Religious Music : Shamanism. Yong-Shik Lee

Religious Music : Shamanism Yong-Shik Lee

Religious Music : Shamanism 159 Korean Shamanism and Its Music Korean shamanism is a collective term to designate a folk magico-religion that includes private, domestic, and communal rituals. It centers on the belief of the supernatural beings and on the spiritual experience of the shaman. The shaman presides over the ritual, called, by singing and dancing with a musical accompaniment. In this respect, a is a religious ritual and, at the same time, a splendid performing arts as well. <Figure 1> Shaman Ritual Yong-Shik Lee Origin and History of Shamanism Shamanism is the first religion established in Korea. It was merged into the Korean peninsula during the Bronze Age (from about the tenth century to the second century BCE) from North Asia. Etymological relation of Korean shaman ritual (), female (mudang) and male (baksu) shamans with Arctic shaman practices suggests a Siberian derivation of Korean Shamanism. Culture Shaman Ritual Femail Shaman Male Shaman Korea Mongol Manchu Yakut Tungus qut kutu qutuq mudang udagan udoyan utagan baksu baksi faksi baksi <Table 1> Terms for Shaman Ritual and Female/ Male Shamans in Korea and Other North Asian Cultures

160 Music of Korea Religious Music : Shamanism 161 The ancient folk religion was the central state religion led by the shaman-ruler for many centuries until the so-called world religions, including Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, were imported into Korea from the fourth century CE Because the lack of theoretical explanation or written religious doctrine, Shamanism eventually has become a marginal religion or a peripheral cult (Lewis 1986) of the common people until these days. Naturally, negative views toward Shamanism developed for a long time, especially after the Confucian-dominated Joseon Dynasty was established in 1392. Shamanism has been regarded as superstition by the ruling class, and shamans were relegated to the lowest class of the society. In spite of governmental persecution, Shamanism prevailed among common people and upper class women including female royal families throughout the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). The reason why Shamanism continued despite governmental oppression during the last dynasty, lies its nature as a practice that permits the realization of people s worldly desires. Shamanism and Intangible Cultural Properties Although Korean Shamanism was marginalized for many centuries, it has transmitted the cultural norms, the spiritual ethos, and the religious context of the Korean belief system and culture. Due to its religious purity as the indigenous religion of the common people, Koreans have realized that Shamanism is the principal key to interpreting Korean s traditional culture. Since the 1960s, Korean government has promoted shamanic performing arts as one of the representatives of traditional culture. The Park Chung Hui administration, which gained its power after a military coup d etat in 1961, pursued nationalism in order to gain popular recognition of the regime s legitimacy, exploiting the term nationalism as a way to legitimize the state authority. The most effective means of reviving cultural nationalism was to efface its emergent nature by invoking the past. The government emphasized the importance of traditional culture and established the system of Intangible Cultural Properties. With a view to appointing people to preserve valuable cultural heritages, the government passed a law in 1962 to investigate Korea s tangible and intangible heritages. After three years of investigation, many marginalized folk performing arts, including shaman rituals and local folk festivals, were designated as Intangible Cultural Properties, and those who lead the performing groups were designated as the holder of the Property and regarded so-called Human Treasure. Since then, many famous shamans have been recognized as Human Treasures and have consequently presented public performances throughout Korea as keeper of tradition and abroad as cultural ambassador. Because shaman rituals preserve the remote past in Koreans minds, the authorities regarded them the most forcible type of promotion for nationalism. 1 <Figure 2> Painting of Shaman Ritual from the 19th Century SNU The introduction of Christianity in the late nineteenth century and the Japanese occupation (1910-45) in the first half of the twentieth century drastically changed the situation. From that time on, Shamanism was perceived as vulgar superstition. From the earliest arrival on the Korean peninsula, Westerners regarded Shamanism as pagan image-worship or superstition that should immediately be abolished. Many Korean Christians have gone behind the view of Western missionaries. During the Japanese annexation, Shamanism lost its position as a religion and became a custom, and eventually has been called musok (fuzoku in Japanese, meaning shaman custom ). The term implies contempt because sok means custom per se, not religion. Japanese insist that Korean Shamanism demonstrated the lack of enlightenment and modernity of the Korean people. However, these views changed from the 1970s when Koreans have embraced memories of the past as well as the concept of nationalism in order to re-establish their national identity. Koreans, even though many of them are still ambivalent about the folk religion, regard Shamanism as the indigenous religion and believe that Shamanism helps to preserve the primitive ethos or the deep-rooted national ethos. <Figure 3> Human Treasure Shaman Yong-Shik Lee Shamanism is an accumulation of five thousand years of Korean life, thoughts, and culture. It has played a key role as the carrier of traditional culture such as music, dance, drama, myth, and epic poem. For example, shamanic music exerted a forceful effect on the development of other folk music traditions, such as pansori (oneman operatic genre) sinawi (instrumental ensemble), sanjo (solo instrumental music), and so forth. 2 Therefore, shamanic music maintains a fundamental musical grammar that supports the underlying Korean cultural pattern. Currently, twelve shaman rituals are designated as Intangible Cultural Properties. They are as follows:

