Hanguk-Eumak
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- Classical music includes the art music, called pungryu (lit. 'wind flow'), enjoyed by the literati, and court music for ritual and banquet.
- Court music can be classified into aak, dangak, and hyangak. The aak, performed for rituals and ceremonies, and the dangak, performed for banquets, were imported from China.
The hyangak, performed for court banquets, denotes music existed before the introduction of Chinese music.
Folk music includes folksongs (called minyo), farmers’ band music (called nongak), shaman ritual music (called muak), and mask dance music.
The pansori (epic vocal genre) and the sanjo (solo instrumental music) were originally folk music but has become art music after they were sponsored mainly by the high society. Therefore, these two genres are not included in folk music anymore. - The distinction between classical music and folk music is vague. For example, dae pungryu (‘bamboo wind flow’) is performed for court banquets as well as for the enjoyment of high society, Buddhist rituals, and the mask dance.
- The sijo, short poetic music performed by the literati, influenced the development of a shaman song entitled Norae karak ("song melody"). Its distinction is that a musical piece or similar musical pieces are performed in the music culture of both high society and common people.
- The reason for this musical practice is that the musicians were active in many musical circumstances; among the common people, at the shaman ritual, at the Buddhist temple, in the city office, and even in court. The court musicians and civil musicians had deep interrelationship between each other and had played a key role in the formation of Hanguk-eumak.
