Shamanic Music - Korean Shamanic Music

Korean Shamanic Music

Korea is the only country where shamanism appears to have been a state religion practiced by the literate classes, during the Three Kingdoms Period (57BC-668AD). Under successive dynasties shamanism was gradually relegated to a popular or folk status with the arrival of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The early official status of shamanism is the probable explanation for the fact that shamanic ritual in Korea developed highly complex and established forms. Correspondingly the music used in shamanic rituals is more elaborate in Korea than elsewhere. Furthermore, since the emergence of Korean contemporary nationalism, there has been a strong and sustained state intervention to preserve artistic traditions. All of these factors make it uniquely difficult in Korea to distinguish the 'pure' from hybrid and concert forms of shamanic ritual music. For example Sinawi is a musical form that can be used in shamanic rituals, or to accompany folk dances, or for urban concert performance. In the ritual context Sinawi is often performed by a small ensemble with the changgo hour-glass drum and two melodic instruments, often the taegum flute and the p'iri oboe. In concert the ensemble is augmented with stringed instruments Modern Sinawi is played in a minor mode in 12/8 time. The role of music in Korean shamanism seems intermediary between the possession trance model and the Siberian model: in the Kut ritual, the music, played by musicians, first calls on the god to possess the mudang (shaman), then accompanies the god during their time in the shaman's body, then sends back and placates the god at the end. However, the shaman is the singer and dancer and the shaman directs the musicians.