스크랩 Korean Folk Songs & Folks Bands

[punuri]

Korean Folk Songs & Folks Bands

Keith Howard
Professor, Folk Music
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London

l start with a dilemma. The most widely appreciated genres of Korean folk music today are essentially urban: P'ansori(epi storytelling through song), sanjo(scattered melodies for solo instrument and drum accompaniment), and samul nori(percussion quartet). They comprise a high art canon developed and performed by professional or semi-professional musicians. But I will here concentrate on minyo (folk songs) and nong-ak(percussion bands: commonly referred to as farmers' bands or farmers' music).

.

In Korean scholars' accounts, the term minyo combines two appropriate Chinese characters for the people(min) and song(yo), and nong-ak combines faming(nong) and music(ak). minyo defines songs with no recognized composers, a shrouded and timeless history, and few prescribed texts. Minyo vary from cillage to village and tend to use simple strophic melodies. Minyo are the "songs of the people," the equivalent of German volkslied, sung in work, for entertainment, and at funerals.

.

Nong-ak, in its local context at least, prescribes percussion bands playing music transmitted without composers or teachers. The ascendant minjung populism argues the merits of such rural traditions, but this second canon is dying in the countryside as Korea becomes a modern, industrial, and Western-looking nation. My dilemma lies in the distinction between high and low. Confucian scholars once marked the 'latter with the slightly derogatory term t'osok, an today its survival relies on the reinvention and reconstruction of tradition.

.

Minyo was a term brought to Korea from Japan as commercial gramophone recordings began to appear. Recordings featured entertainment songs with widespread provenance. They were sung by professionals, and created a style-shin minyo-that many local singers have since felt they should emulate. Well-known examples include Hanobaengnyon, Namhansansong, and many T'aryong.

.

These popular "songs for the people" (yuhaeng minyo and t'ongsok minyo are typical scholarly terms) abandoned improvisation and fixed their texts, sometimes combining words from different regions. Roots for the style can be traced back to chapka (vulgar songs), and Sonsori t'aryong or ipch'ang (standing songs), many of which were developed by itinerant travelling troupes, such as Namsadang.

.

Arirang, now Korea's "national" folk song, is probably the best popular example. Arirang catapulted to fame through a silent film produced by Na Un-gyu in 1926. It became a symbol of the independence struggle. But local versions can still be found throughout the peninsula, from ,the archetypal Chongsan arirang to the common Chindo arirang and Miryang arirang. There are legends which recount the song's invention in each district, but the real ancestry is unknown. How old is Arirang, given that the first transcription-in a missionary journal-dates only from the 1890s' Could the refrain derive from the Koryo period (918-1392) Chongsan pyolgok? And why does its curious phrase structure suggest mid-Choson poetry?

.

Regional Folk Songs

.

A number of local folk song areas are still distinguished, roughly congruent with dialect areas. Namdo minyo come from the southwestern Cholla-do provinces (the Honam region). Singers use a tight throat and considerable chest resonance. Emotion comes from the vocal character-aewan ch'ong (sad voice)-and a characteristic tritonic pitch scheme in which a deep and vibrating dominant (ttonun mok) is separated from a high falling appoggiatura known as the "breaking tone" (kkongnun mok) by a plain and barely vibrated tonic. The characteristic song is Yukchabaegi, given in a slow and flexible 6-beat chinyangjo rhythmic cycle (18/8).

.

Sodo minyo, from the P'yong-an-do and Hwanghae-do provinces now in North Korea, contain comparable, sometimes tearful, emotion. Songs move gradually from a low pitch, register to a high climax, then conclude in a series of descending portamento. Nasal resonance is used, coupled to a low sonorous vibrato. The characteristic song is the free-rhythm Sushimga. Excerpts of Sushimga often conclude other songs. There are three common more regular rhythmic cycles, toduri (6/4), semach'i (9/8) and kutkori (12/8). Sodo minyo are preserved by migrants around Seoul as the Republic of Korea's Intangible Cultural Asset (Muhyong munhwajae) No. 29. Folk singing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ostensibly based on Sodo minyo, but with less vibrato and no nasal resonance.

