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.

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CHEF

I got to see this great new play called CHEF, which may well join the likes of NANTA, JUMP, and those other hybrid, Chaplin-like theatre performances. Well, I call them hybrid because they usually banner traditional Korean themes (bibimpap, taekwondo, etc.) and combine them with modern means of theatrical execution. They’re Chaplin to me given the mime and slapstick stunts that are usually pulled-off.

This new CHEF is actually a beat box action comedy show (and that’s copying its promotional one-liner). I’d like to think that it’s actually that and much, much more. I enjoyed the show very much, and I can even say that it’s way, way better than NANTA and JUMP. It should well work that way because CHEF is the combined concepts of both plays. CHEF was actually produced by the makers of the equally successful martial-arts theatre show, JUMP.

CHEF has similarities with NANTA, because as the title suggests, the characters of the story are chefs. And same with the more popular NANTA, the setting is in the kitchen. I would have to give the credit to NANTA for its originality and its performers’ very skillful ‘chopping’ skills. NANTA has a pretty straightforward plot. The chefs have to beat the 6 o’ clock deadline for the huge orders that they got. The hours that pass towards the deadline allowed for the chefs’ parade of vegetables on rolling carts. The entertainment part comes with the dancing and lots of chopping stunts, to which the actors include slight comedy acts for that complete theatrical enjoyment.

But NANTA suddenly became too simple of a plot compared to CHEF. CHEF is that proud bibimpap-maker that showcases the popular Korean dish to the world. The play is a chef's epic search for the secret recipe of Korea's gastronomic delight. He journeys towards time to achieve both culinary and spiritual enlightenment with the Wulin Warrior-cooks. I actually saw the play with two other friends, and one of them said that CHEF not only promoted bibimpap as a delicious Korean dish, but as a healthy meal-- something that promotes well-being.

Now, similarities of CHEF with the play JUMP became apparent with the myriad of talents that were showcased, which even went beyond martial arts. CHEF had amazing beat box sounds, traditional music, modern operatic tunes, and a capella combined. There were also B-boy stunts involved, plus a pack of comedy that sure sent me to more laughs.

The play was held at the art hall of the very posh Times Square mall, a newly-established building around the Yeongdeung-po area. It is by the way one of my most favorite places in Seoul, which made the whole CHEF experience enjoyably great!

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Dallae's Story

"I’ve been a PUPPET, a pauper, a pirate, a poet and a king; I’ve been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing; each time I fall flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race.”

There’s just something so helplessly infantile with puppets that makes you want to simply leave them for the children to enjoy, but they’re free tickets to a show and a diverse way of appreciating history and culture, alongside this art of “giving life” to stuffed and sewn cloths... I snagged free tickets to a Czech marionette performance entitled, “A Dallae Story” at the National Theatre of Korea. Yep, a Czech marionette it is!

So as to level up the art of puppetry to something that is more theatre place-worthy, it calls itself a marionette. Marionettes are more precisely distinguished from the typical glove or finger puppetry since they use strings or wires and require skilled manipulation of these wires for the puppets to move. Prague, Czech Republic’s capital city, is well-known for this particular art.

The poster for the play is already enticing to start with, showing off pinks and reds in an aura that generally looks so rustic to me. It must be that puppet’s rich black hair and brown, farmer-like shorts.

And true to the poster’s short-liners like,

“Meet the story that swept the overseas audiences off their feet” and
“Fascinated by the simple, no-frills stage that exudes a sense of authenticity and a Korean sentiment”…

It does have that BIG heart. Not to mention one of the most humbling feeling drawn from Dallae, the war-stricken orphan, who lost his genuinely in-love parents in the Korean War.

When you have war as background to a story plot, tendencies to yawn and droop your eyes may come easily (lol). Come on, war stories are sad. It thugs you right through, so something must happen to your face to react.

The lull moments of the play were nevertheless jolted back by varied theatrical effects, from the conventional to the contemporary ones. There were the projector-supported silhouettes that set the change of mood and location for the real actors and actresses, while big drapes set the stage for the coming of life of the puppets.

Now most of us are pretty much used to watching puppets just in half or supported by some thin or transparent wires, since efforts are poured in to make them appear real despite the fact that some hand or stick are manipulating them from wherever. Dallae, the lead puppet character, therefore came in a bit uncomfortable to me to watch when he first went out of the stage with two people who held him on both hands and feet to move and perform scenes with the real actors. It takes a minute of trying to steer clear of Dallae’s “manipulators” and a couple of minutes to realize how much more there is to looking at both the puppet and its manipulators with such grace and sophistication.

     

What won me overall was how the play was able to lighten such a heavy sentiment— the loss of someone you love— with portrayals of happy thoughts and hopeful dreams in Dallae. The big paper fishes swimming in his thoughts (moved by another manipulator), along with his fabric-made dog were down right inspiring to watch.

National Theatre of Korea
Line 3 (Orange Line), Exit 2
Dongguk University Station
(Take shuttle bus in Taegukdang afterwards)

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Miso II

Given that South Korea also boasts of a dynastically rich history and culture, efforts to portray them artistically abound. Theatrical plays are common in the country, and most of them showcase Korean history, dynasty, culture, and tradition as general themes.

I got the chance to watch MISO II (춘향연가) at the Myeongdong Theatre today. The play only runs from November 26 to November 29, and was lucky enough to be invited by a friend who shared her two free tickets with me. It is actually a musical, and a sequel to the equally successful play, MISO. While both are love stories, the characters introduced in each of the plays are different. I was not able to watch the first MISO, but I would like to believe that this sequel showcased more traditional dances aside from South Korea's native songs that were present in both.

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