P'ansori: Korea's Epic Vocal Art & Instrumental Music

various artists compilation - P'ansori: Korea's Epic Vocal Art & Instrumental Music

Sorry, it's been over a week since the last post, but I had to resolve some technical issues with the internet connection. Hopefully, that won't be a problem for a long time.

From the liner notes:

For a vocal tradition of such remarkable virtuosity and power, it is surprising that Korea's p'ansori is so little known outside its native country. This extraordinary difficult art demands that a single performer impersonate and enact all of the roles of epic folk tales, conveying the entire saga with the voice alone, and with none of the theatrical trappings - scenery, lighting, costume, make-up, dramatic exits and entrances - that aid the Western opera singer. Moreover, where the opera diva has a full orchestra for accompaniment, the p'ansori soloist is supported by just one drummer who plays the pook (a kind of barrel drum). A full performance of one of the p'ansori "epics" - basically, moralized folk tales of which five are in existence - can easily last eight hours. During the elaboration of the tale, the vocalist must act out all of the roles as they occur, with appropriate characterization, using only a fan and occasional stylized gestures. To place this feat in a "western" perspective, imagine a performance of a work longer than Tristan by an unaccompanied singer. But the vituosic vocal technique required by p'ansori communicates a richness and subtlety essentially different from that encountered in the Western lieder or opera tradition. What the listener experiences is a unique synthesis of song and speech - a kind of verbal dynamic in which, as composer Chou Wen-Chung has pointed out, phonemes and speech sounds themselves become musical events. What Westerners usually think of as decorative musical "ornamentation" is actually the essential material of p'ansori, with its rapid timbral and rhythmic changes, falling glissandos, enormous variety of articulative shadings, fluctuating tremolos, and wide vibratos.

The first track on Side One and the last track on Side Two are the p'ansori and the rest are the instrumental tracks.

Performers:

Kim, So-hee, singer

Kim, Yoon-duk, pook, kuhmoongo

Chi, Young-hee, p'iri, changgo, haegeum

Sung, Keum-yun, changgo, kayageum

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Kim, So-hee and Kim, Yoon-duk - Scene from Heung Boo-Ga (p'ansori) {7:38}

2. Chi, Young-hee and Sung, Keum-yun - Pyungjo Hoe Sang (first movement) {3:33}

3. Sung, Keum-yun and Chi, young-hee - Kayageum Sanjo {7:10}

Side Two

1. Chi, Young-hee and Sung, Keum-yun - Haegeum Shinawi {3:08}

2. Kim, Yoon-duk and Chi, Young-hee - Kuhmoongo Sanjo {6:17}

3. Chi, Young-hee and Sung, Keum-yun - Chambu Taryong {2:13}

4. Kim, So-hee and Kim, Yoon-duk - Scene from Shim-Ch'ung-Ga (p'ansori) {9:22}

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