When traditional Korean music came out of obscurity in a different outfit, people found it strikingly stylish. But this should not be seen as an unprecedented turn of events: traditional Korean music has constantly been evolving with fresh ideas and renewed sensibilities. Now, it’s coming into the limelight after long years of obscurity. Kim Duk Soo (second from left) and the Cheong Bae Traditional Art Troupe give a joint performance at Gwanghwamun Art Hall in October 2015. Kim Duk Soo & Samulnori, a percussion quartet organized in 1978, gave numerous concerts at home and abroad, enjoying huge popularity. The Cheong Bae Traditional Art Troupe has been dedicated to creating its own music inspired by traditional Korean performing arts for over 20 years. © Samulnori Hanullim Support for PreservationSince the late 20th century, the government’s policy to preserve traditional music has been critical to its survival. Preservation enabled the creation of a new music rooted in tradition. In any country, traditional music tends to be treated as irrelevant to contemporary life, and the same fate has repeatedly threatened Korea’s traditional music. The Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) was the dark age, and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 led to the destruction of related resources, including musicians. Postwar political turmoil and economic hardship further depleted the potential for regeneration. During the rush of industrialization and urbanization that began in the 1960s, traditional music remained at the fringes, belittled as a premodern art form.Throughout recurring crises, efforts to preserve the legacy of traditional music continued, albeit inconspicuously. During the Japanese colonial era, these efforts were headed by the Music Institute of the Yi Royal Household. Divested of sovereignty, the Joseon Dynasty had been demoted to the “Yi Royal Household” and music performances for court ceremonies were about to be reduced or abolished. But despite the hostile climate, the royal music institute managed to recruit students and teach them court music to keep the tradition alive. During the Korean War, which broke out a few years after liberation and the establishment of the Republic of Korea, the National Gugak Center was founded in Busan, the wartime capital. It gathered under its roof the remnants of musical rsources and musicians scattered across the war-torn country. After the armistice in 1953, it was relocated to Seoul and has since grown into the central institution responsible for the preservation of traditional music and its modern reinterpretation and creation.The enforcement of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act in 1962 was also crucial. Based on the law, the National Intangible Cultural Heritage system was introduced to designate areas of traditional culture and arts for preservation and provide support for practitioners qualified to be a “title holder” or “certified trainee.” The areas of traditional music with such official recognition include Jongmyo Jeryeak (royal ancestral ritual music), gagok (lyric song cycles), pansori (narrative song), daegeum sanjo (solo on the transverse bamboo f lute) and Gyeonggi minyo (folk songs of the Gyeonggi region), among others. Interestingly, many of the performers leading the recent reappraisal of traditional Korean music are certified trainees in arts designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage: Black String’s Yoon Jeong Heo was trained in geomungo sanjo (solo on the six-stringed zither); Jambinai’s Ilwoo Lee in piri jeongak (court music on the double-reed oboe) and daechwita (processional music); LEENALCHI’s Ahn Yi Ho in pansori; and singer Lee Hee-moon in Gyeonggi folk songs. Coreyah, a gugak crossover group, holds its concert “Clap & Applause” (Baksumugok) at Guri Art Hall in September 2020, celebrating its 10th anniversary. The group presents a unique fusion of pop and ethnic music from around the world, playing up the characteristics of traditional instruments.© Guri Cultural Foundation Popular AppealThe Department of Korean Music at Seoul National University, founded in 1959, paved the way for traditional music to become a subject of academic research. It inspired other universities across the country to open similar departments, which increased greatly in number in the 1970s and 1980s. They produced graduates who stood out in the music scene, spearheading the development of traditional music.Unlike the previous generation, who saw tradition endangered amid the turbulence of the 20th century, these college-educated musicians believed that beyond preservation and transmission, it was important to breathe new life into traditional music for wider appeal. They started to compose creative works using elements of traditional music tweaked with contemporary style.The definition of “creative” was quite broad at the time as it included new works based on the motifs of well-known folk songs or pansori pieces, as well as arrangements of Western classical music for traditional instruments.Specifically, samulnori (ensemble of four percussion instruments) appeared in the late 1970s and played a pivotal role in making traditional music popular. Having evolved from the rhythmsof farmers’ band music played in rural communities, samulnori is a lively performance of the buk (barrel drum), janggu (double-headed drum), kkwaenggwari (small gong) and jing (gong). Young musicians gave exciting performances incorporating