Vol. , No.

Ethnomusicology

Fall

Visual Excess: The Visuality of Traditional

Music Performance in South Korea
Hilary Vanessa Finchum-Sung / Seoul National University

aterial and non-material facets of music performance exist inextricably

bound in a communiqu of sight, sound, and meaning. Performers employment and audiences interpretations of sound, motion, body, image, color,
and light have been crucial in the evaluation of musical meaning for centuries.
From image-text-music-color fluidly imbuing meaning in a Wagnerian opera to
the heart-wrenching facial expressions and gestures of a pansori singer breathing
life into a sung narrative, meanings behind sound and sight collaborations often
are not readily apparent, but still are embedded in historical, socio-cultural, and
political contexts.1 The musical often harnesses the semantic power of the visual
while the visual likewise draws on the ephemeral musical moment, allowing
the representation, transmission, and interpretation of meaning to permeate
the performance experience.
In the world of Korean traditional and neo-traditional kugak (literally national music; kugak is the general designation for traditional music genres), such
a sight-sound partnership has been and continues to be integral to performance.2
Recently, this partnership has been channeled through the incorporation of
elaborate visuals to shape the performance into a meaningful experience for both
the audience and the performers. Considering performance process as including preparation and staging in addition to musical sound, this paper explores
visuality as it is strategically employed in the process of contemporary South
Korean (hereafter, Korean) kugak performance. An examination of the symbiosis
between sight and sound within the performance context demonstrates a close
relationship between the music and the socio-cultural text (Qureshi 1990:462).
Although typically theorized as extra-musical, the visual and conceptual here
will be treated as integral to musical experience in an increasingly performercentered, market-driven context.

2012 by the Society for Ethnomusicology

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A consideration of visuality can aid in understanding cultural expression

at a point in time and thus reveal much about the reconstitution of musics role
in changing social circumstances. Kugak has experienced dramatic transitions
from the mid-twentieth to the early twenty-first century, with performance
styles becoming diversified along with expectations for a competent performance experience (Yun 2004:134208). The visual in kugak performance has
become one of the most powerful spaces for negotiation of identity and constructing meaning (Hee-sun Kim 2008:223). Drawing on field observations
and interviews, I investigate the position of visuality in creating a meaningful
performance experience for and with contemporary audiences. The semantic
interplay of vision, sound, and meaning communicates the authority of many
performers in twenty-first century kugak as an embodiment of authentic performancean organic connection to the social life and cultural aspirations of
[particular localities] (Stokes 2004:60) in which they perform. Visuality not
only aids performance goals but also enhances the reputations of performers
as kugak artists. In this process, artists both put a personal stamp on their performance and assert its position historically within the realms of both kugak
and contemporary South Korean life.
In Korean studies, scholars such as Robert Provine (1988) and Song Hye-jin
(2000) have discussed the significance of iconography in understanding Korean
music history, and Andrew Killicks (2010) look at changgk and Kim Hee-suns
(2008) work on contemporary kayagm (twelve-string zither) performance have
detailed stage settings and style in present-day performance transitions. Recent
works such as Kim Munhwas (2005) study of notation symbols for kayagm
and Lee In-soons (2008) visual analysis of haegm (two-string fiddle) tone color
and melodic line have also explored the synesthetic relationship between kugak
resonance and vision. However, the goal of this paper is to investigate more
deeply the symbiosis between sight and sound in Korean music, with a focus
on the specific contours of this relationship within current kugak performance
practice. Writings of scholars who have examined the symbolic use of imagery
in musicin particular Deborah Wong (1998) on Thai cassette covers, Timothy
Taylor (1997) on the imaging of artists in the world music market, Gill Valentine (1995) on the creation of meaningful space bounded by music and visual
references, and Margaret Dilling (2007) on the complex weaving of sight and
sound in the Seoul Olympicshave inspired this study of visuality in kugak
performance.
Before embarking on describing the details of ethnographic experience
that form the bulk of the paper, I will present the theoretical underpinnings and
motivations for this study, as well as the historical socio-cultural circumstances
informing the partnership of the visual and musical in contemporary kugak
performance.

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Visuality, Performance, and Musical Change

Visuality concerns the state of being visualwhether with reference to
an image, an object, or a person. In their introductory work on visual culture,
Martina Sturken and Lisa Cartwright emphasize visuality as the generalized
condition and place of visuality in a culture of a [particular] era (2001:370).
In other words, visuality implies considering the socio-cultural, political, and
historical implications of something that can be seen or witnessed at a particular point in time. The earliest recorded application of visuality can be found in
the late 1830s, with Scottish historian Thomas Carlyles politically slanted take
on artistic renderings of history, which had little to do with vision or merely
seeing and everything to do with picturing (Mirzoeff 2006:67). Hal Foster
(1988:ix), writing within the field of visual studies, nebulously distinguished
vision-as-contextually-bound-seeing from visuality-as-discursive-and-interpretive, reinforcing the contingent nature of the term visuality rather than
solidifying its use in academic parlance. Still, visuality remains a relevant and
significant construct, recently recast as the possibility of a politics of representation, negotiating the veiled lines of color, gender, and sexuality that are
made invisible and all too visible in our own time (Mirzoeff 2006:76).
As an important tool for studying cultural context, visuality can reveal much
about the reconstitution of music performances role within changing social circumstances. Visual representation encapsulates both the impact of changing historical conditions on the construction of the self . . . as well as creative efforts . . .
to find meaning . . . in the midst of changing sociocultural circumstances (Ness
1995:1). John Blacking defined true musical change as that entailing significant
changes in a musical system, a change of heart as well as mind (1977:3). In the
case of kugak, attitudes toward musical change remain ambivalent as conflicting
perceptions of kugaks identity and relevance complicate an across-the-board
acquiescence to changes in traditional and contemporary performance styles.3
Such ambivalence is tied to both postcolonial and global transitions in domestic
identity and kugaks continually shifting social status (as will be explored briefly
below). Born of imaginings and interpretations of social order, the performance
of kugak rests not in one expressive realm, but in several intersecting ones. Considering this, its visual aspects work with the sonorities of contemporary performance as a viable vehicle by which performers and audiences rationalize the
authentic performance experience amid social and music change.
In studies of musics relation with visuality, the artist often becomes the
central locus of era-specific aesthetics. Movement, posture, dress, and countenance in performance, as well as the performers image reflected in photography,
flow with a torrent of cultural referents. In nineteenth-century London, for
example, visual status cues influenced the development of music-making and

