Yeon Seon Park
 
        Royal Ancestral Shrine Music

 

     This picture represents the royal ancestral shrine music program.  This music  comemorizes the king of the Choson who had governed the Korean peninsular.  There are two kinds of music:  Potaepyong  and Chong- daeop.  Potaepyong means “preserving the great peace.”     It has eleven peices.  Chong-daeop means “achieving great works.”  It had fifteen peices, but was reduced to eleven pieces,  matching Potaepyong, and most of the remaining twenty-two pieces were abbreviated, given new titles, and rearranged.  Potaepyong was alloted to the first offerings of wine and Chong-daeop to the second and third offerings of wine. Huimun, the introductory piece from Potaepyong , was usually performed  during the ushering in of spirits 
and the offering of tribute. 

 

The remaining three sections were performed during the offerings of the table of  food, the removal of tribute, and the  ushering out of the spirits. A new piece was added, now referred as simply  chinchan.  The music is accompanied by a dance, known as ilmu or "line" dance, which is divided into a civil dance and a military dance.  The dance movements, performed by 64 girls, are very slow and simple.  During the civil dance a flute is held in the left hand and a dragon’s  head  on a stick in the right hand.  However, in the military dance, half the group holds wooden swords and other half, wooden spears.  This music is designated as important cultural assets and usually performed on the first day of May in Chongmyo
 
 
 


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