Students will be able to identify 16th notes. (Dalcroze Game, Waimānalo Warriors)

Korea is a country with a long and rich history, located northeast of China and Southwest of Japan (See map). During the 14th century, Confucianism influenced the Korean government and education systems. Even the scholars read and wrote the traditional Chinese characters. However, Emperor Sejong invented Korean characters in 1446. The first dynasty in Korea was the Gojoseon (古朝鮮) dynasty and later was called Joseon. