P'ansori Big Blog 2

February 3rd, 2021




Welcome back and also, farwell :((( This is the last blog post of the semester, but it’s been fun!


During my lesson on Korean music, I chose not to focus on the folk music genre within Gugak (Traditional Korean Music). It seems to be a bit more complex and obscure than court music. A lot of this has to do with the fact that Koreans did not have a written tradition until hundreds of years before the rule of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910), whom we credit our knowledge of ancient Korean music to today. Before we get into this genre, it is important to keep a few things in mind.


Korea has been occupied by many different countries in the past, and it is close to Japan and China geographically. Because of this, there is some cultural overlap between these East Asian countries. It still has its own authentic music, but like other countries, it has been influenced by the countries that ruled over it centuries ago. It has also been influenced by the residing religions of various eras. The religion that has the deepest roots in Korea is Shamanism. Shamanism is a religion where shamans will interact with the spirit world through different levels of consciousness. An expression of the religion is shaman music, said to assist shamans in their rituals and spiritual transitions. As a result of Shaministic influences across Korea, the folk music closely- if not identically- follows the variations of shaman music. One of the results of this is P’ansori.


Before music notation, much of Korea had an oral tradition. They would tell songs through P’ansori, which literally translates to “ where many people gather-song”. P’ansori is a genre that brought people together within the tradition of storytelling to pass on cultural information and to preserve cultural identity. For this blog I decided to hone in on this folk genre. Let’s talk about it!


So, how did Pansori start? Where did it begin?: Well, where do I begin?! Korea had a dual system for music. There was a higher culture and a popular culture. The higher culture was heavily influenced by Neo-Confucianism and did not favor the rest of the population (popular culture). Their class status and careers were determined by bloodline so there was no way for the lower classes to work their way up. So, naturally there was a divide within the society. The higher culture was based in Neo-Confucianism while the popular culture was based in Shamanism. The higher culture had a written tradition for their literature that was scribed in Chinese. On the contrary, the popular culture had an oral tradition that was spoken in Korean. Hence the tradition of P'ansori.


How does it work? : P’ansori is improvisational by nature. Because of this, the music was everchanging. One scholar by the name of Sin Chaehyo took it upon himself to preserve 6 of the 12 major works of P’ansori. He recorded the texts while adding some of his own spins to the music (again-improv was key). Later on others produced P’ansori songs for commercial use.

From what I have read, these songs have some interesting stories!! I’ll tell you one of them. STORYTIME (Story of Ch’unhyang): So girl meets boy. Girl is the daughter of a former kisaeng (female relative to outcasts or slaves who is trained to entertain the upper class). Boy is the son of a magistrate (very important judicial position). They meet and are like, “Omg I love you! Let’s be together!” But then the boy’s dad is like, “We gotta go do some work out of state(ish).” So boy goes “Brb, sugarlump!” Girl cries and is later forced to be a concubine to a mean and powerful magistrate (not future dad-in law though) . But then boy returns as a royal spy and gets his woman back! Yaaas! The end : ) Good stuff, right?


When we look at the basic elements of P’ansori that come together to create its identity, there are four things at play. There is a solo performer, there’s music, there’s drama, and the whole thing is performed in verse. This solo performer is called the kwangdae. He or she is a one person show, doing the job of the narrator and every character. They go back and forth between speaking and singing, accompanied by a single drummer who they may interact with occasionally. As far as props, the kwangdae must get creative as the only things on stage are a mat, a fan, and whatever the performer is dressed in. A P’ansori can go on for eight hours, but is usually spread out throughout the day. Those who attempt to do a full run of a show without breaks are frowned upon by participants of the original tradition (the og’s). Now, if you’re going to keep an audience engaged for eight hours, you need to spice things up. Because of this, kwangdae have been known to alter the factual details of a story in order to increase interest. This is usually based on the audience, seeing as the kwangdae wants to appeal to them. They are welcome to improvise and embellish as they see fit, and the audience is expected to applaud throughout when they are pleased with a certain bit.


So, we’ll listen to some P’ansori at the end of the blog. However, over the years the tradition has changed.


What has happened to Pansori over the years?: As levels of higher education began to offer P’ansori as a discipline, the tradition became standardized. Students were taught to perform scripts exactly. The problem with this is that when you write things down, you run the risk of sacrificing the spice and life that the subject once had. This is because it can be hard to articulate exactly what one feels or sees. So when people started transcribing P’ansori, they did not write in all of the little quirks and quips of it. This also resulted in a lack of improvisation, seeing as students were being taught to follow the script more so than their instincts.


Where is Pansori now? Do artists still perform it? If so, where?: Although Pansori is not practiced as widely as it once was, there is one band in particular that has helped the genre to appeal to contemporary audiences, Leenalchi. Their name comes from a famous 19th century Korean singer. They recently released an album called Sugungga that retells the Pansori story of a turtle searching for a rabbit’s liver in order to please the emperor. This narrative dates back centuries as one of Korea’s most popular history stories. In this article, the band recounts audiences screaming P’ansori lyrics at the top of their lungs along with them; a true musical phenomenon.


Enough talk, let’s listen!

Teaching P'ansori

A video of one of the most prominent kwangdae's, Ahn Sook Sun. 

Sources:

Pihl, M. (1981). P'ansori: The Korean Oral Narrative. Korean Studies, 5, 43-62. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23718812

(2008). Pansori Epic Chant : ich.unesco.com. 40. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/pansori-epic-chant-00070
Kang, Haeryun. (2020, July 13). Korean Pop, Away From The Hit Factories. NPR. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2020/07/13/889759210/korean-pop-away-from-the-hit-factories

Happy almost Spring!