Gasa is a type of long narrative song from Korea typically accompanied by a small chamber ensemble. There are 12 main gasa pieces that describe idealized lives of gentlemen enjoying nature, wine, and poetry. Gasa uses poetic texts in sets of syllables and can include onomatopoeic refrains. The songs are usually in a 6-beat rhythmic cycle and gyemyeon mode, though some use 5 beats or mixed modes. Gasa combines elements of classical and folk singing styles through its fluid melodies and use of chest voice as well as falsetto and vibrato techniques.

1. By: Ace Carlo M. Fajardo
KOREAN VOCAL STYLES

2. KOREAN VOCAL STYLES
• There are three principal classical vocal genres, gagok, gasa and sijo
which have been developed in association with Korean classical
poetry. In parallel with the classical instrumental genre pungnyu, these
classical songs enjoyed the patronage of the gentry and aristocrats,
yangban, of traditional Korea. The stylistic and musical refinements
were achieved by the singer-poets gagaek (guest songsters) from the
hereditary class jung-in (“middle people”).
• The contemporary singers of these classical songs are professionally
trained and are usually able to perform all three genres. Gagok is the
most formalized and elaborate of the three song types and is
preserved as the finest representative of these Korean classical
traditions. Sijo, with a simpler form and style, is also widely sung by
amateurs and is found not only in Korea but also among the Korean
diaspora. Stylistically, gasa falls between gagok and sijo and is
perhaps the least known and performed of these classical genres,
which are described below in terms of their performance, history, text
and music, vocal techniques and aesthetics.

3. GAGOK
• Gagok is a type of long lyric song cycle sung by professional vocalists
with chamber ensemble accompaniment. The contemporary gagok
repertoire can be divided according to the gender of the singer and the
mode used . For example, among the 26 songs for male voice, 11 of
them are in the ujo mode, 13 in the gyemyeonjo mode and two in half
ujo and half gyemyeonjo mode. Among the 15 songs for female voice,
four of them are in the ujo mode and ten in the gyemyeonjo mode
while the remaining two are in half ujo and half gyemyeonjo mode.
Most gagok titles bear a relation to their music, for example, Dugeo
(head lift) begins in a high register and Banyeop (half piece) is divided
into the ujo and gyemyeonjo mode.

4. PERFORMANCE
• Gagok used to be performed in an aristocrat’s salon or professional
singers’ club. Nowadays, it is performed in a concert hall or theatre, as
is the case with most traditional musical genres in the present time. A
gagok performance can be as short as just one or a few songs, or as
long as a complete cycle which can take three hours or more. When
more than one song is performed, they are sung in succession without
any pause between pieces. The number of songs in a complete cycle
varies depending on performance type as it relates to gender. For
example, the male version comprises of a selection of 24 songs,2
while the female version has 15 songs. A full gagok cycle with both
male and female vocalists consists of 27 songs . In a major gagok
concert, the male and female solo singers sit on the floor side by side
facing the audience and the instrumentalists sit behind the vocalists in
a half circle. A standard accompaniment would include geomungo,
sepiri, daegeum, haegeum and janggu. Optionally gayageum and
danso can also be added. The geomun-go, which is the leading
instrument of the ensemble, plays a melodic skeleton, which is
embellished by the sepiri and daegeum with ornamentation, while the
haegeum sustains the sound of the melody and the janggu provides
the rhythmic punctuation. When included in the ensemble, the
gayageum functions like the geomun-go by playing the melodic

5. TEXT AND MUSIC
• Gagok has been developed in parallel with the classical poetic genre
of sijo. The historical development of the sijo poems will be described
at greater length in the Sijo section of this chapter. The sijo poems are
distinguished by their structure, which consists of three lines each
made up of four words which in turn have a basic substructure of two
to five syllables. The theme is stated in the first line, developed in the
second and an anti-theme or twist is introduced in the third. However,
the sijo poem is extremely elastic in form, allowing considerable
freedom of treatment of the basic pattern by the individual poet.

6. SIJO
• The authors of the sijo poems in the earlier period (twelfth to fifteenth
century) were predominantly scholars and nobility who were often
preoccupied by the formalistic norms and didactic precepts that
governed Confucian Korean society. After the invention of the phonetic
Korean alphabet han-geul in the midfifteenth century, the poetic genre
of sijo was extended to a wider social class including the courtesans
and commoners, whose sijo poems expressed emotions and
sensibilities unrestrained by Confucian moral codes. The standard
form of sijo is called “regular sijo” or pyeong sijo. An example of
pyeong sijo and its translation are given below in a poem written by
the sixteenth century literati Yi Hangbok, who was a Deputy Prime
Minister under King Seonjo. In this poem his political ambition and
Confucian morality are intertwined with the idealized life style of the
gentleman scholar.
First line:My promise to retire to the lakes has been postponed as I was
very busy in the past ten years.
Second line:The white seagulls would not understand why I was delayed

7. TEXT AND MUSIC
• When this sijo text is set in the prescribed gagok song format, it is
divided into five song sections with an
• additional instrumental interlude (jungnyeo-eum) between the third
and fourth sections as well as a postlude (daeyeo-eum) at the end of
the piece after the fifth section . When just one or a few songs from
the gagok cycle are performed, the postlude, of what would have been
the preceding piece in the complete cycle, is played to replace the
tuning piece daseureum as a prelude. In this way, the important formal
structure of a full cycle can still be maintained in a short performance.

