ISSUE TEN
Spring 2000
Contents:
• Conference at the University of Hawaii
• From the President
• SEM 2001 in Detroit
• 2000 AKMR Meeting Minutes
• Publications
• NCKTPA Videotape
• News from AKMR Members
• Jin Hi Kim named ACO Fellow
• Korean Traditional Music Workshop at the NCKTPA (Summer 2001)
• Report from Samulnori at SOAS
• Additional Abstracts - SEM 2000
YouYoung Kang, NewsletterEditor
Music Department, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
18952 E. Fisher Rd.
St. Mary’s City, MD 20686 USA
“Current Research in Korean Music:Assessment and Prospects”
Conference at the University of Hawaii
by Andrew Killick
The weekend of February 16-17, 2001 saw an event of great significance for AKMR: the first conference on Korean music ever to be held outside Korea. Entitled “Current Research in Korean Music: Assessment and Prospects,” the conference was sponsored by the University of Hawaii’s Center for Korean Studies and by the East-West Center, and organized by Byongwon Lee, William Feltz, and myself. It was attended by participants from Korea, Japan, China, the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia. Despite some formidable obstacles both in the planning stages and at the last minute, it provided a (so far) unique forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas in our field and for building a worldwide community of specialists in Korean music.
It was deplorable luck that the weekend we had chosen saw a record-breaking snowfall in Korea that prevented any flights from departing on the day most of our Korean contingent was to travel. Even sunny Florida was shrouded in a thick fog, and I myself was not able to reach Honolulu until the end of the first day. But I doff my hat to the several Korean participants who arrived on the morning of the second day, after an exhausting overnight journey, and not only persevered through that day’s panel sessions but joined in the evening festivities and took their turn at the mike when we finally wound up in a norae-bang. The difficulties with transportation meant that the entire conference schedule had to be reorganized at the last moment, but with the help of imperturbable conference coordinator Sun Hee Koo and a capable support staff from the host institutions, the event was rescued from the jaws of disaster and, in the end, was everything the organizers had hoped for. It is our earnest wish that the conference will not be a one-time event but the first of a regular and long-continuing series.
The conference program included some twenty-one papers on subjects extending across the entire scope of Korean music studies, as well as an opening reception and concert, a keynote address by Professor Emeritus Barbara Smith, a closing dinner, and a hula workshop. While not all of the presenters were finally able to attend, it seems appropriate to acknowledge all the intended participants: Heon Choi, Sang Il Choi, Vincenza D’Urso, Nathan Hesselink, Keith Howard, Junyon Hwang, Okon Hwang, Chengjun Jin, Andrew Killick, Eun Jung Kim, Eung-ki Kim, Hey Jung Kim, Il Ryun Kim, Kyung-Hee Kim, Young-woon Kim, Oh-sung Kwon, Bo-hyung Lee, Tae-Baek Lee, Yong-Shik Lee, Jae Won Lim, Joshua D. Pilzer, Dae-Cheol Sheen, Bang-song Song, Yukio Uemura, and Yong Sop Yang. To all these we extend our thanks for a stimulating and historic occasion.
Return to Top
From the President
I was honored to be elected President of AKMR at the 2000 Musical Intersections megaconference in Toronto. Our Association made a fine showing at the conference, with a dozen papers and one live performance devoted to Korean music. In February 2001 we passed another landmark with the first full conference on Korean music ever held outside Korea. We have certainly come a long way since even a decade ago, when it was common to find no more than one or two papers on Korean topics at national SEM meetings.
Now that we have made our mark in terms of numbers and visibility, I believe it’s time to ask ourselves how we can win even greater respect for our organization and for the music we study by making our research presentations stand out from the mass of often pedestrian papers given at national and international conferences. Academic meetings are so full of dry and poorly presented papers that it is relatively easy to rise above the general standard by following a few principles. So, as a number of our members will be thinking about their papers for the 2001 SEM conference in Detroit, I’d like to begin my term as President by offering some thoughts on what makes an effective presentation.
