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What instantly strikes you about Seoul, the South Korean capital, is its energetic mixture of conventional and fashionable. It’s there within the structure — the traditional wood metropolis gates in opposition to the metal and glass of high-rise workplace blocks — and it’s also vibrantly represented in Korea’s conventional music, which is at the moment present process a revival in new modern varieties.
These sounds could be heard in London’s annual Okay-Music Competition, opening this week; the pageant has been operating since 2013 with the gentle energy help of South Korea’s Ministry of Tradition, Sports activities and Tourism.
The headline occasion is the go to of the Nationwide Changgeuk Firm of Korea with a model of King Lear. Changgeuk is itself a mixture of historical Korean and “fashionable” western theatre traditions that was created somewhat over a century in the past.
Korea’s conventional dramatic style is pansori. It’s only one singer, narrating and taking part in the elements, accompanied by a drum, telling an extended narrative story in a harsh and growly singing type — charming, however an acquired style. Changgeuk takes its music from pansori, however the narrative is given to particular person characters and the instrumental accompaniment is expanded. It turns into one thing like theatre as it’s recognized within the west. The NCCK have executed changgeuk variations of the pansori canon, but additionally variations of western classics comparable to Euripides’ Trojan Girls, which was extremely praised when it toured final yr in Europe. King Lear premiered in Seoul in 2022 and, based on composer Han Seung-seok, “the viewers have been very stunned how iconic western drama blended so effectively with the pansori custom.”
Han sang with the NCCK from 1998-2002 and has been concerned on the manufacturing aspect since 2014. He sees changgeuk as way more accessible than pansori. “Younger folks in Korea don’t essentially develop up encountering conventional music, so discover pansori very troublesome to understand. In changgeuk, as in western theatre traditions, we’ve got many various characters in their very own costumes with props, set design, lights and theatrical units, so it’s simpler for the viewers to have interaction within the narrative and drama.”
Whereas the important thing music consists by Han, there’s incidental music for piano and western devices composed by Jung Jae-il, who wrote the soundtracks for the multi-Oscar-winning movie Parasite and Netflix collection Squid Recreation, including a extra modern edge.
Maybe most intriguing is the casting of Lear. The aged king, dividing up his kingdom on the finish of his life, is performed by Kim Jun-su, an actor in his thirties. “If this had been an easy piece of drama we couldn’t have forged him,” says Han. “However as a pansori singer Jun-su has performed many various roles of all ages — even animals, within the Sugungga pansori [about a tortoise and a hare]. So he has been effectively skilled to specific many various characters’ psychology and feelings.”
Removed from the slick, ultra-processed choices of Okay-pop, the Okay-Music Competition additionally provides an introduction to bands deeply rooted in Korean custom, who’ve discovered enthusiastic audiences within the UK, Europe and the US. Probably the most profitable band within the Korean new wave is Jambinai, who fuse conventional sounds with heavy metallic influences, combining haegeum (two-string fiddle) and geomungo zither with electrical guitar, bass guitar and drums. Jambinai are usually not performing this yr, however their chief Lee Il-woo is coming together with his different, extra conventional band No-Noise, which options six musicians on daegeum (flute), saenghwang (mouth organ), piri (flute), gayageum zither, guitar and synthesiser. If their title suggests a quiet night, Lee’s involvement ensures that’s not the case. Certainly one of their items goals to create the impression of the mayhem of a busy city sq., with completely different voices converging.
Korea has three kinds of zither which determine prominently in its conventional music. The most typical is the plucked gayageum, with a chic and refined sound. Rather more harsh is the scratchy bowed ajaeng, which is basically heard in classical sanjo recitals. However most funky is the geomungo, plucked and rhythmically strummed with a bamboo stick. For this reason it has a central position in Black String, one other high-profile group performing on the pageant. Drawing on jazz for inspiration, the 4 gamers brilliantly interweave their traces in opposition to virtuoso conventional drumming, a Korean speciality.
Black String’s chief Youn Jeong Heo was drawn to the geomungo at an early age. “Apart from percussion, it’s essentially the most rhythmic of Korean conventional devices,” she says. “Historically it’s recognized for light and meditative sounds and I wished to utterly rework it and make it work just like the guitar in a rock band. It’s that multi-dimensional sound that appeals to me as a musician.”
They’ll be premiering Highway of Oasis, their third album, influenced by the traditional desert Silk Highway and its music. “Black String was actually born in London, due to a collaboration with saxophonist Tim Garland within the London Jazz Competition,” Heo says. “We Korean musicians grew into Black String. UK audiences have been an inspiration, they offer me a lot power.”
Changgeuk ‘Lear’ is on the Barbican, October 3-6; Black String are at Kings Place, October 31; No-Noise are on the Purcell Room, November 15, kccuk.org.uk