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listening (Mathieson 2010:19), deeply affecting the ways in which audiences

perceived the competence and contributions of conductors. David Ake (2002)
notes the significance of jazz pianists image and physical enactment of sound
in establishing both their reputation and a place for the piano in the world of
contemporary jazz. Lawrence Kramer (2002) cites visual translation of music
through facial expressions, gestures, and posture as pivotal to Franz Liszts appeal as a pianist. The physical presentation of the artist in kugak, particularly
within the last two decades of the twentieth century, has been crucial in the
re-contextualization of that music within contemporary society. At that time,
a number of young performance teams (chlmn kugak tim) playing popinfused kugak had emerged, and, due to television and radio broadcasts, the
young artists became increasingly visible, challenging public perceptions of
kugak as old, dead music (Han, Song, and Yun 2001:269; Yun 2004:150).
An often under-studied yet crucial aspect of kugak performance is the
movement of the performers body, along with facial expressionor a lack
thereofand the often soundless, yet visible, performance techniques crucial to the efficacy of performance. Kagok (a genre of court vocal music), for
example, emphasizes the singers physical countenance as an embodiment of
the Chosn (13921910) court aesthetic naki pullyu ae-i pulbi (
/ happiness in moderation and sadness without pathos). Expressionless and still, the singer ironically sings of passion, waiting, and unrequited
love, exemplifying the ideal of Confucian restraint. A kayagm performer will
manipulate the lingering sound (ym) of a tone, often after it has ceased to
be audible. Only slightly perceptible to an audience, the effect becomes just as
much visual as acoustic. Yi Ji-young notes that while kayagm techniques such
as using the forearm to shake the strings might be acoustically ineffective, it
provides a wonderful visual effect in performance (2011:164).4 A blog post
on hearing and visuality in Korean music describes ym as . . . a beauty of
empty space giving value to our aesthetic uniqueness and harmonized idiosyncrasies.5 In a review of haegm performer Kang Eun Il, kugak critic Yun
Chunggang notes:
In a word, you could say that Kang Eun Il lights up the haegm with her body
[mom]. Her bowing is clearly different from that of other performers. It seems as if
she is pouring all of her passion into the bow. The appeal of her bowing rests in her
ability to draw out the human spirit. (Yun 2004:192; emphasis in original)

Mastery of the body in performance remains seminal to an artists integrity,

communicating performance competence while enhancing the allure of musical
sound. In addition, as in the case of ym, the player and instrument coupled
in performance denotes the significance of the artists body and the audiences
attention to it.

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Interrelated with socio-culturally ascribed meanings, musics power emerges

in the socially mediated experience of performance, communicating musics place
and meaning within an interpretive habitus. The blend of sonic and visual stimuli
enhances this understanding. Richard Leppert notes, [T]he slippage between the
physical activity to produce sound and the abstract nature of what is produced
creates a semiotic contradiction . . . ultimately resolved . . . via the agency of human sight (1993:xxi). In regard to kugak, artists often discuss the visual as an
important vehicle for helping the audience get the point of a performance. [Yiens
music] is . . . a kind of program music expressing a specific theme and sentiment
(e-mail, Kim Mirin, 4 February 2012).6 Kims emphasis on specific communicates
artists desire for audiences to understand the message a performer intends to
deliver. Many performers in contemporary kugak, as described below, have taken
visuality a step beyond communication of aesthetics and competence, using it to
inscribe deeper meanings on the performance event. Following Kramers notion of
a semantic loop (2002:148), it can be said that sound and image are irrevocably
fused within the meaning of kugak performance experience.
Interlude: A Kugak Performance
Entering a dark smoke-filled Taehangno theater, I wondered if I had mistakenly attended the wrong performance when, suddenly, DJ-produced heavy
electronic beats crashed through the silence, and the shadows of young women
ascended the stage. With a flash of lights, the women of the performance team
Yien were fully revealed, and music filled the theater.7 Their instruments
kayagm, kmungo (six-string fretted zither), haegm, taegm (transverse bamboo flute), piri (double-reed bamboo aerophone), and changgo (hourglass-shaped
double-headed drum)assured me that this was the young kugak performance
I had come to see (see Figure 1).8 Yet, their black and white short skirts, tight
pants, tennis shoes, and shoulder-baring tops diverged from the conservative,
symbolically traditional dress of the typical Korean music performer. A VJ projected text and images about urban existence onto a large screen behind the
performers while they pondered contemporary Korean urban life through pieces
such as Tribute to Seoul. In tandem with visual effects, the soulful melodies
and rhythms were juxtaposed with electronic sounds to convey the modernity
flavored with reminiscence that is intrinsic to the South Korean urban existence
(Finchum-Sung 2009:4344). The dress and poise of the young women communicated confident and cool modernity, while the very physical presence of kugak
instruments grounded the performance in musical heritage.9
Visual imagery projected onto a screen at the back of the stagetime lapse
and still photography, lyrics, animation, and text pulled from the novel A Day in
the Life of the Novelist Kubo (Pak Tae-won 1934)proved most striking.10 While

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Figure 1. Yiens YEN in the City Performance, July 2008 (photo by the author).
While the 2008 concert was titled Yen in the City, outside of that title I preserve
the teams preferred current spelling of Yien. (See note 4.)

the performers stood front stage and center, their presence was often usurped
by the dominance of the projected images. Visible word, color, and simulacra
communicated the performances purpose to the audience.11
Having returned to Seoul in 2008 after a near five-year hiatus, I found myself
surprised by new styles of kugak presentation such as the one described above.
While Yiens style reflects the urban-centeredness of the group, other performers
also employ visuality to augment performance with a variety of concepts as well
as to enhance the particular image of the artist. Kim Sngju of the performing
arts consulting group Beondi cites two major reasons for this development: an
increasingly performer-centered world of kugak, and innovation at the turn of
the twenty-first century: I think now that individuality has become stronger in
todays context. But, its also connected to the market [which demands] expressing the desires of the artist . . . There seemed to be a need for change and because
its come, its come fast and sudden (interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul). Without
a doubt, kugaks place in Korean society has changed. In addition, diversity in
tastes and individuality have led to a plethora of contemporary styles, some only
loosely connected to styles and aesthetics typically labeled traditional. Writing
about world music in the West Indies, Jocelyne Guilbault suggested that imagery,
as a technology of mediation, has become crucial to the transformative effect

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of specific events, experiences, and sets of circumstances involved in shaping

experience of music (1992:133). A similar transformative effect can be seen in
contemporary kugak.

Visuality: National Image, Revision,

and Performance Authenticity
As a mediascape reflecting and directing the social imaginary, visuality
serves as a form of negotiation between sites of agency and globally defined
fields of possibility (Appadurai 1996:31). Visuality profoundly connects to the
modern Korean imaginary, particularly in the realm of film, which has, in turn,
influenced ideas regarding authenticity in kugak performance. Im Kwon Taeks
Spynje, for example, stirred nationalistic sentiments in audiences through
the careful manipulation of nostalgia (James 2001). Focused on the story of
itinerant pansori singers, the movie depicted Korean music as harmonious
with Korean landscapes (Cho 1998:82). Yet while Spynje contributed to the
formation of a certain Korean aesthetic, Koreas visual culture identity cannot
help but cast a sideways glance at globalization (Ryu 2004:52). Complicated by
a postcolonial cultural hyridity, expressions of Korean traditions, such as kugak,
continue to struggle between a third-world cultural identity and modernity.12
Visuality involves not a social construction of visual but a visual construction
of the social (Mitchell 2002:171), and the visuality that articulates Koreanness
and kugak often communicates this paradoxical imaginary of pre-modern rustic
allure and global sophistication.
Kugaks contemporary identity rests in modern nation building, globalization, and a steady stream of cultural revisions that have occurred since the
mid-twentieth century. Following the Japanese occupation (19101945) and
post-Korean War reconstruction period, global popular culture and images
slowly became embedded in the fiber of daily life. As Western aesthetics became
absorbed into the Korean consciousness, a self-identity . . . problematized by an
East-West binary developed (Chun 1996: 183), proving detrimental to the status
of kugak (Lee Kang-Sook 1985:11). The Korean was rhetorically positioned as
authentic, pure, and natural against the West as mechanical, unnatural, and
ego-centric. Mid-twentieth-century efforts at preserving and revising kugak
through new compositions emerged in response to this development.13 It was
during the 1960s that ideas regarding kugaks modern image began developing
and kugak became a tool in a nationalistic quest for cultural identity. Kugaks
status was stimulated by many performers quests to build a space for kugak
within contemporary lifestyles.14
In 1964, Lee Chae-suk, then a graduate student at Seoul National University,
arranged to deliver a kayagm recital, a practice standard for (Western) classi-