(1) An oral presentation is not a published paper. From the beginning, plan your presentation with the needs of listeners, not readers, in mind. All the other principles follow logically from this one.
(2) Keep within the time limit. You have the attention of your listeners for a strictly limited time, usually twenty minutes. If you fail to reach your conclusion by the end of that time, you will have to sit down without having made your point. Practice reading your paper beforehand to make certain that you can say everything you’ve planned and play your examples, all within the time limit.
3) Choose a topic of appropriate size. It’s impossible to convey everything that’s important about a subject in a twenty-minute paper, so don’t try. Instead, focus on a single aspect that stands out as unusual or intriguing. At most, twenty minutes is enough to make a single argument about your topic and support it with relevant data and examples.
(4) Use clear, direct language. Again, consider your listeners. It’s much harder to follow convoluted sentences and erudite vocabulary when listening than when reading; there is no opportunity to skip back to something you’ve missed or look up an unfamiliar word. By striving too hard to sound ‘academic’, too many papers become simply unintelligible. Remember, the goal is to communicate, not to mystify.
(5) Address your listeners. Nothing looks more uncommunicative than to read a paper word-for-word without looking up from the page. Ideally, an oral presentation should be extemporized while maintaining eye contact with the audience. If you don’t feel confident or articulate enough to attempt this, read your paper, but keep looking up at your audience (not at the ceiling or the back of the room).
(6) Use vivid, concise examples. Your audience, who may not be familiar with Korean music, needs to know what it is you are talking about before you tell them too much about it. So play an audio or (preferably) video example early in your presentation, and one or two more as you go on. But don’t play the examples for their own sake: choose them carefully to illustrate the points you are making, and let your audience know what to listen for in each example. Let each example run just long enough to make the point - not long enough to lose the audience’s attention or make you run out of time.
(7) Master the technology. Arrive early for your panel to test all the equipment you will be using and adjust volume levels and focus. Technical hitches during the presentation not only cause delay but make you look incompetent. Your use of technology should appear effortless.
(8) Provide visual aids. Your listeners can follow your ideas more easily if you give them a handout containing the title of the paper, your name and contact information, an outline of your main points, names and terminology you will be using (with dates and definitions), and perhaps one or two transcriptions, diagrams, pictures, or maps. If you have too much of this material to go on a handout, bring transparencies for the overhead projector or a notebook computer for the digital projector, but be sure to use large print - about double the normal size.
(9) Make a memorable beginning and ending. Your listeners don’t know what to expect when you first open your mouth. Give them a reason to think your paper will be interesting: a paradox, a striking image or phrase, or an evocative description. But then get quickly to the point and don’t keep them guessing what your paper is trying to do. At the end, give them something to take away: your main point in a nutshell, memorably expressed and delivered slowly and clearly.
(10) Answer the questions you’re asked. In the discussion following your paper, pay close attention to each question you are asked (make a note if necessary) and address yourself closely to that question. Don’t go off on a tangent or talk for too long before inviting the next question. Speak to all your listeners, not just the one who asked the question, and above all, if you don’t know the answer - say so!
These ten golden rules are not hard to follow, but it’s surprising how few presenters, even among senior scholars, appear to have ever thought about them. Just to put these simple principles into practice is enough to make you stand out from the crowd - try it and see!
Andrew Killick, President
Return to Top
2000 AKMR Meeting Minutes
Sheraton Center, Toronto, Friday, November 3, 2000, 6:30-8:00 pm
The meeting was called to order by President Robert Provine at 6:40 pm.
President’s Report by Robert Provine:
The President was pleased to note the large number of papers on Korean music at this SEM.
Keith Howard, who was not able to attend the meeting due to a last-minute discovery of an administrative snafu, was missed by all.
