Everyone Watched a Mask Dance Drama Performance

July 21^st, 2011

At Dankook University the lesson plan for the day included showing the students the movie Seopyeonje which everyone should watch as it's fabulous, so I started out with a lecture orienting them to types of vocal music with extra emphasis on pansori (the subject of the movie). I think they really enjoyed it.

In the evening I met up with Kathy and Tim again and we went to the Dragon Hill Spa (찜질방) which was awesome, of course. They were quite impressed and really appreciative of the awesomeness that is Korean bathhouse culture.

July 22^nd, 2011

Prof. Hilary Finchum-Sung came to guest lecture to the class. Not knowing the route to Dankook University I met her at 강남 Gangnam Station and we took the bus together. This meant we had lots of time to chat, yay! She's far enough into her career to have great advice, but new enough to not have outdated information or have forgotten what you really need to know when you're at my stage. She gave a great lecture to the students—her focus was globalization in Korean music, talking about whether fusion is Korean music, for example, but she gave a good solid overview of Korean music before she got to the point of the lecture. Although I had taught the students lots of the same stuff, the reality is that they are being hit with tons of brand new words, an entire world of things they knew nothing about two weeks ago, so a solid well-organized review was great for them. Also she brought her 해금 haegeum with her and demonstrated different types of music on the instrument.  

For the end of class we discussed one out of two planned articles, then practiced 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum motions. The students are getting better and better. I rode back to Seoul with Hilary and went straight to 선릉역. I drank coffee and worked on my computer until it was time to meet Kathy. We briefly walked through the park at the royal tombs, then met Tim and ate dinner before the mask dance drama performance for the evening.

Not the best cell phone photo of Kathy

The performance was the third in this series where they are combining different arts on themes. The theme was 노장, the old monk. Oddly 북청사자놀음 Bukcheong Saja Noleum showed their monk dance, then we saw the 은율탈춤 Eunyul Talchum old monk scene, or the start of it anyway. It felt very choppy and artificial and honestly the other two were not displayed well in comparison... Last there was about an hour of 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum. The performance included the 8목중 8 dark-faced monks plus the entire old monk scene all the way through the shoe seller and 취발이 Chuibali. 8 students from Dankook had come (6 of mine and 2 others) and they all enjoyed it. After they show they took photos with some of the performers, then I said bye to my friends who were there and Tim, Kathy and I had a drink before saying good-bye until who knows when. 

More Studio Time

June 22^nd, 2011

Today 윤지희 Yun Jihee, the 해금 haegeum player for 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli came to the studio to add haegeum tracks to two of Karjam's songs. One of those songs, "Losar Dodlih" will have more different tracks on it than any of the other songs on the CD. Normally I like sparser arrangements and Karjam likes fuller arrangements, but I'm pretty excited about this. I think Jihee is super super sweet and she was ultra-professional. We had to leave the studio after that because another client was coming.

June 23^rd, 2011 Karjam's Birthday

For Karjam's birthday we watched "Super 8" (we liked it), bought Karjam really good quality headphones (he was stoked!) and went to a fancy-dancy Chinese restaurant. Honestly I could barely eat my main dish and only enjoyed the shared bokchoy. My soup? Best not to mention it. But Karjam was stuffed and very very happy.

June 24^th, 2011

We worked on re-recording some vocal tracks for the CD and making editing choices on the other tracks.

In the evening we went to see a 가사 gasa and 시조 shijo concert (these are two types of sung poetry of the Joseon Dynasty and to many people NOT very attractive because they're very very different from what most people are used to). It was super cool, though, and Karjam enjoyed it because he loves hearing different types of singing and new things. 

Culture Heritage Tour to Daecheon/Boryeong

April 16^th, 2011

On Saturday I took mom with me to 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli. Everyone was really sweet to mom and the 피리 piri player with missing fingers, 주현 on 대금 daegeum and윤지희 Yun Jihee on 해금 haegeum were all there, plus of course 함완식 Ham Wanshik (Nat'l Human Treasure) on the 장구 janggu. So mom was able to hear a lot of awesome playing in addition to watching me dance. For dancers we had only 함승헌 and Ham Sr.'s friend. I really should learn his name. He was very sweet to mom and told her she was much more beautiful than I was and that she didn't look her age. Ham Jr. talked in English to mom, Ham Sr. was his usual friendly self. We did the basic motions, Act 3 (this time I was 먹중 병 which is the one of the three with a really long speech. I didn't do so badly!), then Act 4 (this time I was the old procuress who doesn't have any lines), then we did 말뚝이놀이 which is Act 10. I played 샌님 Saennim, the oldest of the yangban and the only one with speaking lines. I'd never paid attention to that character before. It was not half as much fun as being the youngest yangban, 도련님, who is a bit retarded and unruly.

