The Korean Music

   "Calm Morning"

Listen to this song-"Calm Morning." Can you guess from where this song is? Do you know the song's significance to its country of origin.

The song you just heard is the Korean Anthem played by Kayagum Trad. You also see the Korean flag.

What are examples of Korean traditional music?

    
       The first evidence background of Korean music is ancient. It has been well documented by

surviving written material since the 15th century and was brought to heights of excellence during

the Yi kings of the Joseon Dynasty.

       Japan's invasion of Korea eliminated Korean music from 1905 to 1945. A brief post-war

period re-awakened folk and patriotic music.

       

       Korean music includes folk and classical, courtly music, and genres like sanjo, pansori, 

and nongak.

   

        The three kinds of Korean court music

• aak        - an imported form of Chinese ritual music.
• hyangak - a pure Korean music

• tangak    - a combination of Chinese and Korean influences

The two kinds of traditionalmusic in Korea
     
        There are two kinds of traditional music in Korea: music for the nobility called the
chong-ak and the music of the common people called the sog-ak.

• Sog-ak is the music of the common people that is usually lively. It portrays the life of ordinary people. It is the folk music of Korea.
• Chong-ak also has a vocal form. There are three kinds: tha kasa, a long narrative song; kagok, a lyrical song; and the sijo, a short lyrical music. The sijo is the simplest among the three and it consists of three lines per stanza. It has an irregular rhythm and the melody is mellismatic. It is usually accompanied by the changgo.

 What historical event in Korea into affected Korean music?

The splitting of Korea into North and South Korea
        In 1951, Korea was divided into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic Korea. The countries are also called North Korea and South Korea. Revolutionary songwriting traditions were channeled in support of the State, eventually becoming a style of patriotic song called taejung kayo in the 1980s.

What is North Korean music like?
         In North Korea, culture, including music, is controlled by a government which encourages light, state-sponsored music, or music with patriotic worker-driven themes (praising leader Kim Jong 11, his late father Kim 11 Sung, and the communist policies) played in radios, the Pyongyang metro speaker system, or in public by large worker's orchestra.

          Listening to South Kore music or playing rock in roll is considered a crime. Foreign music is lumped into one genre which the North Korean government calls "jazz" (note this is a definition of the word peculiar to North Korea) which is considered barbaric because "it has no melody."

           North Korea pop music is light and optimistic, usually performed by a young singer in front of a large band. All music praise Kim Jung 11 or the ideals of communism, and songs have titles like "Our Life Is Precisely a Song," "We Shall Hold Bayonets More Firmly," and "The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation."

      North Korea propaganda songs share structural, rhythmic, and harmonic similarities with those in China and the former Soviet Union and often use military bands and men's choruses.

Instrumental Music of Korea

     Korean instrument are composed of (a) stringed (chordaphone), (b) wind (aerophone), (c) percussion (idiophone), and (d) those with membrane (membranophone).
   
     Instrument common only in the East and Southeast are ching, kwaengngawari, changgo, and chegum.

  Ching is a big gong played with the use of a stick; at the end of which is a soft material.

Changgo is a drum, hourglass-shaped and the body is made of wood

The Chinese Musical Instruments

What are the Chinese musical instrument?
   
       For more than three thousand years, some seventy musical instrument have
been in use in China. These seventy musical instruments still exist today and have
not undergone tremendous changes.
       The respect the Chinese had for sacred symbolism included the material from
which the instruments were made.
       It is one of the Chinese beliefs that music is related to the forces of nature.
The Chinese believe that music expresses harmony among heaven, earth, and
man. They also believe that nature has provided man with eight kinds of materials
to build musical instruments.
        The instrument used in the Ya-Yueh (instrumental ensemble) are made of
metal, stone, wood or bamboo, earth or mud, skin, gourd, and silk.

The eight kinds of materials and instruments 

Stone
        A good example is Pien Ching. It is a
set L-shaped stones of different quantities
and sizes, hanging from a stand and struck with
special hammer. They are played only at court
and during religious ceremonies.



Metal
         Includes bells, lou (gong), and bo (cymbals)

Silk
         Silk refers to the stringed instruments.The stringed instruments can be further
divided into two categories: the bowedstrings (e.g. Ethru) and the plucked
strings (e.g. Guzhengs).

Bamboo
          The majority of woodwind instruments are made from bamboo.
Examples include the dizi (flute) and suona (trumpet).

Wood
          Wood section includes a large variety of small percussion instruments like wooden
blocks, boxes, and xylophones with wooden blocks. These were used by Buddhist
monks during religious ceremonies.


Gourd
       
       Gourd is a type of plant. A sheng (mouth organ) is one of the
oldest Chineseinstruments made out of hollowed-out pumpkin-like
vegetables. It consists of awind-chest and a number of bamboo
pipes set in a circle. The sheng imitates the sound of a phoenix.






Clay
        
          The ocarina, a small, egg-shaped wind instrument
(with six holes for the finger tips) made of clay.










Skin

     Drums are often covered with different types
of animal skins along the top or head.








    



           The variations of rhythm, beat, tone quality, and embellishments in Chinese
music are highly distinctive and unlike their Western counterparts. This is mainly
due to the unique sounds and playing styles of traditional Chinese musical instrument.
       
           Most Chinese instruments are performed as solo form as well as a part of
ensemble or orchestra. A Chinese orchestra is a mixture of many cultural traditions.