The President announced that AKMR, as an ancillary organization of SEM, should supply newsletters and other reports of activities to SEM for its archive. It was agreed that henceforth AKMR will send a copy of all AKMR newsletters to SEM.
AKMR will change the name of its award to “AKMR Prize” since a local chapter of SEM has already been awarding a “Margaret Dilling Prize.” The President encourages students to submit papers for consideration for the award.
The address for the AKMR web page will change so that it can be connected to the University of Maryland system where Robert Provine (AKMR webmaster) teaches. Robert Provine strongly encourages members to contribute material to the website.
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report by Okon Hwang:
Financial report from November 19, 1999 to November 2, 2000:
Income: membership dues $350 + dividend $53.50 = $403.50
Expense: May 2000 AKMR Newsletter printing and mailing $68.05 (no mailing for Fall 2000 yet)
Balance: $1,264.59 in the AKMR account (as of November 2, 2000)
Secretary/Treasurer asked members to notify to her of any changes in their e-mail and snail-mail addresses. Itis especially crucial for members to update their e-mail addresses because all elections and important last-minute announcements/notifications are delivered via e-mail.
In order to facilitate effective flow of inquiries that the Secretary/Treasurer constantly receives, brief bios of members will be created to be posted in the website. Members will be contacted via e-mail for their contribution.
Election results: Andrew Killick was elected as President; Nathan Hesselink as Member-at-Large; and Josh Pilzer as Student Member-at-Large.
Newsletter Editor’s Report by YouYoung Kang:
The Fall 2000 AKMR Newsletter was distributed at the meeting. For non-attending members, copies will be mailed soon.
The Editor asked for contributions from members to be included in future newsletters.
Newly elected President, Andrew Killick, presided for the rest of the meeting.
A run-off election was held during the meeting to fill the position of Member-at-Large (odd year) vacated by Andrew Killick. Heather Willoughby was elected for a one-year term.
Nathan Hesselink will administer the AKMR Prize for Korean papers presented at the 2000 SEM for the most distinguished student paper on a Korean subject.
Heather Willoughby will organize next year’s AKMR panel. If the high number of Korean papers at each SEM meeting should continue, AKMR will discuss the possibility of organizing an AKMR panel at every SEM conference.
Nathan Hesselink announced the biannual publication of a journal Music and Culture (Umak-kwa munhwa) published in Korea. It embraces many different approaches, areas, and languages. More detailed information on the journal will be included in the next newsletter.
R. Anderson Sutton, as a board member of SEM, emphasized the importance of close communication between AKMR and SEM. If AKMR wants to announce the winner of AKMR Prize during the SEM business meeting, Sutton recommended AKMR to inform SEM’s Scott Marcus for inclusion. He also emphasized the importance of the submission of interim reports to SEM in advance so that they will appear in SEM business meeting brochures.
There was a brief introduction of members attending the meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Okon Hwang
November, 2000
Return to Top
SEM 2001 in Detroit
The 46th annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, sponsored by the University of Michigan, will take place on October 25-28, 2001 at the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. AKMR has proposed a panel for this meeting (look for more information in the Fall 2001 AKMR Newsletter). For more information about the conference, look on the SEM website toward late August or early September: http://www.indiana.edu/~ethmusic
See you in Motown!
Return to Top
Publications
The Yearbook for Traditional Music (2000) includes three articles related to Korean music:
Provine, Robert, “Investigating a Musical Biography in Korea: The Theorist/Musicologist Pak Yon (1378-1458).”
Willoughby, Heather, “The Sound of Han: P’ansori, Timbre, and a Korean Ethos of Pain and Suffering.”
Lee, Byongwon, “The Current State of Research on Korean Music.”
Lee, Byongwon. “Western Staff Notation and Its Impact on Korean Musical Practice,” Tongyang Umak 22 (2000): 89-96.
