My challenge starting this process was where to find research material that could help me practice Korean traditional rhythms. I searched up videos on youtube and looked for musical scores in books, articles and research papers. Even though I found some materials to practice on, I struggled to understand how to practice this, what is the rhythmical context in the music, and how I could use it in an improvisational setting.
In September 2022, I was lucky to come in contact with Suwon Choi from the Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago, through common friends. He was very helpful offering online lessons where I for the first time could learn the janggu and the buk. We started to practice basic movements, sounds and drum techniques. Also, I focused on learning a Samulnori score, called Yeongnam Samulnori , where I also got introduced to the Korean notation system called jeongbo.
My name is Michael Lee Sørenmo, I am from the city Trondheim in Norway, and I play the drum kit.
I have a background in playing jazz and experimental/improvisational music. Also, I have experience and interest in composing and arranging music for my own projects.
In this project I am going to develop and challenge my artistic expressions through the investigation of Korean traditional music, especially with the study of the Korean rhythm, and Korean drum janggu. That is why I chose the headline for this project to be called “Searching for Korean traditional music – Exploring rhythms and improvisational possibilities”.
The project has been a part of my studies at the master programme in Improvisation and World Music at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg.
I would like to thank my teachers Anders Hagberg and Helge Norbakken for lecturing and supervising my artistic work. Also, I want to thank Korean drummer Park Je Chun for meeting and teaching me about Korean traditional music, culture and history.
Gutgeori inspired improvisation. Same intensity, rhythms,dynamics and structure from "How To Play Korean rhythms on Drums " by Park Je Chun.
Improvising on a Sanjo inspired form and rhythm. My focus is on space, dynamics and short fragmented rhythms.
When I look back to my research question “How can I adapt Korean traditional rhythms and techniques to drum kit playing? I think the result was surprising because of how close the technique Korean grip can imitate details, textures and sound from the janggu to the drum kit. After hearing the janggu being played live by professionals, I understood how it should sound and be played. The Korean grip helped me to come closer to playing the traditional rhythms and sounds into my drum kit playing. To imitate the sound has a lot to do with the bounce, touch and timbre in the drums. For example, the janggu have one side with dark sound and one side with light sound, played with different sticks or with hands. So the sound from each side is different. The darker side is played with a bass function, often played on important beats and accents in the rhythm, while the lighter side has a more melodic role, following the techniques similar to other Korean traditional instruments. I have imagined this dark and light combination could be played on the drum kit, using the snare and floor tom, as shown earlier in chapter 6.3. Examples from Park Je Chun "How To Play Korean Rhythm on Drums". Here the snare is played similarly like the light sound side of the janggu, while the floor tom is played like the darker sound side of the janggu.
"How can I use Korean traditional rhythms to create compositions in an improvisational music context"?
My results changed after studying the Korean traditional music at the National Gugak Workshop and having private lessons in South Korea. This helped me to understand the form, interplay and rhythmical contexts. I have been able to compose music which have been very fruitful for my playing. For example practicing my composition based on Chil-Chae rhythm, have challenged me to play with odd meters and working with improvisation in a new way. I have learned to hold the rhythmic form and play with variations, dynamic, subdivisions and orchestration of sound. This have opened up my playing in odd meters. The result of this piece was very succesful, because me and the saxophone player managed to connect our improvisation to the Chil-chae in an natural way. At the beginning it took some time to practice the rhythm, improvising and developing ideas. But after a while we were able to improvise very freely on the rhythm, without losing the relation to the rhythmical form and characteristics of the rhythm. The Samulnori inspired arrangement presented another way I can create compositions from Korean traditional rhythms. This composition had a more clear inspiration from traditional sound and rhythm, but for me it was more an interpretation of traditional rhythms. Because I made an arrangement where I choose some rhythms I liked, and then created space for improvisational parts. I think we succeeded in playing this composition because of our balance between the tradition and improvisation, and our willingness on creating something new.
