Yeongdong Mayor on Mission to Put Park Yeon¡¯s Heritage on Unesco List
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Yeongdong Mayor on Mission to Put Park Yeon¡¯s Heritage on Unesco List
600-year-old traditional Korean music is still alive in Yeongdong, the heart of gugak

26(Sat), Dec, 2015





Yeongdong Mayor Park Sae-bok.





Yeongdong Mayor Park Sae-bok.



"Yeongdong is the mecca of traditional Korean music, gugak, traditional Korean music,¡± Yeongdong Mayor Park Sae-bok said while explaining the rationale behind a proposal to put the ancient great musician Park Yeon¡¯s heritage and musical memorials in Yeongdong on Unesco¡¯s World Heritage list. Yeongdong is the birthplace of Korea¡¯s greatest-ever musician Park Yeon (1378-1458), who mastered a compilation of aak at the order of King Sejong the Great of the Joseon Dynasty 600 years ago. 

The music has become the subject of fascination around the world. Mayor Park is now on a crusade to make gugak a new trend of hallyu (Korean Wave), making the traditional Korean music¡¯s exquisite precession and artistic values known throughout the world. He maintains that Park Yeon¡¯s heritage and musical memorials in Yeongdong should be added to Unesco¡¯s World Heritage list. 

Park has been dubbed ¡°a mayor of culture and art¡± now that he is devoting himself to achieving his mission. He takes up the late, great musician (his penname Nangae) as a conservation topic whenever he meets with people while traveling between Seoul and Yeongdong. Park has already told his deputy to form a task force related to the proposal and launch an administrative procedure with the Cultural Property Department of the Chungcheongbuk-do provincial government. 

One of the reasons behind the proposal is the historical importance of Park Yeon¡¯s heritage at Godang-ni, Shimcheon-myeon, Yeongdong-gun. Park, born at the village, stayed there and studied at the Yeongdong Hyanggyo (Confucian School) until he passed an ancient high-level administrative examination at age of 23. 

¡°Park Yeon was good at playing a pipe from childhood. He was devoted to playing a pipe he handled. He is said to have been taught to playing it form a teacher,¡± Mayor Park said. Yeongdong is also the birthplace of yangsan-ga, a music eulogizing warriors killed in action during the Shilla Kingdom and the famous folk song ¡°yangsando.¡± Park Yeon¡¯s musical talent was probably nurtured while he was growing up there, he said.

Mayor Park stressed filial duty in connection with the historical significance of a memorial stone for musician Park Yeon¡¯s filial piety built at the order of King Taejong of Joseon Dynasty some 600 years ago. The monument, which carries inscriptions Park Yeon received from King Taejong at the age of 24 in recognition of his filial piety, is one of the precious historical remains related to the great musician. 

¡°Park Yeon is said as a filial son who had stayed at the tomb of his mother for a long period of time after her death,¡± he said. The musician¡¯s memorial stone, being preserved by one of his descendants, has been revealed, and a process of designating it as a national property is under way. 

Park Yeon held several positions after passing the high-level administrative test before being appointed as a teacher of Prince Chungnyeong, the third son of King Taejong. The prince, who grew up to be King Sejong the Great, was the greatest kings of Joseon Dynasty. Park Yeon¡¯s musical talent moved the prince, which led to the great musician¡¯s making a feat of mastering a compilation of the extinct aak, the mayor said. 




A view of the aak concert by the National Gugak Center. The center performed a similar aak concert in Paris in September, fascinating Parisians.





A portrait of the great musician Park Yeon and his wife.





 King Taejong of Joseon Dynasty awarded The Monument to the Filial Piety to Park Yeon.



Restoring of Extinct Musical Instruments, Aak Scores

Mayor Park said a project to restore the court music aak was launched at the behest of King Sejong the Great who received a petition from Park Yeon who appealed for failing to play the music due to a lack of music instruments. The musician restored some 80 kinds of musical instruments, including pyeongyeong and jade stone chimes, which were used for playing aak at a variety of rites and ceremonies. Park Yeon also made a breakthrough achievement in the history of music: Reestablishing many ask melodies and putting them into musical notes. 

¡°The vast musical notes the great musician left behind with painstaking efforts 600 years ago were preserved in the Chapter of King Sejong the Great of the Joseonwangjosilok, the Annals of Joseon Dynasty, an unprecedented practice. Who else could have done this work without our national great musician Park Yeon?¡± the mayor said. 

Jongmyo Jeryeak, being played at Jongmyo Shrine every year, is one of the pieces the musician left behind. The ancestral rite, accompanied by music and the Mumun Dance, a military dance, represents a wide range of types of art that are fascinating people around the world of late. 

Joseon Dynasty established musical scores for an ensemble 400 years earlier than an orchestra that made its debut in Europe, according to the mayor. 





A view of the Nangae Statue of the great musician Park Yeon (his penname Nangae)




A student is learning how to play a traditional Korean musical instrument, Kayagum.