.

Kyonggi minyo typify what we would expect to find near the capital city: Kyonggi-do Province surrounds Seoul. Songs tend to be joyful, lyrical and bright, using a relaxed throat and less nasal resonance. Regular rhythmic cycles such as chungmori (12/4) and kutkori (12/8) feature. Nilliria and Nrae karak are representative songs. To the east, beyond the T'aebaek mountain range, much of the three styles continue, but a distinct and unified pentatonic mode described as menarijo or sanyuhwaje can be discerned. In the southeastern Kyongsang-do provinces (the Yongnam region), the irregular and unaccompanied Menari sori is the characteristic song.

.

In central Kangwon-do Province, versions of Arasong, notably Kangwando arirang and Chongson arirang, are faster and more regular. Once typical throughout the region, Orang t'aryong (Shin Kosan t'aryong) favors a consistently high pitch range but is lighter and less emotional than Sushimga.

.

A final region, based on the southern island of Chejudo, is also distinguished. Farming songs favor free and expansive rhythmic textures and florid, highly ornamented melodies. Threshing songs and lullabies are built from short, repetitive phrases. Songs reminiscent of Kyonggi-do are still sung around the old administrative center of Songup.

.

How "authentic" are any of these songs today? Namdo tul norae, rice fanning songs from Chindo, Chollanam-do Province, have since 1973 been preserved as Intangible Cultural Asset No. 51. The agricultural year is now telescoped into eight songs, each lasting about 25 minutes-slow and fast seeding (Mottun sori), slow and fast transplanting (Mot sori or Sangsa sori), slow, medium and fast weeding (Chollo sori, p'ungjang sori), and a processional (Kukkonaegi).

.

These songs were once sung during times of communal labor, but they ceased to be used in rice fields during the 1950s. Restructured and presented at the 1971 National Folk Arts Contest (Chon-guk minsok yesul kyongyon taehoe), plastic rice shoots were introduced for atmosphere. Percussion interludes were inserted to join songs from different parts of the agricultural cycle, words were pared down and improvisation removed, an ox was added for variety, and clothes were made suitably uniform. Singers argue that each new element is a positive and necessary addition, and that the songs remain anchored in tradition. "I only sing as in the old days; I wouldn't dare change one jot" said the now deceased senior singer, Sol Chae-ch'on.

.

Preservation

.

The preservation system has also recognized farming songs from Kosong and Yech'on in the Kyongsang-do provinces as intangible Cultural Asset No. 84. This partly reflects the work of Yi So-ra, whose field research for the Office for Cultural Properties (Munhwajae Kwalliguk) has resulted in four volumes of song notations (Han-guk ui nongyo 1-4). But Yi was late; many old singers have died, and few scholars followed the example of the folklorist Im Dong-kwon to study folk songs.

.

Im's landmark collection was assembled over many years of regular fieldwork and has now been published in some 13,000 texts (Han-guk minyojip Vol. 1-7). He, with others, has advised the government about what genres to preserve, but is aware of differing agendas: as many such as Lauri Honko, Bert Feintuch and Henry Loomis have noted elsewhere, scholars may argue the merits of "authenticity" and "originality," but government agencies and musicians are more concerned with promotion and presentation.

.

Back in the 1920s, the cultural nationalists Ch'oe Nam-son (1890-1957), Yi Nung-hwa (1865-1945) and Song Sok-ha (1904-1948) argued against Japanese cultural assimilation by promoting the indigenous heritage. Most Koreans only woke up to the passing of the old in the 1980s, as economic success created room for nostalgia. Publications on folklore such as Madang and Ch'ont'ong munhwa grew in popularity. Regular folk performances at Seoul's National Theater and at the Seoul Nori Madang began. Many a university campus gained folk song and folk band societies.

