# Samul nori

Samul nori (Korean: 사물놀이; lit. four objects play) is a genre of Korean percussion music. It is a modern adaptation of traditional Korean musics, namely the ritual farming music nongak and Korean shamanic music muak, for the indoor stage.
As per its name, samul nori is performed with four traditional Korean musical instruments: a small gong kkwaenggwari, the larger gong jing, an hourglass-shaped drum janggu; and a barrel drum called buk.

## History

The term samul originally comes from Korean Buddhism, where it referred to four instruments considered essential for ritual use in temples: the wooden fish (목어; 木魚; mogeo), the temple bell (범종; 梵鐘; beomjong), the dharma drum (법고; 法鼓; beopgo), and the bronze gong (운판; 雲板; umpan).
Samul nori is a modern adaptation of the traditional ritual music of Korean farmers, called nongak or pungmul nori, for the stage. Traditionally, such music involved elaborate costumed dances and was performed outdoors; in samul nori, emphasis is placed on the music and musicians, who are seated while performing.
In a later interview, Kim Duk-soo, the founder and artistic director of the group, claimed that the choice to adapt traditional music to indoor venues was due to political circumstances at the time. The late 1970s saw the last years of the rule of South Korean president Park Chung Hee. During that time, large public gatherings were restricted, and Korean traditional music was associated with the student protest movement. Public performers were subject to arrest.
The first ever samul nori performance was on February 22, 1978, in a small theater in Seoul. Its original performers included Kim Duk-soo, Kim Yong-bae (김용배), Choe Jong-seok (최종석), and Choe Tae-hyeon (최태현). This group has since been dubbed the Original SamulNori Group (원사물놀이패), and a descendant of this group still performs today as SamulNori Hanulim (한울림예술단). The group received immediate critical and popular acclaim, especially amongst the urban youth, and by the 1980s, was reportedly featured in prominent settings.
In 1984, Kim Yong-bae brought samul nori to the South Korean National Gugak Center. Over the following decades, a number of groups developed around the genre. There are now also a number of other unrelated samul nori troupes, some with their own significant styles.

## Influences

The music of samul nori is heavily based on pungmul nori music, particularly the namsadang style. The link to namsadang is because the founders of the genre were heavily based in that style themselves, having come from families and being taught by teachers involved in the genre. For example, Kim Yong-bae's teacher and Kim Duk-soo's father, both practitioners of namsadang, were heavily involved in samul nori's creation. They and several others traveled South Korea and gathered traditional farming melodies for use in samul nori, drawing particular inspiration from the melodies of Gyeonggi Province, Chungcheong Province, the Honam region, and of Jinju samcheonpo nongak [ko]. They took continual feedback from their research, and gradually incorporated melodies and ideas from them into their set over time.
The original group also incorporated other types of traditional Korean music, including muak: music of the Korean shamanic rituals called gut. To this end, they collaborated with Korean shamans from around South Korea, and even trained with them in camps in order to learn the music.
The concept of dualism, particularly through the lens of yin and yang, is considered important to samul nori. The genre's instruments and their uses are interpreted in various ways using this theme.