La Vague Coréenne
Cultural and Artistic French-Korean Association
Korean Court Music Project
"Cheop Cheop"
Be-being
Korean court music generally includes the music created and developed over time during the 500 years of Chosun dynasty. Chosun adopted Confucianism as political ideology and thus, the philosophical foundation of Chosun court music was based on 'courtesy of music.'
In Korean, the word 'music (umahk)' consists of two letters, um and ahk, and Confucian philosophy separated the meanings of these two letters: um meaning musical melody itself, and ahk meaning instrumental performance and dance. Moreover, ahk was considered as a means through which individuals, families, and the whole country became harmonized so that Confucian ideals could be realized using beautiful music.
Court music in Korea, based on this philosophy, existed as a combination of music and dance. Korean court music with its full orchestra mainly plays slow and dignified tunes, and there are three different types according to each occasion: ritual (Jaeraeahk), banquet (Yeonraeahk), and military (Koonraeahk) court music. Ritual court music (Jaeraeahk) is used for Confucian rituals and there are two kinds: Confucian shrine court music (Moonmeo Jaeraeahk) and royal ancestral shrine court music (Jongmeo Jaeraeahk). Confucian shrine court music refers to music and dance used during the rituals for Confucius and other Confucian scholars; royal ancestral shrine court music refers to music and dance performed during the rituals for the kings of Chosun dynasty.
비빙 Be-being
Be-Being is a project group established by seven musicians in Korea in 2007, who have collaborated for dozen years in various genres including popular music (Uhuhboo Project), modern dance (Eunme Ahn’s Modern Dance), Korean traditional music and film score (Young-Gyu Jang’s Film Music).
The members consist of Young-Gyu Jang (composer), Soona Park, Won-Il Na, Joon-il Choi, Seung-Hee Lee, Ji-Yoon Chun (traditional instrument players so far), Young-Hoon Oh (sound engineer), and Jimmy Kim (company manager).
Be-Being studies Korean traditional arts to create a contemporary art form. Through selectively developing Korean traditional music and combining them with other musical elements from outside, Be-Being avoids the conventional musical practices and creates a new form of music, which is then synthesized with dance, video, and theater into an interdisciplinary art form, a sort of total art based on Korean traditional music and visual arts.