Historic Moments on Stage at the National Gugak Center

The history of Korea's music institution traces back to its origin to Eumseongseo of the Silla dynasty which was opened in 651, the fifth year of Queen Jindeok's reign. The tradition of this musical institution as a state agency continued through Goryeo and Joseon dynasty under different names, such as Aakseo or Jangakwon. After the liberation from Japanese annexation, the National Gugak Center was established in 1951. These musical institutions have managed multi-artistic performances that combine instrumental music, songs and dance, so called "Akgamu" system. A publication written in the Joseon period (1629, the seventh year of King Injo reign) records that the number of musicians registered in Jangakwon were up to 1234 people at that time. Jangakwon was affiliated to Yejo [the ministry of rites among the six ministries governing the national tasks during the Joseon dynasty] and managed musicians as well as the music and dance used in national events, such as court rites, rituals, banquets, examination, and archery. The National Gugak Center in the present in 2015 is an affiliation of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and it inherits the tradition of Eumseongseo, the 1400 years of history from the Silla dynasty. As one of national music institutions in the world, the long history of the National Gugak Center is an exceptional example and is also meaningful in terms of the transmission of tradition.

After the liberation, Iwangjikaakbu changed its name to Guwanggungaakbu, which literally means court music institution of the old palace. However, without any financial support, it was difficult to maintain Guwanggungaakbu, the institution of a now-defunct royal family. For the financial sponsorship, Seoul Central Broadcasting Station (the predecessor of Korean Broadcasting Station) organized the Association of Musicians for Joseon Music (Jeonsok Joseon Eumakhoe) and let the musicians working in the institution to perform for monthly regular performances in 1947. Away from the financial issues, however, the transmission of the nation's musical institution should have been managed by the government. So the musicians in the institution filed an official petition to the National Assembly asking for nationalizing the institution. This petition was granted at the plenary session and the establishment of the National Gugak Center, affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Education, was promulgated on January 19 1950. The Korean War broke out in June 1950 when the opening of the National Gugak Center was still under preparation. In the middle of the war, however, the musicians flee to Busan and opened the National Gugak Center in a two-story wooden building in Donggwangdong county where an old city library was located on April 10 1951.

In March 1964, when overseas travels were limited, the National Gugak Center had an overseas performance for the first time in its history. Yomiuri Newspaper offered the National Gugak Center to present a performance in Japan and invited the musicians. At that time, both Iwangjikaakbu and Gugaksayangseongso admitted only male students up until 1955 because the tradition and rules in the court only allowed male performers to appear on the stage. Surprisingly, however, female dancers are seen in the photos of 1964 performance in Japan. The story behind is as follow. As Seoul Central Broadcasting Station was built in Mountain Namsan area in 1957, it also organized a division that worked for gugak development. The division recruited students and trained them with traditional music and dance, titling the students as "KBS Gugak Specialists." In 1958, some selected students took a special gugak program, and upon completion they were hired as former gugak specialists. After June 1959, these specialists join the performances organized by the National Gugak Center, and they traveled to Japan together. The female dancers belonged to the KBS participated in court dance performances in Japan.

On September 30 1968, one year after the National Gugak Center moved to new building located in the National Theater in Jangchungdong, a concert shook the field of traditional music. The concert was held for a radio program celebrating the fifth Broadcasting Day hosted by the National Gugak Center and United Nations Command. Park Dong-jin, a musician at the National Gugak Center, sang one full set of pansori Heungboga, the song of Heungbo, at an open stage for five hours to complete the song. This event made a new venture in understanding and recognizing pansori music which was usually considered to be "short" sung in abbreviated version partially taken from a full song. Park's performance also set a record in the history of pansori as the longest singing in the world (Seoul Daily, May 21 1969), and stimulated the study of performance tradition and pansori music in earnest.

In April 1976, the National Gugak Center changed the title of its regular music concert from Gugak Listening to "Traditional Music Concert" at the 25th anniversary of establishing the center. The musical repertoire for the show also changed appropriate for regular concert. Heavily indebted to the success of 1975's performance featuring Gwanak Yeongsanhoesang and Pyeongjo Hoesang, the concert began to present chamber suit or a set of time-consuming musics, opening an era of preserving long traditional music pieces. In fact, a complete version of suit music had never been performed in concert halls in 1970s because the long music was considered to be difficult for both the audience members to listen to and the performers to play. However, this regular performance tradition continues until today, as court music group, folk music group as well as the dance company at the National Gugak Center choose long music repertoire for their regular concert programs at present.

The National Gugak Center restores court rites and music, and recreates them into the nation's own "brand" or cultural contents. For example, the Center's brand performance Sound of the Heaven, Music of King Sejong reconstructed the banquets held in 1433 during the King Sejong period in Joseon dynasty. It re-presented Sejong's political goal he dreamed of that the nation and people live in peace in perfect balance between standard rule and artistic harmony. For another example, Music of Peace, Dream of Dynasty was a reproduction of a court banquet which happened in 1795. to celebrate the 60th birthday of Queen dowager Hong, the widow of crown prince Sado, the mother of King Jeongjo. In 2014, Sajikdaeje, the ritual for gods of land and grains, and the music used for the rites were restored by the Center. Historically, the ritual had held for long time to pray for the nation's prosperity and rich harvest at the Sajikdan alter. It was a national event conducted and managed by Jangakwon. However, the Japanese government which annexed Korea banned it in 1908. The restoration of this ritual is very meaningful that the National Gugak Center transmits the tradition of Jangakwon, along with the continuation of Jongmyojeryeak, one of the UNESCO world Heritage.

The National Gugak Center tried to make traditional music for the future. For an instance, composer Kim Gi-su (1973-1977), who served the third director general of the Center, came out with many new compositions, such as Gohyangso. The music was selected for the celebration of the establishment of the Center in 1951. The Center continued to promote creating new traditional music, and it not only started to host "New Gugak Compositions Contest" in 1962, but also published scores of new musics. New compositions collected though the contest were presented at "New Gugak Composition Recital," and the title was changed into "Korean Music Composition Recital" in 1974. These efforts in making traditional music for the contemporary society as well as in transmitting creative spirits of old Korean culture came to a fruition that the contemporary gugak orchestra, so called creative music troupe, was organized at the Center in 2004. New traditional music composed after 1962 was mostly new gugak that borrowed the Western musical forms. Blended with Western music it requested new structure or system out of the existing tone ranges. Along with the development and dissemination of new music, issues on developing new instruments, that is the revision or improvement of instruments rose. Association for the Improvement of Gugak Instrument formed in 1964 organized many events like exhibitions of revised instruments. On the basis of this association, the Instrument Research Center opened in 2006 at the National Gugak Center, and up until today it carries out various works and research for the development of Korean instruments, from the structure or fundamentals of sounds to efficient sonic spaces.