In Tune with the Ear of the Public Kayagŭm and the Status of Traditional Korean Music in the Twenty-First Century in Korea

Situations Vol. 5 (Winter 2011) © 2011 by Yonsei University Sunghee Pak (Yonsei University) In Tune with the Ear of the Public Kayagŭm and the Status of Traditional Korean Music in the Twenty-First Century in Korea Every Thursday, I visit Gahwae-dong (Kahoe-dong) in central Seoul, a locale with many traditional Korean houses, to take my weekly kayagŭm lesson. Kayagŭm is a traditional Korean musical instrument with twelve silk strings, which dates back to A.D. 551 (Hwang, Chimhyang-moo 9). It has been several years since I first started learning it, but before I took my first lesson, I had never seen a kayaŭm, apart from a few pictures in the music text book in middle school. Many people in Korea nowadays are not familiar with their traditional musical instruments. Though kayagŭm and kŏmun’go play the most important role in any Korean ensemble, as equivalents of the violin in Western classical orchestra, not many people have seen them up close. During the 1980s and 1990s, Korean classical music experienced a revival, and there have been several attempts to inform the public about this. These attempts achieved some fruit but there are still more to be done in promoting the essence of traditional Korean music. Until the 1990s, traditional Korean music—kugak, in Korean—conveyed an image of something old, decayed, and outdated. People vaguely knew that the tradition was worth keeping, but whereas Western piano or violin were thought to be elegant, and Western pop music such as the Beatles was treated as a symbol of youth and freedom, kugak, was very far from being considered chic. In 1959, Seoul National University opened a Department of Korean Music, the first of its 83 kind in Korea. At that time, there was no suitable lecturer other than Byungki Hwang (Byŏnggi Hwang), who had just graduated from the Department of Law that year. Byungki Hwang, now the most influential figure in the field of kayagŭm, remembers in his book, Deep Night, the Sound of Kayagŭm, that he became a lecturer there because the head of the College of Music insisted (Hwang, Deep Night 24). Hwang was an accomplished player at that time, but he had to teach without a degree in music. This is because there were not enough experts. The traditional music of Korea had hitherto been taught privately rather than through formal instruction. Through the 1960s and 1970s, more kugak majors were educated, and they tried to lay the groundwork for a proper education, both in theory and practice. Still, Korean classical music was not popular with the public. In many historical dramas, kayagŭm or other traditional musical instruments were just used from time to time to enhance scenes of kisaeng drinking parties, often with the instrument placed in the wrong position because the director did not know how it is played. Around 2000, however, the public started to become more familiar with the sound of the kayagŭm, particularly with the music by the Sookmyung Kayagŭm Orchestra. Founded in 1999, the Orchestra have since held annual concerts and released several albums, succeeding in making some of their pieces very popular with the public. Among these pieces, there is a remade version of “Let It Be” on their third album, New World of Kayagŭm. They also played a song titled “All for One: Cannon with B-Boys,” with a hip-hop group called “Last for One.” These two songs were the most popular with the public, and the second song became familiar even with those who were not interested in music since it was used in a popular commercial. Several classical Korean kayagŭm pieces were included on their earlier albums, but the later ones consist of adapted versions of western music such as Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” or newly composed music for the 25-string kayagŭm. 84 Photo 1 The Sookmyung Kayagŭm Orchestra The Sookmyung Kayagŭm Orchestra mostly plays 25-string kayagŭms instead of the traditional 12-string. This is because the traditional 12-string is not suitable for playing western music or music in western styles. Traditional Korean music is based on the pentatonic scale whereas western music is based on the octatonic. The 25-string has been developed to play those notes which do not exist in traditional Korean music. In the process of adjustment, the silk strings on the traditional instrument have been exchanged for nylon, and the size enlarged. After the change, the sound of the 25-string kayagŭm became louder than the 12-string, and more similar to the piano or harp. Photo 2 The 12-String Kayagŭm (left) and the 25-String Kayagŭm (right) Nowadays, there are several kugak bands, but they also tend to use Korean instruments to make western-style sound. One