characteristic elements of these four instruments, stirring audiences to respond to the uplifting rhythms and bringing traditional music back from the fringes to which it had long been banished. TransformationIn the 1980s, when the pop music market was growing rapidly, a popular version of minyo with the distinct rhythms and melodies of traditional music emerged. “Gugak pop songs” took root as a genre of popular music, contributing to broader enjoyment of traditional music. The accompaniments combining Korean and Western instruments paved the ground for the emergence of “fusion gugak” in the 1990s.The wave of globalization that swept the country around the 1988 Seoul Olympics also spurred the evolution of gugak. With an open market and new trade order, and Western culture permeating everyday life, Koreans started to open their eyes to their own culture. Big hits in this social milieu include Bae Il-ho’s song “Sintoburi” (1993). The title means “body and soil cannot be separated,” hence encouragng the consumption of home-grown foods. “Seopyeonje,” a film directed by Im Kwon-taek depicting pansori singers, was released the same year and achieved record-high ticket sales, earning kudos as a “national movie.” Around the same time, a pharmaceutical advertisement featuring the master pansori singer Park Dong-jin (1916-2003) shouting, “Cherish what’s ours!” yielded a buzzword that remained popular for a while. Jimin of BTS performs a traditional fan dance at the 2018 Melon Music Awards. At the year-end event, BTS also presented “IDOL,” featuring J-HOPE’s three-drum dance and Jungkook’s mask dance, drawing an enthusiastic response from the audience. © Kakao Entertainment Corp. SUGA of BTS appears in the music video for “Daechwita,” the title track of his second mixtape, “D-2” (2020). The song deftly combines trap beats and the sound of traditional instruments from daechwita, the music for royal processions of the Joseon Dynasty. © HYBE Co., Ltd. On the occasion of Seoul’s 600th anniversary as the capital of Korea, the government designated 1994 as “Visit Korea Year” and the “Year of Gugak” to invigorate the tourism industry. To attract international visitors, traditional music was touted as one of the country’s major cultural products. A few years later, however, the Asian financial crisis dealt a severe blow to the art and culture circles. Many traditional musicians were forced to think about what kind of music they had to pursue to make a living.In the late 1990s, thanks to the spread of the internet, traditional musicians as well as the general public were exposed to a variety of music from other countries. They came to learn there was a genre called “world music,” created based on each country’s musical traditions. Music from South Asia, Africa and other areas became a rich source of inspiration. Previously, the traditional Korean music repertoire for overseas performances had mostly been limited to time-honored classics. As more fusion styles came to be presented at international music festivals, audiences responded favorably. At the forefront of the trend were Percussion Ensemble Puri, a group led by the composer Won Il, and the world music group GongMyoung.Gradually, the notion that creative succession of tradition involves transformation and modification became widespread. This is consistent with UNESCO’s decision to inscribe the Korean folk song “Arirang” on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, explaining that the old song is still universally sung by Koreans and transmitted in various versions created by individuals and communities. A still cut from singer Lee Hee-moon’s online concert “Minyo,” streamed live on the internet portal Naver in July 2021. Released ahead of the concert, the image represents a fantastic visualization of Minyo, the eponymous character that Lee created. The character’s name is a parody of minyo, traditional folk songs. Courtesy of Lee Hee Moon Company Collaboration and Synergy“Joseon pop” grew out of this long history and background, which provided a rich soil for the birth of bands better known overseas than at home, including Black String, Jambinai and LEENALCHI. The success of the Yeo Woo Rak Festival grew out of this same soil. The annual festival, hosted by the National Theater of Korea, started in 2010 as a domestic event but has now grown into a world music festival overflowing with the creative ideas and inspirations of young musicians.Recently, artists in other fields and the general public have been seeing traditional music in aremarkably different light. The TV audition program “Pungnyu Daejang” (Masters of Arts), which aired on JTBC from September through December 2021, showcased the unrestrained experimentation of young musicians, leaving viewers raving over their unfamiliar but stylish music. Another new trend is active collaboration between traditional musicians and artists in other genres, such as theater, dance, film, musicals and fine art, all seeking to create something different. Singer Lee Hee-moon, who has worked closely with many artists in fashion, the visual arts and music videos, said in a recent interview, “It’s undoubtedly important to preserve our traditional music intact, but I often think of it as a secret weapon to bring creative change to other genres of art.”It remains to be seen whether “Joseon pop” will be able to enhance its appeal for global fans of world music who look for unique fare from around the planet.#Korean traditional music