Return to Top
Gungnip Gugakwon (NCKTPA) Videotape
The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts (NCKTPA) has announced the release of a videotape ( English version), which features the performance activities of the Gungnip Gugakwon and its members. Although this videotape was produced primarily to promote the Gugakwon’s performance activities among international concert promoters and theater managers, copies may also be available to others who wish to teach or promote Korean traditional performing arts outside of Korea. If you would like more information about this video, please contact Ms. Jangeun Cho in the Promotion Division of the NCKTPA by e-mail: jackiecho76@hotmail.com.
Return to Top
Jin Hi Kim named 2000-2001 Composer Fellow
by American Composers Orchestra
From the ACO Press Release (11/27/00):
Jin Hi Kim was selected as the American Composers Orchestra’s Composer Fellow for the 2000-2001 season.... Ms. Kim has been commissioned by ACO to compose a new work for komungo and orchestra. That work, titled ‘Eternal Rock’, will receive its world premiere conducted by Dennis Russell Davies (and with the composer as soloist) at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, March 18, 2001, as part of ACO’s Coming to America: Immigrant Sounds/Immigrant Voices project which explores the evolution of American music through the work of immigrant composers...
Ms. Kim will also be presented in a performance in ACO’s ‘Composers Out Front’ series at the Public Theater on Friday, March 9th, 2001 at 8:30 pm. That program will include Jin Hi Kim performing komungo and electric komungo solos, plus ‘Nong Rock’ for string quartet and komungo, which was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet.
Return to Top
News from AKMR Members
Okon Hwang has completed her Ph.D. degree in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Her dissertation is titled “Western Art Music in Korea: Everyday Experience and Cultural Critique.”
Return to Top
Korea Foundation Korean Traditional Music Workshop
in cooperation with NCKTPA, June 3-30, 2001
Korean Traditional Music Workshop for Overseas Musicologists, which will take place in Seoul from June 3 through 30, 2001 under the joint sponsorship of the Korea Foundation and the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts.
The workshop is primarily intended to provide an opportunity for ethno-musicologists to broaden and enrich their knowledge of Korean music. Accordingly, the workshop activities will include lectures on major topics in Korean traditional music and instrumental classes; the Janggu (hourglass-shaped drum), Danso (small bamboo vertical flute), and Gayageum (twelve-string zither).
Should you have any questions related to the workshop, please contact: Cultural Exchange Team, The Korea Foundation, Seocho P.O. Box 227, Seoul, Korea;+82-2-3463-5615; (fax)+82-2-3463-6075.
Program officer: Jaeho Han (jhhan@kf.or.kr)
Director: Keum-jin Yoon (kjyoon@kf.or.kr)
Workshop organization:
Coordinator: Prof. Byong-Won Lee (Prof. of Ethnomusicology, University of Hawaii)
Participants: about 20 persons
Schedule:
Weekdays
9:30-12:30: Lectures on Korean music
14:00-17:00: Group instrumental classes
(Janggu, Danso, Gayageum)
Weekends: Field trips to local festivals and performances. Since participants are interested in a number of different Korean musical instruments, we cannot accommodate everyone’s demands. If you want to practice any specific instrument, please let us know. NCKTPA will help you to take private paid lessons after the class.
If you have any inquires about lectures and instrumental classes, please contact the Director of Promotion Division, NCKTPA, Mr. Won-Sun Lim: wslim@ncktpa.go.kr; (fax) +82-2-580-3055.
Accommodations: The Foundation will cover accommodations from June 3-July 1. (in a hotel, single occupancy).
Stipend: The Foundation will provide a weekly stipend (W280,000=US$210) to cover meals and other expenses. However, during the field trip to the Gangneung Dano Festival, the Foundation will cover all expenses and will not provide stipends.
Transportation: The Foundation will support transportation related to the workshop. Any transport costs for your personal business will have to be covered by yourself.
Insurance: The Korea Foundation will provide domestic traveler’s insurance within Korea during the workshop period. It will cover injury or damage resulting from an accident.
Diet: If you are unable to eat certain foods due to medical/religious reasons, please let us know.