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cal performance, but at that time not for kugak. The kayagm was considered
premodern, the antithesis of Western concert hall music. Hee-sun Kim notes, It
was her role to create the image of new Korean music, to which she attached the
image of an elite woman and modernism (2008:179). Lee commissioned new
works for kayagm, performed front and center on a stage, and designed the
concert program. In her introductory remarks to a volume on modern kayagm
history revealed through concert pamphlets (Yun et al. 2008), Lee states:
I remember agonizing over the cover of the pamphlet. After troubling over this a
while, I chose a drawing of one string stretched over one anjok [moveable bridges
that support the strings]. Its not just me but many kayagm performers carefully
consider the original design for their programs. (Ibid.:12)

Lee created a standard by which performers prepare not only the repertoire, but
also the program design, stage setting, and self-image. In this case, the image
was one of a modern woman pulling the kayagm into modernity.
The creation of a performance program thematically designed to communicate beyond musical sound became an important aspect of modern kugak performance from that moment on. Lee Chae-suks image choice for the front cover
reflects a simple modernity, but it is Lees image on the back that proves equally
striking (both images are reproduced in Yun et al. 2008:24, 26). The black-andwhite photo is a head shot of Lee, her chin-length bobbed hair in a style fashionable
at that time, and wearing a formal black top, with a gold necklace just visible under
the neckline. With her head cocked to one side, a slight smile on her lips, and her
eyebrows slightly raised, she exudes an aloof cosmopolitan assuredness. While perhaps old fashioned by todays standards, such a promotional image for a kayagm
player in the 1960s would have been unusual, and it would, perhaps, convince the
audience of her intention to create a new space for kayagm performance. Setting,
performance theme, and promotional materials often combine in such a way that
musical meaning often precedes the music itself (Kramer 2002:148) and, with
Lees 1964 program, such performance framing became standard. Drawing on a
twentieth- and twenty-first-century kugak experience defined by loss, revision,
national ethos, and modernity, the creation of kugaks meaning exceeds the mere
sonic to convey this experience and more.
Visuality and aurality combined often function to validate performance and
performer. In kugak, such an authentification process connects to three primary
factors: physical presence of the performer, competence, and genuine relevance.
In his examination of image and musical style of world music artists, Timothy
Taylor noted the conscious efforts put forth in developing an artists style as representative of a local musical tradition. Capturing authenticity of personality
(1997: 22) becomes the ultimate goal in using both musical and extra-musical
features to represent a specific cultural origin within the world music market.

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While Taylor refers specifically to the development of promotional materials,

the external image-making process would not go very far without the abilities
of the performer. In the world of kugak performance, as well, authenticity of the
performer (presence, competence, and genuine relevance) draws in an audience
and convinces the audience of the performers validity as a kugak performer.
The sonic-visual referential experience remains crucial in framing the character
of a music performance with the artist as the central locus of the event.

Imaging Kugak
In the fifteenth-century court music treatise Akhakkwebm (Treatise of
Music, 1493), hundreds of pages dedicated to costume and performance formation, as well as detailed images of instruments used at court, attest to the historic
importance of visuality in kugak performance. The treatise demonstrates the
function of the visual by both recording performance standards and communicating the integral nature of physical presentation and sound production. While
visuality has been critical in recording the history of kugak performance, the role
of visuality shifted in the twentieth century, as described above, both to claim a
new status for kugak and to allow individual artists to design programs suited
to their own personae and performance goals. Kugaks changed social role and
status as a national symbol underscores visualitys significance in enhancing
performance meaning for performers and audiences alike.
Many kugak specialists contend that changes in music industry norms as
well as technological developments have meant changes in kugak performance
standards. Kagok singer Kim Young-gi noted that the 1990s (1997 to be exact)
marked a change in her performance style. She began to incorporate video and
other imagery because the technology was available and the images . . . help
general audiences understand the meaning of poems I am singing (telephone
interview, 2 February 2012). Jeong Dae-seok, as well, reveals that his use of video
and imagery began six years ago when it became possible to do so (telephone
interview, 1 February 2012). Kim Sng-ju believes that performers engaging with
visual imagery inspired others to also consider using photography and video.
Discussing his work on a presentation of photos of human cultural treasures
against a backdrop of Seouls urban landscape for a 2007 concert series, he stated,
The reaction was really positive. Other performers would see the photos and
say they would like to do the same (interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul). The
partnership of the visual and musical in kugak remains significant, but the ways
in which sight and sound engage in a performance experience have changed.
An embrace of technological innovation has led visual components to
become the standard, rather than the exception, in kugak performance. Kang
Eun-il discussed how her work on the movie Hwal (The Bow, 2005) changed

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her ideas on music performance: I think that if I do more projects like this, it
can contribute to making a more synthetic art form (chonghap yesul hyngtae)
(interview, 26 January 2010, Seoul). In describing the function of such synthetic
work, Kang added, [B]ecause its combined with sigak (the visual), you can
hear the music better. Jeong Dae-seok notes, The visual helps people enjoy
the performance . . . If its just the music on stage, you know its just not very
interesting (interview, 20 July 2011, Seoul). For many contemporary kugak
performers, incorporation of visuals serves to enhance performance meaning
as well as feed contemporary desires for a multisensory experience.
In some cases, teams have been criticized for too much focus on presentation and not enough on the music.15 In a recent critique, kugak specialist Yi
So-yeong noted that the claim to be cool or hot by making ones own music
and focusing on flashy stage presentation was, in her opinion, an excuse for
performers inability to take full responsibility for competent music-making
(http://www.indiegugak.com, accessed 19 May 2010).16 A colleague at Seoul National University admits that she encourages her advanced students to develop
an artist-like image, but she believes that intense focus on visual elements such
as video or stage setting can take away from the music, which should be the
real focus of a performance event (interview, Yi Ji-young, 15 June 2011, Seoul).
Such potential pitfalls of the visual-audio partnership will be discussed further
in the section on performance, yet it is important to note that audiences must
be convinced of the relevance of the visual-auditory partnership in order for
it to work. If the partnership is unbalanced, elements of the performance will
appear excessive and the whole will suffer from diminished efficacy.
Still, most contemporary audiences expect more from performers than a
mere music presentation. The field of vision has developed beyond the immediately accessible to encompass a world of technological media, and our values,
opinions, and beliefs have increasingly come to be shaped in powerful ways by
the many forms of visual culture we encounter in our day-to-day lives (Sturken
and Carwright 2001:1). Kagok performer Kim Young-gi noted that kugak could
not escape a more visually-focused world:
A music culture (makkye) follows the culture in which it exists. These days, using
the visual is just a general cultural code. Audiences are accustomed to seeing more
than hearing, so you can see it as a kind of service for audiences, perhaps. (Telephone
interview, 2 February 2012)