After practice we walked a bit in the park there and then looked at the ice-skating rink in Lotte World before going back home.

April 17^th, 2011

Policy Director of the Cultural Heritage Administration 엄승용Eom Seungyong invited me to go hiking with him and Prof. David Mason. It sounded like it would be fun—outside Seoul, spring weather, hiking, a temple, things I hadn't seen before… so I asked if it would be okay if mom tagged along and they said yes. A little later Seungyong clarified that we should pay our own ticket there (대천역 Daecheon Stn) but that after that the transpo and lunch would be provided. That sounded even nicer. I bought our tickets –to Daecheon- on Friday but not the tickets home as I had no idea when we'd be heading back to Seoul.

We woke up early and got to the station on time, then took the approximately 3 hour train ride down to Daecheon (this is the train station for 보령 Boryeong a town most known for its mud festival in the summertime. This festival is mostly marketed to foreigners, and I am adverse to it for that reason if not because nothing sounds good to me about wallowing in a bunch of mud with strangers who shouldn't be exposing as much (mud-covered) skin as they are). Actually my friend Eugene did a post about this—read it.  When we arrived the scene I had imagined (of Seungyong, David, some (perhaps English speaking) people interested in heritage and tourism) was abruptly shattered by the reality that Seungyong (undoubtedly incredibly busy) who is from Daecheon had combined our plan with a plan to get together the alumni of his high school. Many of these people were interested in heritage and promotion of Daecheon, Boryeong and the area, but not many of them worked in that area. There were several professors, a high school principal who was quite the cultural expert, local councilmen and other politicians, and more colorful characters amongst Seungyong's high school fellows, and there were also a few younger people (not sure how they got involved with the tour) and officials for Daecheon's culture and tourism department including an English-speaking tour guide (who like many, no let me change that, like most tour guides in Korea knew almost nothing but memorized (or cribbed on notepaper) facts without contextualization and with plentiful errors). She was one of those idiots wearing 3 inch fairly spikey heels on a cultural tour where we'd be clambering around in grass and woods and what not.

View of the Port of Boryeong

I was not in the most social mood and I find large groups of men in their mid-50s a bit much to deal with so I only really talked to five of the Koreans on the tour, they were all very nice. I was most impressed with the high school principal as he was legitimately excited about showing us these sites and had very deep knowledge. I also talked with Chris, a blogger David knows who had come on the tour. He seems interested in learning more about Korea, but hasn't gotten very deep into it yet. I should send him some suggestions for good books.  David who speaks no Korean despite a prodigious memory for Korean terms related to history and culture spent a lot of his time educating the tour guide (I would have done it if he hadn't, but he was much more prepared since he seemed to have brushed up on the local area and what we'd be going to see –and- as a professor of tourism (at Kyunghee University) he has a highly developed idea of how tour guides should be presenting things. Also some (though not all) of our sites for the day were related to his own areas of concentration, specifically religion). Sometimes I disagree with David's ideas, but I have to say I was immensely impressed with how he handled the social aspects of large-group-of-powerful-older-Korean-men. His manners were unfailingly correct and he handled things like an impromptu speech during lunch perfectly—thanking the vice-mayor (who'd joined us for the meal) and everyone else, remembering the names and hitting just the right tone. He really came across well, although he did give a short lecture in English that I thought should have gone deeper, because even though they do not know English well (many of them) they were pushed by the principal to really complex and detailed understandings when he was speaking and I think that David should have pushed their knowledge, not just their ability to understand English.

Really awesome informative principal

Gate to the Commandery

It's spring

Ink stone

As for the sites, well, I am not the type to feel comfortable being ushered on and off buses, into the pose for group photos, to the next stop and so on. Also I felt a little hesitant to ask questions in front of so many people for fear that I had misunderstood what I'd just heard or for fear that I'd garble my question. I did ask some questions one on one, though. The experience of going on a 문화유산답사 munhwa yusan dapsa (Cultural Heritage Educational Lecture/Tour) was interesting though in the context of a book chapter by Robert Oppenheim and as a reminder of another way that Koreans have tried to turn back and learn about their past/culture. Since I like to quietly explore things on my own, I don't normally get this perspective, but it's important to remember it as I write my dissertation.