Weather and other information on Seoul: See websites: http://www.metro.seoul.kr and http://www.korea.net.
Workshop Topics and Activities
6/2 Sat Arrival
6/3 Sun Orientation. Reception.
6/4 M Introduction: Musical landscape of the old and new Korea; South Korea vs. North Korea (Lee Byong Won); Major historical accounts of Korean music (Shin Daechul or Nam Sangsuk)
6/5 T Material culture, musical instruments and their acoustical aesthetic properties (Lee Byong Won); Korean music within the East Asian and world context (Lee Byong Won)
6/6 W Memorial Day (Holiday)
6/7 Th Historical development of A-ak, or Munmyoak, the Confucius Shrine Ritual Music (Song Hyejin); Historical development of Jongmyoak, Royal Ancestral Shrine Ritual Music (Song Bangsong or Song Hyejin).
6/8 F Form and styles of Sanjo (Hwang Byonggi); Shaping of Pansori (Chan Ung Park)
6/9 Sat Field trip to the Confucius Shrine, Royal Ancestral Shrine, palaces (Lee Byong Won)
6/11 M Regional folk and shaman ritual music; Folk songs of the professional musicians (Park Mikyong)
6/12 T Regional Pungmul and their social function (Kim Duksoo); Structure of the presentational Sinawi (Park Mikyong or Choi Jongmin)
6/13 W Discussion on the preservation and transmission of the performing arts (Song Kyongnin and Kim Cheonheung, guest speakers)
6/14 Th Changgeuk (Choi Jongmin); Korean people and their Philosophy (Choi Jongmin)
6/15 F Korean Traditional Dance (Lee Seonok)
6/16 Sat Field trip to Shaman ritual (Lee Byong Won)
6/18 M Mahayana Buddhism and its ritual performing arts (Lee Byong Won)
6/19 T Seven kinds of notations: history, usage, rationale and transnotation practice
(Song Bangsong)
6/20 W To be announced
6/21 Th Court banquet music and dance, and the music of the aristocracy (Hwang Junyeon); Theory and practice of court banquet music (Hwang Junyeon)
6/22 F Form, styles, and repertory of the Sijo, Gagok and Gasa (Moon Hyun)
6/23 Sat Field trip to Bongwon Temple Buddhist ritual (Lee Byong Won)
6/25 M Musical acculturation: process and product (Lee Byong Won); Impact of Western music in Korean traditional music (Chae Hyongyong)
6/26 T Impact of Korean music in Western compositions (Western Music composer-guest speaker to be decided); Types of modern popular songs (a popular music critic-guest speaker to be decided)
Depart for the Gangneung Dano Festival
6/27 W Gangneung Dano Festival (Lee Byong Won); Return to Seoul
6/28 Th Post-1945 musical culture of North Korea (Lee Byong Won); Musical diaspora (Lee Byong Won)
6/29 F Korean music programming at media organizations (Kwon Osong); Korean music curriculum in schools (Kwon Osong)
6/30 Sat Social Characteristics of Korean music (Choi Junsik); Guide to Korean Music Recordings (Jung Changgwan)
Participant Evaluation of Workshop
Farewell party
7/1 Sun Check out and departure
Return to Top
SOAS SamulNori at the
Ninth World SamulNori Competition in Korea
Forwarded by Keith Howard
The SOAS SamulNori team has performed a number of times during the last year, led by Keith Howard and featuring Nami Morris, Philip Stutely, Jonathan Thorpe, Andy Gustard, and Kozumi Taguchi. They have played at SOAS, Kingston University, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and at open air festivals including Sandringham (the Norfolk residence of the British royal family). The biggest event, though, was a trip to Korea.
