at the Space Theater was a drastic change from p’ungmul’s outdoor context. The quartet took music that was traditionally performed by local percussion bands (for hours at a time, by large groups of people) and streamlined it into a more concise form. This recontexualized performance of p’ungmul directed the audience’s attention to p’ungmul’s sonic features—in a way that had not been so isolated before. As we know now, the quartet and its arrangement of p’ungmul rhythms proved to be a big hit. And in many ways, the quartet’s spirit of experimentation resonated with the Konggan Group’s philosophy of being at the vanguard of innovation while maintaining a firm sense of tradition.21
Kim Duk Soo explained in his 2007 autobiography that the idea to perform the rhythms from p’ungmul in a new presentational format was not his own. Instead, he credits folklorist Sim Usŏng (b. 1934) as the one to suggest to Kim (and the other performers) to take the four primary percussion instruments from p’ungmul—one of each—and create a piece with them while playing in a seated position. Kim acknowledged that Sim’s proposal was a great idea—recalling that he was “full of excitement and anticipation” at trying out this suggestion on that “unforgettable evening” (Kim Duk Soo 2007, 180–82).22
SIM USŎNG: FOLKLORIST AND ADVOCATE
Before moving on, it is necessary to pause and explain Sim Usŏng’s central role in supporting the percussion quartet.23 Although he has worn many hats, Sim is best regarded for his work as a researcher of the folk performing arts and culture of Korea. During the 1960s he began extensive research on the tradition of itinerant performing arts troupes known as yurang tanch’e, focusing in particular on the namsadang (itinerant troupes of male performers).24 Sim was part of the first generation of South Korean folklorists to conduct ethnographic fieldwork with folk musicians. He also served as an advocate for the preservation of folk arts. Through his research on the namsadang, Sim met Kim Duk Soo, whose father (Kim Munhak) was a member of the 1960s Minsokkŭkhoe Namsadang (Folk Theater Association Namsadang) (Hesselink 2012, 32; Sim Usŏng [1974] 1994, 53).25 Sim taught Korean music history and theory at the Seoul Arts High School and also served as the faculty adviser for the Minsogakhoe Sinawi ensemble—a group that he named and helped to form (Ch’oe T’aehyŏn 1991, 31–32; Hesselink 2012, 53). He later introduced Kim Yong-bae (a member of the Seoul-based namsadang troupe in the 1970s) to the folk arts society. It was Sim who was in fact the link between the Minsogakhoe Sinawi group and the Space Theater’s Kang Chunhyŏk. From this connection arose the artistic roster at the Space Theater in its early years.
Sim is also generally credited with bestowing the quartet with the name Samul-Nori, which is translated into English as “four things play” or “the play of four objects.” There are discrepancies in the written record and in oral testimonies as to precisely when and where the bestowal of the group’s moniker occurred, however. In an interview that I conducted with Sim in 2009, Sim recounted that he was approached in haste one day by three members of the Minsogakhoe Sinawi—Yi Ch’ŏlchu, Ch’oe T’aehyŏn, and Kim Mukyŏng (Sim Usŏng interview, October 28, 2009). According to Sim, the meeting (which took place at the Seoul Arts High School) followed immediately on the heels of the quartet’s second appearance at the Space Theater in late April 1978. By this time—just two months after the quartet’s debut—the group’s membership had changed. Ch’oe T’aehyŏn and Yi Chongdae were replaced by two brothers from the southern port city of Samch’ŏnp’o—Choi Jong Sil [Ch’oe Chongsil] and Ch’oe Chongsŏk.26 With two expert percussionists now incorporated into the lineup, the quartet had created such a stir at the concerts that Sim was called on to swiftly coin a name for the group that still lacked one (figure 1.3). In an essay commissioned for SamulNori’s thirtieth anniversary, Sim wrote about the pragmatic approach to the quartet’s name: “Well, if only four people are performing, why not call it—‘sa mul’ [four objects]? And if you are performing with the samul [a term used to refer to the core set of p’ungmul instruments], why not say that you are ‘playing’ the samul?” (Sim Usŏng 2008, 16).27
