경상북도 서사민요의 음악적 연구 -<이선달네 맏딸애기>에 기하여- = The Characteristics of Folk Ballad in Gyeongsang-bukdo Province

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The study of the folk ballad by the Korean literature specialist, Cho Tong-il, illuminates the generic conception, structure, style, and tradition of the folk ballad. Since his study, many literature specialists have studied the folk ballad. However, few musicologist has studied the genre yet. In other words, the study of the folk ballad is not complete because its musical characteristics have not discovered. In this article, I will examine the musical characteristics of the folk ballad found in Gyeongsang-bukdo Province, the southeastern area in Korea, where we can find more folk ballads than in any other regions.
The folk ballad in Gyeongsang-bukdo Province is a narrative song normally performed by middle-aged female singers. The folk ballad emphasizes the action that carries both the performer's and audience's interests. It tells a single dramatic story. Since the folk ballad is sung by an untrained musician, it exhibits the fundamental traits of folk poetry. It has a pure syllabic meter; four-feet line with four-syllable foot. Its musical meter varies in accordance with the performer. Many songs have quintuple meter in order to sing the four-syllable poem. The last syllable normally is sung to two beats while the other three syllables are sung to a beat. The extension of the last syllable provides a stable cadence. The melody of the folk ballad exhibits the typical regional musical idiom. For example, most of the folk ballad in Gyeongsang-bukdo Province are sung in the musical idiom of the eastern region, called menari t'ori. The folk ballad is sometimes “told” as if the singer tells the story. This kind of ballad can be called as recitative ballad which is compared to the “heightened speech.”