Dynamic Korea and Rhythmic Form. Katherine In-Young Lee

has come to be adopted and adapted by amateur musical communities around the world? In response to the latter query, this book answers in the affirmative. As for the first, my interpretation unfolds in this chapter.

       AN INTRODUCTION TO “YŎNGNAM NONGAK” AND SAMUL NORI

      Here I examine a popular samul nori composition called “Yŏngnam nongak” and show how this music is organized. In so doing, I also build the case for how the piece exhibits distinct qualities in its formal structure—qualities that have lent it to circulation or travel across boundaries. I develop an analytic based on “dynamism” and demonstrate that “Yŏngnam nongak” is an example of a dynamic rhythmic form. Other compositions in the samul nori repertory (while they are not the focus of this chapter) share these same formal properties. Rhythmic form, I argue, is central to the samul nori genre, and it is a dynamic rhythmic form that has been central to its mobility.

      My attention to form is deliberate. But I do not intend to narrate a story in which form is the sole protagonist, acting alone. This is the farthest from the case. As we have previously learned, the Space Theater was the creative seedbed for the SamulNori project and their explorations of Korean rhythm. SamulNori’s process of arranging, rearranging, and recontextualizing rhythmic patterns from p’ungmul led to what eventually would become known as samul nori. Thus, the form that I will describe is interleaved with the musicians who first breathed life into it, and who performed it with such verve and kinetic energy. My formal analysis of “Yŏngnam nongak” takes into consideration the other important actors of the story—the SamulNori quartet and, in particular, Kim Duk Soo. In this sense, Dynamic Korea offers an opportunity to witness the pairing of two distinct methodologies that are not usually cast together—ethnography and formal analysis. I contend that there is much to learn from this conversation.

      Before moving to the analysis, however, I provide some general background on “Yŏngnam nongak” and its significance in the context of global samul nori. I select this piece for analysis because it is very often the first samul nori composition that beginning students will learn to play as part of an ensemble. (I also return to this piece in chapter 5.) Unlike the “Sŏl changgo karak,” which is played exclusively on the changgo hourglass drums, “Yŏngnam nongak” is a representative composition that features the interplay of the four primary instruments of samul nori. SamulNori Hanullim’s self-published notation books designate “Yŏngnam nongak” as the first or the “fundamental” piece of the series (Samul-Nori Hanullim 2004). In SamulNori Hanullim’s pedagogical system, students must learn “Yŏngnam nongak” before advancing to the more complex pieces known as “Uttari p’ungmul” and “Honam udo nongak karak.” The composition provides challenges for the initiate (for example, memorizing the different rhythmic patterns and the sequential order, “feeling” the rhythmic groove, and learning to play as part of an ensemble), yet it is surprisingly surmountable with the proper instruction and adequate practice. In short, “Yŏngnam nongak” is accessible, and it is likely the most performed samul nori composition by amateur ensembles within and outside South Korea.

      First, a note on instrumentation. To form a standard samul nori ensemble, four percussion instruments are needed: a double-headed hourglass drum (changgo), a barrel drum called puk, and two gongs—one large (ching) and one small (kkwaenggwari).³ As earlier mentioned, these are the core percussion instruments (played with sticks called ch’ae) that are also featured in p’ungmul. Each instrument in a samul nori ensemble has a different role to play in the musical texture. While a minimum of four musicians on the four different percussion instruments is required for a piece such as “Yŏngnam nongak,” instruments such as the changgo and puk can be performed by multiple players. In a group consisting of beginners and intermediates, for instance, students of various levels can select instruments according to one’s respective level and strengths. A beginner might opt to learn an instrument such as the puk, which plays more of a supporting role in the ensemble. And a beginning-level student with a good sense of rhythm could take on the ching. Although it has the least active part, the ching serves a critical role in the ensemble by punctuating the primary beats of the rhythmic cycles. Intermediates or beginners could perform on the changgo, which requires some technical proficiency and a capacity for memorizing different rhythmic patterns, known as karak. Of the four, the kkwaenggwari part is typically reserved for the designated leader or the person with the most training. The kkwaenggwari player must keep track of the number of beats in a designated karak, the number of repetitions of this pattern, and think ahead toward successive patterns.⁴ It is also the job of the lead kkwaenggwari player to provide cues to the other members; these cues signal the last iteration of a cycle and the start of the next one.

