Making a start with the need to preserve the elements of traditional music and, at the same time, meet the various needs of modern times, creative Gukak has undergone much progress and transformation through a series of works to broaden the musical ho...
Making a start with the need to preserve the elements of traditional music and, at the same time, meet the various needs of modern times, creative Gukak has undergone much progress and transformation through a series of works to broaden the musical horizon including the introduction of diverse musical styles and the development of playing techniques. Even today, it seeks for changes and development and explores its breakthroughs within the expansive field and the segmented genres.
Creative music of the Haegeum has been a good material for composers and subject to active composition because it is easy for transposition and modulation due to the structural features of the instrument and allows for various registers and colorful expressive techniques.
In spite of such attraction of the Haegeum, there are critical voices about the performance forms and work trends of its creative pieces as follows: first, there is a concern that the unique timbre of the Haegeum might be lost in the middle of diverse musical changes and exchange processes with other genres of music; second, too much emphasis on popularity may create a situation in which the traditional creative pieces of the Haegeum may be neglected; and finally, even the pieces whose artistry lags behind are recklessly announced in the name of creative Gukak.
Considering those points, it is apparent that even creative Gukak should have artistry and traditional heritage in order to have its value recognized. Players who want to play a creative piece should analyze and study one accurately before playing one with the right expressive techniques based on the results.
This study thus investigated the overall structure of New Daseureum for the Haegeum and Jeongak Gayageum by Ahn Hyeon-jeong.
The study also identified the elements of traditional music found in it and examined proper playing methods for it by analyzing the melodic progress of the Haegeum and Jeongak Gayageum. The findings were as follows:
First, the piece consists of single movements and contains total six paragraphs of introduction-[A]-[B]-[C]-[A]'-coda according to the melodic progress, tonality, beats, expression marks, and tempo changes. Paragraph [C] is comprised of a-b-a'-c.
Second, the subject melody is one in Pyeongjo Daseureum. Each paragraph is organically connected with one another around the subject melody appearing in the introduction, making progress through extension, transformation, and reproduction.
Third, such expressive techniques of traditional music as "Yoseong," which presses the note a scale above the original one, "Chuseong," which pushes up the note by a semitone, and "Toiseong," which pulls down the note by a semitone, appear consistently in the Haegeum and Gayageum melodies.
Fourth, the piece is a pentatonic scale of E♭(黃) -F(太) -A♭(仲) -B♭(林)- C(南) and features the traditional fingering of capturing six central notes of E♭, F, A♭, B♭, e♭, and f in Yuhyeon index finger.
Finally, as for the bowing, the piece plays a bow per a dotted quarter note(♩.=1 bow) based on the one bow per one note principle since it is effective to utilize the bow with the traditional music style as much as possible at the parts where the melodies of Pyeongjo Daseureum are largely expressed.
The analysis results show that New Daseureum for the Haegeum and Jeongak Gayageum features the traditional colors well and expresses the intention of the composer with a solid conviction in tradition among creations by adopting the form and melody of Pyeongjo Daseureum as the subject melody and using such expressive techniques of traditional music as "Yoseong," "Chuseong," and "Toiseong" in melodies consistently.