Gangnyeong Talchum (Mask Dance Drama of Gangnyeong)

Talchum, mask dance drama, was a masked performance carried out in various regions until the early Joseon period. In the mid-17th century it took the form of the sandaedogamgeuk, performed under court management on stages called "sandae," but when court performances were abolished in the twelfth year of King Injo (1634), it passed into the hands of the common people and spread throughout the country. The mask dances of Hwanghae-do can be divided, centring on the north and south of Pyeongsan and Girin, into the Bongsan Talchum type in the north and the Haeju Talchum type in the south; Gangnyeong Talchum is classified as belonging to the Haeju Talchum type. Gangnyeong Talchum is performed every year at Dano and consists of seven scenes: the Lion Dance, the Malttugi (Servant) Dance, the Mokjung (Monk) Dance, the Sangjwa (Novice) Dance, the Yangban and Malttugi Dance, the Old Monk and Chwibari Dance, and the Yeonggam and Halmi Gwangdae Dance. Before the performance, a street procession takes place in which the performers, dressed in masks and costume, process to music to the performance site. There are twenty characters in all, including the groom, the lion, the wonsungi (monkey), Malttugi, Mokjung, Sangjwa, the eldest and second yangban, the wealthy official, the young master, yeonggam (old man), halmi (old woman), the woman of Yongsan-samgae, Chwibari, the old monk, and Somu. The play deals with satire of monks who break their precepts, ridicule of the yangban class, the love triangle of a man with a wife and a concubine, and scenes from the lives of the common people. The dance mainly consists of the jangsamchum, slow movements in which the sleeves of the jangsam are swung over the shoulder, and the arm movements that make the sleeves flutter represent the finest moments of the dance's use of space; the main rhythms used are dodeuri, taryeong and jajin-gutgeori, though there are some thirty different vocal texts, each with its own distinctive rhythm. Among the contents of Gangnyeong Talchum, the scene in which three yangban brothers appear seeking their lineage and calling for Malttugi, or in which Malttugi banters, resembles the Ogwangdae of Gyeongsangnam-do, and the scene in which Halmi Gwangdae spins a spinning wheel closely resembles Gasan Ogwangdae; such similarities are highly significant for understanding how mask dances were transmitted. The use of masks depicting realistic human faces, together with the neat, gentle jangsamchum, also distinguishes it from Bongsan Talchum, another mask dance of Hwanghae-do.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Location not stated, Seoul

Designation

National Intangible Heritage · 국가무형유산