Music—Korea | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

On the surface, Korean musical culture shares many similarities with the musical cultures of China and Japan. The evidence includes notations, instruments, repertory, and so on. However, certain deep underlying aesthetic concepts distinguish Korean traditional music from its neighbors. The personal performance style, which incorporates a high degree of individualistic and creative variation and improvisation, sometimes beyond all prediction and anticipation, has resulted in a musical environment in which individual creativity, not rigid imitation, is the norm. Adherence to a standardized performance practice was not a convention in Korean traditional music. The resultant differences from such a diverse performance practice have often given rise to arguments regarding the authenticity of the performance. This kind of musical discourse further strengthens the notion that the open-ended nature of musical style is indeed an important characteristic of Korean music. It has brought about a rich variety of styles. The continuity of traditional musical practice in contemporary society is apparent in the realm of neotraditional music and popular song. However, the overwhelming influence of Western music, the impact of cultural policy-making, and the desire for globalization are all detrimental influences on Korean traditional music and musical aesthetics.

The music history of Korea up to the early twentieth century is characterized by gradual evolution over time rather than by drastic reform in the process of transmission. Most of the long-lasting indigenous repertories have been transmitted and preserved without pronounced reform, although many of their origins are unknown. Imported repertories, mostly from China, existed alongside indigenous music without either repertory influencing the other significantly. This is true to such a degree that some repertories and instruments that have been lost in China, such as Chinese court ritual music and court banquet music (which were introduced into Korea in the twelfth century), are still being performed in Korea. It is also interesting to note the respect with which the Korean court treated the instruments used in Chinese court ritual music: These instruments were never secularized or modified in Korea, while some of them became folk instruments in China.

The present musical landscape in South Korea is diverse and lively. While other countries lament the loss of their traditional music, in South Korea concert halls hosting traditional music performances are usually packed. Ever since the introduction of Western classical music to Korea in the late nineteenth century, Korean traditional music has been identified as kugak ("national music"), reserving the term umak ("music") or yangak ("Western music") for Western classical music.

Korean musical instruments have two distinctive characteristics: the ability to produce pitch variants during performance and the ability to produce a somewhatraspy, buzzing, or rattling sound quality. Thus, the komungo (plucked zither), haegum (two-stringed fiddle), p'iri (reed pipe), and taegum (large flute) play important roles in traditional music. Such Chinese instruments as the ajaeng (bowed zither) satisfied these requirements and were adopted for indigenous music with slight modification. Even some major indigenous instruments such as the komungo and taegum have gone through a certain degree of modification to emphasize the foregoing requisite qualities. Conversely, instruments with fixed tuning such as the yanggum (dulcimer), or with a polished sound such as the tanso (short vertical flute) are not considered important in Korean traditional music.

The most important aspect of style in Korean music is flexibility, which permits personal deviation, variation, and improvisation during performance. The extent to which improvisation is taken depends on the performer and ranges from a mere ornamental deviation, as often occurs in court music, to full-blown improvisation, as occurs in such folk forms as sinawi (improvised instrumental ensemble), sanjo (solo instrumental music), and p'ansori (one-person musical story-telling). These three genres all originated in the southern part of Korea, and their history is related to shaman rituals of the region. Together with the samulnori-type of music, the post-1970 percussion quartet utilizing folk rhythms, they are the most popular folk music in South Korea today.

The improvisational aspects of the sanjo have gradually been disappearing with the constraints of modern performance, however. For example, the limited duration of performance in the mass media and the teaching of sanjo from transcription since the 1960s have contributed to a decline in improvisation in sanjo. Teaching from transcription in particular has led to standardization of this once flexible style of music.

The texture of Korean music is basically monophonic, and most ensemble music is organized lineally. Unlike in Western music, in which the sound is formed by the vertical build-up of harmony, in Korean ensemble music each part is supposed to be heard individually. Sometimes, the parts may take off in quite different directions momentarily, resulting in melodic contrasts, and then meet at the same melodic line.

Most of the rhythms of Korean traditional music are based on triple time, or groups of three beats. The characteristic detail of Korean triple time is that the third beat is either articulated or accented, drawing more attention than the first beat. Duple time does exist in traditional music, but it is very rare. In folk music duple meter is always combined with triple meter, forming a lengthy asymmetric rhythm. Asymmetric rhythms abound in regional p'ungmul (rural outdoor band music and dance) and shamanic ritual music. The length of these rhythms or rhythmic cycles may range from five beats (duple plus triple) to as long as thirty-six beats. When the rhythm is actually played by drums or gongs, the details of strokes vary considerably for each repetition to suit the melodic rhythm or to express rhythmic virtuosity.

Korean National Academy of Arts. (1973) Survey of Korean Arts: Traditional Music. Seoul: Korean National Academy of Arts.

Lee, Byong Won. (1980) "Korea." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.

——. (1997) Styles and Esthetics in Korean Traditional Music. Seoul: National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts.

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