2 Rare Traditional Korean Music Albums Released
National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage has released new additions to its “Rare Traditional Korean Music” series: “Jeolla-do Minyo (Folksongs of Jeolla Province)” and “Yangju sonori gut (The Yangju Cow Ritual)”.
The title “Jeolla-do Minyo” comprises seven CD titles of 113 songs that were recorded from the late 1960s to the early 1970s and are mostly labor music such as songs sang while planting seeds, weeding or laying the foundations of a house (Jeolla-do, with “do” meaning province, refers to two provinces of Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do).
Recordings from Jindo in Jeollanam-do include the farmers’ song
Namdodeullorae by Seol Jaecheon (1906-1988) and the song accompanying the circle dance
Ganggangsullae by Yang Hongdo (1900-1971), both
Living Human Treasures, or practitioners of the
Important Intangible Cultural Heritage. In particular, Yang’s songs such as Yukjabaegi, Heungtaryeong and Gaeguritaryeong are valued as important because they retain early forms of the Namdo jabga, or miscellaneous songs of the Jeolla-do area.
The Yangju sonori gut, recorded from 1964 to 1967, consists of five CD titles including its namesake
Yangju sonori gut which was designated as Important Intangible Cultural Heritage in 1980. The music title is even more valuable in that it contains a whole song by Woo Yongjin (1904-1971), the initiator of the current style of Yangju sonori gut, as well as a complete set of congratulatory exorcism ritual songs.
In the Yangju sonori gut inherited in Yangju-gun, Gyeonggi-do, the exorcist mudang play along with village singers after jeseokgeori, or praying for the prosperity and well-being of the house.
National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage has released 102 CDs of 40 kinds under the series name of “Rare Traditional Korean Music” since 1997 and the recordings can be downloaded from its website (
http://www.nrich.go.kr/eng).