일제강점기 신민요의 혼종성 연구 = (The) Hybridity of Korean new-folk song (Sinminyo) during the Japanese colonial period

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Sinminyo (new folk song) sin, meaning "new" and minyo, meaning "folk song" had been one of the mainstream popular music genres during the Japanese colonial period. Within a socio-musical context, "sin" denotes the western popular music and its style and idiom introduced by Japan at the turn of the century, while "minyo" represents the indigenous Korean folk song with all its traditional musical elements and practices. By combining and fusing the two musical traditions, sinminyo emerged as a "hybrid music" in the early 1930s.

This study investigates sinminyo and its hybrid characteristics in its meaning and content, as understood as a hybridized musical product of both traditional music and foreign music. Within the broad scope of the study, I have presented both hybrid musical idioms found in various repertoires, as well as a socio-musical approach in examining the musical activities in relation to the music-making process.

First, to provide abroad overview of the historical background in regard to sinminyo's emergence as a new genre, I examined the musical activities and practices of various hybrid musical genres, centering on the newly emerging entertainment industry, especially the recording industry. The hybrid musical activities that were reflected in many of the recordings found in the mid 1920s can be divided into two large categories in terms of differentiating musical and stylistic output. First, one category reflects the tendency toward the appropriation of the foreign music, "Hyangakhwa" (Koreanization of music), which mainly adapted western popular music elements, not merely borrowing them, but re-evaluating or re-creating them according to traditional musical idioms and texture. The second musical style can be categorized as the "Westernized Korean music," which is simply singing traditional folk songs with the accompaniment of the western chamber orchestra, providing a harmonic background using the primary triads of functional harmony practiced in Western music. In particular, the latter category of the hybridization, I argue, was closely related to the sinminyo that is now known to us, as a perfect example of "hybrid musicking," which had begun to gain enormous popularity in the 1930s. The musical tradition of sinminyo emerged from this unique performance culture of the popular folksongs (tongsok minyo) tradition, solely with the Western orchestral accompaniment, and from this, sinminyo had developed into a complex musical genre that retains the multi-stylistic features.

Second, I presented the history of sinminyo, a chronological approach to how sinminyo had emerged and developed throughout the Japanese colonial period. I have designated four stages of the time span of sinminyo's entire history, roughly a fifty-year span beginning from the turn of the century to the end of the Japanese colonial rule in 1945: 1) the first stage, the early 20th century-1933; 2) the second stage, 1934-1936; 3) the third stage, 1937-1939; 4) and the fourth stage, 1940-1945. The first stage denotes the period in which sinminyo gradually emerged as one of the most influential vocal genres beginning in the early 20th century to early 1930s when sinminyo entered mainstream popular music around the time that the recording industry was firmly established as the most influential media of pubic entertainment. The second stage is the period in which sinminyo had the most rapid development in the history of Korean popular music. The third stage reflects the period of sinminyo's musical maturity that is evidenced by the abundance of new experimental attempts by many characteristic composers in creating diverse of musical styles and forms, despite of the general depression of the recording industry. The last stage displays the period in which the popularity of sinminyo had gradually declined both its production and consumption, largely influenced by the social and political devastation of the Pacific War.