      As one of the fundamentals of the samul nori repertory, “Yŏngnam nongak” includes features that make it fun and appealing for amateur enthusiasts. There is built-in rhythmic complexity, repetition, an acceleration in tempo toward the end, and the chance to bang away on drums and gongs. Once students are able to play their respective instruments, the process of learning to perform as a group can be a gratifying experience. Each instrument has an independent part (or a different way of rendering a karak) that must be learned separately. But when “Yŏngnam nongak” is played in ensemble formation, the changgo, puk, ching, and kkwaenggwari function together as part of a larger, interdependent unit. Progressing through the various rhythmic patterns, for instance, the four instruments weave into an almost polyphonic musical texture. This texture is not shaped by tonal counterpoint (as heard in conventional Western polyphony), but rather by the timbral sounds produced by four different instruments made of leather and metal. Perhaps this may be best described as a percussive polytimbral texture—where distinct percussive sounds interact in a way to produce varied timbral contours. Additionally, a rhythmic “groove” emerges when performers are able to fully synchronize their beats within a cycle.⁵ All these combined elements make for an exciting piece to learn and perform.

      Thus far, I have been using the term “composition” or “piece” to categorize “Yŏngnam nongak.” While this is by no means incorrect, the terms “arrangement” and “adaptation” may be equally valid descriptors. In Korean, the words chaegusŏng (“reconfigure” or “restructure”) and chaech’angjo (“re-create”) are frequently used to describe the first musical explorations by the SamulNori quartet in 1978–1982.⁶ A more colloquial term, tcha’da (“to form or organize”), is also employed by musicians.

      The first presentation of what eventually became known as “Yŏngnam nongak” was an arrangement of existing rhythmic patterns drawn from a specific region of South Korea. Yŏngnam (meaning “south of the mountain range”) is the former provincial name for the southeastern swath of the peninsula. It is bordered by the expansive T’aebaek Mountains to the north, the Sobaek Mountains to its west, and two disputed bodies of water—one to the east (East Sea / Sea of Japan) and one to the south (Korea Strait / Tsushima Strait). Present-day North and South Kyŏngsang Provinces constitute the Yŏngnam region (figure 2.1).⁷ Partly owing to its physical borders, Yŏngnam/Kyŏngsang is known for its colorful dialects (generally characterized by strong accents and dramatic fluctuations in intonation), cuisine, politics, culture, and, of course, music.

      The rhythmic patterns featured in “Yŏngnam nongak” hail from a regional style of p’ungmul called Chinju Samch’ŏnp’o nongak. Although it has been associated with other labels, Chinju Samch’ŏnp’o nongak refers to both the name of a regional band and the representative style of p’ungmul performed in the Yŏngnam/Kyŏngsang region. The term nongak (literally, “farming music”) is sometimes used interchangeably with p’ungmul.⁸ Thus, Chinju Samch’ŏnp’o nongak is understood as the style of p’ungmul practiced in the southern cities of Chinju and Samch’ŏnp’o.

      After performing their first arrangement of rhythms from South Korea’s central Uttari region, the two main percussionists (Kim Duk Soo and Kim Yong-bae) were encouraged to continue their experimental musical endeavors in the months following. Choi Jong Sil [Ch’oe Chongsil] and Ch’oe Chongsŏk, brothers from the southern port city of Samch’ŏnp’o, were then invited to join the quartet. They replaced Yi Chongdae and Ch’oe