Byungki Hwang

Byungki Hwang is a gayageum player who is a leading composer, performer, and scholar of

Korean traditional music. He does not only play traditional music but also ranges his style in many

different genres. He plays sanjo gayageum, which is improvised gayageum to play high and fast

melody in order to emphasize the vividness of 19th century’s folk music. Most of his pieces are sanjo.

Sanjo

Sanjo is a type of music that represents the soul and sound of traditional Korean villages with an eclectic array of music forms in 19th century. Sanjo in Korean means “scattered modes”. Sanjo is “a solo instrument folk art music and comprises a set of related movements based on diverse rhythmic cycles called jangdan”. Most of the sanjo songs are loosely organized improvised melody, and heavily based on the improvisation.

Movement of sanjo is called jangdan, which consists of slow, moderate, and fast; each of these are called jinyagjo, jungmori, jajinmori. Mode and melodic type is called jo, which is a rhythmic framework within a movement. Seong-eun and sigimae are idiomatic expression in sanjo, and guide the instrumentist’s artistic interpretation during a performance.