.

Suddenly, and despite different political colors, the preservation system for performance arts initiated by the government back in the 1960s could combine with student appeals for local folk culture. Yet scholars remained tardy, reluctant to embrace local folk music. A massive project at the Academy of Korean Studies (Han-guk chongshin munhwa yon-guwon) had succeeded in publishing much oral literature (in the series Han-guk kubi munhak taegye), but music notations lagged far behind. And few recordings were released before MBC began their folk song series: 10 CDs of Cheju minyo in 1992 were followed by 20 CDs of Chollanam-do minyo in 1993. These, unlike Korea Britannica's lavish 10 LP set (Han-guk ui p'alto sori) from 1984, were not commercial recordings.

.

It is clear that rhythm is well developed in Korea. Sanjo, in performances lasting up to an hour, passes through a series of movements from a slow and concentrated opening chinyangjo (18/8) to a fast quadruple hwimori or tumach'i (12/8 or 4/4) resolution. p'ansori uses seven basic rhythmic cycles to underpin songs: slow chinyangjo, walking-paced chung-mori (12/8), "rushing" hwimori (12/8) and the irregular onmori and otchungmori. Nong-ak provides an even better example, for here, unlike the Western canon, rhythm often exists in isolation from melody.

.

Varieties of Nong-ak

.

Nong-ak is deeply rooted in Korean history. Today's bands mix village rites with military drills, work support and pure entertainment, all overlaid with either the world of travelling troupes or isolated farming village groups. Some trace the genre back to events recorded in Chen Suo's third century Sanguo zhi; others note records about similar activities dotted around the shillok (veritable records) of Choson kings.

.

Nong-ak is an all-embracing term, but local terms suggest a multiplicity of uses: Kut indicates a general performance, sometimes with ritual overlays. Maegut, a term which abbreviates characters for "stamping on the spirits," prescribes a village rite typically given at New Year. Kollip indicates fund raising activities while kun-ak and kolgung suggest military processions and palace links. P'ungmul, p'ungjang and ture are associated with communal work teams in farming, and occasionally fishing, and rites to ensure a good harvest. P'an-gut implies an entertainment event in an open space.

.

The music of rural bands divides into three basic styles: Kyonggi, chwado and udo. As with Kyonggi minyo, the first is a repertory geared to an urban fringe. Chwado and udo are applied as if looking southward from Seoul, so that udo (right) specifies the western rice plain and chwado (left) the central and eastern hills. It is said that udo bands favor slow rhythms, and performers keep together in a spirit of egalitarianism. Chwado bands are said to feature solo segments and to emphasize superior playing techniques and virtuosity in a series of fast patterns.

.

Both styles use a set of rhythmic patterns identified by ching (large gong) strikes as their building blocks. These are known as shibi ch'a or shib ch'ae. Some are simple-il ch'ae (one strike) comprises just a single beat repeated over and over-while others such as ch'il ch'ae (seven strikes) and shibi ch'ae (twelve strikes) accompany specific dances. Some are complex: the processional a ch'ae chil kut (five strikes processional) in Chollabuk-do presents a sequence of 10+ 14+ 10+9+6 beats. Others such as sam ch'ae (three strikes) recur in many guises.

.

In addition, there are patterns named after their use. Yongnam nong-ak, an arrangement of southeastern patterns common among professional teams, has the following sequence: kil kun-ak (a processional), pan kil kun-ak (half processional), pparun pan kil kun-ak (fast half processional), maenun karak (weeding rhythm), pyoltal kori (bright moon scene), toppegi (also known as toppaegi or toppoegi, a rhythm common in mask dramas), popku nori (a form of the dance, yongsan taduregi, also known as shibi ch'ae), ssangjin p'uri (basically, a pattern in which the hourglass drum crosses its mallet like beater from one drumhead to the other), and a hint of sam ch'ae (three beats) before a maenun karak cadence.

