When my family lived in Missouri, we hosted a college student who studied and sang pansori. She would sometimes give us sample performances and attempted to teach us this style of traditional Korean musical storytelling. Pansori is often referred to as the “Korean Epic Chant”; for those who have never heard this genre, I would compare it to a form of opera. The word itself is derived from pan (판), which refers to a place where people gather, and sori (소리), which means sound. It is comprised of three main components: the singer, percussionist, and audience. The singer narrates a story while the drummer accompanies them. Since this is a form of storytelling and the lyrics and method of delivery is largely improvised, the drummer and audience will occasionally shout encouragements to the singer. This improvising makes every performance unique, even if it’s the same story. The sole singer plays every character in the performance, even the background, and will alternate between singing, speaking, and gesturing with their fan. Both the singer and drummer wear hanboks, the traditional Korean wear. With the intense vocal training that pansori singers go through, they are able to produce more than four octaves along with falsetto and breathing voice.
This genre first arose in the 17th century of the Joseon Dynasty and it was used for shamanism so that people could pass on rituals, but it wasn’t until two centuries later that it became popularized. Like many types of entertainment, pansori was mainly performed for the nobles and royals. Finally, singers changed the lyrics and melodies so that the lower class could also enjoy this music. By training groups of women, a singer names Shin Jae Hyo became responsible to make pansori Korea’s national music. When the Japanese invaded Korea, the number of pansori performances started to drop. Also, with modern music being popularized, this art form wasn’t being recognized as much. Nevertheless, in the past 60 years, pansori regained its popularity and even young children start to learn it. In the Joseon Dynasty, there were 12 sets of stories pansori singers would tell, but only five of those original are told today. Even so, those stories have multiple versions as they changed over the hundreds of years; each full performance can last between three to eight hours!
People say that the all pansori masters have trained next to a waterfall at one point in their life. This is so that they can get some of the inspiration from the sound that nature makes around them. They will try to mimic the sounds so that they can incorporate them into their stories. When I hear pansori, I don’t really understand the words that they are saying at all times, but I can sense what the singer is trying to portray through the pitch of their voice and how fast they talk. It is an authentic style of music and performance that I have become more interested in. It’s amazing to see how some people can make these beautiful sounds that have the ability to move others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=72&v=BIwuh5ThHsA&feature=emb_logo ;
Comments
Hi So Myung, after reading your post, I want to find some videos about Pansori on YouTube because it sounds so interesting! I would agree with you that it's so amazing that the singers can play all the characters in the stories, as well as the background for hours on stage. Thanks for sharing this!