"What musical material is needed to be learnt, to make a project with an unfamiliar musical tradition"?
This was one of my sub questions from the beginning. This can also point back to the result of the compositions and importance of the musical structures in Korean traditional music. But it is also a question about what kind of project I want to make. I think It depends on what the source of inspiration I take from the Korean traditional music, and in what context I want to use it. If I want to use it in improvisational music, I often choose to take inspiration from rhythms, pitch, harmony and melodies. But I do not need to take inspiration from everything. So my result from this has been to focus on the rhythmical aspects of this unfamiliar musical tradition. I have not had time to do research about the other elements of the music. And also, I did not have the need to use them in my musical performances. The result for me has been to understand that traditional music can be very broad, and too much information to learn in a short study. Focusing on one aspect of the music have also helped me to be more clear about my project and what I want the result to be.
"What is my musical outcome of using rhythms from traditional music in a improvisational contexts"?
I have realised that I want my music to have the concept of using the Korean rhythms, but played more freely when it comes to melodic and harmonic choices. This has made room for the rhythms to develop in improvisation, and has helped both me and my musicians to be able to improvise closer to how we are used to. Rather than the improvisation needs to have strict rules to follow the rhythms, I want the musician to have freedom to move away from it sometimes. But still it was important for me that I atleast know the rhythms very well. Another result with this has been that I have been able to use the rhythms in different improvisational context. Playing the drum kit, I do not need to use one rhythm in one specific composition, but I can have the freedom to use it in different compositions. This has opened up my rhythmical language as a drummer, and added more things in my playing.
For future research, I find it difficult to seek something that has not been done in similar way, if that is my goal. So what I want to do is to work with what I already do as an improviser, and let the Korean rhythm be a tool I can use, rather than force myself to play the Korean rhythms just because I feel the need to present it. I think this will help me to separate me from trying to imitate a traditional musician, and rather be myself and use the inspiration from it.
Few years ago, when I was studying my bachelor drum kit in jazz and improvisational music, I had an idea to create music where I could play improvisational music inspired with sounds and elements from Korean traditional music. The combination of sounds from the instruments, melodic structures, rhythms and musical form was something I took inspiration from. I started to practice some basic rhythms, and use them as inspiration for creating improvisation and compositions. For me, this made the music have some connection to Korean traditional music, but on the very surface. This is because I did not really know how I could use this new musical inspiration from South Korea into my own music, without making it sounds like improvising musicians trying to imitate Korean traditional melodies and rhythms.
One of my first musical inspirations in this project was about the Korean rhythmical patterns called jangdan. Understanding that all the musicians had to learn and relate their playing to the jangdan, made me realize that this was the tool for interplay. Learning about the importance of jangdan, gave me inspiration to get my own Korean drums called janggu and buk.
Another musical inspiration to do this project came from the Korean music styles of Sanjo, Sinawi and Samulnori . What fascinated me about Sanjo and Sinawi was the asymmetrical form structures, scattered melodies and jangdan. By reading about it, I understood that these musics are based on motivic development and interaction between the soloist and the Korean drums. I found this interplay very interesting, and compared it to some degree to free improvised music I have heard from Europe and USA.
With Samulnori, I was impressed to see how energetic, virtuous and organized this music was. The focus on sound, rapid changes of subdivisions and synchronized movements, was musical aesthetics I had not thought about could be played in a percussion ensemble.
I argue that Samul nori’s rhythmic form has served as a critical site for cross-cultural musical encounters and its global journeys. This rhythm-based form has helped to draw in international fans with little prior knowledge of traditional Korean music or even of South Korea. Additionally, it has aided enthusiasts on their path to the actual learning and performance of Korean percussion music.1
Preserving the old while creating the new in fact describes the roots of most current and popular forms of traditional music being performed in South Korea today. 2
In June 2023 I participated at the National Gugak Workshop, hosted by the National Gugak Center in Seoul, South Korea. This was a fourteen day experience with fifteen other musicians from all over the world, sharing the same interest and curiosity for Korean traditional music. This workshop have been going on every summer for over 30 years, and the purpose of it is to spread knowledge about the Korean traditional music to foreigners who are interested about learning and working with the music.
