Traditional Music

The Traditional Music of North Korea shows how rich the tradition of the North Korean culture is. The traditional Korean music holds no geographical boundary between South Korea and North Korea. The traditional music of Korea dates back to the 15th century. The ancient music has been well preserved by the proper documentation of the written forms of the traditional music. Since the formation of North Korea, the leaders have always emphasized on the promotion of the policy of communism through their art. Henceforth, North Korea has kept the doors and windows closed for the western music. The folk and classic and courtly music remain to rule in North Korea.

The genres that are considered as the traditional music of North Korea include sanjo, nongak and pansori. Pansori is a vocal form where one singer is accompanied with a drummer. It was a popular genre of Korean music in the 19th century. The Pansori tells love stories and satires. The full song is termed as 'madang'. A 'madang' is an association of a descriptive speech and songs. The complete version of a 'madang' takes many hours for the completion. There were originally twelve pansori madangs. But, unfortunately seven of them are lost and the survived ones of this rich form of traditional music are Jeokbyeokga, Chunhyangga, Simcheongga, Sugungga and Heungbuga.

The other form of traditional music is sanjo which is predominantly an instrumental solo accompanied by a drummer. The instrument on which sanjo was earlier played was gayageum. But later, the instruments on which this traditional music was played were the Korean flutes and geomungo.

Nungak is the traditional music which was mostly played in the rural sectors of Korea. This was performed not by any solo performer but by a band of twenty to thirty performers. North Korea live on these traditional music till date without allowing any western influence.