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Lamp, Sebastian (2018) Korean Sijo music and poetry: transmission and aesthetics. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/30276 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Korean Sijo Music and Poetry: Transmission and Aesthetics Sebastian Lamp Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2017 Department of Music SOAS, University of London Abstract This thesis explores Korean sijo, as both poetry and music. It surveys the different bodies of research on the topic that are the result of sijo long being treated from one or other of the perspectives of literary and musicological scholarship by both Western (e.g. Rutt 1971, McCann 1988, O’Rourke 2002) and Korean scholars (e.g. Chang Sa-hun 1986, Kim Tae-Haeng 1986, Cho Kyu-Ick 1994). Placing both literary and musicological aspects together, this thesis discusses the form, origins and content of sijo. The synthesis of the two aspects forms the basis of my exploration of sijo performance during the 20th century. My focus is on the transmission of chŏngga – sijo, along with kagok and kasa, that together form Korea’s classical vocal music tradition – during the turbulent times from the late 19th century through the colonial period to the post-liberation era. The important actors, that is, the singers, scholars and relevant institutions – governmental and private – have been discussed at least partially in various publications (e.g. Hahn Man-young 1990, Yi Pohyŏng 2004, Song Bang-Song 2007, Kim Minjŏng 2015, Moon Hyun 2015), but this thesis provides the first thorough account of chŏngga in the 20th century, its teaching genealogies, institutions, aspects of its preservation, and its regional variants. This thesis demonstrates that the subtle aesthetic of chŏngak literati music lies at the heart of what constitutes sijo as a genre; reference to Confucian and sometimes Daoist influence on the aesthetic of literati music is frequent, but the nature of such influence has not been adequately discussed. I survey academic writings by Korean and Western scholars (e.g. Donna Kwon 1995, Lee Byong Won 1997, Byung-ki Hwang 2001) to address terminology and concepts relevant in the context of chŏngga and then, based on my personal fieldwork, and in order to provide a comprehensive account of chŏngga aesthetics, I complement previous writing by incorporating the views of contemporary chŏngga singers. 2 Korean Sijo Music and Poetry: Transmission and Aesthetics List of Contents Abstract 2 List of Contents 3 List of Tables, Musical Examples, Diagrams, and Illustrations 6 Introduction 7 Part I: Introduction to Sijo 25 Chapter 1. The sijo form 25 Introduction 25 1.1 The sijo form: Historical background and problems 26 1.2 The form of the sijo text 30 1.3 Introduction to chŏngga 41 1.4 The musical form of sijo 43 Chapter 2. The origins of sijo 53 Introduction 53 2.1 The terminology around sijo 53 2.2 Historical sources on sijo 58 2.3 The oldest sijo and problems of attribution 61 2.4 Theories about the origins of sijo and its literary predecessors 67 2.5 Theories about the origins of the sung sijo form 72 Chapter 3. The content of sijo 77 Introduction 77 3.1 Problems of representation and abstraction 78 3 3.2 Sijo writing through the eras 87 3.3 Themes and symbolism in sijo 90 3.4 The aesthetic of the sijo text 102 Part II: Sung sijo in the 20th century 108 Chapter 4. The genealogy of chŏngga 108 Introduction 108 Part I – Tradition: theory and practice 109 4.1 The recovery of chŏngga after the bottleneck 109 4.2 Ha Kyuil – the beginning of everything 111 4.3 Chŏngga transmission – listen and repeat? 113 Part II – The genealogy of chŏngga 119 4.4 Ha Kyuil and Im Kijun – singers from a different era 120 4.5 Yi Chuhwan and the second generation of chŏngga singers 127 4.6 Yi Chuhwan’s students – human treasures, singers and teachers 131 Chapter 5. The institutions of chŏngga 138 Introduction 138 5.1 The Chosŏn Chŏngak chŏnsŭpso (1911-15) 138 5.2 The kwŏnbŏn 140 5.3 The Yiwangjik aakpu (1921-1945) 146 5.4 The National Gugak Center 153 5.5 The Gugak National Middle and High School 160 5.6 Kugak in universities 166 Chapter 6. Sijo preservation, practice and regional styles 176 Introduction 176 6.1 The Korean preservation system 176 6.2 Sijo, preservation and contemporary chŏngga practice 182 6.3 Regional sijo properties and sŏgamje 191 Part III: The aesthetics