Everyday we had lessons about traditional instruments, genres, history and culture. This workshop gave us an good overview of the tradition. I also gained a lot from the janggu lessons where I got introduced to more Korean rhythms, specially some jangdans who is used in Sanjo and Pansori.
At the same time attending this workshop, I also went for extra lessons with Park Je Chun, where he wanted that I only practiced Korean rhythms on janggu. He thought that if I would get more understanding of the janggu technique, sound and feeling, I could easier transfer it to the drum kit. This was challenging since I had not practiced the janggu so much at that time. But I decided I would give it a try to see if it would help my process in learning Korean rhythms.
Video of my first practice exercises with the buk and the janggu. My focus is on doing the correct movement to create the perfect sound in the instruments. The arm should do the same exact movement everytime, so the timing and sound is steady.
Videos from September and October 2022.
6.1. Video of Korean grip played on snare drum
I let the stick bounce shortly once or twice before I accent the last stroke. The index finger stay on the top of the stick, making the accent stronger.
The idea behind this composition was to present my own arrangement of Samul Nori rhythms. I got the idea from when I was in Seoul, and went with my teacher Park Je Chun to observe his Samul Nori ensemble rehearsal in Seosan. During his rehearsal, he would sometimes improvise on the drum kit on top of the Korean rhythms that was being played by the ensemble. I tried to recreate this in my arrangement, where sometimes the janggu would improvise on top of a Korean rhythm played on the nagado. During our rehearsals we focused on the similarity and differences in the sounds of our instruments. Both of them have similar timbre and tone, but the difference is in the sustain and depth of the tone. The nagado drum has a very low and powerful sound, while the janggu has a more compressed and lighter sound. We found out these opposite sounds was a good combination, and could be explored. Further on we both used experimented with stick techniques in this performance, to present how we have been experimenting with sounds on these drums. I was very surprised and happy that we managed to perform this music, having a good balance of improvisation and tradition. This was also my first time to perform janggu in an drum ensemble, which proved to myself that I can perform with janggu, but doing it in my own way.
Earlier when I studied my bachelor in jazz and improvisation in Stavanger, Norway, I got inspired by Norwegian improvising musicians who blended their improvisational music with foreign cultures and ethnic/traditional music. For example, bassist Per Zanussi and his research about taking inspiration and abstractions from Korean traditional music into his own music. Other musicians I would mention would be drummer Paal Nilssen Love and his inspiration from Ethiopian and Brazilian music, and also bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen and his music created around Zen Buddhist sutras and chants Buddhist music. These musicians interest to use elements of traditional music in their artistic work, inspired me to do the same.
When I started to search for Korean traditional music, I found musicians I thought were interesting with the same musical background as myself. A former teacher of mine introduced me to Simon Barker's documentary about traveling to South Korea and study the Korean traditional Music. It was interesting to see his experience and fascination in this music, and how he later wanted to express it into his drum kit playing. During my research I bought his book “Korea And The Western Drum Set: Scattered Rhythms" and listened to his music to get more inspiration and knowledge about his study and interpretation of Korean Rhythms.
Can I compare my work until now, to somebody else?
During my research in this project I would say that Park Je Chun music and practice methods are the ones I have benefited the most from. Maybe obviously since we have been having so many lessons, but the more we have talked, I realized that my project ideas relate a lot to his artistic work. Especially his duo together with pianist Miyeon Park, where they use the Korean rhythms as foundation for improvisational interplay, is something I would like to use in my projects. Other Korean bands I find inspiring are Duo Bud, Black String and Dal:um. All of them blend Korean traditional elements with other music styles, to create something new. Even though they have traditional musical background and play traditional instruments, I find it interesting to see how they work to make new sounds on their instruments.
