Pungmul
| Korean spelling | |
|---|---|
| Korean alphabet : | 풍물 |
| Hanja : | 風物 |
| Revised Romanization : | Pungmul |
| McCune-Reischauer : | P'ungmul |
Pungmul ( Korean : 풍물 ), also sometimes called pungmul-nori ( 풍물 놀이 ), is a traditional Korean folk music that was originally played and performed by farmers in their villages and in the fields. It includes drumming with various instruments, dancing and singing.
Name meaning
Literally translated, Pungmul means something like "wind objects" and as Pungmul-nori "playing with wind objects". Originally known as Nongak (peasant music), nong ( 農 / 농 ) for peasants and ak ( 樂 / 악 ) for music, there was fierce competition in South Korea . In 1966 the genre of music was registered under the name Nongak as an important intangible cultural asset number 11. But scientists and practicing artists resisted adopting the name from the time of the colonization of Korea by Japan and found the term too narrow. Since then, Pungmul has established itself as the way of performing music, dance and singing.
Background and story
The music and its performance have a shamanic origin, although the temporal origin of this music cannot be precisely defined. Texts in the ancient Chinese Sanguozhi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), which describe the period from 184 to 280 AD, refer to music, dance and song for ritual and festive occasions in rural areas, probably on Mahan , one of the three confederations at the beginning of the European era. However, it is not yet possible to infer the type of performances and the instruments used from the texts.
Pungmul was performed in groups of players, with the manner and style of performance varying from province to province. What they had in common, however, were the purpose and processional character of the performances.
The occasions on which Pungmul was played and performed can be divided into four categories:
- Peasant ceremonies - In shamanistic rituals, pungmul was performed to bless something like a house, the village, the fruits in the fields, or special events. The game was also used to drive away demons and evil spirits.
- Rural work - Pungmul was also played to accompany work in the village or in the fields and to motivate the active people.
- Fundraising - To gathering funds for important projects in the village, for temples or other important institutions, people went from door to door with Pungmul performances.
- Entertainment - Until the mid-20th century, pungmul was also played for entertainment in village communities.
All pieces of music, rhythms and forms of performance differ depending on how they are used.
Traditional performances
A typical pungmul procession was always led by a flag bearer or banner bearer. The banner had an elongated rectangular shape and was attached vertically to a pole. It usually had the name of the group or dedications or something similar.
The standard bearer was followed by the player of the Kkwaenggwari ( 꽹과리 ), a small metallic gong with a very high sounding . With it the player gave the respective rhythm, the tempo and the signal of a change of both and the dance performance. The player could be followed by other Kkwaenggwari players who supported the captain.
In third position after the flag bearer and the kkwaenggwari was a player who operated the jing ( 징 ), a larger gong with a dark, echoing tone. The jing was struck at the beginning of a rhythmic cycle or to emphasize a specific drum beat within a rhythm.
The jing was followed by some players with janggu drums ( 장구 ), which, according to their shape, belong to the hourglass drums, are provided with two drum heads and are beaten on both sides with two different mallets . With it detailed beats of different pitches and shapes were struck, which determined the character of a rhythm.
At the penultimate position of a procession, the drummers formed the buk ( 북 ), a barrel drum that also has two sides of the beat, but is struck with only one clapper. With their piercing dark sound, the drum beats formed the framework or framework of the rhythm and thus supported the other instruments.
However, the playing of the various instruments was not only concerned with being in harmony, but could also differ and overlap in their rhythms and beats, which resulted in a complex structure of rhythms.
The end of a procession was usually formed by the dance group, which played the sogo , a small flat drum held on a stick, at the same time as their acrobatic interludes . The sogo and the movements of the associated drum beats were more decorative than the drum could have contributed anything decisive to the drum rhythm of the performance. The way the sogo was beaten was usually part of the group's dynamic dance.
