Today is Chilseok칠석, July 7th by the lunar calendar. This is the day when two lovers, cattle herder Gyeongwu and weaver Jiknyeo, are allowed to see each other. They were separated by the king of heaven as a punishment for neglecting their duties. They long for each other across the Milky Way 364 days a year, but on July 7th, they get to be reunited as magpies and crows build a bridge called Ojakgyo오작교across the Milky Way for them to walk over. 

The story of Gyeonwu and Jiknyeo is found in other East Asian countries in the form of various customs. The Japanese believe that the spirits of their ancestors visit them on this day, so they write down their wishes on paper and tie them around bamboo trees. In Korea, there is a custom called ‘geolgyo걸교’ which refers to women praying to be a good sewer or a weaver. There is also something called ‘jjakddeok짝떡,’ a practice of sharing a piece of rice cake shaped like a half-moon between a newly married couple and wishing for a long, happy marriage. In China, lots of people get married on lunar July 7th in the hope of having a love-filled relationship like Gyeonwu and Jiknyeo. In contrast, however, the Vietnamese don’t get married on that day if they can help it, because the couple ended up apart from each other. Let’s listen to Kim Yul-hee singing “Parting Song” to the bass guitar accompaniment of Seo Young-do.

This week’s artist is traditional music composer Lee Kang-duk. Oftentimes, composers of traditional music pieces are unknown. In Korean traditional music, there are generally no music scores from which students can learn. Instead, they mimic their teachers’ singing technique and learn the words and melodies by repetition. This method is called ‘gujeonsimsu구전심수,’ which means to deliver through the mouth and receive with the heart. 

During the Japanese colonial period, however, western culture was imported into Korea and traditional musicians attempted to compose music in the western manner. This practice spread in earnest in the early 1960s when the National Gugak Center started a contest for new Korean music pieces. Lee Kang-duk won the top prize with his composition titled “The New Sky.”

Lee was born in Seoul in 1928. He was very interested in music since he was young, but it wasn’t easy for ordinary Koreans to study music back then. Luckily, there was a music school established to preserve Joseon Dynasty’s court music. The school not only taught Korean court music to students but also paid them monthly stipends, so they didn’t have to worry about making a living. There he majored in piri and geomungo. He also learned wester music theories and harmonics from a Japanese professor at Gyeongseong School of Education where he taught a twice a week. When he had time, he visited the masters of folk music to get trained in all disciplines of traditional music, which gave him a solid foundation for his musical compositions later. Lee wrote many orchestral pieces at the Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra, the nation’s first gugak orchestra founded in 1965. 

Today, we’ll listen to his Gayageum Concerto No. 1 composed in 1970. It is performed by the KBS Traditional Orchestra with gayageum soloist Min Eui-sik. 

There are two types of songs which poems are used as lyrics. Those are gagok가곡 and sijochang시조창. While gagok is sung in a strictly defined manner, sijochang songs are sung rather freely. For the last piece of today’s episode, we’ll listen to a sijo poem titled “Mansusan만수산 Mountain” set to music. The poem is about offering wine at a party. Let’s listen to Lee Jun-ah singing “Mansusan Mountain.”