Pansori is a genre of Korean music. It is a vocal and percussional music performed by one soriggun (소리꾼; a singer) and one gosu (고수; 鼓手; a drummer).

Being popular in Korea during the 19th century, it featured satires and love stories. A full story, madang (마당), is so long that it usually takes hours to complete. A madang consists of certain alterations of aniris (아니리; descriptive speech) and changs (창; song).

In the performance, a soriggun sings, standing with a folding fan held in one hand. It emphasizes his/her motions and is used to announce changes of scene through its unfolding. A gosu gives rhythm not only by beats but also by chooimsae (추임새)s, verbal sounds. A chooimsae can be a simple meaningless vowel, but short words of encouragement are also given. The audience also are supposed to give chooimsaes during the performance.

See also

• Culture of Korea

External link

• Pansorisong