We saw the site of the execution of several Catholic missionaries, including 5 French martyrs. We went to 충청수영성the commandery for the naval defense force in the region (part is being excavated but it's mostly ruins), and to 성주사지 the site of Seongjusa Temple, which is also now a ruin, but it's one of the original temples for the 9 mountain schools of Shilla Era Buddhism, so it was really awesome to go there—it was the biggest reason I wanted to go on the day trip, though I was also looking forward to hiking which never happened. We got to see a private and very unusual shrine to Sanshin (according to David who specifically wrote a book about Sanshin) and even stopped to see the training center for the provincial human treasure for ink-stone carving (used in calligraphy). We also had an elaborate lunch—almost all seafood including plentiful sashimi in Boryeong Port. The weather was lovely all day.

We didn't get seats for the train home. I managed to keep mom in seats almost the whole way (which was good since she really slept a lot) and Karjam sat between two cars, but I stood up all but perhaps 20 minutes. And my knees were already killing me.

We watched "Hanna" which was a little disappointing before going home. 

Mom Arrives in Korea and the K-Arts Students Have a Show

April 14^th, 2011

We went to the airport on the new airport railroad and picked up mom. She'll be here for two weeks.

I ran off to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum soon after we arrived home. Class was sort of depressing. I made some silly mistakes when I intended to finally do this one part error free. I was just having an off night I guess but it really bummed me out.

April 15^th, 2011

I woke up at 3:30 (two hours sleep) and got mom up (not hard because of the time difference). We went to 조계사 Jogye Temple for the morning prayers. I think our taxi driver there was drunk.

The prayers were good but because of mom's bad knees she can't do any of the prostrations, which is too bad. I did 108 before the service actually started, then during the main prayer suddenly my knee sort of popped and it started to be almost torture to do any additional prostrations. The service was particularly long with a series of prayers I haven't do much, but a nice 보살 bosal (volunteer in the temple) came and brought me a prayer book that included those prayers and I really enjoyed chanting, I understood a lot of the prayers we recited, much more than I understand the prayers I'm used to doing.

Before we left we bought some things, she bought 3 little gifts and I bought a ring for myself with 반야심경 the prayer Banya Shimgyeong on it. I think mom enjoyed the trip to the temple. When we left it was just starting to get light a little. We headed to the bus stop and took the bus back home and napped.

After we got up we went to the 찜질방 Korean bathhouse/spa. It was a good place to take mom, I think. We enjoyed all the saunas and pools before we joined Karjam in the co-ed area. I think we were there about 3 hours, but when we left Karjam decided to stay.

In the evening we went to the Korean National University of the Arts for the new student performance. All the new students in the School for the Traditional Performing Arts performed. The first piece was a court orchestra piece and I was really impressed. Honestly, that's not my favorite style of Korean music but I thought that the performance was highly professional, really I could not perceive any difference between their performance and that of any ordinary traditional music orchestra, despite the fact that all the players were freshmen (who would be approximately 18-20 American age). The next three pieces featured 거문고 geomungo, 가야금 gayageum and 해금 haegeum. Although I was looking forward especially to the geomungo, the piece was just a boring composition (it was a new work). The gayageum piece was Pachabel's Canon on 3 different pitches of gayageum (with three players per pitch). Blah. I am not a fan of trying to recreate a Western sound on a Korean instrument. It's a waste of the capabilities of the instrument. The haegeum piece also was nothing special. Next we had a vocal number with four pansori singers, a gayageum byeongchang player/singer, several minyoperformers and one women doing jeongga. I found their performance pretty good but not great, at least it got mom fully awake (she is jet-lagged). One really super fun aspect was hearing this type of singing with a knowledgeable (and supportive) audience. There was so much well done 추임새 chuimsae. The next piece was dance, a giant rendition of taepyeongmu and the only performance for the night with upper classmen (why? I see no reason why they couldn't have just had fewer dancers on the stage). It was frankly the most boring and soulless rendition of taepyeongmu I think I've ever seen. Mom fell back asleep.

