Pansori: the Original Rap Music?

I came to America as an immigrant in 1983 and my first encounter with rap music was Run DMC. It was the strangest song form, but there was something about it that was oddly familiar. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why that was, until sometime later when I was watching some old Korean TV show that featured a traditional Korean music artist performing what’s known as pansori (판소리, pure Korean word).

Before anything else, let’s look at what pansori (with western instruments) sounds like. (again, from “I can see your voice” TV show. start watching from 1:43 mark if you want to see the “rap” part)

Breaking down the word itself, pan (pah-n, 판) is sort of like “a stage,” or “any place where a crowd can gather for a performance.” When you see people busking on the streets, say near the famous Hongdae area in Seoul, that can be considered a pan although no one would call it that these days. Sori literally means “sound” but used to denote “song(s)” in old Korean.

As is the case with the full-length operas, pansori lasts about 3 to 6 hours. I was reading a Korean version of Wikipedia and it had a perfect way of describing it—a solo opera. Yes, this entire pansori is performed by one person, accompanied by a drummer called go-soo (고수, 鼓手) who provides the rhythm and occasional chorus, with no elaborate set designs.

the “traditional” way of how pansori is performed

There are only 5 full pansori’s that survive today. Of the 6 total known pansori’s, one has been lost. And that lost one was the one that got me into writing about this pansori subject that I know practically nothing about. I’ll talk about that lost one when the time comes—it’s about the life of a common folk couple and their version of han (恨) that’s been grossly twisted and perversely misrepresented in today’s world.

Pansori is narrated and sung by the same person (remember, solo opera) in old archaic Korean, so it is hard to understand the flow of the story. It is a rather regrettable situation that this singularly Korean song tradition has become somewhat of a lost art. The demand and the stages for it has largely disappeared because an overwhelming majority of Koreans deem it “difficult” and “boring.” Honestly, I don’t know any one single person who has sat through, or would want to in the first place, an entire 3 to 6 hour pansori—we consume bits and pieces of it on TV and/or YouTube.

I can only guess that’s why there’s been a movement in the music scene in the past decade or so to “modernize” the pansori and the Korean traditional music in general. And when it’s done right, it sounds incredible. Take for instance, BTS’s live performance of their “Idol” on the Jimmy Fallon Show couple of years ago. The music, the wardrobe, and the choreography are all based on the Korean tradition, and they were allowed to perform it in Gyongbok-goong, the Royal Palace of Josun Dynasty! (I love the fact that government authorities gave them the permission to do it.)

I’m no Army (BTS fan club), but these guys just get it.

Here is a YouTube video you might have already seen. At the height of the pandemic, the Korea Tourism Organization released this 1 minute 36 seconds long video-mercial that featured a pansori fusion band called Leenalchi (이날치)¹, an avant-garde dance group Ambiguous Dance Company, and popular tourist attractions in Seoul.

(I’ll have to do a separate posting on KTO’s series of Korea tourism promotion videos. There’s quite a bit there to talk about.)

The song itself is titled “범 내려온다 (Tiger is coming down)” and is a part of Soo-goong-ga (수궁가, 水宮歌)², one of the aforementioned five pansori’s that survive. It is exactly like an aria in an opera.

Tiger is coming down : Soo-goong-ga = Nessun Dorma : Turandot

The following is a full version of Leenalchi’s “Tiger is coming down,” if you’re inclined. This stirred up quite a sensation a couple of years ago, showing indeed that when it is done right, the modernized, or “hippified” version of Korean traditional music can be consumed in a heavy and positive way.

If you have some time, I would ask that you watch some of these videos that I’ve introduced here in full. Especially if you’re at all into K-culture, for elements of these traditional/modernized music often show up in K-pop, K-dramas, and movies. I hope they will provide a valuable point of reference sometime in the future.

1. Supposedly the name of a master pansori performer about 200 years ago.

2. “Song of the Underwater Palace”: Yong-wang (용왕, consider it a Korean version of Poseidon, god of the seas) falls ill and there’s no medicine that is working. A foreseer appears and tells Yong-wang, “if you eat a land animal rabbit’s liver, you will gain your health back.” A turtle is summoned and tasked with bringing a live rabbit to the underwater palace. The turtle meets a rabbit and promises a high-ranking position at the underwater palace. Upon arriving, the rabbit realizes that he/she has been duped and in danger of losing his/her life, and improvises, “Sir, I left my liver back on the land. Can I go back and grab it for you?” Yong-wang, apparently happy, lets the rabbit go, with the turtle supervising. The rabbit mocks the turtle’s naivete and escapes. The turtle ends up returning to the palace with the rabbit’s poop (note: there are Korean traditional herbal medicine that actually look like rabbit’s poop, hence…). Yong-wang consumes the “medicine” and gets better.