This article explains the process of creating a unique musical aesthetic that is different from Western music through the unique characteristics of the timbre, duration, and melody of Korean traditional music. It explores the depths of traditional music that preserves the independence of each instrument while achieving overall harmony.
Music is an art that is made of sound, so if the sound is different, the music will be different. The sounds we use in our music, whether instrumental or vocal, have distinctly different characteristics from the sounds of Western instruments and Western vocalizations. Whereas Western instruments and vocalizations are resonance-oriented and try to project the sound outward in a rounded way, our instruments and vocalizations minimize resonance and hold the sound in, pushing and pulling it, utilizing the nature of the material to produce sound. This difference is not just in the nature of the sound, but also in the way we think about music and how we express it. While Western music focuses on note accuracy and resonance, traditional music places greater value on the texture of sound and the conveyance of emotion. This is not just a technical difference, but a difference in attitude and purpose. Traditional music emphasizes the natural sound of the materials as much as resonance, so when making gayageum and daegeum, the makers take great care in selecting the paulownia wood and bamboo, and pansori singers spend a lot of time training their throats.
The characteristic features of traditional music are reflected in its time signature. Unlike the rhythmic structure of Western music, traditional music includes the concept of a beat in the form of a rhythm, as well as the concepts of fast, slow, and pattern. In traditional music, a measure can vary in length from a slow jinyangjo to a fast jajinmori. These changes aren’t just rhythmic variations, but also help to enrich the emotional and narrative flow of the music. For example, in pansori, major and minor changes are not just rhythmic variations, but are used as a tool to enliven the narrative development and emotional changes of the characters. In comparison, Western music has two beats, three beats, four beats, and so on, so the units are shorter and the structure is regular and simple. In terms of the flow of a piece, Western music has a short prelude followed by a compulsion, while traditional music has a long pause, gathering strength in the second half and releasing it again, showing a significant difference.
The characteristic of traditional music is also reflected in the melody. The melody of traditional music is not created by just hitting a few notes and notes together. You need to make the most of each note’s function, using some notes to enrich the sound, some notes to dip down from the top note to the bottom note, and so on. These melodies are created by varying the length and intensity of each note. This is not just playing what is written on the sheet music, but creating music that reflects the personality and emotions of the performer. Plucking is a technique for producing various decorative sounds on stringed instruments. In the narrow sense, it is a decorative note that precedes or follows a melodic skeleton, and in the broader sense, it is a variety of expressive techniques. In some cases, it is a dynamic stretching of a note, and in other cases, it is a sad pulling down of a note from the top to the bottom, creating the effect of tension and release in the music. It is no exaggeration to say that the secret of how Korean music without developed harmony can have the same expressive power as Western music with harmony, and what makes pansori as dramatically expressive as opera, lies in the melodic method of traditional music and the way of expressing it.
Traditional music ensembles are composed of several instruments that play together with their individual tones, making the most of their characteristics and timbres. The melodic framework of the ensemble is the same. However, because each instrument has different tones and different ways of playing, the combination of them creates a sense of sound and creates Korean musical beauty. This musical beauty comes not only from the combination of notes, but also from the harmonization of the whole while maintaining the independence of each instrument as much as possible. If Western orchestras pursue strict harmonization under the direction of the conductor, Korean traditional ensembles pursue ‘free harmony’ where each instrument has its own individuality. Each instrument is not subordinate to the others, but maintains its own independence and creates complete music. Therefore, our ensemble is recognized as a concert piece, but it is also recognized as an independent concert piece even if only one or two instruments of the ensemble are played separately. It is an individual piece that recognizes the independence of each instrument as a part and the independence of the ensemble as a whole. In this way, our traditional music has a unique structure in which the parts come together to form a whole, and at the same time, each part can stand on its own as a completed work of art.
