• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.43
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• pp.5-39
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• 2015

Shijo (Korean poetic form) is a representative literature genre of a short poem among the literary works of Korea in the late Chosen Dynasty. The format of Sijo is Normal-Shijo in the form of 3 verses, 6 sections and 12 sound, and the lyrics of one Normal-Shijo has within or without 45 words. But Saseol-sijo, a type of Sijo, there is a work that has more than 100 letters due to the number of lyrics were a lot increased. Among those Saseol-sijo there is a work with 'solemn and elegant feeling' borrowing some verses even from Chinese poem, using a lot of Chinese vocabulary, but there are a lot of works with 'salacious and explicit contents'. Literary work, Shijo, is used for lyrics of vocal music as Gagok (a genre of Korean vocal music for mixed female and male voices) and Sijochang, however, there are many cases that the same Sijo poem is used as lyrics of Gagok and Shijo. But those music that use Saseol-sijo as lyrics among Gagok, the vocal music, are mainly songs with 'solemn feeling' rather than 'salacious work'. This study looked into the reason why the Saseol-sijo with 'salacious and explicit contents' are hard to be used as lyrics in Gagok, confirming the fact that most music singing Saseol-sijo among Gagok that are being handed down till now use lyrics with 'solemn and elegant feeling'. The most important thing among those reasons seems to be irregularly increasing lyrics, and in accordance with accompaniment. Gagok accompanys a number of instruments the fixed melody recorded and delivered in score. So it's almost impossible to play unless it depends on the steadily made song melody and accompaniment melody according to the chosen lyrics in advanced. Also, appreciation of literary works is usually made privately through a private reading activity, but Gagok is conducted through public performance in an open space for many people. Especially, it would have been hard to sing a salacious and explicit song gathered together with men and women of different social status in social system and custom of the late of Chosen Dynasty. This study confirmed the fact that folksy and popular character that was praised for literary characteristic of Saseol-sijo can't be easily found from Saseol-sijo that was called Gagok.