Joseon-era writer Seo Geo-jeong’s서거정 penname was ‘Sagajeong사가정,’ which meant a pavilion with four beautiful things. What Seo Geo-jeong considered beautiful were the plum blossoms, the bamboo tree, lotus flowers, and the sweetbrier. One of these four things featured in the following poem was the lotus flower. 

Shadows reach deep beneath my feet, the scent of lotus drifts endlessly.

Awake alone from sleep, I hear rain falling on paulownia leaves.

This poem appears to have been written when the poet woke up from a nap one lazy summer afternoon. He must have fallen asleep in a pavilion built next to a pond abloom with lotus flowers and woken up to the sound of falling raindrops. It seems Joseon-era Confucian scholars were generally inclined to find quaint beauty even in life’s most common moment like waking up from a nap. Let’s listen to gugak ensemble Seulgidoong performing “Rain Shower.”

This week’s artist is Joseon-era music scholar Park Yeon who helped King Sejong establish the music of Joseon, one of the king’s many great achievements. King Sejong was musically talented enough to compose several instrumental pieces, but he approached music as a political means to govern the people. The king believed that having Joseon’s own music was one of the ways to look after the well-being of his people.

As a part of King Sejong’s plan to reorganize Joseon’s music, Park Yeon oversaw the project to standardize a 12-tone scale, the most fundamental pitch of which was ‘hwangjong황종.’ After multiple experiments, he managed to come up with the ‘hwangjong yulgwan황종율관,’ a pitch pipe tuned to the perfect ‘hwangjong’ pitch so that it can be used for tuning instruments. He was also put in charge of modifying the musical instruments imported from China to suit Joseon music. One example is a percussion instrument called ‘pyeongyeong편경,’ which was adapted from China’s bianqing, a set of L-shaped flat stone chimes. Park Yeon, having organized Joseon music to help King Sejong’s rule, is counted as one of Korea’s three greatest musical saints along with Wang San-ak왕산악, the creator of the geomungo, and Ureuk우륵, the master gayageum player. 

A set of musical pieces King Sejong wrote to actualize his idea of music being an important part of state governance was Jongmyo ceremonial music. This ritual music and dance still performed today is a crucial part of the Jongmyo Jerye종묘제례rite, a royal memorial service honoring Joseon kings and queens. It is also inscribed on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Let’s listen to three pieces of music from Jongmyo ceremonial music performed by the National Gugak Center’s Court Music Orchestra.

 “Yukjabaegi” refers to a folksong widely sung in the Jeolla region in southwestern Korea. The title comes from the fact that the song is sung in a six-beat rhythm. Its lyrics can be altered to suit the singer’s sentiment but generally describe the sorrow of parting with the loved one. The “Yukabaegi” sung by master singer Kim Soo-yeon today likens a couple’s breakup to an arrow flying away and a jilted lover’s cry as the soulful sound of the daegeum대금. Another characteristic of “Yukjabaegi” is that the last line ends with ‘gu구’ or ‘he헤.’ So, listen carefully to the words as well as the stirring melodies. Here’s Kim Soo-yeon singing “Yukjabaegi.”