Korean Concert for Foreign Residents

I’ve never really been a hardcore music aficionado, ‘though I’d like to think that I know how to appreciate a generally pleasant sound. What makes is especially easier for people to practice such appreciation is when a good venue allows for that music to be showcased in the first place. And well, South Korea simply knows how to do that.

Now for someone like me in the newer generation who’s practically been baptized by the era of electric guitars and synthesizers, it would initially be hard to appreciate old wooden pipes with holes to do the trick in creating music. But again, South Korea isn’t a fusion of culture and technology not to entice anyone to go ahead and see what wooden sticks and several strings could do.

FUSION. Koreans are just so in-love with the word, by the way.

The Korean Foundation Cultural Center (KFCC) is a private organization that promotes Korean culture to the world through a variety of programs and activities that cater most especially to the growing number of foreigners in the country. The organization has since held a yearly, free concert for foreigners which they aptly call, “Korea Foundation Free Concert for Foreigners”. Oh, okay, that’s how they called it last year when I caught on their 2009 performance. I just had to notice that this time around, they are calling it the “Korea Foundation Free Concert for Foreign Residents”. I would like to think that the title change doesn’t really mean to discriminate, and is more geared to invite those who are genuinely willing to be exposed and enlightened by Korean culture. I mean, any foreigner who stays and becomes a resident must’ve adapt to a certain level of Korean culture for them to want to stay longer than any other foreigners who are just in South Korea for a short-time vacation.

The concert was held at the hall of the famous Namsangol Hanok Village. One has to get out of Chungmuro Station (Line 3 or 4, exit 7) and take a slight uphill walk to the venue. Their line-up for this year was a soloist music player and a traditional music girl group.

The soloist, Ahn Eunkyung, is a “piri” player. A piri is an eight-hole woodwind instrument that has a double reed. It pretty much looks like a flute except that it is played to point towards the player, instead of sideways like that of a typical flute. For a small and thin instrument like a piri, it's really amazing to hear a trumpet-like sound in it. And there is something really commendable with the soloist's grace and poise while playing the small instrument. To have that humongous grasp of air all throughout the performance is outrightly amazing. Ahn Eunkyung's playlist for the evening were all instrumentals joined by her very own band.

On the other hand, the traditional girl group Miji, dubbed as the "Girls' Generation" of traditional Korean music, is composed of eight ladies. One is the group's vocalist, while the rest are experts in their own instruments.

Two daegum players (Daegum is the biggest member of the Samgeum family, which is composed of 3 transverse flutes-- daegum, junngeum, and sogeum. It has 13 holes and is used in the standard for tuning other instruments, given its wide register.)

Two gayageum players (Gayageum is one of the most famous traditional Korean string instruments. It has 12 silk strings tied to a long resonator chamber made of wood. It is known to have made in the early 3rd century for a king.) 

Two haegum players (Haegum is a hallow and round-shaped wooden resonator covered with animal skin, and a long, wooden neck with strings that hung like a bow. There is no specific position for a specific sound, and therefore a sound pitch is decided by the position of the hand and tension in the strings.)

One saenghwang player (Saenghwang is a wind instrument used in Korean ceremonial court music. It is constructed with many bamboo pipes mounted in a wind chest, and it is blown through a spout-like mouthpiece.)

Miji came out in uniform, colored get-ups, pretty much what anyone would expect in any Korean music group. They're pretty and slim alright, and it is not really surprising, too, for a group that was packaged by a private production company. They played one english song, entitled "Fly Me To the Moon", which comes to me now as a favorite piece for traditional music performances because the song was also played in last year's concert. Everything else in Miji's ensemble were instrumentals. My most favorite piece would have to be "Love Letter", played using the haegum and saenghwang. These two instruments were played as if talking to each other and expressing their trembled feelings of love in a calm and beautiful manner. Saenghwang would also be my most favorite instrument, because I found it rather surprising that a big instrument as such would produce such a calm and sweet sound.

How South Korea promotes and preserves their culture through music, especially at these fast-changing times is really very impressive. The country just don't get to treasure traditional musical instruments, they get to discover talents in expressing such music.