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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . introduction Storytelling takes place in a fundamentally amorphous physical setting, requiring only a teller and a listener. The realm of the story is located within the voice of the teller. A far cry from being behind the “fourth wall,”1 p’ansori contains intriguing layers of “telling.” The locus of the story is in themes, values, characters, and situations, yet the “telling” manifests itself in multiple levels of complex interactions between singing and speaking, language and its vocalization, and meaning and style, as well as between the vocal and the percussive. Let me start with the classic introduction, the etymology of the term “p’ansori .” In leisure and labor, in playing and praying, in pursuing pleasure or compensation , in contests, sports, games, gambling, as well as in life’s most serious challenges,thereisaKoreanterm,“p’an,”thatconjuresbothmentalandphysical spaceforwholeheartedparticipation.Compoundedwithanominal,adjective,or verb, p’an delineates a frame, mold, or situation as exempli¤ed in the words “wood-block print” (p’anhwa), “wood engraving” (p’an’gak), “new edition” (shinp’an), “deathlike situation” (chugýlp’an), and “doglike situation” (kaep’an). Suf¤xedtoanactionordescription,-p’ancontextualizestheevent,occasion,arena, situation, or context. Pre¤xed to terms of “performance,”2 p’an- opens a public occasion with time, place, performer, and audience designation. For example, p’ankut is an entertainment-oriented performance also known as p’ungmul or nongak. It also designates the native shamanic ritual of the southern provinces. P’annorým, “a p’an of entertainment,” is a traditional outdoor variety act. In “p’ansori,” “sori” refers to all sounds whether real, imagined, agreeable, or disagreeable. In the realm of vocal music, sori assumes a more speci¤c identity as “singing.” Some de¤ne sori as a lengthy narrative with a plot and differentiate it from norae, “song” that has more of an “immediate emotional appeal.”3 In p’ansori, sori goes beyond just “singing” to become narrative expressiveness, a musical metalanguage, or a “second language” that is acquired through method and process. P’ansori is the performance of an oral or vocal narrative, that is, sori within a given context, p’an. Marshall Pihl says about p’ansori: The Korean singer of tales is called a kwangdae. His oral narrative is known as p’ansori, a long form of vocal music in which he sings a work of narrative literature with appropriate dramatic gesture. P’ansori, a folk art and a popular . . . . . . 2 : Introduction art,evolvedat¤rstwithouttheaidofscoresorlibretti. Somewritershaveused the expression “one-man opera” to explain the term. The oddity of the expression aside, it does succeed in conveying the four essential characteristics of p’ansori:itis a solo oral technique,and itis dramatic, musical,and in verse.4 The p’an of sori unfolds in the middle of a straw mat—a mat traditionally surrounded by the audience but today mounted on a modern stage. In his or her right hand, the singer holds a puch’ae, a folding fan made of rice paper, adorned sparingly with brush painting or calligraphy and then pasted onto bamboo ribs. A performance customarily begins with tan’ga as the preamble.5 The singer tests his or her voice, the folding and unfolding of the fan, and the set of gestures; the drummer checks the deftness of his hands and ¤ngers, the drum’s tautness and suppleness, and his ch’uimsae (or ch’wimsae), stylistic cries of encouragement. This is also the time for mutual assessment between the singer and the drummer, and more importantly between singer and audience: the former assesses the level of appreciation, mood, and likes and dislikes of the latter; the latter grades the presence and caliber of the former. Ah, Youth! My dear young ones! Waste not your youthful days, But do what you have to do. The root of all human conducts is None but love for your country and parents, is it not? Wang Sang [Wang Xiang], frozen, prayed on ice, Out from the ¤shing hole caught a carp, Maeng Chong [Meng Zong], on his knees, prayed and wept in the bamboo grove, Under snow deep found a bamboo sprout, With his utmost served his parents. Another ancient man named Kwakkô [Guo Ju], Whenever he had a special dish prepared for his parents, his own child would Eat it, so to bury his child away, Was digging a site when a pot of gold he found, All to better serve his parents. (From the Chông Kwônjin version of Hyodoga, “Song of Filial Piety”) At this point the...

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