8. PERFORMANCE
• Unlike gagok which is accompanied by an ensemble, sijo can
be performed with just an hourglass janggu as accompaniment.
If the janggu is not available, the vocalist can accompany him
or herself by beating the rhythmic patterns on their knees with
their hands. In formal performances, a piri, daegeum, and
haegeum may be added. As with gasa, there is no prescribed
score for sijo accompaniment and each instrument simply
follows the melodic line of the voice with added
embellishments.

9. GASA
• Gasa is a type of long narrative song performed by professional
singers. This vocal genre is often referred to as sibi gasa (the twelve
gasa) in order to distinguish it from the literary form of gasa, prose
poetry. The present repertoire of 12 gasa pieces includes:
• Baekgusa (The Song of the Seagull)
• Hwanggyesa (The Song of the Yellow Cock)
• Jukjisa (The Song of the Bamboo Branch)
• Chunmyeon-gok (Spring Indolence)
• Eobusa (The Song of the Fisherman)

10. • Gilgunak (The Street Military Music)
• Sangsabyeolgok (Longing for the Departed One)
• Gwonjuga (The Drinking Song)
• Suyangsan-ga (The Song of Mount Suyang)
• Yangyangga (The Song of Xiangyang Town)
• Cheosaga (The Song of the Hermit)
• Maehwa Taryeong (The Song of the Plum Blossom)

11. PERFORMANCE
• Gasa can be performed with just the hourglass drum as
accompaniment although a daegeum or sepiri may be added.
In a formal concert, gasa is accompanied by a small chamber
ensemble comprised of daegeum, piri, haegeum, and janggu.
As there is no prescribed notation for these accompanying
instruments, they simply follow the melody of the vocal line and
fill in with ornamentation. This type of accompaniment is
referred to as suseong garak (the melody which follows the
voice).

12. • Gasa is sung with long narrative gasa poems, the words of which are
written in sets of three and four or four and four syllables. The majority
of gasa texts describe the idealized, idyllic life of gentlemen in retreat,
usually by the lakes and rivers, enjoying wine, nature and poetry, etc.
A number of Chinese classical poems and historical events are often
referenced and quoted as a literary trope although the authors of
these gasa poems are largely unknown. The majority of gasa texts are
set in a strophic form some of which have a refrain at the end of each
stanza, the other pieces are in a through-composed form. The
phonetic treatment of text in gasa singing is similar to gagok.
However, unlike gagok, a series of unrelated vocables, such as ‘noona
neoninaru...’ or onomatopoeic words ‘jigukchong jigukchong’ (the
sound of rowing) are sometimes added to the gasa text as a refrain or
even as a whole stanza.

13. • The rhythmic pattern of gasa songs is based on either a 5-beat or 6-
beat cycle . The majority of gasa pieces employ a 6-beat cycle (1 to 6
and 9 from the list of gasa songs above) or its variation . A few pieces
use a 5-beat cycle or its variation . One piece is in free rhythm and
sung without any drum accompaniment.

14. • All gasa pieces are in the gyemyeon mode. However, the ujo mode is
frequently mixed in making its modality ambiguous. Gasa is sung by
both male and female singers who primarily employ a chest voice with
wide vibrato. However, they also frequently use falsetto with narrow
vibrato and this technique is similar to those used in folk songs from
the northwestern and southwestern regions. Thus, gasa is often
considered to be a hybrid between the classical and folksong styles.
However this ‘classical’ and ‘folk’ dichotomy is also reflected in the
traditional divisions of Korean society into an upper and lower class.
For example, the open chest voice with controlled vibrato, used in the
gagok for male voice is perceived as being elegant and majestic. In
contrast, the nasal head voice or falsetto with narrow vibrato is
associated with regional folk cultures. Consequently, some gagok
singers, such as Ha Kyuil, excluded certain pieces of gasa and sijo
from their repertoire because they considered them to be vulgar. Thus
gasa has both the elegance of the classical songs delineated by its
fluid melody and the expressiveness of folk songs through falsetto,
dynamics and wide range of vibrato.