SOAS Research Online

Abstract

SamulNori is a quartet of Korean percussionists that first performed together on stage in February 1978. The quartet’s name, coined a few months later by the Korean folklorist Shim Usŏng, means ‘four things play’. SamulNori rapidly gained considerable popularity, so much so that many additional groups emerged, and the distinct repertory and style of performance fostered by SamulNori spawned a genre, samulnori. Today, samulnori is, arguably, Korea’s most successful traditional music. There are many dozens of amateur and professional samulnori groups. Most groups are private, but a number are based at the state-funded National Gugak Centre in Seoul and in its satellite facilities around the country. There are an abundance of samulnori workshops, festivals and contests. Samulnori is taught in many state schools as well as in dedicated institutes. It features, to an extent, in the state-sanctioned school curriculum, particularly at middle school level, and there are a number of workbooks dedicated to helping wannabee ‘samulnorians’. This book tells the story...