Pansori

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Pansori

Hangul	판소리
Revised Romanization	Pansori
McCune-Reischauer	P'ansori

Pansori (also spelled p'ansori) is a genre of Korean music. It is a vocal and percussional music performed by one sorikkun (소리꾼; a singer) and one gosu (a drummer). The term pansori is derived from pan, meaning "a place where many people gather," and sori, meaning "sound."

A popular form in Korea during the 19th century, pansori featured satires and love stories. A full story, madang (마당), is so long that it usually takes hours to complete. One example is the "Song of Chunhyang" which takes over eight hours to perform, without a break. A madang consists of certain alterations of aniris (아니리; descriptive speech) and changs (창; song).

Only five of the original twelve pansori madangs survive today. Those five are Heungbuga, Simcheongga, Chunhyangga, Jeokbyeokga and Sugungga.

In a pansori performance, the kwangdae sings, standing with a folding fan held in one hand. The fan is waved to emphasize the singer's motions and unfolded to announce changes of scene. The gosu gives rhythm not only by beats but also by chuimsae (추임새), verbal sounds. A chuimsae can be a simple meaningless vowel, but short words of encouragement are also given. The audience is also supposed to give chuimsae during the performance, similar to kakegoe and the shouts of "Olé" during flamenco performances.

UNESCO proclaimed the pansori tradition a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on November 7, 2003.

[edit] Famous pansori singers

Jo Sunmuk was the winner of the first prize at the 9th Nationwide Pansori Singing Contest.
No Suhyeon, 9-year-old wunderkind of pansori song.
Ahn Sook-Seon, one of the more important educators in this field.
Jo Tong-Dal