Third, I provided an in-depth analysis of the musical elements of sinminyo, including mode, rhythm and meter, tonality and harmony. I have discovered that the music of sinminyo typically utilizes diverse forms of modal possibilities from various regional and cultural sources and practices. For example, the melodic construction of the majority of sinminyo relies largely on the folksong traditions of the central region which can be characterized by having unique melodic and modal configurations known as "gyeong-tori" (central style). In the performance of sinminyo, however, I have found that there are two sub-modal forms which I have classified as "sin gyeong-tori"(new central style) and "sin ban gyeong-tori" (new half central style). These two sub-forms, "sin gyeong-tori" and "sin ban gyeong-tori," can be seen as being derived from the traditional modal forms found in various central folksongs, known as "jin gyeong-tori" (central-proper) and "ban gyeong-tori"(half central), in terms of having a similar theoretical construction of five pitches. However, in the actual performance practice of the two sub-modes used in sinminyo, elements such as intonation, ornamentation and vibration (yoseong) and other stylistic idioms are quite different from that of "jin gyeong-tori" and "ban gyeong-tori" as practiced in the traditional folksongs (minyo), because of the intentional use of westernized vocal idiom and technique, and an absence of traditional performance technique. It is also common that other popular modal forms, such as the "minor and major scales of yonanuki," "dongnam-tori" (southeastern style, including both "yukjabaegi-tori" and "menari-tori"), and susimga-tori, can easily be found in many sinminyo, although far less in their total number when compared to sinminyo in the style of the central region (gyeong-tori). Furthermore, each mode contains two modal types, the original and its variation, where the variation type can usually be distinguished by having a different central pitch (modal center or cheong), as well as introducing a melodic pattern distinctively new from the original type, emphasizing a particular group of pitches in a repetitive intervallic pattern.

In the analysis of the rhythmic features in sinminyo, I have observed that there has been a frequent occurrence of hybridized rhythmic elements from both traditional jangdan system and the western rhythmic forms. This hybridization of rhythm, for example, was accomplished by combining the traditional jangdan, such as gutgeori, jajinmori and semachi, with the Western dance forms, such as waltz, fox-trout and swing, which were more popular and well known over others forms. This rhythmic hybridization, along with the melodic and modal hybridization, typically provides an important theoretical framework, as well as the unique musical flavor in an expressive, emotional realm. The hybridization of the two distinctive rhythmic traditions is an interesting musical phenomenon which can also be viewed and understood in ways which tend to depart from the authentic traditional jangdan system, namely, "de-traditionalizing" or "Westernizing Korean music." It can also be interpreted as appropriating the foreign rhythmic forms, namely, the "Koreanization of the foreign rhythm," (hyangakhwa) which might have to be modified and re-evaluated to "naturalize" a rather unfamiliar entity into Korean music forms.

In the performance of sinminyo, the complex nature of sinminyo is reinforced by having an ambiguous musical surrounding and atmosphere, created by the two opposite forces: the vocal line vs. the accompaniment, each of which emphasizes different musical esthetic factors the modality vs. tonality. That is to say, the melodic line of sinminyo generally follows the musical law of a modal practice, while the harmonic accompaniment, either being pre-arranged or being spontaneously expressed and created during performances, readily employs western functional triadic harmony with the use of a rather unconventional harmonic progression which results from the reflection of melodic characteristics governed by the melodic laws of a particular modality. In other words, because the harmonic configuration here is generally determined by the shape of a melody of a particular mode, the resulting harmonies and progressions do not always follow a conventional harmonic progression and the dramatic unfolding of the functional harmony, I-V-I.

Fourth, I have observed the socio-musical phenomenon of the hybrid nature of sinminyo, especially through examining the musical activities and social nature of its constituent members with specific social and musical roles. For the clarity for my discussion, I distinguished the body of the constituent members according to their social roles and artistic specialties into five areas, each of which represents different artistic properties. This includes recording producer, composer, singer, arranger for instrumental ensemble, and the instrumental accompanist, all discussed separately in great detail. It is not surprising at all that the sinminyo composers during the colonial period had been considered as the composers of only Western music because of their musical background and training solely in the practice of western music traditions. As a way of naturalizing western music in Korea, the "Koreanization of Western Music," many composers had found sinminyo as an ideal choice for vigorous experimental musical practice in which the Western musical elements were re-invented, re-created and re-evaluated in order to make them suitable to the aesthetic norms and musical sentiments of the general Korean public. In the case of the singers, male singers were considerably small in number, while there was a greater number of female singers, many of whom had been kisaeng, who played a significant role in promoting sinminyo which became one of the main genres of popular music. This appears rather simple within the scope of the socio-musical framework, namely first, being characterized by a large number of female singers of kisaeng origin who had traditionally been placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. In contrast, despite of the small presence of male singers, the sinminyo industry had always been controlled and led by a few males, mostly in charge of the creation and production side of the industry, such as producers, composers and lyricists. These men were the intellectuals of the elite class of their time, largely influenced by western modernization and other related cultural products, and already equipped with a comprehensive understanding of various musical traditions in western culture. Therefore, within a socio-cultural context, the constant interactions between the two groups became a fundamental issue in determining the musical content and the social meaning of sinminyo. As a result, this unique socio-cultural structure reflected by the two social groups each with the distinct gender and the social class can also give clear evidence of the socio-cultural "hybridization." In sum, the hybrid nature of sinminyo can be explained in two dimensions, both musical and socio-cultural. In other words, the musical nature of sinminyo, its "musical hybridization," is merely a result of, and reflective of, its own socio-cultural phenomena that are characterized as "socio-cultural hybridism," by a unique blending of these two distinctive social groups. As one of the remarkable musical characteristics of sinminyo, most of the vocal accompaniments were usually arranged for a mixture of Korean and Western orchestral instruments known as "Seonyang Hapju." The musical significance of Seonyang Hapju, in addition to its unique setting that combines two heterogeneous groups of instruments, can be found in the unique musical characteristics revealed through numerous stylistic expressive elements of performance practice. Such characteristics of Seonyang Hapju have helped to provide a broader musical scope and meaning to sinminyo, including various performance aspects such as vocalization, timbre, and unconventional instrumental techniques.