On-line reviews of the 2008 Myriad Concert series of young artists at Seouls
Changwoo Theater included mention of stage presence and movement as crucial
to perceptions of a groups professionalism. For example:
If you were to listen to Bulsechuls performance [Pulsechul/November 1819, 2008]
with your eyes closed, it would be great. But when you opened your eyes it would

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lessen the impact. Im not saying the team should use fancy visual effects, but I do think
performer confidence should be expressed visually. As it was, they looked a little stiff.
S:um [1415 November 2008], especially, seemed to communicate through their
movements. As they danced together during their stage entrance, in particular, you
could see them unfolding the performance together. (Anonymous reviewer, 19 May
2010, www.indiegugak.com)

Such commentary on stage presence reveals that these kinds of expectations are,
as Kim Young-gi notes, a common part of the performance code in present-day
kugak. While the reviewer above admits that fancy visuals are not crucial, he
or she clearly feels that an effective performance must include some measure
of showmanship.17
The three subsections below examine the ways in which photography, poster
and program design, costuming, and staging combine with the acoustic experience of contemporary kugak.
Imaging the Artist: Art and Photography in Promotional Materials
On the poster advertising Pak Seyeons 14 June 2011 solo kayagm recital
(see Figure 2), the figure of the young performer appears on the right side of
the postcard while information about the performance appears on the left. The
postcard is predominantly in black and white save for two features: the word
kayagm in red on the top left and the red kayagm cords (pudl, or dyed
tail) wound around the body of the performer from her hips to her ankles,
the maroon-colored end-cords splaying from her ankles in the manner of a
fishtail. The red provides a dramatic contrast with the grey of the photograph
and lettering, drawing the viewers eyes to the instruments name and the body
of the performer. The red connects the performers body to her instrument,
and with her body completely wrapped in the cords, the performer appears
to become the instrument herself, her fingers delicately clasping excess ivorycolored kayagm strings.
The artists consultant Kim Sngju created the concept and accompanying
image. He successfully pulled it off due in large part to the performers compliance with the six-hour photo shoot: The performance concept was modern
kayagm and she was to perform the five pieces alone. We wanted to show Pak
Seyeon and kayagm are one (Kim Sngju, interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul).
The body and intense gaze of the performer draw in the viewer; the performance
is as much about Pak as it is about the musical works. With performer as instrument embodied, the photograph fittingly represents the title of the program,
Songs of Memory. Newly represented by the Performing Arts Group Beondi,
Pak Seyeon also uses her postcard to announce the premiere of her solo project
and her personality as an artist.18

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Figure 2. Postcard for

Pak Seyeons Solo
Recital (photograph
by Lee Eun-suk;
courtesy of the artist
and Beondi).

Such dramatic imagery serves a purpose in contemporary concert promotion. First and foremost, competition necessitates finding ways to make an artist
stand out from the throngs of kugak performers: There are so many kayagm
concerts . . . So, I thought, Pak Seyeon had to . . . stand out from other performers (Kim Sngju, interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul). The second function is
that of appeal. While an image as striking as Paks might make her noticeable,
it must also help to establish her as an artist. Kim Sngju explains:
Its not that they should look good, but the image of the performer should draw an
audience to the performance, it should project that kind of feeling. A performer
sitting next to or holding their instrumentwhat does that do beyond announce
a performance? You should be able to feel the energy from the performer. (Ibid.)

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The force of the performer projected through their gaze and their posture comprises the fundamental essence of the artist. Artistry, as Yi Ji-young asserted
above, is not about prettiness but, as Kim articulates, about energy. While not
all performers engage in such dramatic photography, promotional materials
communicate much about the artists personality and a performances conceptual framing.19
Commonly, pamphlets and posters for kugak concerts feature a bold photograph of the artist. This contrasts sharply with Deborah Wongs observations
on Thai cassette covers, in which performers of traditional music are almost
never featured, performer-centered images being the realm of pop marketing.
Yet in line with her observation that [P]ackaging is the better part of selling a
product (1989: 91), the images used in promotion of kugak are crucial to communication of each artists persona and the nature of and concept behind each
event. Images of artists and their instruments have been a regular part of kugak
concert programs since Lee Chae-suks 1964 solo concert. Images from the 1960s
through the 1990s typically feature headshots of the artist or photos of the artist
playing the instrument. The dawn of the twenty-first century appears to mark a
turning point. One striking example, in particular, is Choe Chins 2001 kayagm
recital poster. The performer embraces the instrument, her cheek resting on the
strings as her right hand gently rests on top of the anjok (movable bridges) (Yun
et al. 2006:196). The image of the player embracing the instrumentthe body
of the instrument and that of the performer physically mergedhas become a
common one, particularly for kayagm performers (see, for example, Hee-sun
Kims poster in Yun et al. 2006:252).20
More recently, photos of artists without an instrument in sight have become
relatively common, communicating the centricity of the artist to the performing
event. Images focusing on the artist in Korean programs and posters often symbolically cast him or her as part of the continuum of tradition. For example, the
photograph of Lee Seulgi for the program cover of her solo recital Uninhibited
Story features a fresh-faced Lee in a sheer and layered contemporary hanbok
(traditional dress consisting of a jacket and long skirt), looking back toward the
camera (see Figure 3). She appears to merely glance back as she runs forward, her
visible bare feet ready to spring forward. The performances meaning, a tribute
to past music masters as well as a chance for her to put her personal stamp on
folk chamber music (mingan pungnyu), is encapsulated in the fairy-like figure
of Lee, her bare feet signaling a break from convention and her posture a new
direction for the music.
Image can also communicate the state of an artist or team at a particular
point in their careers. Yiens performances are typically introspective, with images of the team and the performance motive often just as significant as the music

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Figure 3. Lee Seulgis

Program Cover (courtesy of the artist).

itself. The team selects performance concepts, then collaborates with designers
to create the images they want to use:
Because music and visual arts are conjoined we cant help but consider them [that
way]. For that reason, the entire unifying concept is important. The visual and
musical need to be organically combined to communicate the story we want to tell.
(Kim Mirin, email, 4 February 2012)

The poster for Yiens 29 December 2010 Inspiration (Yien-ege ynggam-l

chunn kttlthose things that inspire Yien) performance framed a completely
different event from the City performance series. While the latter juxtaposed
the images of confident, sexy women against urban landscapes, the Inspiration
poster (Figure 4) features a photo of the women wearing t-shirts and perplexed,
worried, and contemplative expressions. Group leader Kang Dul Yi points to the

