TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Blue Skye Song and Triple Rhythms in King Sejong’s Scores
AU  - Wells, Marnix 
JO  - Academia Koreana
PY  - 2006
DA  - 2006/1/1
DO  - 
KW  - music
KW  - rhythm
KW  - Korea
KW  - Jurchen
KW  - Daoism
AB  - In recent years there has been an on-going detective-like investigation to identify the mysterious musical sources, Korean or foreign, of King Sejong’s great dynastic suites. This paper demonstrates firstly the affinity between the Chinese tune-title (qûpái) Blue Sky Song and King Sejong’s dance tune Hyŏkchŏng, no. 5 in Chŏngdae’ŏp, his martial suite Settling the Great Enterprise, which celebrates the heroic founding of the Chosŏn dynasty. Secondly, it shows the relationship of the dramatic Blue Sky Song, a choral song with a unique formation dance, to the Jurchen Jin dynasty and Daoist ritual. Finally, it reveals underlying sextuple or triple rhythms in this piece and other related songs in King Sejong’s suite. After an introduction on time values, I begin by tracing the background of the assorted elements involved in the construction of King Sejong’s great suite, and finally proceed to its musical analysis and comparison.

I would like to thank Dr. Lee Hye-ku of Seoul National and Prof. Kwon Ohsong of Hanyang University for their invaluable support and guidance in the years following 1988, when I began research on King Sejong’s scores.