Musical Characteristics and Functions of ‘Gaetakseong’, an Anchaebisori of Gyeongje Beompae
Authors:   National Gugak Center, Cha Hyoungsuk 
Published: November 2024

This study aims to elucidate the musical characteristics and functions of gaetakseong (開鐸聲), an anchaebisori of Gyeongje beompae (Buddhist chant). Since musical features of gaetakseong, as opposed to other subgenres of beompae, are observed, not constrained by musical piece and ‘sori (sound)’ or ‘seong (聲 sound)’, it is necessary to examine different types of beompae in order to clarify the identity of gaetakseong. Therefore, this study selects and analyzes a total of five songs: two hotsori pieces that are non-anchaebisori among beompae, and three pieces that represent the other three anchaebisori, yuchiseong (由致聲), chakeoseong (着語聲), and pyeongeseong (徧界聲).
The common musical characteristics of the five pieces include a free rhythm with asymmetrical, irregular beats and a melodic mode of menari-tori finishing in ‘mi’ or ‘la’. In the case of text setting, there are four different patterns shown in these songs: ① melismatic (multiple notes per syllable), ② homographic+melismatic, ③ homographic (one note per syllable), and ④ homographic+melismatic+melismatic.’ In pyeongeseong, however, only two patterns ② and ③ are observed. In particular, the common melodic characteristics of the five pieces are found in the ③ homographic pattern; the melody is relatively monotonous because it is mainly composed of three notes 'mi', 'la', and 'do', centering on 'la', or it continuously repeats a single note. Therefore, it is found that the melody in the ③ homographic pattern has less activity and a narrow range compared to the ①, ②, and ④ patterns, whereas more dynamic melodic patterns as well as an expanded range, depending on the singer's capability, appear in yuchiseong.
The distinctive musical features of the five pieces are first in the literary form, with “Bokcheongge” written in verse, and “Yeongsan Gaegye”, “Yuchi”, “Chakeo”, and “Su-ui-an-jwa” written in prose, each showing with a different writing style. Regarding the tempo, most start slowly, around 35-50, while “Huchakeo” typically starts faster than that, around 75-80. In addition, the range of hotsori was the minor 10th, which is more than an octave while yuchiseong shows the perfect 8th and chakeoseong and pyeongeseong show the minor 6th, which are less than an octave.
Gaetakseong has been emphasized as a sound of “reading blurry and darkly” or “sweeping away” among scholars and practitioners of beompae. As a result, the partial characteristics of the gaetakseong were identified as the essence of the overall ‘seong.’ However, as discussed in this paper, the sound of “reading blurry and darkly” or “sweeping away” is limited just to the simple melody-type singing style of the homographic pattern, and gaetakseong reveals the characteristics of ‘seong’, showing that various singing styles other than the homographic pattern coexist. Therefore, it can be argued that gaetakseong is the ‘seong’ with various musical structures and forms. Moreover, it has been found that the “Yeongsangaegye”, which has very long lyrics, is implemented by selectively using two or three singing styles depending on the situation, demonstrating that the singing style of gaetakseong is very flexible and fluid.
Since gaetakseong is woven with four singing styles alternating and intersecting, it can be said to be a very suitable method for effectively handling limited time without significantly damaging the characteristics of each genre of music unique to beompae. Therefore, in large-scale rituals, when similar genres of beompae are arranged without overlapping each other or it is judged difficult to finish the rituals within a set time, the musical function of gaetakseong, which can reduce the performance time compared to the original while sufficiently utilizing the unique characteristics of beompae, will stand out even more.