Korean Musical Drama: P'ansori and the Making of Tradition in Modernity. By Haekyung Um

Abstract

Readers unfamiliar with the subject of this book may be surprised to find that the ‘musical drama’ in the title turns out to be performed by a single singer to the accompaniment of a single drum. By most definitions, the Korean traditional performing art p’ansori is more a form of storytelling than of drama. It does incorporate dramatic elements, for instance in the singer’s use of acting and of different ‘voices’ when delivering the words of different characters—but then, so do most forms of storytelling worldwide. It does not incorporate the dialogue between multiple actors that is generally associated with ‘drama’, let alone the stage scenery and ‘props’ of the theatre. Yet Western visitors to Korea from the late nineteenth century onwards recognized p’ansori as Korea’s nearest equivalent to the theatrical art forms that had developed in other East Asian countries, and that seemed conspicuously absent from Korea. By then, p’ansori had risen from its humble origins among the peasantry of the southern provinces to become one of Korea’s pre-eminent art forms, enjoyed by audiences throughout the peninsula and at every level of society right up to the royal family. As a result of elite patronage, its words and music had been elaborated by the layering of erudite expressions from Chinese poetry over the original rural Korean dialect, of melodic modes from various regional and court styles over the basic south-western folk idiom, and of ethical themes from the Confucian ideology of the ruling class over a romantic and often tricksterish repertory of folk tales and legends. Thus, as Um succinctly puts it, while p’ansori is ‘simple and minimalistic in form … it is also complex in its literary and musical content and expression’ (p. 211).