Music
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Pansori
Pansori is an operatic tradition characterized by a single vocalist combining narrative voice and expressive gesture to the rhythm of a percussion accompanist. It was extremely popular in the late Joseon period and continued to be performed today. It is a combination of Korean musical dramatic elements and legendry epic literature into a kind of composite art, like Greek mythology sung by a troubadour. The Pansori is performed by two persons, a drummer and a singer, who sings a long poem with a folding fan in the hand. It was believed that about 12 Pansori works existed in its golden age. However, only five full versions still remain. Pansori has been loved by Koreans for a long time. To the simple depiction of the drama by a singer and a drummer with chanting and beating, the audience responds with great empathy, sometimes pleased, sometimes saddened or agitated. In 2003, UNESCO included Pansori in its list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Dance
Korean way of expression, as is the case of other Asian dances, differs from that of the West. Korean dancers are impersonal with sexuality suppressed. They are not interested in external aspects of acrobatic physical movements but rather in expressing metaphysical joy. The body, concealed in voluminous silks, with full sleeves, becomes the image of a pure and abstract landscape, reflecting several thousands of years of influence from surrounding cultures. Considering its origination, Korean dances are sacred, magical and ritual in character. Shaman, Buddhist and Confucian are of the Korea's three ritual forms. Shamanism is the most developed of all and pervades the others. In Confucianism, the dance is minimal and it is all about ceremony, while Buddhism has Beompae, Para and Seungmu dances. Korea's six varieties of traditional dances include Shaman, Buddhist and Confucian rituals, court entertainment, country or folk dances, and the mask dance drama. Korean movements are the heel walks, and turning on the heels, raising the body gently and lightly from the bent knee position, slight vibrations from the hops up, pulses from the shoulders, economy of action and improvisation. The most distinctive of Korean movements is the suspended position balancing on one foot with the free leg extended while the shoulder softly rises and falls. This conveys a deep sense of ecstatic state, which permeates of the types of dance.
Fan dance
It is a traditional form of Korean dance, usually performed by groups of female dancers in traditional costumes and splendidly decorated headpiece for formal occasion. The fan dance transformed from folk ritual dance, in which a fan is employed in a dance that is both strong and passionate in artistic effect. The fan with flower design and feathered around the edges add to the beauty of the dance. Fans usually play key role in the entire dance. When they are folded, the atmosphere is calm and static. The dance itself was also transformed into one of dignified elegance and grace, and the accompanying rhythm is quiet, flowing and light-hearted. Both static and dynamic beauty is harmonized in the fan dance. Moreover, linear aesthetics are well expressed through the combination of the straight and curved lines of Korean dress. The most striking feature of the dance is revealed when the rhythm quickens and the dancers form a large fluttering cluster of flower that turns in a circular rotation. This lovely, geometrical pattern is made possible by a dipping posture with a fan spread open wide and moved up and down rapidly.
Samgomu
Three drums hung on three sides of a wooden frame. The drum frame is open to the audience as one drum is hung at the center, and two on the sides, thus revealing the graceful movements of the dancer pounding the drum in rhythmically complex and syncopated phrases. Elegantly dressed, the dancer uses the strength of her entire body to make the sound of the drum. This is symbolic of the merging of spirit on earth. Expressing the principal of opposites (yin-yang), the dancers gracefully movements reflect the earth's softness, nurturing and joy, while the drum's reverberating, strong sound mirrors the deep earth's firmness and durability.
It is a shaman dance performed with a rhythmic circle of 12/8 used in shamanistic music. The creative and improvisatorial elements are one of the important features in Korean folk dance and music. As the dance progresses, it conveys a wife's anxious desire to call her dead husband back to life, her ecstasy in meeting the apparition, and painful separation.
Taepyeongmu
Dancers in court costumes with long rainbow banded sleeves that conceal their hands and elaborate court coiffure for this elegant dance embodying prayers from peace and a bumper harvest, accompanied by shaman music. The dance is characterized by peculiar leg and foot movements from shaman dances.
Drum dance
Originated from the Jindo Island at the south western tip of the Korean peninsula, the drum dance was dance performed by farmers participating in Ture, a cooperative system of collective labor widely practiced in rural communities. If features forceful dance movements over vigorous drum rhythms played by the dancers themselves.
Mask dance
It is performed while wearing a mask and singing. It is not just a dance performed by masked dancers but also a drama with masked characters portraying persons, animals or supernatural beings. In early days, ritual dance drama was used to connect human to powers greater than himself. Masks were sacred, essential and sometimes necessary for many purposes both magical and practical. Korean masks are made of wood, or gourds, sometimes paper and fur. It covers the face only and the sides and back of the head and neck is concealed with a black cloth worn by mask dance players. The evolution of the mask dance drama can bet witnessed through concepts of Korean folk art and its relationship with early spiritual beliefs. Though primarily religious, the mask dancers served as a vent for many grievances of the common people against the prevailing social restrictions enforced upon them by the nobility. Traditionally the mask dance was not performed on a stage but was conducted in the open fields or hillside. Common themes are the promotion of virtue using strong satire and humor, while vice is condemned. They also represent antipathy toward the depraved Buddhist monks and disgust for the privileged ruling class, due to the latter's harsh and severe treatment of the commoners.
Seungmu
It blends unique, solemn characteristics with various entertaining techniques as the dance was inspired by Buddhist ritual dances. The costume mirrors that of Buddhist nuns, long sleeves and a cap with a white hood. The dance begins slowly, accelerates and reaches a climax when the dancer approaches the drum and performs a succession of rapid syncopated rhythms with two drum sticks concealed by the long sleeves. This accelerating drum sound represents inner evolution from mental conflicts to attainment of nirvana.