With this project I was happy to see how the compositions developed over time. Both me and my musicians created more and more space and freedom to play and explore. This made the music become more alive and go in different directions every time we practiced and performed. With this project, I also got more away from composing based on Korean rhythms, as I realized that the music did not need it all the time. Instead I focused on composing more open scores with more repetative improvisational forms, which had no certain length or decided amount of bars. I think this made me engage and focus more on the interplay with my ensemble, and developed my creativity through the improvisation.
Books:
Barker, Simon. Korea and the Western Drumset: Scattering Rhythms (SOAS Studies in Music). Sydney: Taylor and Francis, 2015
Hesselink, N, Samulnori. Contemporary Korean Drumming and the Rebirth of Itinerant Performance Culture, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637, 2012.
Lee, Katherine In-Young. Dynamic Korea and Rhythmic Form Music / Culture. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2018.
Lee, Byong Won & Lee. Yong-Shik, Music of Korea. Seoul: National Gugak Center, 2007.
Thesis or dissertation:
Chae, Song Hwa. "THE TREATMENT OF KOREAN TRADITIONAL MUSICAL ELEMENTS IN WESTERN MUSICAL COMPOSITION: A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF FOLKSONG REVISITED FOR SOLO PIANO BY JEAN AHN."Phd diss.,University of Kentucky, 2018.
Koudela, Pàl & Yoo, Jinil, "Music and musicians in Kut, The Korean Shamanic Ritual." Phd diss., Budapest Business School, 2016.
Notations:
Park Je Chun, How To Play Korean Rhythms on drums. All rights reserved
Suwon Choi , Yeongnam Samulnori. Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago, KPAC, all rights reserved.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias online:
Wikipedia, s.v, "Paal Nilssen-Love", last modified April 15 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paal_Nilssen-Love
Wikipedia,s,v, "Christian Meaas Svendsen", last modified April 22 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Meaas_Svendsen
Therefore, in this project my aim is to develop my rhythmical and improvisational drum kit playing from Korean traditional music. I am also going to investigate the possibilities of using Korean traditional rhythms inside my own compositions.
During our rehearsals we experimented using the sounds of our traditional instruments in an free improvisational contexts. After practicing improvisation for a period we started to create compositions which are based on specific concepts. For example in Minyo we take inspiration in the Korean traditional "Sanjo" for our interplay. This function by answering each other phrases with focus on ornamentations, space and timbre. With the composition "Touch of the Spirit" we want to showcase more extended techniques which can be used on pipa and gongs. We based this composition on a previous recording, where we improvised and took inspiration from our instruments sounds, and melodies we found interesting. Then we made an arrangement where we wanted to keep the same atmosphere, but have a clear structure with melodies and improvisational parts.
Working with this duo has developed my playing a lot by improvising and experimenting with elements from traditional music. For example, I have learned my janggu in a new way by allowing me to play "wrong" traditional sounds on the instruments. This has opened up my playing and let me be more creative in the use of this traditional instrument. It has made me think of how I can create my own way of playing the traditional instruments, in combination with improvisation.
Studying Korean traditional music has for me been a search for my personal and musical identity. I was born in South Korea, and was adopted to Norway when I was very little. Therefore I grew up without having a lot of cultural interest or influence coming from South Korea. The interest to search for my roots came later when I entered my 20s, where I for the first time started to reflect upon where I have been growing up, and how different it was from where I was born. My problem was how to approach this identity problem, and to know what I was searching for. Should I learn the language, eat more Korean food, or even move to South Korea for a period?
These questions were surrounding me a lot, and made me think about who I am, and reflect upon my cultural roots. I tried out several of these things, but did not succeed to keep the motivation or find any connection. It was not before I listened online to the Korean traditional music that I got an true interest of South Korea. And my discovery of this music let me be interested to learn more, and understand the origin of this music, and how it is played.