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Figure 4. Yiens
Inspiration
Concert Poster
(photographer Kim
Yoonhui, designer
Kisung Jang;
courtesy of Yien).

names of the cities and artists serving as the teams current sources of inspiration. The dress and poise of the women mark them as members of a generation
searching for their own identities as well as that of their music.
Harkening back to Lee Chae-suks simple yet dramatic image of one string
stretched over one anjok, visual representations of instruments can also carry
much symbolic weight in the promotion of kugak performances. In contrast to
placing the spotlight on the performer, a spotlight on the instrument not only
hints at the focal point of the event, but also ties the physical instrument to the
conceptual ideal of the performance. For example, the program cover for a performance titled The Scenery Colored by Geomungo [sic] [Kmungoro krinn
punggyng], staged by the Society for Kmungo Research (Kmungo Ynguhoe
Tongbo-Akhoe) on November 26, 2009, features a photographic image of the
instrument on the right, slightly blurred to blend in to the watercolor painting of
which it has become a part (see Figure 5). The instruments dominant placement

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represents the goal of the event: to feature compositions designed specifically for
the kmungo (six-string fretted zither). The instruments placement in a natural
landscape mirrors ideals regarding its intrinsic natural character (an aesthetic
noted in Kim 2008), with the iconic figure of the instrument framing an event
in which traditionnatural and continuousis to be expressed.
Dressing the Artist
Undoubtedly, choice of costume carries heavy symbolic value in performance (Witzleben 2002; Hung 2009). As noted by Hee-sun Kim (2008), dress
not only signifies the particular kugak genre to be performed but also denotes
the identity of the performer and performance team. Performance teams such as
Baramgot (composer Wn Ils current team, consisting of percussion, kmungo,
kayagm, taegm, and sitar) carefully consider clothing as a part of the overall
mood of a performance as well as an enhancing feature of the acoustic event.

Figure 5. The Society

for Kmungo Research
26 November 2009
Concert Program
cover.

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In the case of Baramagot, team members communicate desired designs for performance comfort to designers who are then asked to attend performances in
order to understand the character of the performance team. The best designs
help the audience to concentrate; not too flashy, but fitting the concept of the
performance (Kim Sngju, interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul).
Contemporary performance conventions dictate the style of dress for performances. Depending on the genre of music and whether the performance is a
solo or team presentation, the dress will vary. Performances of traditional music
are most often marked by the presence of the performer wearing a hanbok. In
the world of traditional music competitions, for example, this aspect of stage
manners is particularly stringent (Lee Seonhwa, interview, 20 July 2011, Seoul).
Any variations on the traditional hanboksuch as sequins or a short-sleeved
jacket revealing the skin of the armcan be considered a defect, causing points
to be taken off from the overall performance. Makeup must be modest and not
too heavy, and the hair must be clipped back into a bun. If the performers hair
is not long enough, an artificial hair piece called a kache is attached. For individual or non-competition performances, the choice of hanbok design involves
much more flexibility and creativity. For performance teamsmany of whom
perform contemporary kugak fusiona Korean-style flavor is important, but
most important are clothes that reflect the team personality (Lee Seonhwa,
interview, 20 July 2011, Seoul).
Performances of modern concert-hall kugak have typically entailed the
wearing of either white tops and black bottoms or a complete black ensemble,
rather than the often brightly-colored traditional hanbok. When asked why
hanbok are often not worn in performances featuring contemporary compositions, Yi Ji-Young responded, Wearing hanbok and sitting in a chair just
doesnt work well. According to Park Mikyung (2004), playing modern kugak
(hyndae kugak) while seated in chairs or standingas opposed to the traditional presentation of sitting on the floorhas become a convention since
the development of the first kugak orchestra modeled on a Western orchestra.
The convention of classic (kllaesik, a reference to Western classical music)
concert attire, allowing the performers to blend together so as the focus remains on the music, has become standard in modern kugak performances
(see Figure 6). While the classic attire seems to deflect visual attention from
the performers, it marks the congruence of this style of kugak performance
with Western classical performance style. Such a correlation was particularly
crucial in the mid-twentieth century as kugak was losing its footing and artists
like Lee Chae-suk tailored their images to align with the elite world of classical
performance. A more recent trend, however, has been to feature performers
in contemporary-style hanbok. This latter style of dress is typical for young

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Figure 6. Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea performance, July 2011. From left to
right: Park Chiwan, Yi Ji-young, and Kim Woongsik (photo by the author).

performance teams and soloists, who rely heavily on their presence as artists
to succeed in the competitive world of contemporary kugak.
The color of materials worn can visually unify the performers on stage, and
also direct the audiences attention to the focal point of the performance. Much
like the formally-attired soloist in front of a Western orchestra, kugak ensembles
featuring a soloist, such as in kagok, typically spotlight the main performer
against the accompanying ensemble. For example, for her solo kagok performance Kim Young-gi wore a bright aqua-blue jacket over an olive green skirt,
a jade ring on her finger, and her hair in a bun accented by a heavily bejeweled
pin. The accompanists wore muted shades of peach, pink, and blue. Kims colors
and jewelry unmistakably marked her as the focal point of the performance. The
hanbok, while refashioned and altered through time, still exemplifies Korean
identity; as such, it has been a constant visible reminder over time of kugaks
symbolic significance.
Colors can take on additional import, such as in Lee Seulgis deliberate use
of color as a poetic device in her 28 October 2011, performance Krigo, Krida
(Drawing the Yearning). Lee based her entire performance on poetry (sijo) that

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Figure 7. Kim Young-gis solo kagok performance, from left to right: Yi Ji-young,
Yang Kyungsook, Lim Jaewon, Kim Young-gi, Kang Yeong-geun, Park Mungyu, Jeong
Dae-seok (courtesy of Kim Young-gi).

abounds in themes of pining for a lover and waiting for that lovers return. She
deliberately chose colors for her contemporary hanbok that communicated the
sentiments expressed in the poetry, around which she had composed melodies
for voice and kayagm.
The poems at the beginning were about waiting, so when I started I chose a violetcolored skirt since it fit that particular mood. As the mood of the poetry changed
to a joyful reunion of the lovers I changed the skirt to a hot pink colored skirt, since
it gives the feel of love realized. I made an effort to not be too flashy. (Telephone
interview, 2 February 2012)

The final point made by Lee above remains key: while the clothes should match
the occasion, their colors and styles should enhance the music, not pull attention
away from it. The design and colors of the clothing, as in the case of Lees color
choice, can also enhance the presence of the performer as an embodiment of
performance concepts.
Presenting the Artist: Stage Setting, Program, and Performance
At the moment of performance, the program, stage setting, lights, and audiovisual effects work together with the presence of the performer, the undeniable