Of course the important part of the show was the last act: the performance by the 연희학과 Department of Traditional Folk Theatre. The show opened with 13 (of 15 new students) on stage playing seated 사물놀이 samulnori. Actually they all began on 장구 janggu then they switched to samulnori. I was glad off the video camera as it made it easy for me to spot Ga-eun who stayed on janggu and Heesu who switched to buk. Of course as soon as I saw that Wonjung and Inseon were not there, I knew it was because they were in costume somewhere off stage. They entered the stage and the drums switched to a smaller configuration and one player re-emerged on 태평소 taepyeongso. Wonjung was dressed as the old yangban husband and Inseon as the old grandmother, his wife. They discovered each other and exchanged various fairly typical dialogue, then introduced the tight-rope walker. The tight-rope walker was very good, certainly 80% as good as the top performers, National Human Treasures, who I've seen. After he was featured there was a section for standing 풍물 pungmul performers, with Ga-eun as one of the two 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari players. She had a wonderful section being featured dancing with the large poof of ostrich feather whip that they manipulate much like a sangmo. There were several dance solos, including Heesu on sogo with wonderful manipulation of the sangmo. I am totally impressed. Two other Namsadangnoli trick performers came out (I think one was the same guy as the tightrope) and they dealt with spinning tops and disks.

It was absolutely a wonderful performance and I was so proud of the students. Afterwards I gave my students some drinks and told them they did a good job, while I was talking to Ga-eun Professor Kim Duksu came up and asked her who I was. I was a bit tongue-tied, but managed to ask him for an interview. He passed me off to another professor, a theory expert. I guess I'll have to try to ask him again at another time when I'm more prepared! I think mom had fun but she was really exhausted by the time we got home. 

A Songpa Sandae Noli Rehearsal Where I'm the Only Person Dancing

April 1^st, 2011

Had 허창열 Heo Changyeol and 세정 Sejeong over for lunch. Between the two of them they could somewhat communicate in English with Karjam, and it was a pleasant visit. And my food came out really well.

I submitted the completed translation.

Karjam and I saw "Black Swan."

April 2^nd, 2011

I went to 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli class and for some really strange reason I was the only person there to dance. 함완식 Ham Wanshik was there to play 장구 janggu, 박주현 Bak Juhyeon (who went to middle school, high school and college one year behind Sejeong, Changyeol's girlfriend) was there to play 대금 daegeum and 윤지희 Yun Jihee was there to play 해금 haegeum. In addition 안병인 Ahn Byeong-in was there as the dance instructor of the day. Needless to say I felt self conscious as the only person to dance with all these others, but it got worse because Ahn was apparently tired out from rehearsal on Friday night, so he wanted me to dance all by myself and prove that I knew all the motions correctly. This was very intimidating because we don't have a memorized set of motions, and each person who leads dance practice does it differently. Plus I have never had to do any motion on my own, I'm always following along (I'm an excellent motion-mimic in general). After a bit of a false start I got going all right, until I had to do 겨울보기 one of the motions with sort of tricky and specific timing. I practiced just that motion for quite a long time until Ahn was convinced, did a couple more, then reviewed all of them. Ahn left and Ham and I practiced the dialogue for Act 3 and Act 4, which was nice of him. Obviously –he- doesn't need to practice.

Bongsan Talchum Performance

December 17th, 2010
In the morning I went to Severance Hospital –again- and yet by the evening my ear was almost as painful as it’s been at any time during this whole long annoying infection. And the new pills he’s trying on me cost way too much- 70 bucks or so- if Karjam hadn’t insisted I wouldn’t have picked them up.

In the evening I went to 무형문화재선수회관의 풍류극장 the Pungryu Geukjang (theatre) at the Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage to see a performance of 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum with 양은석 Yang Eunseok and two of his co-workers. Eunseok is a friend from summer 2009 at 임실필봉농악전수관 Imshil Pilbong Nongak Training Center. He’s amazingly talented, both as a drummer and notably as a singer of 민요 minyo. If only he would stop smoking! As usual the advertising materials existed for the performance but they’d done a horrible job of getting the word out. I didn’t even know about the performance until Monday, even though I’m in the building week after week. On the evening of the performance there were posters (even free ones for the guests) and bookmark-like cards to advertise the show around the building, but considering that the foot traffic is not the highest, such advertising materials need to go out in advance, as far in advance as possible (in my opinion). More directed advertising can focus on a few days before but passive advertising such as distributing cards needs to be out there so attendees at other shows can pick them up weeks in advance.