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Features 2022 SPRING 975
Musical Instruments Straddle Boundaries Korea’s traditional musical instruments include native instruments that have been played since ancient times and foreign instruments adopted from the Eurasian continent. Throughout the nation’s long history, these instruments have encapsulated its culture and sensibilities, undergoing modifications to better express the sounds of different eras. A nation’s musical instruments reflect its cultural contours. The materials, shapes, sizes and playing techniques that determine an instrument’s sound are an amalgamation of many elements, including geographical location, environment, culture and religion. And yet, nearly every instrument must be seen to possess qualities derived from outside the nation’s border; new instruments are born when the cultures of neighboring regions collide and converge. Hence the identity of an instrument is not fixed but rather constantly evolving.Traditional Korean musical instruments are no exception to this ebb and f low. Some were imported from China many centuries ago. Some were picked up after they fell out of favor and given a second life in Korea. And some are versions of Western instruments that were adopted during the 20th century. Some instruments continue to be reformed today to improve their volume or expand their range. Iterations transcend barriers in redesigning their mien and sound.In the modern era, as Western music spread to Korea, bands, quartets and orchestras became the primary musical performers. Traditional Korean instruments, not being very well suited to such ensembles, have been pushed to the side. In particular, instruments that produce a low volume or are difficult to use to play harmony are typically given a minor role.Recently, however, more musicians are performing as soloists, sharing the distinct characteristics of their traditional instruments with audiences. New solo compositions are being written for instruments that were pushed far to the back as they were unable to reveal their original tone color in a group, as well as for instruments that were almost never played alone. Traditional instruments – and the whole genre of traditional music – are thus being interpreted and played in much more diversified ways. Today, traditional instruments are used in a broad array of music genres, from creative pieces focused on the grammar of traditional music to works that bridge genres.In the following we take a look at some of the traditional Korean musical instruments that have been popular in recent years. GeomungoThe Finest of All Instruments The geomungo, a six-stringed zither, has long been considered the finest of all Korean musical instruments, used not only to play music but as a tool for mental cultivation and mind control. At first glance, it resembles the gayageum, a 12-stringed zither. Both are built of wood with silk strings, but they are completely different – especially in tone – as the result of their construction and the way they are played. The gayageum is played by pressing down on the strings and plucking them by hand. The geomungo has thicker strings and produces a low, ponderous sound; it is played by plucking the strings with a stick, called suldae, in one hand while the other hand pulls or pushes on the strings. This combination of percussion and strings emits a more restrained but stronger sound than other string instruments.The geomungo had a key role in traditional ensembles. In modern times, its importance has gradually declined and creative new pieces highlighting the instrument are rare. There are various reasons for this, but given the current prevalence of bands and West- ern-style orchestras, it is primarily because the geomungo’s low volume and simple tones dissuade them from investing in efforts to incorporate the instrument on their playlist.Certainly, it isn’t easy to create a piece that fully demonstrates the particulars of the geomungo. But that hasn’t stopped some musicians from garnering acclaim with the geomungo alone. Hwang Gina, geomungo soloist and music creator, makes sensuous, contemporary works that expand the possibilities of this instrument. Her digital single, “Mess of Love,” released in 2021, expresses the conflicting psychology of men and women dealing with separation. The geomungo delivers rhythmically paced entertainment that feels just right. PiriLife Breathed into Wood Some instruments come to life when the player’s breath is channeled through a wooden bore. The piri is a vertical bamboo instrument comparable to an oboe. There are three types based on size and function: hyangpiri, literally the “local piri,” which is the longest type of piri; the slender sepiri; and dangpiri, or the “Tang piri,” which was used mainly to play court music and music derived from China.The piri plays the main melody in most traditional Korean music, from palace music to folk music. In general, wind instruments are divided into those with a reed (a thin piece of material that vibrates to produce sound) and those without. The piri has a double-reed called “seo” and is played by breathing into the bore, controlling strength, and opening and closing the tone holes (jigong) with the fingers. The musician uses the tongue or adjusts the position of the reed to control the pitch, and performs various techniques that can only be done on the piri. Full utilization of these features requires both sensitivity and skill.The piri can play quite a wide spectrum of music. Thanks to its firm and powerful timbre, it is also often responsible for the main melody in contemporary works. Surprisingly, however, ensembles consisting solely of piri players are rare. BBIRIBBOO, a three-member band consisting of two piri players and one producer, is one of the exceptions. They emphasize the charm of the piri with witty and innovative interpretations of a diverse traditional repertoire.