Instruments
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In some performances, the Pungmul group was also accompanied by theater dancers, who, in appropriate disguise and with Korean masks ( 탈 Tal ), made fun of the authorities, scholars, religious leaders and others in stereotypical form or caricatured them in their performance have criticized.
Decline of the traditional pungmul
During the Japanese occupation of Korea, playing pungmul was suppressed because the Japanese authorities feared that pungmul performances could stir up the population. After the liberation of Korea from its occupiers and the Korean War , the industrial awakening in the south of the divided country led to rural exodus with the urge of younger people to move to the country's urban centers. The tradition of playing pungmul threatened to be more and more forgotten and rural performances became rarer.
Rediscovery of the Pungmul
In the 1960s, Pungmul became part of the student protest movement against the military regime and against the corrupt class within South Korea. Students went to the country in a row to learn about country life. It was the beginning of the Minjung Movement ( 민중 ). Mass demonstrations against the military regime followed in the cities in the 1970s and 1980s, and the drum rhythms of the Pungmul played an important role in mobilizing and forming the resistance. It was not uncommon for young demonstrators to be seen playing pungmul in traditional minbok ( 민복 ) (common people's clothes).
Parallel to the Minjung movement, the working class in South Korea remembered the cultural power of literature, art and also the traditional pungmul game and talchum ( 탈춤 ), the mask dance , in the 1980s . The Urban Industrial Mission , a progressive religious organization that taught the pungmul game and mask dance, played an important role in the organization and awareness of the workforce. By the mid-1980s, every trade union and workers' organization in South Korea had a pungmul drum group and a talchum group, and both forms of performance became strategic tools for mobilizing not only the labor movement in South Korea, but also the student movement and the mobilization of the masses for the community Fight for more freedom and democracy in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
Samulnori
In the late 1970s, the artist Kim Duk-soo created a stage version of the pungmul, which has since been performed as Samulnori , the game with four instruments, Kkwaenggwari, Jing, Janggu and Buk, and has secured a place in the traditional art of drumming in South Korea.
Pungmul today
In memory of the traditional form of the Pungmul game, today in South Korea and in all countries where Koreans have immigrated, Pungmul Games are performed on festive occasions, be it Seollal , Korean New Year, Independence Day , or other important social events Occasions. In many cases, Pungmul performances have also become a tourist attraction.
literature
- Hagen Koo : Korean Workers . The Culture and Politics of Class Formation . Cornell University Press , Ithaca 2001, ISBN 978-0-8014-3835-6 .
- Nathan Hesselink : P'ungmul . South Korean Drumming and Dance . The University of Chicago Press , Chicago 2006, ISBN 0-226-33095-8 .
- S. Sonya Gwak : Be (com) Ing Korean in the United States . Exploring Ethnic Identity Formation Through Cultural Practices . Cambria Press , New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-60497-584-0 , Chapter 4: Finding Koreanness Through Pungmul .
- Donna Lee Kwon : Music in Korea . Oxford University Press , New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-536827-7 .
- Bruno Nettl, Timothy Rommen : Excursions in World Music . 7th ed . Routledge (Taylor & Francis) , New York 2017, ISBN 978-1-138-10146-3 , Musics of East Asia II: Korea .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Nettl, Rommen : Excursions in World Music . 2017, p. 177 .
- ^ Kwon : Music in Korea . 2012, p. 73 f .
- ↑ a b c d Gwak : Be (com) Ing Korean in the United States . 2008 ( Chapter 4: Finding Koreanness Through Pungmul ).
- ↑ Hesselink : P'ungmul . 2006, p. 49 .
- ^ Kwon : Music in Korea . 2012, p. 74 .
- ^ Koo : Korean Workers . 2001, p. 148 .
- ^ Koo : Korean Workers . 2001, p. 149 .
- ^ Nettl, Rommen : Excursions in World Music . 2017, p. 178 .
- ^ Kwon : Music in Korea . 2012, p. 80 .
- ^ Nettl, Rommen : Excursions in World Music . 2017, p. 179 .