A second, relatively unknown account by Ro Jaemyeong [No Chaemyŏng] (director of the Korean Classical Music Record Museum) points instead to an archived document—an invitation to a birthday celebration event for the theologian and human rights activist Ham Sŏk-hŏn—that lists “samul nori” on the program. No performers are mentioned, but the invitation appears to be the first documented reference to the samul nori genre that predates Sim’s account. Since most Koreans would not have known what the term “samul nori” meant at the time, an explanation was provided in parentheses: “kkwaenggwari, ching, puk, and changgo” (Hŭngsadan 1978; see figure 1.4).28 The event took place on March 18, 1978, at the Seoul office of the Hŭngsadang (Young Korean Academy) and appears to be the quartet’s first documented “gig,” following its successful debut a month earlier. Although conflicting versions of SamulNori’s christening exist, the relevant point to draw out here is that the name of the quartet was in fact a neologism that took two ubiquitous terms and combined them, forging a new meaning. And with the conflicting latter account, the parenthetical explanation gives us the first clue of what would eventually serve as the core instrumentation for a new genre of music.
FIGURE 1.3 Sim Usŏng with members of the SamulNori quartet at the Space Theater. Top row, left to right: Sim Usŏng, Lee Kwang Soo, Kim Duk Soo, Choi Jong Sil. Bottom row, left to right: dancer Kim Myŏngsu, Space Theater’s art director Kwŏn T’aesŏn, Kim Yong-bae. Photograph courtesy of Sim Usŏng.
FIGURE 1.4 First documented reference to samul nori on a program, dated March 18, 1978. Photograph courtesy of the Korean Classical Music Record Museum (director Ro Jaemyeong).
THE SAMUL NORI PROJECT
Meanwhile, the fledgling percussion quartet continued to evolve. At each consecutive appearance at the Space Theater, the quartet began to expand and develop its repertory in an organic manner. The rhythms of p’ungmul provided the musical grammar for SamulNori’s experiments in reconfiguring their own “language”—a slick and streamlined, yet somewhat recognizable urban dialect of p’ungmul. Interestingly, these musical explorations were always informed by the sonic identifiers of place—each “piece” an interpretation or “rearrangement” of rhythmic patterns from the central, southeastern, and southwestern regions of p’ungmul performance. The members of the quartet became a de facto study group, learning and researching rhythmic patterns associated with a variety of local percussion bands throughout South Korea. For this reason, the quartet’s incipient years can be viewed as part of the SamulNori “project,” which I base in part on Alain Delissen’s “Konggan Project.”
Kim Sugŭn’s Space Theater was the perfect incubator for this project, and influential figures such as Kang Chunhyŏk and Sim Usŏng served as trusted advisers. Similar to Kim, Kang, Sim, and the Minsogakhoe Sinawi, the quartet members (even while in flux) also shared a desire to rekindle Korea’s dwindling folk arts. Founding member Kim Duk Soo reflected on this preservationist impulse in the context of South Korean history:
After the division of North and South [in 1948], our country went from being an agricultural society to an industrialized one.29 In this period of great change, our traditional culture changed drastically. When I was in elementary school, 70 percent of Korean citizens were farmers. The music that the farmers played was a natural and essential part of the life cycle; you heard the sound of the samul [four percussion instruments from p’ungmul] at feasts, festivals, ancestor worship rituals, and at funerals. But as we developed into an industrialized society, aspects of our traditional lifestyles were modified or rendered obsolete. It is because of this tremendous change that we had to bring the instruments from the madang [traditional courtyard, village common, or large open ground] to the inside. And at the same time, we had the twofold objective to “bring back what was lost” and “to show what is magnificent about our culture to others” (Kim Duk Soo interview,