The performance began with an introduction by 박상운 Bak Sang-un and two musical performances- 대금산조 Daegeum Sanjo followed by a 해금 독주 Solo Haegeum piece. Both were performed by younger members of the group. The performance was 사상좌춤 Sa-sangjwa dance, 발목중춤 the scene of the 8 dark-faced monks (with solos by the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th monk), 노장춤 the Old Monk’s dance and 사자춤 the lion dance. I video-taped the two middle pieces, since I don’t think I have the Old Monk’s dance and I’ve ruined previous performance videotapes of the dark-faced monks by being too excited about the performance and speaking the 대사 daesa monologues with the monks loud enough for the camera to pick up the sound. Either Bak Sang-un or in one case the National Human Treasure 김애선 Kim Aeseon spoke between acts, and their announcing was very rich—I will have to transcribe it (or get it transcribed) for future analysis- very rich indeed.

Friday morning dawned snowy. This is the view down our break-neck (esp. when icy) hill from our stairs. Karjam shows off his facial hair. I show off the clean hair on my head (if only I didn't get more water in my ear...)

Transmission of Performing Arts within the Family

November 19th, 2010
In the morning I went to the history class at SNU. Again, she put me to sleep. I think she’s super knowledgeable but a hot room, cold day, blinds drawn, lights low, slide show… added to Professor Bak’s really mellow voice, it just was not a good situation. I just have not been able to sleep much since early in the week.

After class I ran errands, came home and in the evening Karjam and I went to the second in a series of three nights of performances at the 중요무형문화재전수회관의 풍류극장 Intangible Cultural Asset Training Center’s Pungryu Theatre. The series was focusing on transmission within families. It was really amazing, but I wish we’d been able to see Thursday’s show. Friday was also quite special, with four acts. The first act was 신상철 Shin Sangcheol and his wife 선영숙 Seon Yeongsuk performing with (among others) their two sons 신현식 Shin Hyeonshik and 신현석 Shin Hyeonseok. They performed several pieces, the first was 가곡 gagok but I must admit that I find Hilary’s assistant 기쁨 Gibbeum’s gagok to be more appealing. The highlight was when the family (plus several others) played 시나위 shinawi. Since my research is on transmission, this was a wonderful example of transmission to see. The father was playing 단소 danso and 해금 haegeum, the mother played 가야금 gayageum and the two sons played 아쟁 ajaeng and haegeum.

The second act was not one I was looking forward to, because I am so sick of seeing 살풀이 salpuri (a dance rooted in shamanism) and 승무 seungmu (a dance rooted in Buddhism). They are performed too much, but I felt that the two performers, a mother and daughter 김복련 Kim Boknyeon and 신현숙 Shin Hyeonsuk, had a slightly new/different interpretation. In particular the daughter’s interpretation of seungmu felt fresh, usually we see two styles: the style perpetuated by 이매방 Yi Maebang (who actually performed on Thursday) and the style of 한영숙 Han Yeongsuk (now deceased), sometimes called the 경기 Gyeonggi style. Many dance historians insist that both dances were originally choreographed by 한성준 Han Seongjun, who as you might guess is the father of Han Yeongsuk. The two performers we saw are registered for the -regional- arts of salpuri and seungmu for the Gyeonggi region, so it's reasonable to guess that they are preserving the Han Yeongsuk-ryu, yet I've seen other performers of that ryu and the dance (particularly for seungmu) was somewhat different. The pamphlet information on their performance, although written by 이병옥 Yi Byeongok, one of my Songpa Sandae Noli performers, a dance historian professor, did not get into the extreme politics of ryu. (Extreme politics indeed, as regional performers will get a smaller stipend than nationally registered performers, less status, fewer paying students, fewer performance opportunities, and if indeed some can argue that their performance is the more 'authentic' one... well, you understand). [Advertisement for Korea featuring a seungmu dancer. It's just really cool looking, won't give you an idea of the dance, though.][Just a couple minutes of salpuri]

The reason I went to the show, though, was to see the third act, 박동매 Bak Dongmae. She had learned from her mother, the late 조공례 Jo Gongnae. I had a chance to meet Bak in 2008 and interview her, I was very impressed with her attitude and I love her singing voice. She is the National Human Treasure for 남도들노래 Namdo Deulnorae, a type of work (farming) song from the southern corner of Korea such as her home, Jindo Island. Bak’s performance was great, with three other women singing chorus verses and they acted out various tasks of carding and spinning as well as transplanting and weeding the rice seedlings as they sang.

