This volume examines how, in the years since it emerged in 1978, the Korean percussion quartet SamulNori has created something new while preserving the old. The volume aims to clarify the quartet's association with namsadang, a traditional itinerant performance troupe. In his introduction Hesselink stresses the compatibility of the old and the new, stating that through encountering the history of namsadang, he is convinced of SamulNori's relevance to tradition in spite of the early criticism that their attempts challenged tradition.
Chapter 1 thus provides a description of the history of namsadang, an area neglected by Korean scholars with the exception of folklorist Shim Usŏng. Aligning himself with Shim, Hesselink summarizes its history, from formation to decline and re-birth. Through this process, and particularly by presenting the six repertories of its heyday, he persuades readers that namsadang featured presentational-style music. Bearing in mind the aim of this book, it would have been useful to have been offered more specific links between the original SamulNori members in terms of genealogy, or how they were actually involved in namsadang when they were young. Hesselink mentions links only briefly, although he provides new insights into musical exchanges between namsadang and SamulNori in terms of the interest created by a 2006 film, King and the Clown.
In chapter 2 Hesselink examines the emergence of SamulNori against the background of Korea's 1970s social scene. Two facets are important: minjung munhwa undong, the mass cultural movement; and the changing urban musicscape. The latter in particular moved performance onto stages in concert halls, including the Space Theatre – a cradle for creative traditional arts where SamulNori first appeared in 1978. Yet based on an interview with one original SamulNori member, Ch'oe Chongshil, Hesselink suggests that SamulNori was a group that emerged at the intersection between nationalism and the new musical environment. In this, SamulNori represents a cross-section of 1970s Korea. Yet, as with chapter 1, more specific data are needed, perhaps using interviews with other quartet members, detailing, for instance, how the quartet selected their first piece, Uttari p'ungmul, from the repertoire of namsadang.
Chapter 2 focuses on Och'ae chilkut, a traditional p'ungmul local percussion band rhythmic cycle. Hesselink observes how it has been adopted by SamulNori, comparing their version with a version performed by a local band from Iri. It might have been better to have considered Uttari p'ungmul in the same way, to show SamulNori's musical connection with namsadang. Nevertheless, his account is persuasive in that, in Och'ae chilkut, SamulNori has a distinctive difference from the local version in terms of pattern length.
Chapter 4 deals with aspects of SamulNori's pedagogy, still keeping in mind the link with namsadang. Hesselink demonstrates the quartet's passion for education, based on a pan-East Asian belief system that has its origins in Chinese Daoism and features a combination of won (circle/heaven), pang (square with a central point/earth) and kak (triangle/human). He shows how this is applied to SamulNori theory and performance, reminding us of the Taoist potential to embrace all humans even beyond the East. However, once again it would have been useful to see how the concept relates to namsadang.
In Chapter 5 Hesselink turns his attention to SamulNori's extensive “hybrid” repertory collaboration with Red Sun, a jazz group led by Austrian saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig. Hybridity in globalized world music involves an implicit hierarchy between “Us” and “Others”, hence scholars have critically discussed it as appropriation based on an Orientalist perspective (e.g. Steven Feld, “Pygmy POP: a genealogy of schizophonic mimesis”, Yearbook for Traditional Music 28, 1996, 1–35, and Timothy Taylor, Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. New York: Routledge, 1997). Rather differently, Hesselink presents an argument based on an underlying concept of nanjang, a local market and festival and a place for cultural exchange. Namsadang would have performed in the nanjang. He pays attention to the equal partnership between SamulNori and Red Sun, describing it as a “meeting of the minds” (p. 108) in which collaboration in a true sense becomes possible. By providing background information about their four collaborative recordings, Hesselink shows how the groups interact musically, taking as examples two representative tracks. This makes a significant contribution to our understanding of SamulNori's musical collaborations and hybridity.
In his conclusion Hesselink argues that SamulNori are inheritors of tradition, and that they or other similar groups could provide an alternative to Korea's cultural preservation system. However, he avoids discussion of the original primary aim of the preservation system, which was to preserve traditional arts as Korea emerged from colonization and modernization, rather than to control art. Although preservation processes need much discussion (as they have received from, for example, Keith Howard (Creating Korean Music: Tradition, Innovation and the Discourse of Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), and Yang Jongsung, “Folklore and cultural politics in Korea: intangible cultural properties and living national treasures”, PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 1994), this system has played a role in restoring damaged traditional arts, including namsadang itself, which otherwise might have been lost. Overall, then, although it would have been desirable to find evidence of more detailed links between namsadang and SamulNori, Hesselink's main argument is convincing, and the volume has been produced out of a personal respect for the percussion quartet. That respect comes from an appreciation that SamulNori created the new while preserving the old. Hence, Hesselink's book is essential for understanding SamulNori the quartet and samullori the genre.
