Sangmo and a Performance

April 12^th, 2011

I went to 전통국악사 Traditional Korean Music Store and to 고려국악사 Goryeo Korean Music Store and picked up more ribbon for my sangmo and a fan for practicing the part of grandmother in 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum.

In the evening, as usual, I had 상모 sangmo class. Hyeonseok, Rimhan and I were the only students in class and Rimhan was late. I didn't have quite as good a rehearsal as the previous week, I think that the difference was not setting things up enough. Basically 이종휘 Yi Jonghui's line for the day was that he'd taught us all the steps, this step, that step, etc. and we should just run through them as we spun. Except we were spinning 바른사 counter-clockwise circles and 반대사 clockwise circles instead of doing 사사 1 ¾ circle left 1 ¾ circle right. It was harder doing counter-clockwise and very hard doing clockwise, Rimhan could barely do anything clockwise as his clockwise spin isn't there yet. Even counter-clockwise I find the transition into one step very hard and another step almost impossible to maintain (although I can do it with circles on both sides). At the end of class I video-taped Jonghui giving a mini-lesson in the basics. I'll put it up on my video section soon, but I won't make it publicly accessible link because it's not like he prepared to give a perfect lesson, it's just an on the spot thing.

Here is the video excerpt of me, I'll upload Yi Jonghui later.

April 13^th, 2011

I worked at home and at Chans Bros.

In the evening we went to a concert at the 국악원 National Gugak (Korean Music) Center. The concert had been billed as being a new way to introduce Korean traditional music, and of course I wanted to see how they'd do it and if it would be effective to reach the audience. The article I'd seen had not mentioned it was particularly targeted at families, but apparently it was, as the audience was mostly families.

There were two distinctly different things that they did: they had an announcer that was a "scientist" complete with an Einstein wig. He did little magic tricks and spoke in a very funny and affected manner. He did things like introduce all the instruments in funny and memorable ways. For example he introduced the 해금 haegeum and next when he introduced the 아쟁 ajaeng he said it was the haegeum on steroids, the haegeum's big brother (both are bowed, but the haegeum is like a little 2 string violin in size and the ajaeng is 5 feet long with multiple strings). Each instrument played a little snippet designed to capture the audience attention. Most were children's songs or pop songs or Western songs, not Korean traditional songs. The other thing they did was they had three compositions which they introduced through a Korean genre painting and a poetic/story of historic Korea. The announcer for those had one of those perfect radio classical music DJ voices. There were a total of 3 ensemble pieces (one was the first piece then the two last pieces were ensemble) and they were introduced by Einstein and in the middle were three compositions for between 2 and 4 instruments. All the pieces were new compositions, not traditional music. The best part was the amazing 거문고 geomungo player. 

Guest Lecture about Korean Mask Dances

November 17th, 2010
Wednesday is my day off, but when scheduling a time to have a drumming lesson with 이연순 Yi Yeonsun it was the only day that worked. So in the afternoon I went to meet her at a community center where she’d just ended a class. The idea was that we could keep using the room. Unfortunately, someone else had scheduled use of the room and she didn’t find out until during her class when they came to set up. She called me but I was already on my way, so we agree to meet and talk. I ended up interviewing her for 2 hours. No exaggeration, more than 2 hours of conversation was recorded. It was an amazing interview, only something possible because I’ve proven my interest, knowledge and discretion. The contents of the interview would be much less interesting to you than to me, and much of it will need to be kept confidential, but most importantly she gave me a good foundation for other interviews and some real honest feedback on how performances are being protected for future generations.

In the evening Karjam and I went on a quick trip to a 국악사 traditional musical instrument shop where I picked up two more 한삼 hansam to use with my Thursday guest lecture. Then we romantically strolled by the lantern exhibit set up in 청계천 Cheonggae Stream.

Cell phone photo of a sangmo wearing sogo playing lantern-guy:


November 18th, 2010
This morning Professor Hilary Finchum-Sung’s class was on 풍물 pungmul for the first half, a subject I already know a lot about, obviously. I brought my 열두발 yeoldubal and 상모 sangmo and two 소고 sogo so the students could try them during the break time. Then I got to do a guest lecture on mask dance dramas for the second half of the class, which was a really awesome opportunity, I’m so grateful I had that chance (even just thinking about it while preparing was great for me, since I’ve never had a chance to do a short lecture on mask dances). I used a PowerPoint and the video on release through laughter in the mask dances dramas that I referred to making a couple days ago. After answering their questions (more than an average of two questions each) I handed out my hansam and taught them some motions. It went really well, except I wasn’t happy with how thin and nasal my voice sounded, and I answered some questions in an unnecessarily drawn out manner (if I’d only thought it through first…). Karjam came and filmed the entire thing.