With this ensemble I wanted to rearrange my music with a clear structure. Even though I found the songs Jangdan and Sinawi interesting to play and practice, I wanted to have a more direct link between my composition and improvisational parts. Because of this, I composed my music with melodic cues inside. This would make it easier for me and the musicians to understand the musical form of my composition. Also, this change made the improvisations look more similar to modern jazz compositions, where it is composed intro, melodies, improvisation and often back again to melody. But I still wanted to include some sounds and elements inspired from Asian traditional music, like tremolos, pentatonics, ornaments and Korean rhythms.
Musicians:
Fan-Qi Wu - Pipa
Jakob Nordli Leirvik - Vocal
Vetle Aakre Laupsa - Bas
Michael Lee Sørenmo - Drum kit and composition
My first travel was very helpful for my project, because of all the new things I discovered with Korean rhythms. The meeting with Park was also very successful, and he teached and demonstrated a lot of rhythms to me. What I brought back in my practice, was definitely the Korean grip. At first it was hard to practice and understand the technique. This is because I had not practiced this kind of three stroke bounce technique before. I had to adjust my hand position and strengthen my finger technique. But gradually, after practicing some months, I managed to use it on my left arm first. I also practiced the score "How To Play Korean Rhythms on Drums", almost every day. I practiced one and one bar separetely until I was happy with the sound, articulations and feeling of the rhythms. This piece gave me a lot of challenges with both my technique and timing. Even though I had some experience playing 12/8 rhythms before, this was something different when it comes to groupings and figures of rhythms. I first had to learn and understand the rhythmic phrases after each other, before trying to perform them on the drum kit. I started to only practice on the floor tom and snare drum, until I tried to play more orchestrated on the whole drum kit.
During this research, I got a chance to travel to South Korea and study the Korean traditional music. For my first trip, my professor at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, Anders Hagberg, helped me to get in contact with Korean drummer Park Je Chun. Park is a drummer who is experienced in Korean traditional music, improvised music and jazz. Since he can play both the Korean traditional drums and the drum kit, I thought my project could benefit having lessons with. In my first lesson, learned about the technique he called the Korean grip. This was his invention where he had transferred stick technique from the janggu to the drum kit.
This project started as a compositional project for ensemble, but ended up being about me practicing Korean rhythms on janggu and drum kit, and improvisation with Korean rhythms. This was because I did not expect to have all these lessons, materials and practice methods I have gotten from travelling to South Korea. For example, I used a lot of time practicing Park Je Chun «How To Play Korean Rhythms on Drum Set». Because of my time spent on this, I wanted to create compositions based on this material. My work changed to compose from the standpoint of my practice on the drum kit, instead of me composing based on recordings or creating melodies on piano.
The challenge with this composition was the relation between the Korean rhythm Chil-Chae and improvisation. We had to practice a lot together to be able to play improvisation on top of the Chil-Chae. Specially learning to play the Chil-Chae with rest and spaces was difficult. This was because this Chil-Chae rhythm has a lot notes, and when you take away some of them but still keep the rhythmic form, you have to maintain a steady beat. That is why we practiced with help of Ableton Live, where I had pre-recorded the Chil-Chae, so we could practice improvising while having Chil-Chae as a loop in the background. Also we practiced a lot of just improvising every other bar in the rhythmic form, to help us to memorize the whole form. The melodies and arrangement were created during the rehearsals and changed many times. This is because they were based on our improvisations and what we discovered together during the process.
I succeeded my goals of developing my improvising in odd time signatures and playing asymmetrical forms. Both as a duo and solo I feel more comfortable playing this Chil-Chae rhythm. Even though it took some time in the beginning, I think it was worth it. This is because I now have learned new rhythms I can bring into my improvisational playing in different settings.