162 Music of Korea Religious Music : Shamanism 163 Title Property No. Year of Designation Location Contents Eunsan Byeolsinje No. 9 1967 Eunsan City, Chungcheong-do Village ritual held in March Gangreung Danoje No. 13 1967 Gangreung city, Gangwon-do Village ritual held on Dano (Planting celebration on 5 May in lunar calendar) Yangju Sonori No. 70 1980 Yangju City, Gyeonggi-do Cattle worship ritual Jeju Chilmeori dang No. 71 1980 Jeju Island Village ritual at Chilmeori shrine Jindo Ssikkim No. 72 1980 Jindo Island, Jeonla-do Séance Donghaean Byeolsin No. 82a 1985 Eastern coast Village ritual Seohaean Bae yeonsin and Daedong No. 82b 1985 Western coast Boat ritual and village ritual Wido Ttibaennori No. 82c 1985 Wido Island, Jeonla -do Village ritual Namhaean Byeolsin No. 82d 1985 Southern coast Village ritual <Figure 4> Shaman Rituals as Important Cultural Properties Hwanghae-do Pyeongsan Sonoreum Gyeonggi-do Dodang Seoul Saenam No. 90 No. 98 No. 104 1990 1990 1996 Pyeongsan City, Hwanghae-do Gyeonggi-do Seoul <Table 2> Shaman Rituals as Important Cultural Properties Cattle worship ritual Village ritual Large-scale séance These local rituals become representations of national culture; they no longer represent solely local culture but are instead more generically representative, since they remind Koreans of what they used to signify culturally and, at the same time, they remind Koreans about what is representative of their contemporary lives in the modern Korea. Most of the rituals are large-scale domestic and communal rituals. The government intentionally selected these rituals because they feature communal unity and solidity. These rituals are accorded the position of providing a direct link to the reconstruction of national culture. Shamanship and Musicianship Through the means of shaman recruit, the manners of conducting a ritual, ritual materials, and shamanic performing arts, Korean shamans can roughly be divided into two types: spirit-descended shaman and hereditary shaman. Typically found in the northern half of the Korean peninsula, the former has a spiritual experience through which they become capable of telling fortunes during a ritual. Found in the southern half of the peninsula, the latter does not experience spirit possession, but rather inherits the profession from their parents. The boundary that separates the two types of shaman is the Han River that crosses the center of the Korean peninsula.