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center of the performance event. This leads to the most crucial aspect of performance: its visual framing must be backed by musical competence. The artist
must convincingly performmeaning that visuality must successfully locate
the performance in the sphere of contemporary kugak, and the sonorities must
ground the performance within the visual framework. As Kim Sngju remarks
regarding Pak Seyeons performance, We were fortunate that she performed
very well (interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul); all the elements had combined
to result in a legitimate performance experience.
In the remainder of this section, I will provide details of four performances
chosen for their varied stylistic approaches and divergent outcomes. Two performances, in particular, demonstrate the potential pitfalls of visual and musical
incongruities. In all cases, the performers connect the visual and acoustic in
their endeavors to enhance audience understanding and to communicate more
clearly their performance goals. In addition, each of these performanceseven
the most irresoluteattempts to legitimate the artists position in the world of
contemporary kugak through a semantic loop of sight, sound, and meaning. The
artists engage the audience in an experience made possible not only through
sonic articulation but also through careful framing and presentation.
Yien has become a metaphor for contemporary kugaks struggle to gain a
foothold in the music market, and their performances reveal an honesty about
the groups often fragile position and its search for musical identity. Yiens selfstyled authenticity emerges from the moment of bridging creativity with the
everyday experience. The music Yien pursues is a music basically expressing the
sensibilities of contemporary daily life (Kim Mirin, email, 4 February 2012). In
this regard, the meaning of performance shifts with the realities of daily experience, and it is within this realness that Yien seeks expression. Video, lights, still
images, and other visual effects play a crucial role in their performance. As Kim
explains, Rather than simply expressing a certain emotion or mood . . . [these
effects express] a tangible and distinct musical form. The entire process lends
their music corporeality, turning something abstract into something concrete,
giving something audible a clear physical form. This way, she says, You can
persuade the audience. Yet, she added, if the video, images, costumes, lighting
present a different story from the music, it will interfere.
Performances in Yiens City concert series had taken kugaktypically
associated with a rural nostalgiaand made it urban. The music itself draws
on urban house music, with sampling and repetition at the core of many of the
pieces. For example, their typical opening piece, Urban Heart, begins with pure
electronic sounds, beats both sharp and muffled, into which the sound of the
kayagm playing an ostinato slowly fades. The pujngnori shamanic rhythmic
pattern takes over as the central rhythmic locus as the piri, then the taegm,
enter playing long sustained tones an octave apart. The liner notes of their 2009

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recording Urban describe the kayagm motif as a joint harmony to [sic] the urban landscape (English version of liner notes) and the haegm sound as oozing
from solid landscapes. Electronic musical programming, samples, and organic
instruments twist sonically in a formation of kugaks urban faade. Such sounds
and urban-cool imagery moving in time with the electronic beats relentlessly
blasted at the audience drive home the message: kugak is young, modern, and
fun. Skillful use of visual text related to both modernity and nostalgia locates
their music making, as well, within that continuum of searching for a modern
Korean identity.
While the City concerts symbolically established the performers as beacons of urban kugak, the Inspiration concert proved disconcerting. Echoing
Kim Mirins words above regarding the distracting potential of mismatched
visuals and sonorities, music from the City series was paired with a lackluster
insecurity that was palpable in the physical presentation by the performers and
in videos showing the team members working at making something, yet openly
admitting that they had no idea what that something was. Spaced between episodes of live music, the soundtrack-laden videos featured words and images
flashed on the screen, illustrating the groups current foci of inspiration (photos
and names of admired musicians and novelists). Significant were projected questionssuch as where to?signaling the groups then-current inability to find
a definitive place and identity.21 In between musical numbers, team leader Kang
Dul Yi appeared awkward, often sighing into the microphone and urging other
team members to speak as well. The sound-meaning connection was impeded by
a confusing mixture of urban-edged music with unfocused, irresolute imagery.
The troubling aspect of the Inspiration performance emerged from the
very themes the women had wished to express. While the audience members,
including me, had attended the performance expecting the same energy-driven
and wildly entertaining performances of the City series (three of which I had
attended), the themes of this performanceinsecurity, searching, growth
usurped the music itself. This dazed-and-confused performance presented a
distracting array of video and monologues detailing the current lack of direction
of the team. Music performance was inserted as if it were required, with the
young women appearing almost embarrassed after each song, apologetic to the
audience for not delivering something new. The audience, in return, responded
with quickly fading obligatory applause, which Kang noticed. Midway through
the evenings performance, Kang asked the audience to show their support for
the team through applause, a request which was then met with whistles and
applause from the audience. Visuality can convey performance meaning, but
imbalance between visuals and music can block the seamless flow of the sight,
sound, and meaning loop. In this case, because the theme was expressed almost
entirely visually, it circumvented the music, pushing it to the outskirts of the

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performance event. The performers, in the end, had to plead with the audience
to experience the event as they had intended it: as encouragement and support
for the performers in their endeavor to progress to something new.
Imbalance between visuality and sonority can thwart the hoped-for meaningful experience of the musical event. From the earliest planning stages, kayagm
performer Lee Seulgi designed and supervised the creation of the videos and
animation for her Drawing the Yearning performance. In the middle of the
performance, a short film depicted Lee wandering in the woods and practicing
in her study. A recording of one of her pieces provided the soundtrack to the
film. As Lee exited the stage and the audience was left to watch the film, those
gathered appeared unclear as to its purpose (their confusion made noticeable by
whispers and mild snickering); it seemed from the outset to be a self-promotional
video inserted into a live performance. As it turned out, a technical malfunction
was at the root of the problem: the screen provided by the venue was not large
enough to show the lyrics Lee thought were essential to an understanding of the
video as well as of the rest of the performance. While she had intended the film,
in particular, to play up the central theme of waiting, it was regrettable I could
not communicate the ideas as clearly to the audience as I had hoped (interview,
2 January 2012, Seoul). While it became a distraction in this circumstance, Lee
consistently makes visual framing a part of her performances.
Lees combination of image, concept, and sound developed over time as she
experienced audience reactions from the performers perspective. Ive thought
often about how long these concerts are and how difficult it might be for the
audience to focus (interview, 20 April 2010, Seoul). For her 18 November 2009
Uninhibited Story performance, she visually connected the acoustics of folk
court-based chamber music (mingan pungnyu) to its root aesthetic of happiness
in moderation and sadness without pathos (described above). Motivated by a need
to entertain the audience (I mean, its fifty minutes of pungnyu . . . so I wanted
to help them enjoy it), but also to help audience members understand the music
aesthetics, she chose to project a sequence of slow moving Chosn-era paintings.
Accompanied by taegm (large transverse bamboo flute) and changgu
(hourglass drum), Lee performed folk-style versions of instrumental suites
Yngsanhoesang and Chnynmanse, together comprising a series of twelve
pieces. I wanted to use images that would complement each piece rather than
one particular theme, so I chose Korean-style (hanguk chkin) drawings that
progressed slowly (interview, 20 April 2010, Seoul). As the musicians performed, images coinciding with the mood of each piece were projected on a
screen behind the performer and her accompanists (see Figure 8).
Because the music is traditional and slow, I did not want to distract the audience
with video or fast movement. So, in the slower movements of Yngsanhoesang like

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Figure 8. Lee Seulgis Solo Performance, from left to right: Lee Chang-u, Lee Seulgi,
Kim Woongsik (courtesy of Lee Seulgi).