The piece "Minyo" was originally inspired from the beautiful Korean folk melodies, called Minyo. I wanted to compose a song with the same melodic approach, but at the same time connect it rhythmically on Sanjo rhythms, played freely. This piece is arranged and performed together with Taiwanese pipa player Fan-Qi Wu, which I play with in a band called Wooli Duo. Together we create music that build bridges between musical traditions based on our musical backgrounds. The combination of Asian traditional and improvisational concepts, makes the music have a wide expression and room for creativity. In this video I also play janggu, but not with a traditional sound, because I use the soft mallet on my left hand. This is because I wanted to have a deeper and softer sound of the janggu. Since the point of this duo is not to play Asian traditionally music, but experiment with traditional instruments, elements and sounds.
Second song from this duo is called "Touch of the Spirit". This has a more free improvisational approach, with focus on varied dynamics, intense rhythmic textures and extended instrument techniques. Also inspired from the East-Asian percussive gong sounds.
I was very doubtful with my result with this music. This is because I thought my music did not really evolve as I thought. I liked the combination of sounds in the ensemble, but I felt it missed some direction. This is because it happened some confusion in the improvisational parts between the musicians. Since the melodies were written on an asymmetrical rhythmical structure, I think it became easy to be unsure which bar we were playing, and when the transition for the next part in the composition would come. And since there were five musicians improvising at the same time, the musicians and myself were on different places in the composition.
Also these composition did not really made room for developing my drum kit playing. This was because I focused to much on keeping the form and make sure that all the musicians were at the same place. So I did not have space to improvise and explore the sounds and rhythms I got inspired from in Korean drums.
The good things that came out of this project was that some of the composed melodies inspired me to continue working with Korean traditional music and improvisation. The musicians playing and interpretations of the music also showed me that it could become beautiful music. Also, by taking inspiration and trying to compose from the Korean traditional rhythms, I found a lot of ideas which I could use further more.
This arrangment of Samulnori music was played with percussionist Mischa Grind, where I for the first time could perform the janggu with traditional techniques, with another percussionist. Mischa, who is from Sweden, has been studying at the same programme as me at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. A part of his research is about the Japanese taiko traditions, and he also had his own nagado drum. I thought that the combination of the janggu and the nagado would create an interesting sound, since the Korean and the Japanese traditional music is related historically with some similar instruments, sounds and aesthetics.
The inspiration for rhythms and form was inspired from a Samulnori performance on youtube called Samulnori Slow Speed.
I feel the result of this solo turned out close to how I had practiced it before my performance. I wanted to be very specific in my choice of sounds in this solo, and try to stick with my improvisational ideas. For example, only playing the cymbals at one point, and only playing at the toms at another time. At the same time I knew that the different soundscapes would arrive at some point, and I had to prepare to change whenever that came. To do this at a perfect timing was difficult, so I practiced how to not be surprised when the soundscapes came, but rather find a way out of it in my improvisation. The compositional process was me adjusting the timeframe of the different parts in the solo. For example the length of soundscapes, intro, improvisations and ending. I recorded myself practing this during rehearsals, and changed it after listening to how I experienced the whole form of the solo was.
I wanted to perform a solo piece where I could present the sounds of my drum kit. This was performed in an improvisational setting, together with some audio recordings from Korean traditional instruments. The communication in the music is between my acoustic sounds from the drums with the arranged and mixed audio files played from Ableton Live. With the audio files, I created an arrangement as a soundscape. This soundscape was not triggered with starts and stops I could control, but played with a function like a backing track I could play with. The audio files had a function as musical cues, coming in with a certain order, and created a form in the music.
Ch’ilch’ae may be considered as both a collection of seven archetypal forms grouped 5/5/6/5/5/5/5, or as a series of accents suggesting a grouping of 5/5/3/3/5/5/10, a slight variation that is diluted as additional accents are added throughout the piece. 6
This composition was composed based on a rhythm called Chil-Chae. I started practice this rhythm by myself before I invited saxophonist Alexandros Koutsogiannis to work with me as a duo. We collaborated to make an arrangement, melody and concepts for improvisations. Concepts for improvisation could be subdivisions, silence, soloistics and contrasts. My goal for this composition was to challenge my improvisation on odd meters and asymmetrical rhythmical form.
