The purpose of this study was to investigate the regional transmission patterns of lyrics, play and music in the history of traditional children's songs of Korea.
Traditional children's songs have been created and orally transmitted by children, becom...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the regional transmission patterns of lyrics, play and music in the history of traditional children's songs of Korea.
Traditional children's songs have been created and orally transmitted by children, becoming a part of Korea's unique children's culture with words, songs, and play that have helped children with their linguistic, cognitive, physical, social, and musical development.
There have been active attempts to apply traditional children's songs to the field of music education and early childhood education by noticing their educational status. However, the traditional children's songs that have been examined and reported mostly come from Gangwon, Gyeongsangbuk, and Chungcheongbuk Province. Thus this study set out to find and record those of Gyeonggi, Chungcheongnam, Jeollanam, Jeollabuk, and Gyeongsangnam Province and investigate their innate characteristics through the regional data, which include the traditional children's songs contained in the album materials published before for Gangwon, Gyeongsangbuk, and Chungcheongbuk Province and the field study results by the investigator for the remaining provinces. Since the study aimed at the utilization of traditional children's songs for music education, it limited the scope to the ones whose source sources had been secured. Total 1,399 data about traditional children's songs were thus examined.
Any discussions about traditional children's songs should be accompanied by lyrics related to children's cognitive and affective development, play performed in conjunction with singing, rhythms created by the rules of lyrics and the beats of Korean music, and melodies created by the intonations and folk songs of the different regions. The study thus discussed the regional transmission patterns of lyrics, play, and music in the history of Korea's traditional children's songs.
Chapter 2 categorized Korea's traditional children's songs according to lyrics, play, and music. There were 6 large items, 21 middle items, and 148 small items according to lyrics; 3 large items, 11 middle items, and 134 small items according to play; 4 large items and 11 middle items according to beats; and 5 large items and 23 middle items according to the scale.
Chapter 3 examined the transmission patterns of lyrics. The lyrics of traditional children's songs are created in the communication process between children and the objects in their living space, while the materials of lyrics include the objects they encounter in their living space. The lyrics of traditional children's songs often pray for transference toward the phenomenon of children's desire or expectation. Their styles include many instructional forms like "~ hae-ra(the speech of order)," reflecting an expectation of children's desire becoming realized. Different materials of lyrics have been transmitted according to the ecology and cultural characteristics of different regions. Regional dialects add more diversity to the vocabulary.
Chapter 4 examined the transmission patterns of play. Children's singing itself is regarded as a form of play since "singing a song" is a different form of musical expression than "speaking" and can give pleasure to children for itself.
There are three types of play in traditional children's songs, namely "play in language," "play in movements," and "play in manipulations." "Play in language" involves songs in which children's speech and singing acts function as play; "play in movements" is accompanied by play containing obvious acts and agreed rules; and "play in manipulations" involves handling something in the hands and is distinguished from "play in language" in that a certain act is repeated with something in the hands. While the musical styles of "play in language" are created according to the rules of lyrics and the melody structures of regional folk songs regardless of the forms of movement, those of "play in movements" and "play in manipulations" are determined with a style that allows for easy implementation of movements accompanying songs, which suggests that children actively choose sound structures that are proper and convenient for action in the process of movement or manipulation.
Chapter 5 examined the transmission patterns of music. When music is defined as sound selected and organized according to human consciousness, there is a need to examine which factors are involved in the selection of which sound acoustic materials in Korea's traditional children's songs. It is in the process that the patterns of the sentiments and words of Korean children expressed with Korean acoustic materials can be examined.
In traditional children's songs, the beats and rhythms are created at the result of complex operations of the rules of lyrics, children's acts, and musical environments of infants and toddlers.
In traditional children's songs, the melodies are created by the organic, complex operation of children's words and play types and the pool of regional folk songs, being more affected by the linguistic requirement conditions than the beats and rhythms. Traditional children's songs are usually sung by children before they fully acquaint themselves with musical expression techniques and are closer to words, which are used to convey what they want to express in life and play.
The ultimate goal of music education and further art education is to help the students experience the process of expressing their ideas and feelings through music and art, purify their emotions, increase their creative expression skills, and eventually form a harmonious character.
What is noteworthy in the music education of Korea is the children-orientedness and openness of traditional children's songs. As mentioned earlier, children are the subjects of creation, performance, and transmission of traditional children's songs. The creation, performance, and transmission principles of traditional children's songs, which are based on children's active musical expressions, have important implications for music education for young children and children. In addition, they offer proper materials for children to express their thoughts and feelings freely since their lyrics and melodies are not fixed permanently.
Music culture can be transmitted only by the members of the cultural zone who enjoy and perform it. In Korea, traditional children's songs, which had long been transmitted by Korean children, is no longer transmitted by them in modern music education in school. Now is the time to pay attention to the innate values of Korea's traditional children's songs and seek after new values in music education for children that is future-oriented and national based on those values.