Philip Stutely reports:
“In the autumn term of 2000, music students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London, took part in the 9th World SamulNori competition in Seoul. The hospitality of the SamulNori Hanullim organisation was perfect throughout our stay in Korea. Whilst in Seoul we stayed in the TrekKorea hostel. This simple accommodation provided a perfect environment for getting to know one of the other foreign teams, from France. We were also able to use the recording studio at the Hanullin offices to rehearse our piece for the competition, which gave us a valuable chance both to acclimatise and perfect our performance. After a few days we were driven to Yangp’yong, close to the competition site. The location of the site was near the foot of Mt.Yongmunsan, just outside town.
There were about fifty teams in the competition, but just three groups in the “foreigners” category. The French team was from “Theatre du Soleil”, a popular theatre company from Paris, and the other foreign team travelled from Japan. On the second official day of the competition, the Japanese team performed a repertory piece known as Yongnam Nongak. They had developed a performance that went beyond the normative SamulNori form, wearing masks and playing Japanese clapping sticks. Later on in the day, the French team played the same Yongnam Nongak piece but with two changgo drums, one kkwaenggwari player, and an African bass drum replacing the puk. In the early evening our SOAS group played. Following discussions with the Hanullim organisation and Keith Howard, we had prepared a fusion piece, joining several changgo drums with the ching and world percusion instruments: the tabla, djembe, and dun-un. The piece was well received, since it enters into the spirit of SamulNori, Korean musicians who wish to bring traditional Korean folk music to an international audience by incorporating world percussion. At the end of the first round everybody went to the hotel together to indulge in some karaoke.
On the third day of the festival, the Japanese group was eliminated, so only the French and English teams played. For the final round. The French team added an Indian flute to the introduction of their piece and we changed the ending and the length of our fusion piece. Our efforts were well appreciated by the Korean audience, and the judges had a tough time in arriving at their final decisions. In the end though, they decided that the French team had played better than we did, and we were awarded second prize. The prizes were awarded at a final ceremony after performances by an orchestra and by the SamulNori Hanullim group. Ahn Sook-sun, the president of SamulNori Hanullim, performed a short segment of p’ansori. The whole week of our stay in Korea was very interesting and, to say the least, it was enjoyable and enlightening.
Our journey was valuable not just because of the SamulNori festival and contest, but because we were able to see a few sights in Seoul and experience the colours of autumn on Mt.Yongmunsan. We had a marvellous opportunity not only to meet other foreign groups but to interact with the many Korean groups who perform SamulNori with such enthusiasm and interest. Everybody involved in the competition worked very hard, from the organisers (especially Mr. Kim Hae Bo) to all the people working at the site providing food for the several hundred participants who took part in the three days of the competition. Our trip was made possible by generous sponsorship of the Korean Residents’ Society in the UK and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, and our trip was further subsidised by SamulNori Hanullim. Our thanks go to these organisations, and also to the staff at the Department of Music at SOAS, who provided support and encouragement.”
Return to Top
SEM 2000 Paper Abstracts
(not included in the Fall 2000 Newsletter)
“An Alternative to Ethnomusicology in the Twenty-First Century”
Hyun Kyung Chae (Seoul National University)
Ethnomusicology was introduced to South Korea in the 1970s by "outsiders" as well as by "insiders" returned from studying abroad. Major universities adopting the Western educational system began offering courses in ethnomusicology. Although ethnomusicology appeared to be a new and important discipline, it was still considered a field for "the others" looking into our music. Assuming that ethnomusicology was a discipline dealing primarily with folk music, Korean scholars whose main research interests lay in elite music were reluctant to adopt the methodology of ethnomusicology in their research. Furthermore, a rise in nationalism following the unprecedented economic growth in the 1970s triggered a strong skepticism against reflective studies of Korea and its culture introduced by ''the others.'' As an increasing number of musicologists in both historical musicology and ethnomusicology trained in the West have returned to Korea and begun sharing the need for musicological research on Korean music, a series of favorable changes have occurred recently. Starting with the establishment of a musicology program at the Korean National University of Arts in 1997, ethnomusicology-oriented graduate programs have been initiated at major universities. Several highly successful international conferences promoting research exchanges between Korean and foreign scholars have been organized in recent years. In addition to such active conferences, new journals are being established with papers; contributed by both insiders and outsiders. At the turn of a new century Korean musicology yearns for an alternative musicology combining the theories, methodologies, and scope of both ethnomusicology and historical musicology.