Hahyndodtri I chose to show a detached solitude, such as a painting in subdued tones of a man by himself playing the flute. Then, Chnynmanse begins. Its
brighter and more exuberant so I chose intimate yet colorful photos of nature. I
wanted to show the ambiance of the music through images in this way. (Interview,
20 April 2010, Seoul)

Program notes frame the performance goal as two-fold: to sonically honor the
musical contributions of past folk pungnyu kayagm masters and to heighten the
musics accessibility for all audiences. The latter she does visually. The program is
divided into two parts: music story (mak iyagi) and picture story (krim iyagi).
Music story covers the social history of the music and explains Lees choice of
repertoire. In picture story, Lee provides information on the central aesthetics
of the music as well as the relationship between the images and these aesthetics.
The progression of the paintings from muted colors and soft lines to brighter
colors and more intimate details of life expresses the musical progression of the
two suites combined.
Pungnyu music is music for self-cultivation and meditation. Presenting
simple and melismatic pentatonic-based melodies within a heterophonic texture, a pungnyu ensemble typically includes, for example, the kmungo and
kayagm performing the core skeletal melody, with the reed piri taking the
melodic lead as the taegm offers elaborate ornaments in the higher registers.

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The suite Yngsanhoesang begins at a ploddingly slow pace (dotted quarter =

25 beats per minute), with the tempo gradually increasing to the climax of the
suite, the piece Kunak (quarter note =120 beats per minute). As the tempo
increases, so does the increased complexity of the melodies, as more ornamentation is integrated. The rhythms in the final two pieces take on a dance-like feel
which carries on through the transition into Chnynmanse. Lee aurally and
visually ties the slower and darker Yngsanhoesang to sadness-without-pathos,
progressing into Chnynmanses happiness-in-moderation.
Lees consideration of visual effects for the above-described concert came
well after the repertory planning: Visual interpretation followed musical interpretation [since] the purpose of the images was to inform the music (telephone
interview, 2 February 2012). This differed from the procedure she used for her
fall 2011 performance, for which she planned the visuals a year in advance and
before she had composed and compiled the music. Thus, when combined with
the traditional and sometimes opaque sonorities of the chamber kugak, images
served to entertain and inform the audience and further enhance Lees role as
a carrier of musical tradition. Visuality enabled Lee to become the interpreter
and messenger of an aesthetic sometimes elusive to contemporary audiences.
Jeong Dae-seok, director and composer for the Society for Kmungo Research, channeled the natural and nostalgic properties of kugak in the thematic
scheme of the Societys performance on 26 November 2009. Beginning with
the programs cover image of the kmungo blending into the natural landscape
(described above), the performance centered on the instrument as a representative of the pre-urban past. The performers, moving in unison like an army of
kmungo advocates, remained seated on the floor in the traditional performing
position (including Jeong even as he stepped into the role of conductor toward
the end of the concert), fitting Jeongs philosophy regarding the performance of
kugak as more natural when performed seated on the ground (personal communication, 20 July 2011, Seoul). The evenings performance featured the percussive
and rich sonorities of the fretted zither only, the ensemble consisting exclusively
of kmungo. While the new compositions featured in the evenings repertory
represent a forward-looking trajectory for the instrument, nature, environment,
and history played supporting roles in framing the musical experience.
The program described each piece as a picture (krim) and included such titles
as Hidden Picture [Sumn krim chatki] and Milky Way [Mirinae]. Each performance of the contemporary compositions incorporated not only the kmungo
ensemble, but also two screens on the sides of the stage that provided images
matching each pieces title. For example, for Moon Halo [Talmuri] a photograph
of a moon surrounded by a halo was displayed. In between pieces, when there were
longer breaks accommodating changes of costume or ensemble size, an emcee appeared to discuss each picture, intermittently asking the audience members about

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their impressions. Midway through the performance, an animated backdrop of a

traditional Korean house (an artistic rendering of Surije, a country home owned
by an artist and friend of the composer) in the country displayed a slowly setting
sun, slowly rising moon, and twinkling stars. The bold lines and bright colors of
the rustic home and its small garden of pumpkins were more reminiscent of the
modern bold strokes and bright colors of minjung (Korean populist) art than the
muted tones and soft lines of Chosn-era paintings (see Hoffman 1997).
The prominent use of imagery and the textual references to the pieces as
pictures reflected Jeongs philosophy regarding the purpose of performance: to
engage and entertain the audience. Using environment and sentiments coinciding with the feeling of the music, [the goal is to] stir the hearts and emotions of
the audience (telephone interview, 1 February 2012). Yet, the nostalgia permeating the performance could not be ignored, as references to historically evident
relationships with nature were made throughout the program. For example, the
description of the piece Milky Way states: Our ancestors looked to the milky
way for signs of a bright future. Jeong Dae-seok composed this piece to evoke
the great imaginations of our ancestors. Nostalgia, conjured in this and other
such performances, functions to ground them within the category of Korean
traditional music.22 Considering the many debates that have questioned the
inherent legitimacy of contemporary compositions and performance styles for
kugak, the overt references made to traditional culture within the context of
contemporary performances are not surprising. While very few people would
doubt the integral role the Society for Kmungo Research plays in the development of Korean traditional music performance, the visuality serves to solidify
their performance within the many layers of contemporary kugak.

Conclusion: Imaging Kugak

In this paper, I have explored visualitys role in contemporary kugak performance. Visuality, while significant in framing and recording performance
events for centuries, has taken on new significance. Choices to incorporate
visual elements (which, are in many instances, designed and directed by the
performer) to frame an event and actively play a part in it appear to be deliberate
individual choices reflecting the goals of the performance and personality of the
performer. While some aspects of visuality might bow to the markets desire for
sexy packaging or to historic developments, such as the wearing of black when
playing modern kugak ensemble music, their incorporation in performance is
a way of building a symbolic communitycreating a space bounded by music
sound and visual references (Valentine 1995:478). Artists make use of visual
tools to shape the performance as an interpretive event as well as to position
their performance practice within the realm of kugak, carving a niche for the
music as part of a continuum expressing kugaks contemporary relevance.

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Promotional materials emphasize the performer as the locus of the event.

The artists visage on posters and programs carries the responsibility of pulling
in a potential audience and communicating the aim of the particular performance. Artists and arts consultants agree that the appeal of the artist remains
crucial to building an audience base. At the same time, the artists competence
must be evident in the act of performance. A performance that does not match
the promise of brilliance communicated in promotional materials, or which
features themes and visual effects that conflict with the musical experience, is
an ineffective one. Therefore, contemporary kugak performance should follow
through acoustically on the visual framing, while also providing a means for
the audience to engage in the performance, whether by making the music itself
more accessible to a potentially novice audience or by bridging emotional ties
to Korean identity through nostalgia.
Scholars such as Lang and Saffle present image purely as a marketing device and a reflection of an adjustment made by performers to meet dominant
value systems and aesthetic preferences (2010:104). Yet, I posit that visuality
extends beyond simple image to more complex visual representations, bodies,
and imaginings that express the historic, socio-cultural, and political thought
shaping musical sound at this moment. Richard Lepperts work on the visual
aspects of representing music and structuring socio-cultural meaning has been
crucial to this interpretation of visuality in the world of kugak. Leppert notes,
When people hear a musical performance, they see it as an embodied activity.
While they hear, they also witness (1993:xxii). In this regard, performers are
not simply projecting images, but drawing on cultural references that, once communicated to an audience, are interpreted by it, and thereby imbue meaning to
the kugak experience.
This semantic loop of sight, sound, and meaning foregrounds a new interpretation of kugak authenticity as performer centered and context specific. The
hermeneutical moment of performance remains inextricably bound to context. In other words, the ways in which performance authenticity is determined
depend on the time and place of performance. Beondi consultant Kim Snju
emphasized that the same cultural referents and cues may have little significance
in framing the same performance overseas. And within the Korean context, the
authentic performance varies from performer to performer. Even in Yiens nebulous Inspiration performance, the team communicated genuineness within
the ever-changing and adapting world of contemporary kugak creation. The
openness of the performance placed the artists front and center as icons of an
often-confused and searching generation of young kugak performers. Contemporary kugak authenticity is experiential, with the semiotic underpinnings of
aurality and visuality becoming crucial tools in shaping that experience.
If musicality is a presentational symbol of emotional life (Langer 1980:109),
then visualitythe interconnected loop of sight, sound, and meaningmakes

