Timothy Rice, University of California, Los Angeles
“Hesselink documents with great subtlety the human agency of actors determined to keep a rural musical tradition relevant and exciting in the modern city, a process going on nearly every place in the world since World War II. He focuses on what is arguably Korea’s most dynamic and engaging musical export, the ensemble SamulNori and the new genre it spawned (also called samul nori). The author also challenges us to think anew about such well-worn concepts as tradition, modernity, and musical hybridity and fusion.”
Hyunseok Kwon | Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
“essential for understanding SamulNori the quartet and samulnori the genre.”
R. Anderson Sutton
“This book-length study of Korea’s super-group, SamulNori, is long overdue. The book is original both in its subject matter and in the way the author approaches the subject matter, presenting translation of authoritative Korean scholarship, transcripts of interviews, personal opinion, and careful musical analysis. Even in Korean, such a book has yet to be published.”--R. Anderson Sutton, University of Wisconsin
Kurt Baer | Journal of Folklore Research
“Hesselink provides an in-depth and yet far-reaching study of SamulNori and the genre of music they created that manages to ground the group as a modern-day continuation of the namsadang tradition, a product of the urbanization and growing concert-hall culture of 1970s South Korea and (perhaps most importantly) the creativity of individuals and groups in collaboration. Hesselink also contributes to larger discussions of tradition and the preservation of heritage that question the ways we approach what we consider to be traditional and how these things should be preserved, while remaining relevant and allowing for artistic creativity.”
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Orthography and Pronunciation
INTRODUCTION
Pŏpko ch’angshin (Preserve the Old While Creating the New): The Challenges of Tradition
1 The Namsadang: Itinerant Troupe Performance Culture and the Roots of SamulNori
2 Coming to the City: Urbanization, Scale, and New Loci of Cultural Authority
3 On the Road with “Och’ae chilgut”: Stages, Professionalization, and Mediation
4 Cosmological Didacticism: Sacred Geometry and Educational Outreach
5 East-West Encounters in the Nanjang: Hybridity, Red Sun, and Cross-Cultural Collaboration
CONCLUSION
Pŏpko ch’angshin (Preserve the Old While Creating the New): The Meanings of Tradition
Appendix One Minsokkŭkhoe Namsadang (“Folk Theater Association Namsadang”) Founding Members
Appendix Two Major Divisions and Personnel Changes during the First Decade of SamulNori/samul nori Activity
Appendix Three SamulNori Instrumentation
Appendix Four Electronic Media
Appendix Five Contents of the Compact Disc
Bibliography
Index-Glossary
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
