Yŏmillak: The Selection of Korean Classical Music

Yŏmillak - The Selection of Korean Classical Music (RZ, 2003) 0:00 Yŏmillak: 1st Movement 21:53 Yŏmillak: 2nd Movement 41:58 Yŏmillak: 3rd Movement 1:01:17 Yŏmillak: 4th-7th Movement 1:24:07 Kyŏngnokmugang chigok 1:38:39 T'aep'yŏngch'un chigok 1:46:57 Sŏilhwa chigok 1st-6th Movement 1:54:41 Sŏilhwa chigok 7th-16th Movement _______________________________________________________ "Yŏmillak, 'Giving the People Joy' [...] was first performed in 1447. Yŏmillak is the most extended piece of orchestral court music surviving in Korea, and it has for many centuries been used for royal processions and at banquets. A performance today in many ways looks like one of old, with the musicians dressed in red cloaks (red is the royal colour) with elaborate embroidered squares of cloth denoting rank stitched to their hacks. The musicians are virtually motionless, and respond to signals given by a senior official who strikes the pak wooden clappers at the beginnings and ends of sections. Barely discernable slow and regularly repeating rhythmic cycles form a structural baseline, marked out by formulaic strikes on two drums (the hourglass-shaped changgo and the barrel-shaped chwago), but the effect is of timelessness, the movements flowing seamlessly into each other. The music is totally controlled, the epitome of Confucian order and decorum. Each melodic instrument plays the same outline pitches, but adds pre-tone and post-tone ornaments uniquely suited to the oboe (p'iri), flutes (sogŭm, taegŭm), two-stringed fiddle (haegŭm), plucked and bowed long zithers (kayagŭm, kŭmun'go, ajaeng) and dulcimer (yanggŭm). The ornaments give life to the melody, and what we hear is the equivalent to what we would see when watching a master calligrapher detailing each stroke of his brush. Another image would be of clouds floating across the sky above an empty field, or water flowing endlessly in a stream. Yŏmillak sets a multi-poem work written in 1445 to celebrate the establishment of a new alphabet. It marked the epitome of scholarship during the reign of Sejong (r.1418-1450), assembling 125 cantos collectively titled Yongbi ŏch'ŏn'ga, 'Song of the Flying Dragon'. Five cantos of the work - the first four, and the final one - were used in Yŏmillak, the first commencing: The six dragons from east of the sea fly There is not one of them who is not assisted by Heaven They are the equals of the sages of old! Yŏmillak is also the piece notated in the oldest surviving Korean score - a score contained in the Annals of Sejong, written in 1454, shortly after the king's death. Later notations of Yŏmillak appear in other scores, in, for example, Kŭm hapchabo (Zither Tablature Book; 1572), and in Sogak wŏnbo (Source of Popular Music; 1892), allowing us to see how the piece developed over time. Since musicians were largely illiterate, we can, though, only imagine how master musicians would have added their own ornamentation, or how they introduced new melodic sequences, gradually extending the piece. Again, the piece originally consisted of ten movements, but three were discarded over time, leaving just the seven movements heard here, and different variants evolved, distinguished in terms of orchestration and size; two of the later (19th century) versions, Kyŏngnok-mugang chigok and T'aep'yŏngch'un chigok are contained here. The final piece, Sŏilhwa chigok, is an additional orchestral suite. These recordings feature musicians from the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, today's inheritor of the court music tradition. The National Center traces its lineage back 1,400 years, to a time when Chinese documents describe the activities of Korean court musicians. During Sejong's reign (1418-1450), when Yŏmillak was first created, court music was divided between five state bodies employing several thousand musicians. The current National Center was re-established, initially named as the National Classical Music Institute, during the Korean War in 1951. Charged with researching, performing, and promoting traditional Korean music and dance, the National Center now employs more than 350 people, many of whom are recognised by the government as 'Living Human Treasures' - masters of their instruments and repertory." ~Keith Howard Source: CD booklet ________________________________________________ For education, promotion and entertainment purposes only. If you have any copyrights issue, please write to unpetitabreuvoir(at)gmail.com and I will delete this video.