164 Music of Korea Religious Music : Shamanism 165 The two types of shaman show opposite natures in their performance tradition. The spirit-descended shaman is an achieved specialist (Merriam 1964: 131): she 3 is not born into a shaman family. Rather, her vocation is achieved. In other words, the spirit-descended shaman was not assigned to the shaman vocation from birth but achieved mastery of performance techniques through individual efforts. Compared to the hereditary shaman, the spirit-descended shaman receives little musical training. Usually, she has not had a chance to play various musical instruments. For this reason, the ritual of the spirit-descended shaman generally utilizes a limited number of musical instruments. Unlike the spirit-descended shaman tradition, the hereditary shaman is an ascribed musician (Merriam 1964: 131). She is born into a shaman family and becomes a shaman when she gets married. She learns the ritual practice from her mother-in-law, but acquaints with the ritual technique before she gets married from her mother. She follows her mother-in-law s way of ritual practice and inherits the shaman territory. When a shaman family has a son, he is acquainted with the music from his mother s womb and gets married to a woman who inherits his mother s territory. He eventually becomes a shaman-musician who accompanies his spouse s ritual. Since these shamans and shaman-musicians are well-trained artists, the ritual music of hereditary shamans is much elaborated. function of shamanic songs a dual nature; on one hand, the sacred, efficacy, and ritual, and on the other, the profane, entertainment, and theater (Schechner 1988: 120). Korean shaman ritual music can largely be categorized in five regional musical areas; Northwestern shamanic music, Midwestern shamanic music, Southwestern shamanic music, Eastern shamanic music, and Jeju shamanic music. The Northwestern and Midwestern shamaic musics are performed by the spirit-descended shaman while the rest are done by the hereditary shamans. The musical idiom and the accompanying musical instruments are different one from the other. 1) Northwestern shamanic music The shaman in Northwestern area is regarded as the bona fide spirit-descended shaman whose trance exhibits much similarity to the North Asian shaman practice. Northwestern shamanic ritual is mostly accompanied by percussions such as the janggu, jing, and jegeum. The main function of music in this regional shamanism is to enhance the trance state of spirit-descended shaman. Thus the loud sound of percussion instruments is necessary. In some large-scale rituals, the shaman employs a piri player who also performs the taepyeongso for a louder sound effect. <Figure 5> Hereditary Shaman s Ritual Yong-Shik Lee Characteristics of Shaman Ritual Music Characterized as performer-centered rather than liturgy-centered (Atkinson 1989: 14), Koreans gain sights to life questions in the shaman s songs. Shamanic songs are crucially sacred because they are the oral religious doctrine of Shamanism. A shaman establishes her authoritative spiritual power during a ritual through song. Shamanic songs have several functions to usher in the deities to the ritual space, to send them to the original place, to praise their achievements, to ask their favor for the people s happiness, and to entertain them. Some songs are more entertain than sacred. A shaman sings many profane songs and popular folk songs during a ritual to entertain the deities as well as audience and provide a stage as a joyful party. In this sense, the content and <Figure 6> Accompanying Music of Northwestern Shaman Ritual Yong-Shik Lee The scale of shamanic songs in the Northwestern area is basically anhemitonic pentatonic of sol-la-do -re - mi in solmization. This type of scale is found in many shamanic and folk songs in Northwestern and Midwestern areas. Most of the shamanic songs are sung to 12/8 beat rhythms in various tempos. The most important song in this area to usher deities in the ritual space has an asymmetrical rhythm of ten beats in the sequence 2+3+2+3. This asymmetrical rhythm is closely related to religiosity in Korean music and preserves Korea s oldest rhythmic structure.

166 Music of Korea Religious Music : Shamanism 167 2) Midwestern shamanic music The ritual of spirit-descended shamans in Midwestern area, including the Capital city Seoul, is somewhat different from the northwestern counterpart. The accompanying music is performed by hereditary professional musicians. Some melodic instrument, such as the piri, daegeum, and haegeum, are added in the shaman ritual of this area. The instrumentation of the three melodic instruments and percussions of janggu and jing is called samhyeon yukgak, literally meaning three strings and six winds although it is not true in performance. It has been used in court to accompany splendid dances from the eighteenth century (see <Figure 8>). It means that the shamanic music in this area is largely influenced by the court music. The scale of shamanic music in the Midwestern area is, like that of the Northwestern area, basically anhemitonic pentatonic of sol-la-do -re -mi. Most of the shamanic songs are performed to 12/8 beat rhythms in diverse tempos. Many songs in this area are performed to various rhythms, for example, complex combination of five and eight beats shown in a famous shamanic song, entitled Norae Garak (song melody) which became a popular folk song of professional musicians. 3) Southwestern shamanic music Southwestern shamanic ritual employs various musical instruments. Among them, the ajaeng and gayageum are not found in other regional shaman rituals. The music in this area, called sinawi from which the representative instrumental genre of sanjo was evolved, is more elegant than any other regional shamanic musics to exhibit the musical creativity and artistic ability of the shaman and musicians. It is said that many shamans in this area became the master of pansori and sanjo, the two representative Korean musical genres, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. <Figure 7> Accompanying Musicians in Midwestern Shaman Ritual Yong-Shik Lee <Figure 9> Southwestern Shaman Ritual Yong-Shik Lee The scale of shamanic music in the Southwestern area is anhemitonic pentatonic of mi-sol-la-si~do -re. The lowest tone is characterized by the wide vibrato. There is a breaking tone from do to si that distinguishes the songs of this area from other regional songs. Most of the shamanic songs are sung to 12/8 beat rhythms in diverse tempos. <Figure 8> 18th-Century Painting of Samhyeon Yukgak Nat l. Museum 4) Eastern shamanic music Eastern shamanic music is accompanied only by the percussion instruments including two kkwaenggwari, a janggu, a jing, and a jegeum. There are many epic shaman songs which lasts more than a couple of hours.