Bara dance
A Buddhist ritual dance is to praise Buddha and aims at saving the public and leading their soul to the Buddhist paradise. This solemn dance may be performed either solo or with two to four monks.
Samulnori
It is a unique genre of dance and music performed by four traditional percussions Kkoenggwari(a small gong), Jing (a larger gong), Janggo (double-barreled drum) and drum, and is an ensemble of these instruments. It has been rearranged as a chamber music to be performed on stage as the percussion part of traditional Korean music performed by farmers. Its core element is a harmony between tension and relaxation. Samulnori, which literally means the play of four things, is the most popular musical tradition in Korea today. It is a union of dynamic rhythms and body movements. The performers dressed in Nong-ak costumes and hats exuberantly leap, bound and gyrate their heads so that the long streamers attached to their hats create spirals in the air. In most of Korea's more colorful traditions, the line between audience and performer is slightly ambiguous. Samulnori grew out of farmers' Nongak music. Nongak was played to delight or taunt the thousands of spirits believed to be in the area. Farmers played and danced to cheer their lives and to touch the spiritual world in some way with the exuberance of their play. Samulnori is one of the most exciting examples of Korean culture both on and off stage. As its name suggests, the play of four instruments is both a performance and a game, and is a musical ensemble, a marching band. It is performed in theatres, but also for fun among friends and neighbors.
Nongak
Nongak or Farmer's dance and music has long been one of Korea's most popular forms of entertainment, bears testimony to the gregarious nature of the people and their love of fun and festivities. Nongaknori originated from a religious ceremony to expel the evil. It was then expanded and developed into an annual festival which centered on the people's collective wish for a good harvest. Kings, queens, princes and royal dignitaries have all danced at court, and the monks in temples. Historically, one of the oldest forms of all is the strenuous outdoor farmers' dance. It likely refers to the music performed by farmers played together in order to conserve their energy and make the work less boring while transplanting rice seeding or gathering the harvest in a rural community. As an expression of the people, the dancers show astonishing vigor and rhythmic verve. Leading a procession of men and boys, a bearer carries a pole with pheasant feathers, a ghost or spirit symbol, at the top and a banner proclaiming farming is the mainstay of the nation. The Nongak dance is divided into two categories: Nori (a fast, up-beat, almost frenetic dance) and the Minori (a slow-paced, melody dance which concentrates on satirical display depicting difficult life faced by common people and their hope toward a bright future). The musicians, who are also dancers, are dressed in traditional white Korean clothes with stripes of red, yellow, blue. They may also wear a blue vest and head-band or picked hood decorated with huge pompons of white paper flowers which comes from the Buddhist influence. They accompany themselves with hand-held drums, gongs, a piercingly loud reed instrument, and several Janggos. Following the leader's direction of running, hopping and turning, they move counterclockwise and with an exuberance that never wanes.
Gangangsuwollae
The circle dance originated from the traditional customs of the farming population practiced during the autumn harvest moon festival under the full, bright autumn moon in the 8th month of the lunar calendar. The young women of the village gathered together in a circle and sing their own song in solo and in chorus. Later, as the legend puts it, this dance was utilized as a military tactical strategy by Admiral Yi Sunsin during the Japanese invasion in 1592 to trick invading naval forces into believing that a large well equipped army was waiting them on shore.
Nanta (COOKIN)
Nanta, the first Korean non-verbal performance, is based on the traditional Korean rhythm but mixed with European style dance. Creative settings of a large kitchen stage in the musical are impressive. Nanta is about four Korean chefs preparing a wedding dinner in a restaurant. Upon having an order by the manager to make the dinner in an hour, they play the highly energetic Korean traditional percussion music, samulnori, with chopping knives, cutting boards, vats, pots, stew pans and all manner of kitchenware. COOKIN (the original Korean title is NANTA, meaning crazy beat) became domestically acclaimed in a relatively short period of three years from when two theaters opened in Seoul exclusively for the nonverbal percussion musical. Three fun-loving, competitive, but not entirely competent young chefs, under pressure from their manager, are set to the task of preparing a wedding banquet, from soup to a cake, with a strict time limit. Adding to the encumbrance is the manager's mischievous nephew, who is added to the crew at the last minute. The performance follows the endearing chefs as they struggle to overcome the rivalries, trials and tribulations that are inevitable when there are too many cooks in the kitchen and an overzealous manager. The result is a feast for the senses as the chefs use every kitchen utensil in the kitchen, as well as their own bodies to drum out rhythms and draw laughs.
Arirang
Koerea's most representative folk song is Arirang. Like many other folk songs, little history is known about the song, but all Koreans enjoy singing it. Arirang is still among the popular folk songs and well-known even to people outside of Korea. Despite several theories on its origin, noting is certain. One theory has it that "I am leaving my beloved" from its literal meaning of Arirang. Another is that it stemmed from Airong which symbolizes "I want to become deaf because only the pains and sorrows of the people are reported in the turbulent disorder of the country." A third theory is that the song was based on legendary tribute to the false death of a girl called Arang. Summing up all the theories, it is safe to assume that Arirang was originated naturally from the lonely sufferings of the people. It is a symbolic song showing the national sentiment of Koreans. Short and simple, it expresses the pain and grief of separation, as if sad melody embodied the emotion of yearning and Han, unique feelings to Koreans that represents deep frustration and pent-up sorrow. Arirang Arirang Arariyo (Arirang Arirang Arariyo)
Arirang gogaero neomeoganda (My darling, you are going over Arirang pass)
Nareul beorigo gasineun mimeun simnido motgaseo balbyeong nanda.
(As you have deserted me, your feet will be sore even before you travel 10 Li )