.

The four basic nong-ak instruments are the lead kkwaenggwari (small gong), the pulse-keeping ching, and two drums: the changgo, a double-headed hourglass drum, is used to imitate both large and small gongs, while the puk, a squashed barrel drum, adds a solid bass. Dancers use sogo, small hand-held drums. A simple and straight nabal trumpet often announces the band while a soenap shawm may improvise a melody.

.

Local performances can last several days, an indication of the important symbolic support for activities heyond the music. They will include sections at village shrines (tul tangsan), wells (saem kut), village offices and houses (dilp kut), with sections for marching (kil kut or chil kut), for knocking at a gate (mun kut) and for walking around a courtyard wall (holssa kut, hoho kut, etc).

.

But bands are part of a disappearing lifestyle. Decline would be near terminal, except for three factors: Local governments support teams who perform at festivals such as the annual National Folk Arts Contest; the central government has since 1966 sponsored nong-ak as Intangible Cultural Asset No. 11; and student groups, often playing day and night under the gloss p'ungmul, preserve simple and repetitive patterns, as foreigners kept awake in university guest houses by the seemingly interminable noise know well.

.

Samul Nori: An Urban Music

.

Itinerant troupes, Sadang p'ae, Namsadang p'ae and Kosa p'ae, were active until the 1960s. The rump of a group who now preserve Namsadang in Seoul claim they travelled north in summer and south in winter, performing music, dance, acrobatics and juggling. They represented the professional side of nong-ak, and there are a number of historical accounts-including one in the p'ansori story of Hungbuga-that recount how they performed in village markets and gathering places, the p'an, for money or rice.

.

This tradition now has a sure future. In 1978 four professionals led by Kim Duk-soo (b. 1952) performed for the first time under the name "SamulNori." The name was devised by the musical aficionado and impresario Pak Hon-bong. SamulNori have given their name to a genre, and today Seoul boasts some 25 professional teams.

.

The basic samul nori repertory comprises pinari (a prayer for blessing), p'an-gut, a drum ensemble Samdo sol changgo and pieces representing each nong-ak style: Honam nong-ak from the Chongup area in Chollabuk-do, Yongnam nong-ak from Samch'onp'o in Kyongsangnam-do, and Uttari p'ungmul from the central Ch'ungch'ong-do provinces.

.

Samul nori is urban music, distinct from both amateur nong-ak and the music of itinerant troupes. Local bands stood and danced, but samul nori bands sit, concentrating on rhythmic development. Rituals and work allowed the endless repetition of simple patterns by local bands, but the concert stage on which samul nori bands function requires rigid successions of rhythms framed in a pre-timed program. Local bands kept close to model rhythmic patterns given by the kkwaenggwari, deviating only slightly in a vertical frame, and never losing touch with the model. Samul nori bands, in contrast, use horizontal, linear development, moving far away from the model, and almost losing the basic pattern under the weight of disguise.

.

Samul nori bands have not discarded the past. Links remain clear, and the performers insist they play old music from an indigenous tradition. The original SamulNori team emphasizes their heritage; each played with local bands, and their teachers read like a catalogue of stars from the past. Yet SamulNori have provided a new momentum for Korean folk music. They have tried to break free from the dying and "outmoded" to appeal to an increasingly internationalized, primarily middle-class urban audience. This has brought a new vitality to the folk heritage, even though some of the new directions they have followed remain the subject of mum debate.

.

Professionalism requires increasing specialism, as the sociologist Max Weber argued. Consequently, SamulNori have experimented. They have combined with traditional orchestras in compositions like Pak Pom-hun's Shin modum (1988; recorded on Oasis ORC-1225), with jazz musicians sum as Bill Lazwell and Shankar (e.g., SXL Live in Japan [CBS/Sony, Tokyo, 32DH824, 1987] and Red Sun/SamulNori [Amadeo, Vienna, 841 222 1, 1989]), and they have backed pop musicians such as Cho Yong-Pil and the king of Korean rap, Seo Taiji.

