Folk Music in Korea

East-West Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu

In a discussion of Korean folk music, the ethnic grounds and the concept of mobility are not of vital importance. Koreans are not diversified in their ethnic grounds, and they are not as mobile as the people in Europe and America. Many of the Korean people have lived for generations in the same geographical area with their traditional folkways which have been handed down from their remote ancestors. Therefore, roost of the folk songs in Korea breathe the smell of nature which represents the local characteristics.

To understand the folk songs of Korea associated with rice planting, rice grinding, rice thrashing, or spinning, it is important to know that Korea is an agrarian country. It is also important to know that the northern part of Korea was a difficult place in which to live (though not today) because of its mountainous geography; on the other hand the central and southern parts are ideal places for living. The folk songs originating from these places are, accordingly, somewhat different from one another in their emotion and in their rythmic patterns. For example, the typical song of North Korea is a song of “Lamentation” (su-sim-ga), and the typical songs of Central and Southern Korea are “Arirang” and the “Rice Grinding Song” (all lyrical and lively with flowing melodies).

Another important fact is that Korea was for a long time ruled by the dynasty which practised the strict moral ideas of Buddhism and Confucianism, which forced the people to follow a secret path of inner inhibition in love and in desire. Love, in the past, was a kind of taboo in Korean society; it was, and still is, conceived by the majority of the people as something sacred and beautiful but not attainable. The lyrical love song of “Arirang” is a typical example.

Asfolk music is divided into many different kinds, according to the occasion with which it is associated, Korean folk songs can also be divided into five different categories: work songs dancing songs, love songs, drinking songs and marching songs. The Korean folk songs can be divided again according to their types into two groups: the solo, and the solo accompanied by a chorus. In most cases, the solo is sung by a woman, and the kinds of songs included in this solo type are work songs, or the songs that deal with the sentimental mood of a woman. The music of this type almost always sounds sad, its rhythm being rather long-drawn. The chorus type is often lyrical and lively being aided by such euphonic syllables as “a-ri-rang”, “e-hey-yo” or “e-ru-wa.”

Korean folk songs are mostly in triple time, a point of difference from the double time of Chinese and Japanese music. Two measures of three beats are called “kut-ko-ri chang-dan” in Korean. Regularly four measures constitute one phrase, except in such a folk song as “Yang-san-do” of the Central part of Korea, a phrase of which is composed of five measures. A marching song of the southern part of Korea consists of the solo and chorus each in four measures. ¹

On the whole, Korean folk music is of the lyrical ballad type, the words of which are romantic, sweet, and often sentimental. The lyrical songs usually deal with the story of unrequited love or of helpless longing for love that passed. For example, “Arirang” is a story of an imaginary rendezvous of lovers in a dreamland. The heroine of the story was, according to a legend, a beautiful virgin maid who was secretly loved by a handsome boy, but she never allowed anyone to approach her. In fact, she was a Miss Touch-Me-Not and was killed by her unrequited lover on the Arirang Pass. Originally it was a song of tragedy, but as time went on, the tragic story changed to that of an unrequited love of a lady who complained of her unfeeling lover. ² The tune is sweet and appealing, and the words represent the typical emotional aspect of the Korean people.

Refrain:
Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo,
Arirang Pass is a long road you go.

I

If you leave me and forsake me, my own,
Ere three miles you go, lame you’ll have grown.

II

Wondrous time, happy time–let us delay;
Till night is over, go not away.

III

Arirang Mount is my Tear-Falling Hill,
So seeking my love, I cannot stay still.

IV

The brightest of stars stud the sky so blue;
But deep in my heart burns bitter rue.

V

Man’s heart is like water streaming downhill;
Woman’s heart is well water–so deep and still.

VI

Young men’s love is like pinecones seeming sound,
But when the wind blows, they fall to the ground.

VII

Birds in the morning sing simply to eat;
Birds in the evening sing for lovesweet.

VIII

When man attained to the age of a Score,
The mind of a woman shouldbe his lore.

IX

The trees and flowers will bloom for aye,
But the glories of youth will soon fade and die. ³

Some lyrical songs deal with lamentation over the fleeting of time or over the shortness of man’s life such as, “Nodul Kangbyon” or Nodul River-Bank. In fact, life, to the minds of the Korean people, is no more than a short span of time and consisting of a bitter-sweet voyage out in the vast endless stretches of Water. But no matter how hard and limited a man’s life may be, he would like to find something cheerful to make his life more enjoyable, for it is the only life he has….the most valuable life for him. Out of the feeling of the inevitable mortality of human beings and from the sentimental longing for love, he sings a song from his, heart–not from the memory of any artificial music. The pathos of the helpless melancholy heart comes to its climax in the following song:

Nodul Kang-byon (Nodul River-bank)

I

Nodul River, spring willow,
Long, long trailing branches on you;
The slender waist of unfeeling time
Tightly shall I bind and so detain?
Eheyo! Spring willow!
Even you I can believe no more:
Naught but blue water below
Flowing, flowing and passing away.

II

Nodul River, shining sandbar!
On you so many footprints remain;
In sighing wind and wailing rain
How many years have come and gone so far?
Eheyo! Shining sandbar!
Even you I can believe no more;
Naught but blue water below
Flowing, flowing and passing away.

III

Nodul River, blue water!
Roaring, thundering, roaring you go;
In what anger did you swallow
So many heroes and beauties so dear?
Eheyo! Blue water!
Will you never relent?
Though we long to join our loves,
Our mournful tears you carry away.⁴

“Nodul Kang-byon” or Nodul River is one of the most favorite folk songs among the Korean people, and usually the people perform their traditional Korean dance to this touching sweet melody. Nodul Kang-byon is a river bank of the Han River, south of Seoul, on which there used to be a ferry boat station. The hero of this song was a sailor who lamented the swiftness of time and the sad departure of his beloved wife (possibly she was dead) and sang of his aching heart, thinking of himself as a helpless leaf drifting on the rolling waves of the Han River.

Work songs are lively and humorous with the same flowing melodies as the lyrical love songs. Even though a worker may lead a life of drudgery, he always manages to express the bright side of his life. As a matter of fact, looking on the bright side of difficulty, of misfortune, is an ingrained trait of the Korean people, and this is well expressed in such folk music as “Bang-A Taryong” or Rice Pounding Song:

Era! Joy! Joy!
Nodul River–doves, a pair–
A single bean, green bean, held in a beak so fair– 
The hen gives it to the cock, pecking, necking;
The cock gives it to the hen, necking, pecking.
The hen and the cock are wooing, cooing–
Older widows youth are ruing,
Younger widows–Ehe-ya!
Era! Packing up at evening.
Eheya! Eheya! Era! Tread on!
The treadmill goes up and down! ⁵

The joy of a brighter life and the love of love are heightened by such cheering voices or sounds of joy as Era, Eheya, etc. There are many more beautiful songs besides the foregoing ones. The chief characteristics of the Korean folk songs are that Korean folk music is written in the lyrical rhythmic pattern and the words of the music almost always imply the idea of love, humor, swiftness of time, the helpless mortality of human beings, and lamentation of bereavement.

Korean folk music is a pristine, genuine form of art that reflects the entire picture of the spiritual and cultural development of the Korean people.

¹ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROK, “Korean Folk Songs,” Facts About Korea (Seoul, Korea, 1962), pp. 1–4.
² Ha, Tae Hung, Korea Sings Folk and Popular Music and Lyrics (Seoul, Korea, 1960), p. 3.
³ Op.cit. p 3.
⁴ op. cit. p. 12.
⁵ op. cit. p. 17.