Yeongdong, Home to Gugak Museum, Musical Instrument Craftsmen¡¯s Center

Currently, the village of Godang-ni is home to the great musician¡¯s memorials and heritage as well as serving as a center of persevering gugak. His remains were laid to rest in the village. He was awarded a posthumous epithet ¡°Munhyeongong¡± during King Yeongjo¡¯s reign. It boasts such historical monuments as the Nangae-sa, named after the musician¡¯s penname Nangae, built to set ancestral tablets in his family shrine, and the Saedeok-sa Shrine for Milyang Park Clan, the Oeseo-gak, and the Ssanghyo-gak.

The village also accommodates the Gugak Museum and Musical Instrument Craftsmen¡¯s Center, both affiliated with the National Gugak Center. The museum, designed to educate traditional Korean music for younger generations, displays rare gugak documents. 

A gugak aficionado donated Jajuyo yogo to the mayor last year, an ancient drum hanging around the neck, which is believed to be an invaluable cultural relic belonging to Song Dynasty of ancient China. The move boosted the bid to put the great musician¡¯s heritage on Unesco¡¯s World Cultural Heritage list. Mayor Park said he will lead a campaign appealing for people to donate gugak documents in a bid to make the Gugak Museum one of the nation¡¯s prominent museums. 

Musical Instrument Master Cho Jun-suk, designed as Intangible Cultural Property No. 19, heads the Musical Instrument Craftsmen¡¯s Center that produces 50 kinds of musical instruments, including gayageum, a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument. The center also produces miniature instruments for tourist souvenirs.

The Nangae Gugak Experience Center, built with 30 billion won of public funds, is one of the features of Yeongdong. Visitors are given a chance to appreciate performances by the Yeongdong Gugak Troupe and try musical instruments on their own. The center also boasts of the Cheongo, the world¡¯s largest drum, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records. The beating of the large drum heralds the beginning of the Nangae Traditional Music Festival. The Cheongo is sure to become a must-see site for tourists to Yeongdong.




Foreign children are involved in the hands-on production of traditional Korean musical instruments.




Nangae Traditional Music Festival Inheriting Gugak 

The Nangae Traditional Music Festival in Yeongdong is one of Korea¡¯s representative traditional festivals, which inherits the great musician¡¯s sophisticated and charming musical world. The festival, marking nearly half century, is one of the top events in Korea, said Mayor Park. 

These are the reasons Park says he is crusading for his bid to put Park Yeon¡¯s heritage on Unesco¡¯s World Heritage List. To this end, he said, Yeongdong is devoting itself to promoting gugak with legal support from central and local governments. The festival, designed as one of the nation¡¯s representative festivals by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the second straight year, has been gaining recognition. 

The festival is held every autumn under the theme ¡°Nangae Park Yeon Meets King Great Sejong,¡± coinciding with a wine festival to deliver the so-called Five Senses Festival.

The combination of the gugak and wine festivals gave the festival an international flare. Yeongdong is a prominent, refined wine center in Korea, which is home to the nation¡¯s first wineries. Currently there are 44 wineries with 100 kinds of wine.

The mayor is a major supporter of the wine industry whenever he attends events. The combination of gugak and wine brings unforgettable moments for foreign ambassadors coming here, they said. 

The Nangae Traditional Music Festival is evolving into the Five Senses Festival, which fascinates contemporaries, a departure from tradition. The 2014 rendition of the festival featured such fusion genres as K-pop dances, Bubble & Magic Show and gugak in a bid to boost the festival¡¯s appeal among youth.

If the great musician¡¯s cultural heritage and monuments are added to Unesco¡¯s list, Mayor Park said the Nangae Traditional Music Festival will be elevated to a truly global event.





A view of the the Nangae Gugak Experience Center.(Photos:Yeongdong County office)



Jongmyo Jaerayeak Enchants Parisians

Jongmyo Jaerayeak was performed at an event to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Korea and France at the Chaillot National Theater in Paris on Nov. 18, 2014, captivating spectators. 

Jongmyo Jaerayeak is one of the aak genres whose musical scores the great musician Park Yeon composed. 

A member of the Korean gugak troupe beat the gourd three times. Musicians and dancing girls¡¯ movements came to a stop, silencing the stage and audience. The traditional Korean troupe received a standing ovation. The music captivated spectators from the world, in which girls dressed in boys¡¯ clothes performing slow dancing movements, while sad melodies of ajaeng and gayageum filled the air.  

Through the performance, the troupe delivered the beautiful essence and grandeur of the royal world of Joseon¡¯s Confucian society. The event helped the two nations look back on their bilateral ties and the trust they have shared. 

Bernard Faivre d¡¯Arcier, the former long-standing director of the Avignon Festival and President of the Lyon Biennial in France, said the heavy performance suited the significance of Korean-French bilateral ties, and he extended thanks for the appreciation of Jongmyo Jaerayeak, one of Korea¡¯s best integrated art genres. 

¡°Jongmyo Jaerayeak had a great resonance to our hearts as if we¡¯re wading through a huge sea or a graceful sand,¡± another dancing expert exclaimed. 

In an event prior to the performance, French Minister of Culture and Communication Fleur Pellerin said they had an opportunity to enjoy the essence of Korea¡¯s integrated art.



   
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