Chun In Pyong  Michael Bujold  Young-ki You

10.18399/acta.2009.12.2.004

Korean music history Japanese music history social class through which music was accepted court music literati music samurai-sponsored music popular music European classical music

This study attempts to divide the history of music in Korea and Japan into clearly discernible periods. In this regard, no attempt has been made to date in either country to bring about such periodic classifications. The periodic classifications established herein are based on such aspects as the main actors involved in music-related activities, as well as changes in the social class through which music was accepted, and in musical genres. While the ancient period can be characterized by the predominance of royal and aristocratic-centered music, the medieval period was marked by the rise of literati (seonbi) and literati-sponsored music in the Korean case and samurai-sponsored music in Japan. Meanwhile, the modern period, which saw a significant enhancement of the people’s awareness of their own enjoyment, can be regarded as the era in which the public’s desire for music emerged. Such public desires gave rise to p’ansori (a traditional Korean art form that involves a combination of vocal and percussion music) in Korea and to ningyō jōruri (puppet drama) and kabuki (classical Japanese dance-drama) in Japan. In terms of the changes in the social class through which music was accepted, while music was mostly the prerogative of the royal court and aristocrats during the ancient period, the literati and samurai class became the primary movers during the medieval period, only to be replaced by the commoner class during the modern period. Special attention is paid in this study to the changes that took place with regards to musical styles. More to the point, because of a lack of materials relating to the previous periods, the changes in musical styles are analyzed from the third period onwards. This third period is identified herein as that of medieval music, or the heyday of court music. Meanwhile, the fourth period is that of early modern music characterized by the heyday of literati music in Korea and of samurai-sponsored music in Japan. The fifth period identified herein is that of modern music (the heyday of popular music) during which p’ansori and gidayu-bushi were regarded as important genres in Korea and Japan respectively. The sixth period, which revolves around the royal courts of Korea and Japan’s acceptance of European classical music, has as its starting point the year in which Western music was accepted and Western-style military bands began to be established. As this study can be regarded as an ongoing project, the criticism and opinions of other specialists in the field are most welcome. In this regard, it is through such criticisms and discussions that a common perception of the historical periods into which music should be divided can be produced.