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that symbolism all the more clear. The multilayered reality of kugaks contemporary strugglesits many changes, inconsistencies, and marginal statusflavors
its contemporary identity and performance goals. Visuality fosters a context
within which individual performers contribute to the imaging of contemporary
kugak as a relevant contributor to the contemporary Korean narrative. The experiential spaces of contemporary performance events, complete with the extramusical effects of video, photographs, painting, word, stage setting, dress, and
colors, espouse distinct performance goals that divulge the multiple layers and
inherent complexity of contemporary kugak performance in South Korea.

Acknowledgements
Research for this paper was supported in part by the Academy of Korean Studies Institutional
Development Grant to the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley and a Seoul National
University New Faculty Development Grant. The paper has benefitted immensely from the kind
input and support of Bonnie Wade, Frederick Lau, Roger Janelli, Yi Ji-young, Lee Seonhwa, Lee
Kibbeum, So-young Kim, Ji Hoon Park, Kyu-Hyun Kim, Mark Ravina, Jiwon Shin, Kyoim Yun,
Jisoo Kim, and Heather Willoughby. Hearty thanks go to Lee Seulgi, Mirin Kim of Yien, Jeong
Dae-seok, Kim Young-gi, and Kim Snju for providing images and answering my many questions.
I am incredibly grateful to the reviewers for their constructive advice and to J. Lawrence Witzleben
for his patience and support. To my family: Thank you.

Notes
1. Pansori is a Korean performance genre combining the talents of a singer and percussionist
who collaborate in the musical telling of an epic tale. Romanizations for this and all other Korean
terms follow the McCune-Reischauer Romanization system except in instances of individual name
preference and Roman character place-name spellings that have become standard, such as Seoul.
2. Kugak, the umbrella term for music of the court and folk heritage developed primarily
before the twentieth century, includes genres of indigenous and Chinese origin. Currently, the term
kugak is also liberally applied to new performance styles. In this paper, the use of the term kugak
aligns with the current liberal usage of the term among professional performers and scholars in
Seoul, South Korea.
3. Keith Howard (2006) has written extensively on present-day change in Korean music,
detailing particularly the double-edged sword of the preservation system which has been faulted
for impeding contemporary development.
4. The names of Korean scholars and performers appear according to Korean standards, with
family name first. Spellings of names in Roman characters vary according to personal preference.
5. Found at the URL http://aseivoci.egloos.com/709520
6. All translations of interviews and Korean source materials are by author unless otherwise
noted.
7. Yien is an abbreviation of Kinetic Korean Music Group YIEN. Their name derives from
ye-in () [artist or performer], but since the name had already been taken by another artist, the
group chose the spelling Yien.
8. Young or chlmn kugak is a relatively new expression that signifies a performance team
of young players and/or a performance of traditional music with a young, or pop-like, flavor.
9. Roald Maliangkay (2008), and Kim Hee-sun (2008) have noted that tradition is often clearly
contrasted with modernity in the performance and selling of kugak.

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10. The novel details the travails of a writer who struggles with rationalizing memory and
modern transitions within his work.
11. The purpose, as stated in the program was, thus: Yien recounts the spectacle and civilization of Seoul as witnessed in 2008 . . . through a meeting of electronic music and kugak (program
notes, authors translation).
12. Defining tradition becomes an either-or dilemma, as Choe Pm notes: One cant help
but split the image of tradition into either (unchanging, slow, dead, invalid, form, subject) . . . or
(changing, new, living, valid, thematic, consciousness) (2004:25).
13. Keith Howard (2006) contends that the 1961 Cultural Properties Protection Law (Munhwajae pohobp) changed the structure of music performance and education pedagogy. Also see
Byeon Gyeweon (2009) for more on contemporary developments.
14. Byeon Gyeweon (2009) discovered through surveys that kugak ranked at the very bottom
of the popularity scale. In my research for my dissertation (2002), I found inadequate education
and exposure to kugak to be fundamental reasons for this lack of popularity.
15. The activities of kugak teams within the kugak market are the subject of a summer 2012
publication (Finchum-Sung 2012).
16. Applications for competitions such as the 21st Century Music Project request photos
and statements of a teams image, in addition to audio recordings, subtly suggesting that image is
considered to be a necessary component for a successful team.
17. Yun Chunggang credits Seulgidoong and Sagye with setting contemporary performance
standards. These teams can be seen as the root of the contemporary visual emphasis in performance
(2004:135, 202)
18. Pak Seyeon is a former member of the well-known kayagm quartet Sagye.
19. Perhaps a hazard of such powerful artist imaging could be intense interest in the image
itself. Kim Sngju notes feeling a little troubled by comments that focus on poster images rather
than the actual quality of the performance advertised (interview, 3 February 2012, Seoul).
20. The pose of Kim with her bare arms embracing the instrument appearslike the image
of Pak Seyeons bodily contours as the kayagmsexually provocative. Although the gendered
nature of such images is beyond the scope of this paper, it is worth noting that, with the majority of active performers being female, the female body in union with the instrument has become
a prominent theme in poster imagery. Recently, particularly in connection with masked dance,
provocative images featuring men have appeared. A poster advertising the 34 May 2012 masked
dance festival Kwangdae-i chum at Korea National University of the Arts (KArts/Hanguk Yesul
Chonghap Hakkyo) features the image of a young man naked from the waist up staring intently
at the camera and holding a mask. Another example featuring men is a recent poster in which the
members of the all-male mask-play performance troupe The Gwangdae (The Clowns) are pictured
leaping through the air naked. The nature of this photo, however, is comical rather than sexual.
21. The December 2010 edition of Yien Times (the teams regular newsletter), distributed to
audience members, featured on the cover a bold statement announcing a new Yien in 2011. Included in the newsletter was an essay by haegm player and team leader Kang Dul Yi titled Hard
Enough? which included the crossed-out statement in red print, In 2010 I studied, I made music,
and I performed, indicating her dissatisfaction with the past year.
22. Due in large part to the system of intangible cultural properties, the push for authenticity
or legitimacy forms the foundation of contemporary kugak rhetoric (Killick 2010).

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