Attending the Gugak workshop gave me a lot of inspiration to practice the sanjo rhythms on janggu. I liked the tension, sharpness and precision the sanjo rhythms had, when I listened to it being performed live. Since I practiced these rhythms both on the Gugak workshop and with private lessons with Park Je Chun, I had a lot of practice methods and material to work on coming back to Gothenburg.
The practice with the janggu also helped me to speed up my process with the Korean grip on the drum kit. By just repeating the rhythms over and over on the janggu, I noticed that I would come closer to using that technique. This helped me to improve my sound on the drum kit when I played the Korean rhythms.
The most difficult thing practicing the janggu, was to be able to do it without getting hurt or feeling very uncomfortable. When I played, I used muscles that I am not used to, or trained to do. For example, more use of shoulders gave me some problems, and I easily got tired practicing. This made me to be careful of how much time I could practice janggu every day as well.
When Korean musicians speak of traditional chukhung umak ("improvisatory music"), the musician's preconception includes the two best known forms of Korean improvisatory music, namely sinawi (improvised instrumental ensemble music) and sanjo (instrumental solo music) ,and precludes the rest of the genres of the genres as fixed composition. 5
With this project I had the ambition to compose music inspired by my curiosity of listening and reading about Korean traditional music. I took special interest in the asymmetrical rhythmical forms and the non-hierarchical improvisation I found in the Korean traditional music.
The ensemble 1 was the first project I composed Korean traditonal inspired music, which resulted in some interesting songs I called "Sinawi mode" and "Jangdan style", after the Sinawi and Sanjo inspired sound, rhythms and form. It is based on some choosen Korean rhythms which I used to create melodies and basslines. I wrote the melodies by improvising on the Korean rhythms playing pentatonic scales on the piano. After coming up with melodic material, I made the arrangement with written parts for every instrument, but with a lot of space for the musicians own interpretation of playing these melodies.
The "Ensemble 1" consist of my classmates at the masters programme in improvisation and world music, and the nordic masters programme, at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. They all came from different countries and musical backgrounds, making this ensemble have a lot of possibilities for improvisational playing.
Musicians:
Fan-Qi Wu - Pipa
Tomàs Gubbins - Guitar
Canberk Ulas - Duduk
Johan Nordin - Piano
Michael Lee Sørenmo - Drum kit and composition
In Dynamic Korea, I am concerned with the ways in which musical forms serve as entry points for the intercultural appreciation and acquisition of musical genres. Whereas linguistic, harmonic, or modal forms require various degrees of cultural translation and training, a rhythm-based form, I maintain, offers a point of entry that privileges the sonic and the somatic.4
My first lessons with janggu, buk and Korean rhythms was very helpful to know that I was practicing something specific and practicing correct. It gave me an basic knowledge of how the drums should sound, and how to create the sounds with the right movements and techniques. I was also very happy to meet a Korean traditional musician for the first time, and got a chance to ask a lot of questions about the music. During the lessons, I gradually learned the whole Yeongnam Samulnori score. From this piece I learned common rhythms used in the Samulnori music, and also how the rhythms where arranged for the instruments janggu, buk, kwaenggari and jing. Working with this piece also gave me ideas on how I could use Korean rhythms in compositions for drum ensemble.
After meeting and working with Korean rhythms and improvisation with Park Je Chun, I realized that it was more than one way or answer to how I can adapt Korean rhythms to the drum kit. For example, playing sanjo rhythms on drum kit is different from playing the gutgeori or chil-chae when it comes to feeling, time signatures and sound in the drum kit. These differences can be easy to forget, so I had to be very precise in my playing, to really showcase that I am playing an improvisation inspired from sanjo and not from gutgeori, for example. I also needed to practice to have an imagination and be creative on how these rhythms can be played on the drum kit. I therefore practiced to play the Korean rhythms on every drums and cymbals in my drum kit separately. This helped me to have a better control over my own sounds, and also finding new sounds. For example, I practiced to play more on the bell on the cymbals, and playing short tremolos on the floor tom.