.

I start with a dilemma. The most widely appreciated genres of Korean folk music today are essentially urban: P'ansori(epi storytelling through song), sanjo(scattered melodies for solo instrument and drum accompaniment), and samul nori(percussion quartet). They comprise a high art canon developed and performed by professional or semi-professional musicians. But I will here concentrate on minyo (folk songs) and nong-ak(percussion bands: commonly referred to as farmers' bands or farmers' music).

.

In Korean scholars' accounts, the term minyo combines two appropriate Chinese characters for the people(min) and song(yo), and nong-ak combines faming(nong) and music(ak). minyo defines songs with no recognized composers, a shrouded and timeless history, and few prescribed texts. Minyo vary from cillage to village and tend to use simple strophic melodies. Minyo are the "songs of the people," the equivalent of German volkslied, sung in work, for entertainment, and at funerals.

.

Nong-ak, in its local context at least, prescribes percussion bands playing music transmitted without composers or teachers. The ascendant minjung populism argues the merits of such rural traditions, but this second canon is dying in the countryside as Korea becomes a modern, industrial, and Western-looking nation. My dilemma lies in the distinction between high and low. Confucian scholars once marked the 'latter with the slightly derogatory term t'osok, an today its survival relies on the reinvention and reconstruction of tradition.

.

Minyo was a term brought to Korea from Japan as commercial gramophone recordings began to appear. Recordings featured entertainment songs with widespread provenance. They were sung by professionals, and created a style-shin minyo-that many local singers have since felt they should emulate. Well-known examples include Hanobaengnyon, Namhansansong, and many T'aryong.

.

These popular "songs for the people" (yuhaeng minyo and t'ongsok minyo are typical scholarly terms) abandoned improvisation and fixed their texts, sometimes combining words from different regions. Roots for the style can be traced back to chapka (vulgar songs), and Sonsori t'aryong or ipch'ang (standing songs), many of which were developed by itinerant travelling troupes, such as Namsadang.

.

Arirang, now Korea's "national" folk song, is probably the best popular example. Arirang catapulted to fame through a silent film produced by Na Un-gyu in 1926. It became a symbol of the independence struggle. But local versions can still be found throughout the peninsula, from ,the archetypal Chongsan arirang to the common Chindo arirang and Miryang arirang. There are legends which recount the song's invention in each district, but the real ancestry is unknown. How old is Arirang, given that the first transcription-in a missionary journal-dates only from the 1890s' Could the refrain derive from the Koryo period (918-1392) Chongsan pyolgok? And why does its curious phrase structure suggest mid-Choson poetry?

.

Regional Folk Songs

.

A number of local folk song areas are still distinguished, roughly congruent with dialect areas. Namdo minyo come from the southwestern Cholla-do provinces (the Honam region). Singers use a tight throat and considerable chest resonance. Emotion comes from the vocal character-aewan ch'ong (sad voice)-and a characteristic tritonic pitch scheme in which a deep and vibrating dominant (ttonun mok) is separated from a high falling appoggiatura known as the "breaking tone" (kkongnun mok) by a plain and barely vibrated tonic. The characteristic song is Yukchabaegi, given in a slow and flexible 6-beat chinyangjo rhythmic cycle (18/8).

.

Sodo minyo, from the P'yong-an-do and Hwanghae-do provinces now in North Korea, contain comparable, sometimes tearful, emotion. Songs move gradually from a low pitch, register to a high climax, then conclude in a series of descending portamento. Nasal resonance is used, coupled to a low sonorous vibrato. The characteristic song is the free-rhythm Sushimga. Excerpts of Sushimga often conclude other songs. There are three common more regular rhythmic cycles, toduri (6/4), semach'i (9/8) and kutkori (12/8). Sodo minyo are preserved by migrants around Seoul as the Republic of Korea's Intangible Cultural Asset (Muhyong munhwajae) No. 29. Folk singing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ostensibly based on Sodo minyo, but with less vibrato and no nasal resonance.

