Nongyo (Farmers’ Songs) are sung by farmers while working in wet rice paddies or dry fields to recover from their fatigue and enhance the efficiency of the work. They are also called Deullorae (field songs).
Farmers in Goseong, Gyeongsangnam-do usually start these songs around haji (summer solstice). The songs are called Deungji (songs sung while planting rice seedlings). It is said that one day the Gyeongsang-do governor was passing through a field in Goseong and he stopped there to spend hours listening to the beautiful melodies of the songs sung by local farmers.
There are different songs sung for different occasions in Goseong. There is Mojjigi deungji (Song of Picking Rice Sprouts), Mosimgi deungji (Song of Rice Seedlings), Dorikkaejil sori (Song of Flailing), Sangsa sori (Song of Rice Planting), Banga taryeong (Song of Milling), Samsamgi sori (Song of Hemp Weaving), and Mulle taryeong (Song of the Spinning Wheel).
These songs are also performed in public. Their lyrics embody the sentiments of local farmers while the melodies display the influence of of Jeolla-do songs, probably due to the area’s geographic proximity to Jeollanam-do.