People these days separate poems and songs into different areas. They tend to think that poems are literature while songs belong to the field of music. People in the old days, however, didn’t think they were separate genres. They thought poems were written with words in their hearts while songs were those words set to music. In the old days, Korean Confucian scholars called ‘seonbi선비’ believed that a poem is considered complete when it is sung as a song. Old accounts say that Joseon-period seonbi Shin Gwang-su’s신광수 poem “Gwansanyungma관산융마” written for a government exam was one of Pyongyang평양 female entertainers’ favorites songs. It is still loved today by traditional musicians. The poem goes as follows. 

The autumn river lies silent, so cold that even fish seem still.

On Jungseon Pavilion, where the west wind blows, stands a solitary figure.

Plum blossoms fill the world, and at dusk a flute is heard.

For the rest of my days, I shall walk with a staff, following the white seagulls.

Let’s listen to Lee Hyun-ah singing “Gwansanyungma.”

This week’s artist is Joseon-era daegeum virtuoso Kim Gye-seon. Born in Seoul in 1891, he was the daegeum musician belonging to Jangakwon장악원, the Joseon Dynasty’s royal music institution. He also served as a high-ranking official at an institution for court music during the Japanese colonial period. He was also very skilled at playing the saenghwang생황 and danso단소 as well as western wind instruments like the flute, oboe and clarinet. 

Although he seemed to be extremely talented, even gifted, in music, he was prouder of his diligence and dedication to music. The following is what had written about his musical talent. 

Let’s listen to “Choengseonggok” written by Kim Gye-seon and played today by daegeum musician Lee Young-sub.

There is a Korean film titled “Tazza: The High Rollers.” It’s about the cut-throat world of game-fixing gamblers. But the Korean game of hwatu화투, or Korean flower cards, can be fun and stimulating if played as a simple enjoyment. In Korea, old people often play hwatu games to stimulate the brain and prevent the onset of senile dementia.   

In the Joseon Dynasty, when there was no hwatu, people played ‘tujeon투전,’ very much like today’s hwatu. This game of cards was played with forty or eighty pieces of paper, each written with a number. One of the most popular ways of playing tujeon cards involves adding up three cards to reach a specific number, like 10, 20, or 30. Although tujeon is now considered an amusing folk game, lots of people are said to have lost everything from tujeon gambling during the Joseon Dynasty. Another interesting Korean game is ‘golpae,’ which is similar to Chinese mah jong or dominoes. Golpae tiles are made of bamboo or animal bones. Perhaps because of the rumor that the tiles were created based on constellations in the sky, the golpae tiles were often used for divination and fortune-telling. For the last song of today’s episode, we’ll listen to “Tujeonpuri” sung by Yoo Ji-sook.