fusion kugak bands, “Rark” (樂), consists of five players 85 using traditional Korean instruments, and four more members playing keyboard, bass guitar, drum, and percussion. Another band, “The Rim” (林), also has a guitarist, a pianist, and a percussionist. “Miji,” which became renowned after their participation on a popular TV show and the OST of a major soap opera, is a band using Korean musical instruments, but the kayagŭm player was trained at Sookmyung Women’s University, and mainly plays a 25-string kayagŭm. Photo 3 “Rark” (left) and “The Rim” (right) Photo 4 “Miji” The Sookmyung Kayagŭm Orchestra, and the other kugak bands like “Rark” (樂), “The Rim” (林), and “Miji” are making music which is loved by many people. Added to their musical achievement itself, they have contributed to the field of traditional Korean music in attracting the ear of the public and shedding more light on kugak. However, there is still a sense of something lacking since this minor has been gained by playing only western style fusion music using Korean instruments. The traditional style is still not that popular with the public. 86 For kayagŭm, or any other musical instrument, music pieces matching the style of the instrument are necessary. In the case of the violin, composers create music for an instrument which has four steel strings and makes sounds by being rubbed with a bow. No one has developed a new shape for the violin in order to make it play piano music. In his book, Hwang points out that the newly developed instruments are not bad for playing western music or for use in joint performances with western instruments. He, however, contends that developing a new shape has limitations because the outcome will be too different from the original to be regarded as the same, even if it will give the developer consolation since its tone will be a bit different from western instruments (Deep Night 141-4). The kayagŭm was perfected more than a thousand years ago. It has distinct features in its sound and technique. Accordingly, to maximize the charm of kayagŭm, music that matches its uniqueness should be written. The music of Byungki Hwang is a good example to show how Korean music can be created in its own style, in line with its own traditions. Hwang, the first lecturer to be appointed in the first Korean Music Department in Korea, has composed many creative pieces for the 12- string kayagŭm. Being a most impressive player himself, he composed his first kayagŭm piece, “Forest,” in 1962. His music is not popular with the public, but it has attracted an audience, not only in Korea, but also in countries overseas such as the US, Netherlands, Italy, France, and Japan. Jocelyn Clark, who majored in Oriental Studies in Harvard University, comments that Hwang’s music pleases both the ear and the mind. She says that though he has lived through some hard times, he portrays the future from his own viewpoint as “a dynamic artist” (Hwang, Chimhyang-moo 31-33). His music does not try to force the instrument to fit a different format; instead, it naturally flows on the strings, combining techniques traditional and new. Hwang’s music can be creative and traditional at the same time because he fully understands traditional Korean music, which has to be recognized both in theory and in spirit. According to Hwang, Korean music is rhythmically distinct from Western music. Both in language and music, Koreans tend to combine long syllables and short syllables together. These combinations are based on the triplet principle, not the duplet which is common in Western, Chinese, and Japanese music. In addition, the tempo differs from Western music. While Western music takes its tempo from the walking step of a man (or his heart beat), Korean 87 music takes its tempo from the length of a breath, which is usually slightly slower (Hwang, Deep Night 247-249). Hwang suggests an example that shows the spirit of classical Korean music in the same book. He cites a poem by Cheol Jeong (Chŏl Chŏng), a famous writer and politician in the 1500s. As I placed my hand a division further along the string on the kŏmun’go The water, stopped by the ice, sounds like chattering Somewhere, the rain falling on a lotus leaf sings along (qtd. in Deep Night 106) Surrounded by nature, the poet here is playing the kŏmun’go, and is feeling joy in the harmony of his music and the sounds of nature: the water flowing under the ice, and the rain falling on a lotus leaf. Hwang explains that this embodies a different concept from Western classical musicians who try very hard to polish their techniques and perform a perfected music for praise and fame (108-109). In the learned men’s society of old Korea, musical ability was perfected to communicate with nature and to refine mind.

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