.

Kyonggi minyo typify what we would expect to find near the capital city: Kyonggi-do Province surrounds Seoul. Songs tend to be joyful, lyrical and bright, using a relaxed throat and less nasal resonance. Regular rhythmic cycles such as chungmori (12/4) and kutkori (12/8) feature. Nilliria and Nrae karak are representative songs. To the east, beyond the T'aebaek mountain range, much of the three styles continue, but a distinct and unified pentatonic mode described as menarijo or sanyuhwaje can be discerned. In the southeastern Kyongsang-do provinces (the Yongnam region), the irregular and unaccompanied Menari sori is the characteristic song.

.

In central Kangwon-do Province, versions of Arasong, notably Kangwando arirang and Chongson arirang, are faster and more regular. Once typical throughout the region, Orang t'aryong (Shin Kosan t'aryong) favors a consistently high pitch range but is lighter and less emotional than Sushimga.

.

A final region, based on the southern island of Chejudo, is also distinguished. Farming songs favor free and expansive rhythmic textures and florid, highly ornamented melodies. Threshing songs and lullabies are built from short, repetitive phrases. Songs reminiscent of Kyonggi-do are still sung around the old administrative center of Songup.

.

How "authentic" are any of these songs today? Namdo tul norae, rice fanning songs from Chindo, Chollanam-do Province, have since 1973 been preserved as Intangible Cultural Asset No. 51. The agricultural year is now telescoped into eight songs, each lasting about 25 minutes-slow and fast seeding (Mottun sori), slow and fast transplanting (Mot sori or Sangsa sori), slow, medium and fast weeding (Chollo sori, p'ungjang sori), and a processional (Kukkonaegi).

.

These songs were once sung during times of communal labor, but they ceased to be used in rice fields during the 1950s. Restructured and presented at the 1971 National Folk Arts Contest (Chon-guk minsok yesul kyongyon taehoe), plastic rice shoots were introduced for atmosphere. Percussion interludes were inserted to join songs from different parts of the agricultural cycle, words were pared down and improvisation removed, an ox was added for variety, and clothes were made suitably uniform. Singers argue that each new element is a positive and necessary addition, and that the songs remain anchored in tradition. "I only sing as in the old days; I wouldn't dare change one jot" said the now deceased senior singer, Sol Chae-ch'on.

.

Preservation

.

The preservation system has also recognized farming songs from Kosong and Yech'on in the Kyongsang-do provinces as intangible Cultural Asset No. 84. This partly reflects the work of Yi So-ra, whose field research for the Office for Cultural Properties (Munhwajae Kwalliguk) has resulted in four volumes of song notations (Han-guk ui nongyo 1-4). But Yi was late; many old singers have died, and few scholars followed the example of the folklorist Im Dong-kwon to study folk songs.

.

Im's landmark collection was assembled over many years of regular fieldwork and has now been published in some 13,000 texts (Han-guk minyojip Vol. 1-7). He, with others, has advised the government about what genres to preserve, but is aware of differing agendas: as many such as Lauri Honko, Bert Feintuch and Henry Loomis have noted elsewhere, scholars may argue the merits of "authenticity" and "originality," but government agencies and musicians are more concerned with promotion and presentation.

.

Back in the 1920s, the cultural nationalists Ch'oe Nam-son (1890-1957), Yi Nung-hwa (1865-1945) and Song Sok-ha (1904-1948) argued against Japanese cultural assimilation by promoting the indigenous heritage. Most Koreans only woke up to the passing of the old in the 1980s, as economic success created room for nostalgia. Publications on folklore such as Madang and Ch'ont'ong munhwa grew in popularity. Regular folk performances at Seoul's National Theater and at the Seoul Nori Madang began. Many a university campus gained folk song and folk band societies.

.