168 Music of Korea Religious Music : Shamanism 169 The scale of shamanic songs on Jeju Island is basically anhemitonic pentatonic of sol-la-do -re -mi. Most of the shamanic songs are sung to 6/8 beat rhythms in diverse tempos. The accompanying music, performed mostly by junior shamans, is rather simpler comparing to that of the mainland Korea because the accompanists are not trained professional musicians. <Figure 10> Eastern Shaman Ritual Yong-Shik Lee The scale of shamanic songs in the Eastern area is anhemitonic pentatonic of mi-sol-la-do -re. The music in this area presents very complex rhythms to exhibit the musical talent of the instrumentalists. For instance, the ushering song is composed of five rhythmic movements that have complicated rhythmic structures. It begins with five groupings of 15/8 beat rhythm (hence 75/8 beat rhythm) of the first movement to the five groupings of 5/8 beat rhythm (hence 25/8 beat rhythm) of the second movement, 12/8 beat rhythm of the third and fourth movements in different tempos, and fast 4/4 beat rhythm of the last movement. The shaman sings the first half of the song stanza and the instrumentalists play the second half. 5) Jeju shamanic music The shamanic music on Jeju Island is peculiar to that on the Korean peninsula. Since the island was an independent kingdom for a long time, the culture on the island is different from that of the Korean peninsula. The exotic shamanic music is accompanied by the percussion instruments such as the janggu, buk, daeyeong, and seolsoe. There are many epic songs that tell the root of village tutelary deities of Jeju Island. Further Readings Howard, Keith, Bands, Songs, and Shamanistic Rituals: Folk Music in Korean Society. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, Korean Branch, 1989. Howard s study focuses on the shaman music on Jindo Island. Since this scholar is interested in the socio-cultural aspects of folk music, this book covers not only shaman ritual music but also many other folk musical genres performed on the island. Lee, Yong-Shik, Shaman Ritual Music in Korea. Seoul: Jimoondang, 2004. Lee s study focuses on the shaman music performed by spirit-descended shamans in Incheon City. This book explores the symbolism that supports the unique traits of Korean shaman music. Park, Mikyung, Music and shamanism in Korea: a study of selected Ssikum- rituals for the dead. Ph.D. diss. University of California Los Angeles, 1985. Park s study focuses on the shaman music on Jindo Island. Park shows the musical creativity of the hereditary shaman. Seo, Maria K., Hanyang Kut: Korean Shaman Ritual Music from Seoul. New York: Routledge, 2002. Seo s study focuses on the shaman music in Seoul. Since Seoul has been the Capital for more than 600 years, the ritual of the spirit-descended shaman is accompanied by well-trained hereditary musicians. Seo presents the musical characteristics of Seoul shaman music. <Figure 11> Jeju Shaman Ritual Yong-Shik Lee

170 Music of Korea 1 Because of the successful accomplishments of the Korean Intangible Cultural Property system, UNESCO adopted the Korean resolution to promote the preservation of intangible cultural properties that are vanishing throughout the world in 1996. Three Korean properties, Royal Ancestral Shrine Ritual, pansori (epic vocal genre), and Dano festival in Gangreung City, were announced as the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Humanity by UNESCO in 2001, 2003, and 2005 respectively. For the details on the process of UNESCO s system, see Howard 2006: 16-20. 2 For the introduction of these genres and their connection to Shamanism, see Chapter 4 in this volume. 3 Because most of Korean shamans are female and musicians are male, I will use the feminine pronoun to designate a shaman and the masculine pronoun to a musician in general.