Siyong hyangakbo (Contemporary Music Scores)

Basic information

Designation

Treasure No.551

Category

Books & Records

Era

조선 성종 연간

Designated year

1971

Location

서대문구, 서울특별시— 서울특별시 서대문구 충정로9길 10-10 (충정로2가)

Coordinates

37.564993, 126.964911Kakao address conversion

Siyong hyangakbo is a collection of Contemporary Music Scores and consists of a single volume. Hyangak is a genre of court music composed and performed since the Three Kingdoms period until the Joseon Period. Unlike dangak, a genre originating in the Tang Dynasty of China, hyangak is a natively developed music genre of Korea. The book records lyrics to court vocal music and scores to folk songs and original song lyrics. Twenty-six songs have both scores and lyrics. One of the sheets contains lyrics to twenty-six songs of which sixteen, including ‘Sangjeoga’ and ‘Yugugok’ are Goryeo-period songs that are recorded or mentioned in no other music books or documents. The lyrics to ‘Saenggayoryang,’ one of these sixteen songs, is in Sino-Korean characters only, while those to ‘Naryega’ and ‘Sangjeoga’ are in Hangeul. Some of them, such as ‘Gucheon’ and ‘Byeoldaewang,’ consist only of a series of refrains like ‘ri-ro-no-reon-na ro-ri-ra ri-ro-reon-na.’ The four first sheets of this book are copies transcribed from facsimiles. The original sheets appear to have been lost in 1954 when this book was unbound for a facsimile edition project by Yeonhui University (today’s Yonsei University). Although the author and the date of publication are unknown, this book is likely to go back to the mid-Joseon period. The lyrics contained in Siyong hyangakbo are considered valuable new materials for research in Korean literature and folklore studies.

Location