Suddenly, and despite different political colors, the preservation system for performance arts initiated by the government back in the 1960s could combine with student appeals for local folk culture. Yet scholars remained tardy, reluctant to embrace local folk music. A massive project at the Academy of Korean Studies (Han-guk chongshin munhwa yon-guwon) had succeeded in publishing much oral literature (in the series Han-guk kubi munhak taegye), but music notations lagged far behind. And few recordings were released before MBC began their folk song series: 10 CDs of Cheju minyo in 1992 were followed by 20 CDs of Chollanam-do minyo in 1993. These, unlike Korea Britannica's lavish 10 LP set (Han-guk ui p'alto sori) from 1984, were not commercial recordings.

.

It is clear that rhythm is well developed in Korea. Sanjo, in performances lasting up to an hour, passes through a series of movements from a slow and concentrated opening chinyangjo (18/8) to a fast quadruple hwimori or tumach'i (12/8 or 4/4) resolution. p'ansori uses seven basic rhythmic cycles to underpin songs: slow chinyangjo, walking-paced chung-mori (12/8), "rushing" hwimori (12/8) and the irregular onmori and otchungmori. Nong-ak provides an even better example, for here, unlike the Western canon, rhythm often exists in isolation from melody.

.

Varieties of Nong-ak

.

Nong-ak is deeply rooted in Korean history. Today's bands mix village rites with military drills, work support and pure entertainment, all overlaid with either the world of travelling troupes or isolated farming village groups. Some trace the genre back to events recorded in Chen Suo's third century Sanguo zhi; others note records about similar activities dotted around the shillok (veritable records) of Choson kings.

.

Nong-ak is an all-embracing term, but local terms suggest a multiplicity of uses: Kut indicates a general performance, sometimes with ritual overlays. Maegut, a term which abbreviates characters for "stamping on the spirits," prescribes a village rite typically given at New Year. Kollip indicates fund raising activities while kun-ak and kolgung suggest military processions and palace links. P'ungmul, p'ungjang and ture are associated with communal work teams in farming, and occasionally fishing, and rites to ensure a good harvest. P'an-gut implies an entertainment event in an open space.

.

The music of rural bands divides into three basic styles: Kyonggi, chwado and udo. As with Kyonggi minyo, the first is a repertory geared to an urban fringe. Chwado and udo are applied as if looking southward from Seoul, so that udo (right) specifies the western rice plain and chwado (left) the central and eastern hills. It is said that udo bands favor slow rhythms, and performers keep together in a spirit of egalitarianism. Chwado bands are said to feature solo segments and to emphasize superior playing techniques and virtuosity in a series of fast patterns.

.

Both styles use a set of rhythmic patterns identified by ching (large gong) strikes as their building blocks. These are known as shibi ch'a or shib ch'ae. Some are simple-il ch'ae (one strike) comprises just a single beat repeated over and over-while others such as ch'il ch'ae (seven strikes) and shibi ch'ae (twelve strikes) accompany specific dances. Some are complex: the processional a ch'ae chil kut (five strikes processional) in Chollabuk-do presents a sequence of 10+ 14+ 10+9+6 beats. Others such as sam ch'ae (three strikes) recur in many guises.

.

In addition, there are patterns named after their use. Yongnam nong-ak, an arrangement of southeastern patterns common among professional teams, has the following sequence: kil kun-ak (a processional), pan kil kun-ak (half processional), pparun pan kil kun-ak (fast half processional), maenun karak (weeding rhythm), pyoltal kori (bright moon scene), toppegi (also known as toppaegi or toppoegi, a rhythm common in mask dramas), popku nori (a form of the dance, yongsan taduregi, also known as shibi ch'ae), ssangjin p'uri (basically, a pattern in which the hourglass drum crosses its mallet like beater from one drumhead to the other), and a hint of sam ch'ae (three beats) before a maenun karak cadence.

.

