10 Harmony -1
As a creative musician whose principal instrument is piano, I have maintained a rather unconventional perspective on the concept of musical 'harmony,' one that has specifically evolved over the past three hundred years. I cringed when I heard a Korean musician claim that Korean traditional music lacks harmony. Internalized orientalist view is like a plague and is pervasive in the mindset of younger generations, manifesting differently from the older generation that showed more occidentalist admiration.
What we recognize as harmony in the practice of Western-derived musical instruments also stems from the physics of sound, which is universal across the globe. What sets things apart is the manipulation and usages of the same natural phenomena, influenced by cultural beliefs, philosophies, and worldviews, giving rise to differences in musical expression.
Recognizing that the norm we are familiar with has a history of transformation and tends to diverge significantly from its root meaning is essential in uncovering the true essence of it all. My perspective, while not entirely innovative or purely imaginative, is grounded in the etymology of the words and the aged knowledge passed down in the undercurrent of the more prevailing musical discourse nowadays. It's worth noting that navigating Korean terms related to harmony becomes even more complex due to the prevalence of newly introduced Western musical terminology, which often supersedes the original meanings of the terms rooted in traditional musical contexts.
Though, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the online Korean dictionary entry for 'harmony' did not forget the older meaning of ‘hwaseong (harmony)’ and essentially presents two distinct meanings:
Harmony
1. Harmonic progression according to the laws of music.
2. In Pansori music, it refers to producing sound with precise control of the high, middle and low part of a sound, without any dissonance.
Clearly, number 1 pertains to the defined principles of harmony established in Western tonal music. The second meaning refers to the principle of harmony found in Pansori singing, which may appear somewhat elusive when attempting to grasp its tangible role within the realm of performing arts. While the dictionary may not offer an exhaustive or expert-level definition of the term, it does imply the fact that harmony in Korea predates the introduction of Western harmony. I don't necessarily accept the notion that these two 'harmony' concepts are fundamentally distinct in their origins.
Harmony, in any form of music, is inherently bound and conditioned by the physical reality that surrounds us. The universe's physical reality, or the condition of more specifically the Earth, is a given, and the natural laws of physics influence every facet of our world, including fields such as art, sociology, science, finance, philosophy, religion, and more. Clearly, musical scales and temperament methods, developed primarily in two distinct cultures, the East and the West, ultimately converge to similar outcomes, albeit employing different approaches to arrive at specific numerical values.
Western tonal harmony has been developed and systematized based on the characteristics of individual tones and how they bring out “pleasant” sounds in equal temperament. The temperament provides the musical "scales" as a set of colors or a palette to be used in organizing and constructing musical entities, compositions, or songs. The specific methods for organizing these individual tones within the "tone palette," which have predominantly emphasized mechanical and mathematical principles and rules, have been the focus of harmony studies in most music conservatories and pedagogy.
The term 'harmony' in the context of 'seong' (聲) also has to do with harmonious and balanced sounds. Harmony, in this sense, involves producing the high, middle, and low of a sound in precision to create the harmony according to the “timely centers (시중)” It begins with regulating the chord contained within a single note.
In Western harmony, a 'chord' refers to a combination of three or more individual notes, typically with intervals of thirds. However, in Korean traditional music, the concept of harmony goes beyond Western definition of chords and harmony as there is also a chord found within a single note. While the idea of 'high, middle, and low cheong' (both cheong and seong are related to sound generating place within the body of instruments or a person) mentioned in the definition of harmony is generally recognized in the field of traditional music and often pertains to the naturally formed high and low register ranges within an instrument and performer, it also extends to the inner workings of music. Even within a single note, we can discover the presence of the high, middle, and low aspects that collectively form a harmonious entity.
Every note must necessarily have a high, middle, and low aspect. This is crucial. In the Western tradition, they tend to consider only the higher pitches as harmonics stacked above the fundamentals. However, there must also be lower harmonics. When you produce the central note, it firmly sustains both the high and low extremes.
- Il-Dong Bae, Korean Pansori Master
In fact, every individual note in nature inherently contains numerous other notes within it, and this principle essentially underlies the development of Eastern musical temperament. The core of a sound or a note encompasses both higher harmonics and lower harmonics (subharmonics), and these harmonics can be emphasized by applying the appropriate force and pressure, causing objects with their own resonant frequencies to vibrate distinctly. While Western music has evolved in a direction where it cleanly separates the fundamental note of a single sound to function as a component within the whole, traditional Korean music utilizes the natural forces inherent in sound. In Korean traditional music, a single note serves to create the entire existence, and it's like the seed containing all the sounds that unfold infinitely around the fundamental note, making it the origin of that particular sound. The concrete form of a single sound only takes shape when it reaches the number three (more on another article). Thus, the center of a sound resides within the tight strings set by the high and low registers, where the essence of a single note emerges with equilibrium between the high, middle, and low components.