Sanjo

Sanjo

Sanjo is a solo instrumental music performance accompanied on a drum (primarily the hourglass-shaped changgo). As it was innovated from sinawi, ritual music that accompanied shaman song and dance in Chôlla, Ch’ungch’ông, and southern Kyônggi provinces, sanjo has a strong musical kinship with p’ansori. It is believed to have been started in the 1890s by the kayagûm master Kim Ch’angjo (1865-1920), followed by creative players of other string and wind instruments. The musical “text” of sanjo, all transmitted by rote, is the treasure house of the Korean rhythmic, melodic, and modal geniuses assembled as specific “schools” (e.g., master-so-and-so’s che). Sanjo employs the same rhythmic cycles as p’ansori: the difference being that the rhythmic progression in sanjo maintains the linear order from slow to fast to faster, whereas in p’ansori the rhythm fluctuates with the non-linear turns and twists of storytelling. Generation after generation, phrase by phrase, sanjo is learned by heart withou any written notation. With the designation of kômun’go sanjo as No. 16 for start, creations on several other instruments were one by one added to the list of Korea’s intangible cultural assets. How do we interpret sanjo’s literal translation, “scattered melody”? As in the case of p’ansori, sanjo was born of a highly improvisational spirit. Therefore, a seasoned player, without the intervention of a “composer” instead purely on the strengths of a lifelong acquisition and training, should be able to weave a number as a jazz musician would.