After class Hilary bought us lunch, then Karjam and I went to the National Museum of Korea to see the special exhibition of Goryeo Dynasty Buddhist paintings. The paintings were really impressive, but the exhibit lights were too low and even on a Thursday afternoon it was much too crowded for my tastes. We rushed home and I left again ten minutes later to go to my new class.

My second class at 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang went well. Up until about 2003 Yeonsun was a member, she’d been with the group for many years, and it turned out that the woman, 미경 Migyeong, who got Karjam and I free tickets to the dance performance a while back was there this evening, and the conversation with her uncovered the fact that the announcer that evening had been 지원 Jiwon, one of the key members and the drumming instructor for the group. 장미이 Jang Mi’i talks constantly as she teaches, explaining each motion, and its meaning, and then again and again as we repeat. She is either talking or counting out loud at all times. I find this a bit hard to take, and want to concentrate more on the motion and don’t need each fine detail of the motion explained to me, I’d rather do it three times instead of once with talking, at which point I would expect to be doing it properly based on watching carefully. Maybe it’s just because Korean isn’t my native language so paying attention to what is said may be more distracting for me than it is for most people. The others had learned a fair stretch of the choreographed basic motion set on Tuesday, I had to catch up and learn the new set of motions, but it was fun. Someday I may be good at 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae. We had 8 participants (a much more manageable sized group) including Jang Mi’i, Jiwon who did our drumming and 김선우 Kim Seonu who is the go-to office, drummer, secondary dance instructor sort of person. I also found out that she’s only a year younger than me, which is surprising; she comes off as still in her 20s. After class ended we sat in a circle, evaluated class (while Seonu made notes) and had hot tea and cookies and other snacks.

Buying Traditional Music Equipment

August 11th, 2010



At last I have something research related to write about! Unfortunately (picture me kicking myself), no photos. After many firsts (first tea, first cooking, first laundry), I ended up heading to the wonderful street of excellent hanbok 한복 (Korean clothing) and gukak 국악 (traditional music) stores. The first store I went to, I’ve been there several times before, was highly disappointing. The only person there (I’m used to a woman who knows more than I do, if not a lot) was a man who had no idea how to play 장구 janggu. No one in a traditional music store should have no idea how to play janggu. It would be like a music instrument store in the US with a salesperson who could play neither guitar nor piano. I’m not saying he should have been proficient, but it was sort of ridiculous when I asked him why one janggu was 100,000 and the other 150,000. He claims not to know, I ask “is it just the color?” (One was finished with red stain that almost looked like lacquer, the other was just wood with clear finish). Hmmphhh. When I tried to ask him about 상모 sangmo he didn’t even seem to know how to assemble one.

I went down the street (to the store "전통 국악사"). 상호 (Sangho), the nice guy who was my salesperson there told me the different Janggu in front of me were made by three different companies, and came to them at a different price, so they charged differently for each. He then showed me how two were noticeably lighter- better if you’ll dance with the janggu. All three of those were blond wood. I chose one of the lighter ones, in his opinion the best looking one after I narrowed it down to the look the one company was producing. Then (and this is why I wish I’d taken my camera) he put the two heads onto the janggu and strung it while I watched. He broke one head and had to grab another, but it was really fascinating.

This is a video that I found a year or so ago, it’s a different guy in a different shop (Sangho told me each person does it a little different, and this was not the most traditional method because of the materials) but it’s close enough for you to get the idea). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie-eISQe_UQ

I also bought the sangmo (ribbon hat) I needed and two sogo 소고, one for Karjam and one for me (I have two in LA already, with my janggu, but they don’t do me any good there, and I used every bit of my luggage space). I bought the janggu and one sogo for Karjam to use in the short term, because next week having the janggu gives him the option of taking that class and even if he doesn’t do anything else, he can do the morning sogo dance practice. However, I plan to take janggu lessons for several months to improve my playing, so I’ll use this janggu myself, later. And I bought a pair of shoes for folk performing (미투리) and a 민복 (minbok) a white outfit worn under most other folk traditional performance clothing. I can use the shoes and the minbok for other stuff. Of course I have both already in LA.