[Korean Music Fest] Gayageum Byeongchang Namdo Minyo – SAETARYEONG – YouTube

This song share I chose is from Korea. The song that is being performed is a ‘Bird Song’ and is very popular in both north and south Korea. There are six people within this performance; five are women playing the same zither instrument, and there’s one male playing a drum. I thought that the formation of the women performers was interesting. They are in a “v” shape and what seemed to me as the main performer was at the point in the “v”. She started off the performance solo, and then the rest of the women joined in. It was also unique in the way that all of the women were playing the same exact thing. There were no harmonies or different lines of music, they all played the same thing, while the male performer kept beat occasionally in the corner with his drum. I say occasionally because he was not playing a steady beat, it felt like he came in at random and played with the women. The vocals of the women were also similar to the zither’s part they were playing. They all seemed to be singing the same notes together with no harmonies, the only part that was different than the rest was the main woman’s solo at the beginning before the rest joined in.