The last act was another mother/daughter pair, 박경자 Bak Gyeongja and 김명이 Kim Myeongi. Their art (both of them are certified in the same art, which wasn’t the case in all of these families) is 삼설양굿 Samseolyanggut, a shamanic ceremony from 순천 Suncheon and registered for protection as a regional (South Jeolla Province) art, not for national protection. Karjam and I watched this show for nearly an hour as they performed the ceremony, (which was, like many gut, quite bizarre with knives and shoveling food into mouths, and sexual behavior, cross-dressing and well... the things that society usually sweeps under the rug) but as it grew closer to 11 and I became more concerned that we’d miss the last bus and have to take a subway home (and as I found the gut more and more repetitive) we finally left before they’d finished. We were already some of the longest remaining audience members. Packed at the beginning, apparently much of the audience had come for the first two acts, by the time the third act started nearly half the audience had left.

Fusion (and Chuseok)

September 22nd, 2010 추석 Chuseok, the Korean Autumn Harvest Holiday

Well, as foreigners without a particularly close family in town we didn’t do anything particularly for the holiday, however we did venture out for several hours of observation of various performances and events. There were far fewer than the internet led me to expect and each place I’d looked up in advance had less going on, presumably in all cases because yesterday’s rain had caused plans to change, but it was still a very happening day outside, lots of small events and concert stages. None of the places we went to, ironically, had the traditional events I wanted to see, partially because I saved the best event (being held two days in a row) for tomorrow. We started at City Hall, spent quite some time in 덕수궁 Deoksu Palace, then proceeded to 천계천 Cheongyae Stream, hit a bit of 대학로 Daehangno, then looped around and came back to 세종문화회관 Sejong Culture and Art Center which was hosting a performance by Sukmyeong Gayageum Ensemble. That meant that not most but ALL the performances we’d hit during the day fully qualified as fusion.

Photos:
The funniest menu item I've seen in a long time and the view down the stream.



Photos of Deoksu Palace and Karjam. The one B/W should teach him to stop goofing around when I want to take a photo of him!






Photo of one of the Sukmyeong performers.


I am torn on the subject of fusion. The other day when I went to Prof. Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class one of the cool things she said was that the violin had developed over centuries to be ideally suited to playing Western classical music, like Mozart, and that likewise the Korean instruments, regardless of roots in China (in most cases) had evolved to fit the ideal Korean aesthetic. So when you try to play “Moonriver” on the 해금 haegeum it’s sort of laughable at best. I call that sort of thing a gimmick. It’s the same with photography, people will develop a very unusual process that creates an unexpected result and then go with it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good photo. It’s unexpected to hear the Beatles on 가야금 gayageum, but that doesn’t mean that it really sounds good. Honestly it sounds like muzack. Elevator music. Maybe you’d want to listen to the end the first time, but after that would you want to hear it again, really? The Beatles being one of the main sources of the Sukmyeong group’s adaptations (they play very few Korean traditional pieces and even when they do, since they all use 25nylon string (modernized from the classical 12 silk string) gayageum, it still won’t sound fully traditional. In other words I find Western music played on Korean instruments at least a waste of talent, and often just annoying. However some groups that combine Western and Korean instruments and play pieces of music that are a bit between the two traditions can produce exciting results that may cause people to reconnect with traditions/traditional music/ traditional instruments and can give young performers a chance to be creative and find excitement in a musical genre bound by tradition and chock-full of canonical pieces which though often (산조 sanjo) originally as welcoming to improvisation as jazz are in practice increasingly rigid. During the day Karjam and I heard both interesting fusion and not interesting fusion.

One of my favorite performers is 장사익 Jang Sa’ik. The man has an amazing voice. (Or should I say had? He can’t sing with the power he could when I was first seeing him live.) Jang is traditionally trained and fully proficient in traditional music, and has chosen to create fusion ensembles to accompany adapted traditional, traditional and newly-composed songs. I can't complain about his fusion, he's just a master, and if it keeps him artistically engaged I'm all for it. But there are a lot of performers who don't master the traditional arts before they start messing around with fusion and I think that that is often off key (bad musical pun, sorry). [Another Jang Sa'ik fusion performance].

김덕수 Kim Deoksu, one of the most famous drummers in Korea, has had long-standing fusion relationships, including with the Jazz group Red Sun. It's funny to look back on it now, but the first Korean music CD I ever owned was Kim Deoksu Samulnori with Red Sun (actually it was given to my ex, but by my 합기도 Hapkido instructor, way back in 1996).