“In Dodri,” released in 2021, is a funky rearrangement of “Yangcheong Dodeuri,” one of the three pieces making up “Celebrating Eternity” (Cheonnyeon Manse), a classical suite played at court banquets of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). It has a fast tempo and high-spirited, catchy melodies. Borrowing and interpreting these attributes, “In Dodri” is performed with the piri and saenghwang, a free-reed mouth organ. UllaVibration and Resonance The ulla is a relatively new traditional Korean instrument. It was introduced from China, but no definitive date has been confirmed. It isn’t mentioned in the major music book of the early Joseon Dynasty, “Canon of Music” (Akhak gwebeom), first published in 1493, but can be found in historical sources from the latter half of the Joseon period.The ulla is a percussion instrument consisting of 10 small copper gongs hung in a wooden frame. A small rod, held in one or both hands, is used to strike the gongs, which are arranged in four rows, the pitch of each gradually increasing from bottom to top and left to right. Unlike most other percussion instruments, the ulla can play melodies. However, it is usually played in a percussion ensemble and solo pieces for the ulla are rare. Today, this instrument is mainly used in processional music to accompany the changing of the guard ceremony at royal palaces or reenactments of a royal procession. Percussionist Han Solip has recently introduced notable pieces for the ulla and other percussion instruments. Her first digital single, “All Grownups Were Once Children,” released in 2018, features the clear, pure tones of the ulla in an overall warm and dreamy atmosphere. This solo piece has a distinctly different feel from traditional processional music as it focuses on gentle reverberations and lyrical melodies rather than the clear, piercing sound the gongs make when struck strongly. Many more musicians are expected to explore the possibilities of this traditional percussion instrument with its modern, minimal sound in the years ahead. © Choi Yeong-mo Cheol-hyeongeumThe Guitar Morphed The cheol-hyeongeum is a steel-stringed zither devised by Kim Yeong-cheol, a master tightrope walker and member of a namsadangpae, a traditional band of itinerant male entertainers, during the 1940s. It is a rare example of a guitar modified to suit the grammar of traditional Korean musical instruments. The instrument is said to have been made while Kim played the guitar for fun, laying it on the floor like a geomungo. Consequently, the qualities of the guitar and the geomungo were beautifully combined.Korean string instruments are typically made with silk threads, but the cheol-hyeongeum has eight steel strings, like some guitars. It is played like the geomungo: a stick called suldae is held in the right hand to pluck the strings while the left hand moves a slide along the strings. The result is a completely different tone from a guitar with steel strings. Straddling a subtle boundary between instruments, it is infused with modern vitality and the energy of change.The cheol-hyeongeum is not a common instrument among performers of traditional music, and few specialize in playing it. Naturally, there are very few pieces composed for it. Recently, there have been increasing opportunities to hear the instrument in new, creative works. For example, it appears around the middle of “The Waves of the Neocortex,” a 2019 piece by the gayageum trio Hey String, producing metallic melodies – sharp but rounded – that contrast with gayageum melodies. © Song Kwang-chan JangguThe Start and End of Music The janggu is a double-headed drum widely used in traditional Korean music. It is almost always played at both the beginning and end of a piece, due to its role in control ling the tempo with the beats. This drum is made by gouging out the inside of a long log at its ends and forming a slender stem in the middle. The result is an hourglass shape, with both ends covered with leather and fastened with strings. It is played by beating on the leather heads: the left side with the palm of the hand or a rounded mallet called gungchae and the right side with a long, thin wooden stick called yeolchae.The janggu is basically considered an accompanying instrument. There are, of course, pieces that showcase the vibrant and dazzling melodies and techniques of the janggu, such as the seoljanggu (display of individual feats) and pungmulgut (farmers’ band parade). However, not often is a piece of music written entirely for percussion instruments. Recently, however, there have been an increasing number of percussion soloists, expanding the scope of their music beyond conventional boundaries.Kim So Ra is one such soloist. Her second album, “Landscape,” released in 2021, presents her own spin on the rhythms of traditional farmers’ percussion band music and shamanic music. Her performances are characterized by both explosive energy and restrained beauty. Her music provides a precious opportunity to appreciate a janggu performance as one full score.#Korean traditional music