“The Development of a Sanjo School: A Case Study of the Kim Yun-Duk Kayagum Sanjo”
Hee-sun Kim (University of Pittsburgh)
Kayagum sanjo refers to a folk solo instrumental music form played on the kayagum, a twelve-stringed zither of Korea. Kayagum sanjo was established around 1830 and was orally/ auraly transmitted. Nowadays there are several existing sanjo, which follow a prescribed formal structure of rhythmic and temporal "modes," but differ in terms of their melodic material. Each of the twelve schools teaches a particular sanjo, named after the musician and founder of the school who developed the sanjo. In this paper I address the question: what constitutes a "school" or "style” of sanjo? I analyze the stylistic development of the Kim Yunduk sanjo, named after Kim Yun-duk, who established his own sanjo during rhe 1960s. The analysis demonstrates that the formation of a "new" sanjo school is based on processes of melodic transformation.
I examine the following melodic processes that are used by masters of sanjo, using Kim Yun-duk's sanjo as a case study: (1) adapting melodies from other kayagum sanjo schools, including his teachers'; (2) creating his own sigimsae [vernacular musical expression in Korean music] based on existing melodies; (3) assimilating melodies of his contemporaries; and (4) creating his own new melodies.
“The Search for Korean Identity Through Korean Farmers' Band Music in Hawai'i”
Myo Sin Kim (University of Hawai'i, Mãnoa)
This paper examines how the recent Korean immigrants to Hawai'i seek to affirm their Korean identity through the performance of Korean farmers' band music. In Hawai'i, where the first Korean settlement in the U.S. was established in 1903, the multi-layered Korean immigrants have developed their own distinctive cultures. The recent immigrants, in particular elders who came to the U.S. after spending their youth in Korea and young students who immigrated in their teens, have felt a need to be associated with their home culture as they adjust to the socio-cultural context of Hawai'i.
In Korea, farmers' band music has been an integral part of the agricultural society for over 2,000 years, serving as an expression of a community's solidarity as well as its entertainment. In contrast, to the recent immigrants in Hawai'i (who are isolated from both the motherland and the farming context of origin) Korean farmers' band music conveys a new set of meanings. The Hawai'i Korean Farmers' Band (HKFB), a four-year-old private organization led by a small group of Korean elders, aims to perpetuate Korean culture by teaching this music to Korean youth and performing it to represent Korean culture in many community activities. The paper presents the background and examines three social functions of the HKFB: as a gathering place for Korean elders, as an educational organization for young Koreans, and as a representative of Korean culture in Hawai'i.
“Korean Shaman's Ritual Music Revisited”
Mikyung Park (Keimyung University, Daegu)
During the year 1981-1982 I executed a year-long field research on shamans' music on Chindo Jsland, Korea. Even though the shamans' ritual performance in general was multifaceted, the shamans of the particular island had shown very high degrees of musical capacity. After about twenty years, has the ritual music gone through many changes? The ritual tradition was nominated as an intangible cultural treasure by the government about 1980, and since then it gradually transformed into a sort of concert piece. While it requires a great musical virtuoso to perform the ritual, the old generation who were capable of performing the rituals had gradually disappeared, and a young generation of other tradition began to participate in performing scenes. To raise their status from low-regarded ritualists to nationally designated "intangible treasures," some shamans tend to identify themselves as performing artists, manipulating ritual content.
Through the comparative approach using my early eighties field data and current performance data in various contexts, I want to evaluate the degree of change and analyze the causes. Also investigated are the meaning of the tradition, the Korean policies to protect it, and the results of those policies.