Pansori narrative singing is the representative Korean vocal genre. In pansori, one singer delivers an epic story accompanied by one drummer,the gosu, The songs are an amalgam of poetic, dramatic, narrative, vocal, and musical elements. Five stories have survived until today, among them “Heungboga” (Song of Heungbo), the story of two brothers, Heungbo, the poor but good-natured younger brother, and Nolbo, the greedy older one.
The pansori recounts how, after leading a destitute life without any help from his rich brother, the good-hearted Heungbo becomes a wealthy man himself thanks to a treasure-bearing gourd seed brought by a swallow that Heungbo cared for. It goes on to describe how Nolbo, blinded by extreme greed, hurts the swallow and get punished for his sins, ending with a happy conclusion in which Heungbo forgives Nolbo.
The Hwachojang scene describes how greedy Nolbo is in humorous way. When Nolbo visits Heungbo who became rich, Nolbo gets a Hwachojang wardrobe filled with precious jewelry. On his way back home with the treasure-laden wardrobe, Nolbo keeps saying the word Hwachojang to himself in order to not forget it. Despite the effort, Nolbo forgets the word and the scene humorously depicts how Nolbo recites a lot of words ending with the sound jang to recall the word that he was supposed to remember.
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Pansori sung by Yu Mi-ri (National Gugak Center Folk Music Group)
Janggu (hourglass-shaped drum) performed by Yun Jae-yeong (National
Gugak Center Folk Music Group)
Venue: Pungnyusarangbang Theater, National Gugak Center, Seoul …...more
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