Sign, affect, and style: listening to Song Kum-Yon's kayagum sanjo

Abstract

The three paradoxes that characterize the study of kayagŭm sanjo will not be resolved though a tidy conclusion because they are real tensions, not only in the study of kayagŭm sanjo but in the context and practice of sanjo as well. Rather, I have introduced them because they shed light on the current moment in kayagŭm sanjo's history when seen diachronically. These three paradoxes correspond to three contexts. Improvisation refers both to a mode of transmission and implicates a concept of how the performer relates to the instrument itself. The tension between oral and written transmission has developed in the context of Korea's changing social context for music, especially the introduction of the university education system. The third paradox refers to the intertextual nature of kayagŭm sanjo, or how we see it in relation to other genres of Korean music, and their shared reservoir of meaning. This thesis is intended situate kayagŭm sanjo in these contexts and then to proceed to a detailed discussion materials of sanjo performance that performers use to communicate in these contexts. This thesis argues that by looking at the minute details of a performance, especially by recognizing the lived experience that constitutes the construction of sanjo's aesthetic character, we will achieve a more dynamic view of a sanjo performance. This view allows us to be more appreciative listeners to musicians who put much of their effort into achieving a certain aesthetic effect. It also allows us to more carefully examine the techniques that are salient in the inter-cultural transmission of music. This thesis begins in the first chapter by exploring the context and discourse surrounding kayagŭm sanjo. It then proceeds to provide interpretive tools to engage the context and the lived experience of the music through the study of how music communicates in the second chapter. The third chapter explores the transmission of kayagŭm sanjo by narrating the details of how the author learned the technical aspects of performance. The forth chapter applies this understanding to the analysis of kayagŭm sanjo's musical style.