Literature Meets Traditional Music

Jeong Ga Ak Hoe, a Korean traditional music ensemble consisting of six members, will present a special performance in which the novel “Wangmorae” (Coarse Sand) will be read, along with music and video from March 3 to 6 at LIG Art Hall in southern Seoul. / Courtesy of Jeong Ga Ak Hoe

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Novelist Hwang Sun-won might be best remembered for his representative work "Sonagi" (The Shower) with its essence of pure lyricism. But "Wangmorae" (Coarse Sand), one of his lesser-known works, is loaded with provocative content dealing with the Oedipus complex.

Jeong Ga Ak Hoe, a Korean traditional music ensemble consisting of six members, will present a special performance titled "Jeong Ga Ak Hoe Sings for Hwang Sun-won" in which the novel "Wangmorae" will be read, along with music and video.

The ensemble has attempted to reinterpret Korean traditional music with diverse experiments through a mixture of literature and traditional music since its inception in 2000. The group was formed with the goal of better passing on traditional heritage from generation to generation.

The performance was first staged in Peru in July last year with rave reviews from the audience. The show offers a traditional music performance, reading sections of the novel and videos of traditional paintings with English subtitles.

The novel revolves around a man whose father died when he was nine and was abandoned by his mother. He lives with others until he becomes seventeen. His attachment to maternal love grows bigger and is caught up in a kind of Oedipus complex that eventually leads to him killing his mother. It introduces various relationships that walk the line between reality and fiction.

"We picked the novel as it has the strong power of text with a solid plot. It also discusses the many implications that come from the absence of maternity," Chun Jae-hyun, head of the ensemble, said.

"Wangmorae" is meaningful in that it reveals a ruined interior human consciousness during the Korean War and the characteristics of 1950's novels.

The entire text will be read during the show with the traditional musical instruments playing in the background.

"When we performed in Peru, the audience responded very warmly to our musical experiment, which blends music with literature. They were enchanted by not only Korean traditional music but also the excellence of the text. So the concert mixed with a literature reading is aiming at the overseas stage as it contains universal values in literature and music," he said.

The performance will be directed by Im Hyung-taek with music by Jang Young-gyu.

Jeong Ga Ak Hoe has created new songs and specializes in "gagok," Korean traditional vocal music. It has also offered performances mixing literature and music without using a synthesizer despite the strong trend of New Age, crossover and fusion, which has affected the gugak scene.

"Our members seem to have many things to tell the audience and they are serious about music. So it is often presented as a unique show which presents both music and literature," said Chun.

Their unique performance was designed to find something in common between the two genres and also seeks to widen its fan base, something that remains small in size among most Korean traditional music groups.

The group also presented performances that introduced European literature in 2008, and Central and South American literature last year.

The concert will take place from March 3 to 6 at LIG Art Hall in southern Seoul. Tickets cost 15,000 won for students and 25,000 won for adults.

For more information, call (02) 583-9979 or visit www.jgah.co.kr.

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr

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