The four basic nong-ak instruments are the lead kkwaenggwari (small gong), the pulse-keeping ching, and two drums: the changgo, a double-headed hourglass drum, is used to imitate both large and small gongs, while the puk, a squashed barrel drum, adds a solid bass. Dancers use sogo, small hand-held drums. A simple and straight nabal trumpet often announces the band while a soenap shawm may improvise a melody.

.

Local performances can last several days, an indication of the important symbolic support for activities heyond the music. They will include sections at village shrines (tul tangsan), wells (saem kut), village offices and houses (dilp kut), with sections for marching (kil kut or chil kut), for knocking at a gate (mun kut) and for walking around a courtyard wall (holssa kut, hoho kut, etc).

.

But bands are part of a disappearing lifestyle. Decline would be near terminal, except for three factors: Local governments support teams who perform at festivals such as the annual National Folk Arts Contest; the central government has since 1966 sponsored nong-ak as Intangible Cultural Asset No. 11; and student groups, often playing day and night under the gloss p'ungmul, preserve simple and repetitive patterns, as foreigners kept awake in university guest houses by the seemingly interminable noise know well.

.

Samul Nori: An Urban Music

.

Itinerant troupes, Sadang p'ae, Namsadang p'ae and Kosa p'ae, were active until the 1960s. The rump of a group who now preserve Namsadang in Seoul claim they travelled north in summer and south in winter, performing music, dance, acrobatics and juggling. They represented the professional side of nong-ak, and there are a number of historical accounts-including one in the p'ansori story of Hungbuga-that recount how they performed in village markets and gathering places, the p'an, for money or rice.

.

This tradition now has a sure future. In 1978 four professionals led by Kim Duk-soo (b. 1952) performed for the first time under the name "SamulNori." The name was devised by the musical aficionado and impresario Pak Hon-bong. SamulNori have given their name to a genre, and today Seoul boasts some 25 professional teams.

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The basic samul nori repertory comprises pinari (a prayer for blessing), p'an-gut, a drum ensemble Samdo sol changgo and pieces representing each nong-ak style: Honam nong-ak from the Chongup area in Chollabuk-do, Yongnam nong-ak from Samch'onp'o in Kyongsangnam-do, and Uttari p'ungmul from the central Ch'ungch'ong-do provinces.

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Samul nori is urban music, distinct from both amateur nong-ak and the music of itinerant troupes. Local bands stood and danced, but samul nori bands sit, concentrating on rhythmic development. Rituals and work allowed the endless repetition of simple patterns by local bands, but the concert stage on which samul nori bands function requires rigid successions of rhythms framed in a pre-timed program. Local bands kept close to model rhythmic patterns given by the kkwaenggwari, deviating only slightly in a vertical frame, and never losing touch with the model. Samul nori bands, in contrast, use horizontal, linear development, moving far away from the model, and almost losing the basic pattern under the weight of disguise.

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Samul nori bands have not discarded the past. Links remain clear, and the performers insist they play old music from an indigenous tradition. The original SamulNori team emphasizes their heritage; each played with local bands, and their teachers read like a catalogue of stars from the past. Yet SamulNori have provided a new momentum for Korean folk music. They have tried to break free from the dying and "outmoded" to appeal to an increasingly internationalized, primarily middle-class urban audience. This has brought a new vitality to the folk heritage, even though some of the new directions they have followed remain the subject of mum debate.

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Professionalism requires increasing specialism, as the sociologist Max Weber argued. Consequently, SamulNori have experimented. They have combined with traditional orchestras in compositions like Pak Pom-hun's Shin modum (1988; recorded on Oasis ORC-1225), with jazz musicians sum as Bill Lazwell and Shankar (e.g., SXL Live in Japan [CBS/Sony, Tokyo, 32DH824, 1987] and Red Sun/SamulNori [Amadeo, Vienna, 841 222 1, 1989]), and they have backed pop musicians such as Cho Yong-Pil and the king of Korean rap, Seo Taiji.

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