One thing I have not found out, or maybe think is impossible, is to transfer the Korean rhythms from the Korean traditional court music. Because this music is very slow, and based on very few notes played in the jangdan, I am not sure if its transferable to be played on a drum kit. It also might just sound very abstract if the court music rhythms would be played only on the drum kit, without hearing the relation to the music.
Looking back at my travels, I understand that I would not gain so much knowledge and depth about this music and culture without going to South Korea. The meeting with the teachers, experiencing live music, and seeing a different place, have been very fruitful for my project and for my musical needs. From being very unsure about going back to South Korea, to now being confident and excited about it, has been a good experience I will bring forward in life.
On my third trip to Seoul, March 2024, I again had lessons with Park Je Chun, where we focused on practicing improvising with Korean rhythms on drum kit. For example, the score, “How To Play Korean Rhythms on a Drums", we played this time more improvised. I tried to improvise with the same feeling, stick techniques and dynamics, and use the same rhythms from the score. Underneath you will find examples of how I practiced and interpretated different Korean Rhythms with improvisation.
On first listening to the Korean ensemble SamulNori, I was struck by the similarities in textural/rhythmic orchestration to methods employed by jazz drummers on the Western drumset. The group leader, playing a small gong (kkwaenggwari), performs archetypal structures that, in many cases, form ostinato models that resemble the jazz ride cymbal pattern. The changgo player (hourglass drum) performs variations of archetypal patterns (similar to the role of the snare drum and bass drum in a jazz setting), while the ching (large gong) or puk (barrel drum) are utilized to state primary accents within the pattern (akin to the drummers’ high hat and crash cymbals). 3
During my lessons with Park Je Chun, he also introduced me to the piece called “ How To Play Korean Rhythms On Drums". This was his score, where he showed how to notate and perform Korean gutgeori rhythms on the drum kit. This piece gave me an idea of Korean rhythmic form and composition. It was also the first Korean rhythms score I had seen which was written for the drum kit. This made it easier for me to understand the use of ornamentations, accents marks and jangdans.
3.1. Main questions:
How can I adapt Korean traditional rhythms and stick techniques to drum kit playing?
How can I use Korean traditional rhythms to create my compositions in an improvisational music context?
3.2. Sub questions:
What musical material is needed to be learnt, to make a project with an unfamiliar musical tradition?
What is my musical outcome of using elements from traditional music in a improvisational contexts?
2. Background, interest and aim
5. Finding research material and developing practice methods
6. Travelling to South Korea, January 2023
6.1. Korean grip played on snare drum
6.2. Korean grip played traditionally on janggu
6.3.Examples from Park Je Chun "How To Play Korean Rhythm on Drums
7. Second trip: National Gugak Workshop
7.1. Practice videos - Jangdan on drum kit and janggu
8. Third trip: Practicing improvisation with Korean rhythms on drum kit
8.1. Improvisational practice with Korean rhythms on drum kit
10. Changes in my project during the research
11.4. Samulnori inspired arrangement
12. Result, analysis and conclusion
Examples of notated rhythm with ornamentation. This can be played using Korean grip as demonstrated at the videoes 6.1 and 6.2
More freely playing on Gutgeori and Sanjo rhythms. My focus is on sound and use of the Korean grip on drums and cymbals.
Full score of "How To Play Korean Rhythms On Drums"
Chil-Chae rhythm improvising. My focus is on keeping the rhythmical form and playing with energy.
Pdf link to jeongbo notation system.
Pdf link to Yeongnam Samulnori.
