Discourses of Improvisation and Musical Essence in Korean Music: 21st Century Perspectives
R.. Anderson Sutton
University of Hawaii at Manoa,
In conversations with Korean musicians and in writings on Korean music (gugak), references to improvisation (jeukeungseong) and its close cognates (variation, flexibility, spontaneity, freedom) crop up with remarkable frequency. Yet these references almost always betray a sense of angst--that such qualities, once pervasive, have all but disappeared, replaced by a rigid standardization brought about by the cultural assets (munhwajae) system (Howard 2006, Maliangkay 2018), the use of increasingly detailed notation (HS Kim 2009, Finchum-Sung 2002) and formal education (gugak middle and high schools, universities). In this paper, inspired by G. Solis’s call (2012) for “close listening” informing ethnomusicological theorizing and drawing on recent interviews and written discourse, I interrogate conceptions of what improvisation can mean in the Korean context, in musical sound and its relation to concepts of musical essence, and I consider recent strategies for its incorporation as a means of revitalizing gugak. I argue that the value attributed to improvisation manifests in multiple ways, as do strategies of implementation--some looking to musical practices outside the Korean traditional sphere, such as jazz, in search of new creative freedom, others exploring the music of indigenous shamans (YS Lee 2004) and the shaman-derived concert genre sinawi (HK Um & HJ Lee 2012) in search of Korean music’s essence, or “soul” (jeongsin), from indigenous sources. The results have implications not just for Korea specialists, but also for the field of ethnomusicology, which has long concerned itself with improvisation’s techniques, aesthetics, and sometimes its fragility (e.g., Nettl 1998, Becker 1980).
Makwa: Rhythm and Improvisation in Zimbabwean Handclapping
Jennifer W Kyker
University of Rochester
Handclapping, or makwa, is essential in many indigenous Zimbabwean musical styles, from the drumming, dance and song genres known as ngoma to the country's iconic mbira music. Makwa playing ranges from simple, on-beat clapping to virtuosic, improvisatory solos. Yet makwa is seldom discussed in the literature on Zimbabwean music, and rarely featured in mbira ensembles in North America. In this workshop, participants will gain an in-depth understanding of Zimbabwean rhythmic sensibilites through makwa playing. The workshop will begin with a brief overview of the rhythmic and metric foundations of mbira songs. Next, we will learn several common makwa patterns that are frequently played to accompany mbira music, and experiment with various playing techniques to produce different types of sounds with our hands. In the second half of the workshop, we will explore how to modify basic makwa patterns through improvisatory principles such as deletion, insertion, and recombination, in order to produce extended musical ideas. Throughout the workshop, we will pay special attention to the type of interlocking musical relationships that are made possible when multiple players engage in makwa at the same time. During the last part of the workshop, we will bring these musical ideas to life with opportunites to play makwa with live mbira music, accompanied by hosho. Principles from this workshop will be immediately applicable in mbira ensemble teaching, and will resonate with other musical styles with a 12/8 feel from across the Black Atlantic, such as the sesquialtera rhythms of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Unity in Diversity: Regional Identity in Improvised Variations in North Balinese Sekatian
Oscar Smith
University of British Columbia
Several scholarly works have discussed (McPhee 1966, Ornstein 1977, Vitale 1990) and theorised (Tenzer 2000) nyog cag melodic elaboration patterns in Balinese gamelan. Additionally, due to accounts that characterise Balinese musical practice as lacking any improvisation (McPhee 1966, Tenzer 2000), the topic of improvisation in Balinese music was unexplored until quite recently (Gray 2012, Tilley 2019). In these studies, however, only smaller scale instances of improvisation in South Bali were explored. Only one study has analysed elaboration in metallophone ensembles in the relatively understudied region of Buleleng, North Bali (Vandal 2012). Here, a broader family of interlocking patterns called ngoncang—one of which being the nyog cag idiom—are used in an unusually large instance of group improvisation in Bali that has not received extensive scholarly study.
This improvisational phenomenon is especially pronounced in the slow-tempo, ceremonial Sekatian repertoire. Unlike the well-studied performance genre of kebyar (Tenzer 2000)—whose origins are likewise in North Bali—Sekatian pieces are not mentioned in any prior study of Balinese music. The nature of this repertoire’s improvisatory elements is explored in terms of various theorisations of improvisation (Nettl 1974, 1998; Berliner 1994; Brinner 1995; Sutton 1998; Tilley 2019). Finally, interviews with North Balinese musicians are explored. From this, some central themes contributing to the emergence of this regional phenomena emerged: the participatory nature of the ritual context, the desire to differentiate North from South musical identities, the lack of institutional influence in the North, and a greater exposure to other East Javanese musics.
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