of sijo 201 Chapter 7. The chŏngga aesthetic: Roots and conceptualizations in writings 201 4 Introduction 201 7.1 The philosophical roots of chŏngak aesthetics 202 7.2 General aesthetic ideas and concepts in Korean traditional music 210 7.3 Aesthetic ideas and concepts in chŏngga 222 7.4 Aesthetic ideas and concepts in sijo 230 Chapter 8. The musical aesthetic of sijo: Contemporary singers’ views 233 Introduction 233 8.1 Moon Hyun 236 8.2 Yi Sŭngyun 240 8.3 Pak Mun-gyu 245 8.4 Yeh Chan-kun 252 8.5 Kim Yŏnggi 256 Conclusion 260 Bibliography 275 Appendix 288 Acknowledgments 292 5 List of Tables, Musical Examples, Diagrams, and Illustrations Tables 5.1: Foundation, division and integration of kwŏnbŏn in Seoul during the early 20th century 142 Musical Examples 1.1: The first section of the sijo T’aesani in Western notation 44 1.2: The sijo T’aesani in chŏngganbo notation 45 Diagrams 4.1: The genealogy of chŏngga (1735-1945) 137 Illustrations 5.1: Two profiles from the Chosŏn miin pogam, published in 1918 (p.42) 288 5.2: Sijo lesson in a Korean sixth-year elementary school music textbook, featuring the sijo T’aesani in chŏngganbo, and including explanations on knee changdan (Cho Hyoim 2010:52-3) 289 5.3: Sijo lesson in a Korean sixth-year elementary school music textbook, featuring the sijo Tongch’angi, based on a notation style called karaksŏn akpo (melodic line notation) reminiscent of Chong Kyŏngt’ae’s earlier graphic notations for amateur sijo singers 290 6.1: A notation of the p’yŏng sijo T’aesani in yŏngje style, collated by Yi Kirŭng 291 6 Introduction This thesis consists of three distinct but related parts which explore the topic of pre-modern and contemporary Korean sijo, as both poetry and music. It aims to provide a comprehensive account that brings together the different bodies of research on the topic which are the result of sijo long being treated from one or the other of the perspectives of literary or musicological scholarship by both Western and Korean scholars. For this purpose, I have surveyed the various accounts and theories of sijo’s form and origin, and offer a synthesis; although not every aspect of sijo research can be meaningfully discussed by adopting this parallel view, research on either literary or musicological sides benefits from knowledge of sijo’s other side. Part II onwards then for the most part explores sijo as a musical genre. I use the synthesis of approaches as the basis for my exploration of sijo performance during the 20 th century. I then demonstrate that the intricate aesthetic of vocal production in Korean chŏngak literati music lies at the heart of what constitutes sijo as a genre. While research on this is scarce in English, discussions by Korean scholars draw on conceptual and terminological conventions that are not easily accessible to Western scholars. It is a commonplace that literati music was shaped by Confucianism, although the exact way in which Confucian ideas left an imprint on the music is rarely discussed. The topic I have tried to address in my account of aesthetics is designed to be understandable to a Western audience; ultimately, I hope for the whole of my work to be of interest to both musicologists and literature scholars in the field of Korean studies. Since much of my discussion hinges on the route to modernity that began at the turn of the 20th century, a brief statement about that period is in order. That period was to radically change almost every aspect of life in Korea and for Koreans. Shifting geopolitical configurations towards the end of the 19th century brought about a severe identity crisis for Korean elites and intellectuals, which had at its centre the question of whether Korea could hold on to traditional 7 ways and the vision of a Confucian state. The Japanese annexation, and the gradual development of Japanese influence at the end of the 19th century that preceded it, constituted a rude awakening to the impossibility of continuing with old ideas and practices, and consequently triggered an entirely different identity crisis about Korea’s place in the world in the post-colonial era, when no longer a tributary of China, the ancient centre of the East Asian world, it would become a nation- state of its own. Japanese colonial rule and the vision of modernity that it enforced upon Korea can be seen to have limited and suppressed a wide range of expressions of Korean culture.