Fusion has been embraced by the government as the perfect ingredient in tourism ad campaigns, just look at this one for an example.

These days there are a lot of co-productions with B-boys (in case you didn't know, Korean B-boys win many international competitions, and Korea's becoming quite the hot location for B-boy and B-girl activities). [example 1] [example 2]

Some Koreanists have written on fusion music, including R Anderson Sutton who wrote a whole article on how the Haegeum is being utilized for a lot of fusion these days, whereas in the past the gayageum was more favored. I love Haegeum, but sometimes people try to repress its natural rasp when they play it in fusion, which to me begs the question "why use haegeum if you don't want it to sound like a haegeum?" [Haegeum fusion example 1][we heard a lot of music in this vein today][a third example][more haegeum fusion]

There are also a lot of younger traditional musicians who try to adapt K-pop hits for their instrument, I don’t know if this is being performed anywhere seriously, but so much of this is running around Youtube, I should acknowledge it. So are they screwing up by not concentrating on polishing the ‘real’ skills of their instrument or are they keeping themselves engaged and finding artistic inspiration? I really can’t judge this, but I need to follow up on this subject during my fieldwork. And I’d really like comments on this subject! [Go halfway through the video to hear the pop with the gayageum

Meeting Professors

September 16th, 2010
Wow. It was the fullest day I think I’ve had so far.

In the morning I went to audit Prof. Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class “Intro to Korean Music.” She’s the first foreigner ever to be hired by a Korean music department. Not music department in Korea, a department that teaches KOREAN music. Wow! Actually I know other people like Heather Willoughby who are also ethnomusicologists with Korea as their region, and probably Heather or others could have been as competitive for that job if they’d been on the job market at the time that SNU was hiring. Regardless, last year she was teaching music theory IN KOREAN! She did say there was a lot of new vocabulary involved in teaching that class, but I was incredibly impressed. In fact, I’ve rarely been more impressed. Close up when we ate lunch after class she looked tired, but when she was teaching she was high energy, pretty and talented. The class is still in the highly introductory period where she’s setting a base-line of knowledge for the students to stand on so I knew most of what she taught, but she did it very well, demonstrating 거문고 Geomungo (6 string zither), 해금 Haegeum (two string fiddle) and 장구 janggu (hourglass drum). She is actually on her way to being really good on the Haegeum, and she sang a little with a very pleasing singing voice. She had some music students visit class to demonstrate 대금 Daegeum (transverse bamboo flute), 가야금 Gayageum (12 string zither) and 피리 piri (double-reed oboe), because it was the introduction to instruments class. So I had lunch with her and will go back to her class again.

Cell phone photo with Hilary and two of the music majors:


After that I rushed to meet Professor 전경욱 Jeon Gyeong'uk, who is one of the top experts on mask dance drama, and among professors who teach on the subject the one I respect the most, hands down. He is also officially the person I am affiliated with for the Fulbright. It was very hard to talk to him, as there were six people in his office when I arrived (it’s always like that!) and he prepared us all tea (full tea production with all the pouring of water and discarding this and that and making sure the temperature was just right and what not. He’s a big tea aficionado. I had a five minute window when no one else was there, he went to the bathroom then sent a fax (and I waited for him to finish doing it) then asked the first question on my list, and he moved to his computer and attached documents that he sent me, and while he was doing that a reporter from the 중앙일보 Joong-ang Ilbo arrived, and until I had to leave he was still lecturing her (and preparing more tea). The lecture to her was very interesting, I won’t type it up in the public blog version in detail, but the short version was he was going off about changes to the masks that actually meant they were not as well made as in the past, lost artistic ability, ornamentation, realism, details, etc. It was sort of a rant. I told him I’d read what he’d sent and meet him again in a couple weeks.
Cell phone photo: Prof. Jeon makes tea


I rushed home, had a two minute cold shower, grabbed my 한삼 hansam (white sleeve extensions for practicing 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum) and my 미투리 shoes, loose pants and a t-shirt and rushed out to 봉산탈춤 where we had a fairly ordinary practice. I am worried about 원 중 Won Jung, who is applying to the National University of the Arts School of Traditional Performance. I don’t actually think he has much innate performance talent, and I wonder how much that counts (he wants to learn and devote himself to traditional arts, and through hard work he’ll get better… isn’t that what education is about?). His audition is Oct. 6th or 7th.

And I read academic Korean articles for tomorrow's class on all the bus and subway rides.