• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.39
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• pp.669-700
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• 2019

Farmers' band music is a religious ritual in Korea. It is a solemn ritual to exhibit the auspicious holiness of the people to the God. Most of the ritual is accomplished by music. The music of the farmers 'band, in this sense, has its meaning as the expression of holiness by sound. In this paper, I will explore the principle to make various rhythms of farmers' band music, especially focusing on the chaegut (lit. "stroke music"). It is very symbolic because the name of the music shows the strokes of the gong, called jing, in a rhythmic phrase. In this sense, the chaegut is man-made music based on the specific principles in accordance with the strokes of the gong. Among many chaegut rhythms, samchae (lit. "three strokes") to chilchae (lit. "seven strokes") are the main rhythms. They were made after the principle of 'forward with drums, backward with gongs' in Five way procession. It the basic principle of military procession from the early Joseon Dynasty. The procession follows with the sound of the drums and gongs. There was always a principle of "five strokes" to control the procession. The "five strokes" became the basis of the making of chaegut rhythms. The rhythms of the samchae to chilchae are based on the rhythm of samchae. The samchae has three gong strokes in a cycle, which exhibits the chaotic moment with the rhythmic noise. The name of the rhythm exhibits the correspondence of the signifiant, that is the name "three strokes" and the signifié, that is the real three strokes of gongs in music. Other four rhythms has made up from the samchae with half cycles are added in accordance with the strokes of the gongs. In this way, the chaegut shows the principle of "five strokes" in the military procession. The rhythm of ochae jilgut is a mixture of ochae (lit. "five strokes") and jilgut (lit. "road music") which is usually performed on the road to a mountain shrine. The musical structure of ochae jilgut corresponds to the colotomic structure of Southeast Asian music and the 15th-century music of old musical scores. The rhythm of gilgunak chilchae is a mixture of gilgunak (lit. "road military music") and chilchae (lit. "seven strokes"). The rhythmic structure is similar to other regional music, sijo ("short song") of the literati music and norae garak (lit. "some melody") of the shaman music. In sum, the chaegut is very artistic music made from the military procession of the Joseon Dynasty. The name of the rhythm corresponds with the strokes of the gong in a cycle. In this way, the chaegut shows the principle of music-making to exhibit the ritual characteristics of the Korean people.