Shaman Korean Music

                 The earliest references to music in peninsula area unit found in a very 3rd-century-ce chinese text that comments on agricultural festivals (nong’ak) with singing and recreation among the tribes of northwestern peninsula. such events area unit still a robust a part of korean life. another ancient however lasting tradition in peninsula is shamanism, or communication with the unseen world by a priest-doctor in a very state of trance. this can be of interest group as a result of such a belief is traditionally characteristic not solely of all northern asian tribes however conjointly of alternative peoples (such as eskimos [inuit]) united nations agency board the north regions of the globe. peninsula is one in all the few regions south of the arctic that maintains robust shamanism within the face of foreign non secular adoptions like buddhism, confucianism, and christianity.

              A feminine korean priest (mudang) could use several combos of musical instruments. the only and probably most vital accompaniment could be a tiny, flat gong with a small rim. it brings to mind the single-headed pan drum with a picket or bone hoop found within the shamanism of most of central asia and within the arctic circle asdistant as lappland and sea. a drum sound itself is created in korea by the foremost common percussive instrument, the changgo, associate hourglass-shaped, two-headed drum stricken by the hand on the left head and a stick or a ball-headed beater on the opposite. in korean priest rituals, flutes, double reeds, fiddles, and different gongs and drums is also used that initially sight could seem rather chinese. the sound, however, creates a completely totally different impression

              To the un initiate observer, the driving polyphonic music (combination of synchronous voices, or parts) of korean music might sound nearer to confederacy jazz than to chinese music. for instance, the flute half in an exceedingly little priest ensemble might use such devices as microtonal slides (shifts in pitch that square measure but a musical interval, or 0.5 step), intervals that square measure “out of tune” with the traditional chinese lü (bamboo) standardisation pipes, and rhythmical rhythms, that along yield a awfully un-chinese jazz like sound. korean music conjointly exhibits an inclination toward a six-beat unit of measurement likewise as a form of poly metric character; whereas some components square measure organized in six-beat units, others might sound to follow beats of 4, thus all components move solely when twelve beats. triplets and even five-beat forms square measure found likewise. these rhetorical options square measure so distinctive to korea and square measure typical of the type of music best far-famed and dear by the overall korean public. less-familiar types of court music square measure maintained by dedicated national music institutes and korean scholarship.