Finally, the hybrid character of sinminyo has been examined by using the dualistic views, on one hand the "Westernization of Korean folk songs," and on the other, the exact opposite, the "Koreanization of Western music." In the former view, the musical uniqueness of tori (musical style of performance practice) of Korean folk songs was being seriously weakened to the point that the unique musical idioms of tori, similar to various regional accents or dialects, were gradually being replaced by the westernized well-tempered modes, such as "pseudo-gyeongtori," which were popularized as being standardized Korean modes, all controlled by the newly centralized governmental system. The later view, the "Koreanization of Western music," led by composers embracing Western influences with a common stylistic tendency, was based mainly on western music aimed at adapting various traditional forms and elements of Korean music such as modality and rhythmic patterns of various folk songs, melodic patterns and ornamentation (sigimsae), and Seonyang Hapju. These musical compositions, although fundamentally obedient to the musical idioms of the west, as well as a Western-centric aesthetic, strongly suggest the spirit of "de-centralization"of western music, idioms and tonality, which, by that time, had emerged as the mainstream genres of popular music in Korea. These dualistic schools of sinminyo, the "Koreanization of Western music," and, paradoxically, the other, the "Westernization of Korean folk songs," reveal coexisting contradictory aspects; the "centralization" and the "de-centralization," of western music .

The socio-musical nature of sinminyo during the first half of the twentieth century reflects the problems of the two contradictory musical traditions: western music with its forceful presence which had quickly become the central music of the newly emerging popular culture of the modern era, in contrast with traditional music with its rapid, localized decline, being replaced be the music from western culture. No one would question the cultural significance and historical importance of sinminyo reflecting the period of colonial modernization faced with the concept of "change" and "new."As an important cultural product of this significant historic stage, sinminyo had gradually emerged from the results of various musical experiments confronting the musical problems of re-constructing a new musical tradition combining the materials from both traditional and foreign origins. In terms of evaluating artistic and musical values of popular music genres, one should not overlook its musical maturity and artistic refinement that is easily found in various repertoires of sinminyo. This musical accomplishment of sinminyo, an important moment in the history of Korean popular music, had helped not only to broaden the scope of popular music, but also to elevate the artistic status and quality of popular music. The focus of the problems on the nature of "hybrid musicking" of sinminyo, with its conflicting aspects of contradictory forces, namely, "centralization" vs. "de centralization," "tradition" vs. "modern," and "West" vs. "East," still remains "un-dissolved," constantly being negotiated and evaluated in today's contemporary creative musical fields. It has been more than 70 years since the emergence of sinminyo, and although lost in the midst of many social, cultural and political changes since 1945, sinminyo's fundamental character and experimental spirit have survived and continued, still maintaining its contemporary character and meaning, on its continuing journey in search of "newness."