[465 Interview] Exploring the Value of Pansori with Echoes of Cultural Heritage

   Professor Park Ae-ri first encountered Pansori at the National Gugak Center and was instantly captivated, dedicating 40 years to the art of Pansori. She is a well-known figure to the public, having appeared on various television programs. In the second semester of 2024, she was appointed as a full-time professor in the Department of Korean Music. Through an interview, The Dongguk Post aims to delve into the significance and value of traditional Korean music, her educational philosophy, and the sustainability and future development of traditional Korean music.

Q: What are you most looking forward to about the role of professor?  

   Actually, I have been teaching Pansori for a very long time, and I think being a full-time teacher is a role where I can take responsibility for the school and help the students. Before that, I was guiding an artist’s life, but now I am meeting students through the university. Pansori is something to study for a long period. It is hard to be good at this area during a short period. I have been teaching little kids for a long time, and I have been giving them advice based on my own experiences and guiding them in their dreams of becoming artists. Now, I am in a position where I have to help the students who choose the university. Students majoring in the arts are most concerned about how they can play their role in society with their talent during their college years.  

   Therefore, I think that my role as a professor is to help young artists feel confident about their dreams and to support them in thinking about how they can blossom as artists in society, according to their individual talents. I try to show them the things in which I have successfully demonstrated my ability. I also share with them the things that I had trials and errors within this area, so that they can experience fewer trials and errors.

Q: What do you focus on most when teaching traditional music, and what is your teaching philosophy?  

   I used to tell students that letting go of impatience is the fastest way to go, because students want to do well, and they want to be recognized. But, if they are in a hurry, they are going to push themselves, and they are going to miss out on the things that they could do well. If they skip the basics and try to find something plausible first, they are going to end up being precarious and suffer difficulties at some point. Therefore, I think it is better to build the basics that will make them solid than to try to be plausible right now, and I told them that they will be able to overcome any precarious moments that come their way, no matter how stormy it gets.

Q: What do you think is the appeal or value of Pansori and traditional Korean music?  

   Traditions are long-standing customs and practices. I think that they have been around for so long without disappearing, which is a testament to the fact that they have been deep, powerful, and honed to a depth that is immeasurable. This means that traditions must have contained many people’s thoughts and narratives from the times we did not live through to the present, and Korean traditional music especially captures the essence of life’s ups and downs. Even if you do not understand the lyrics, the sound moves people’s hearts, and just the sound of the gayageum makes foreigners cry when they hear it. I think the power of traditional Korean music is great because it has a different depth than if you had just listened to music that was composed yesterday. I think the hundreds of years that have been embedded in it are contained in the progression of the melody.  

   Especially in Pansori, the sense of realism is very important. It is also great to listen to it as a digital copy or watch it through the media, but if you listen to it live, you know what they say these days: there is no one who has not seen it, but there is no one who has only seen it once. There is energy that you cannot help but be mesmerized.

Q: There is more exposure to traditional Korean music on YouTube and broadcast programs, as well as more performances, so what do you think is behind this growing consumption of Korean music?  

   There are so many superiors who have been trying to do that. There were cases of reinterpretation of tradition in station programs, but it was difficult for the public to know. However, I think nowadays, those things are adding up one by one and creating a synergistic effect. The instance of world-class K-pop artists borrowing traditional music has had a big ripple effect, and one of the Korea Tourism Organization’s businesses, “Tiger is Coming,” has also had a good impact. They did not put Pansori on top of it as it is, but they kept quoting some interesting parts of the sound, some elements of popular music to express it. Once you feel the attraction of something, you look for it with the expectation of what is next, what was before that. This is the era of recording culture, and there are so many platforms that have played a part in it.  

   Before that, the efforts to popularize and the wishes to globalize were held by traditional artists, and traditional music is expanding because it fits very well with various software today.

Q: What role do you think Korean music can play in modern society now?  

   When I was younger, many people felt and expressed that traditional Korean music was slow and difficult. But now, it is a fast-paced society where people want to do things quickly, and some cultures become an issue and then disappear quickly, but traditions are not like that. It is a slow-breathing thing, and still going on, and so are the people who are keeping it alive. The energy that it has is transmitted to people. It seems a little difficult and a little profound due to incomprehensible lyrics and melodies, but it has a certain point to touch people’s hearts and resonate without knowing it, and that charm lies in Korean music. I used to express that the rhythm of Korean music is closer to the rhythm of breathing than the rhythm of the heartbeat. There is a lot of traditional music that you can face with such a relaxed breath. I think there is something in Korean music that can make listeners more relaxed, and that is why it can continue to be loved as music that can be healing for modern people.

Q: Now we are seeing more and more fusion between Korean music and contemporary music and other art forms. What do you think about this phenomenon?  

   I think it is very desirable. I am not saying that fusion songs should be more mainstream than any of the traditional transmissions, but I think it would be best if both fusion and tradition could be parallel. People who continue to discover new creative music rather than traditional music in the field can do their best and communicate with contemporary people who do such work. These days, there are many songs that play classical instruments or practical music. It is being reborn as something very familiar.  

   I think those fusion songs play a very important role as a bridge to bring people back to traditional music. It is a bridge for people who are living in this day and age. It can serve as music that can send a certain message that Korean music is not just for special people, but it is music that we can all enjoy and communicate and relate to.

Q: What do you think needs to be done to preserve the tradition of Pansori and move it forward?  

   I hope that many young artists will think more deeply about the value of tradition again because it is more important for them to have a clear sense of their own especialness, their own real position, than to be recognized and become a star. However, the trend is changing so much, and any path that they want to take as an artist can of course change, but then I am afraid that at some point the vein of traditional music might be cut off. I am also a generation that has worked very hard to pass on and preserve Korean music and popularize it through collaborations with various genres. Yet, even while I was doing that, what I did not always let go of was that my philosophy was that if I am doing a good job with the tradition, then I want this to shine through.  

   Now, there are so many artists who have a different philosophy now than I do. Thus, I have been telling people that if it is really your dream to do tradition and you have the talent to do it well, I hope that students will take hold of this traditional music and try to expand it in various ways.

Q: Are there any ways for foreign Donggukians to easily access Korean traditional music?  

   There are many good performances at the National Theater of Korea, which is just a short walk the street from Dongguk University. There are also many people who want to learn Pansori, so the World Pansori Association was founded in response to that demand, and now we have an event every year where you can learn Pansori in a workshop format. There is also a Pansori performance called Relay Pansori, where the performers change every hour.  

   Those performances that are currently being held now are always arranged by the National Theater of Korea or the National Gukak Center (NGC), which always plans many such permanent project performances. In a theater called Folk Theater Pungryu located at Seolleung Station, the national intangible heritage preservation holder and certified trainees usually perform. The Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation and a Korean Cultural House (KOUS) near the Samsung Station are also doing a lot of such special performances. As a personal endeavor, I thought about opening a liberal arts course in the Department of Korean Music, where students and professors can learn about the jangdan, the sound, and even listen to traditional songs. As a Korean, I think it would be an opportunity to explain to foreigners that this is our music, our instruments, and features of Korean traditional music. I will definitely try to organize that course while I am in school.