On the second day of the World Music Week at UBC, I attended the Korean percussion ensemble concert on April 2. As I am currently taking contemporary Korean music class also known as K-pop class, I was interested to see the ‘Pungmul nori’ performance here at UBC. Keeping in mind that the performance was directed and organized by student performers who did not have previous training in Korean percussion instruments, I was surprised at the level of the quality of the performance and the dedication put together by the performers. The Korean percussion ensemble, ‘pungmul nori’ is an interactive Korean folk music tradition where the performers play drums, dance and sing together. The tradition started around early 18th century in Joseon/colonial era in Korea. The music has been traditionally associated with farming as it has been played by farmers during harvest period or festive events. Since it is a ‘farm music’, it is usually played outdoors. Therefore, the nature of the Korean percussion ensemble is very interactive and fun often encouraging the audiences to participate in the play.
Luckily, the weather was warm and sunny, and we were able to enjoy the performance outdoor as anticipated. At the beginning, it was performed in a seated position which I knew was not a typical introduction of ‘pungmul nori’. After the performance, I learned that the ensemble team incorporated the elements of ‘samul nori’ in the beginning explaining why they started in the seated position. ‘Samul nori’ is a relatively new genre of farm music which the performance involves 4 traditional Korean musical drumming instruments called ‘Kkwaenggwari’ a small brass drum, ‘Jing’ a small gong, ‘Janggu’, a larger gong, and ‘Buk’, a barrel drum similar to the bass drum. And ‘samul nori’ is usually performed in concert halls. I liked that the performance started off in the seated positions and at a slower pace. It had that prelude/overture effect to the overall performance.
When a performer started playing ‘Kkwaenggwari’, I was surprised at the loudness of the instrument even though I was already aware of the loudness from my previous experiences of hearing them. ‘Kkwaengwari’ is small and made of brass so it is a relatively cheap instrument. Back in 2002 FIFA World Cup hosted in South Korea, ‘Kkwaengwari’ was often sited being played during the matches against the national South Korean football team just like how ‘Vuvuzela’ noise filled up the stadiums back in 2010 World Cup. (Of course, the noise level of ‘Kkwaengwari’ is incomparable to the noise of level of ‘Vuvuzela’ which was eventually banned in the World Cup games.)
As the pace of music started to become faster, the performance transitioned into ‘pungmul nori’ where the performers started to stand up and did a type of circular marching choreography. Although it was a percussion ensemble concert, it was not purely instrumental. As mentioned in the first paragraph, ‘pungmul nori’ is an interactive performance, therefore the performers would often shout out a short and repeatable Korean phrase and encourage the audiences to participate along.
It was particularly fun for me since I have not had a chance to enjoy a Korean music performance ever since I moved to Canada. I really enjoyed the performance by the UBC Korean percussion club and appreciate the time and effort they put in to show this incredible performance.
Sources:
http://www.antiquealive.com/Blogs/Samulnori_Korean_Percussion_Quartet_Music.html