The Korea Times
Many find gugak difficult to enjoy. Hard to understand. It feels slow and opaque. Perhaps we are too modern for it. Or perhaps we’ve grown used to music that does most of the work for us. But, if you are searching for something that is Korean, something that sings to the soul of this nation, the wrinkles and warts of this culture, you needn’t look much further. For Koreans love singing. And the song of the people is, quite literally, "minyo." This week I was invited to a spell-binding event. Part concert, part ritual, part cultural cosplay. A performance by famed singer Lee Hee-moon at the National Theatre of Korea. He began in the shadows. A dark staged flanked by six musicians dressed in all white revealed a hint of a silhouette. There, at the back, you could just make out what seemed like a towering figure. A gat adorned the head. The sleeves hung low. The shoes high. It was inhuman almost. Made all the more indescribable by the voice that emanated from the darkness. We stared into the abyss looking for the source of the sound. It almost felt like it was coming from the past. Tha
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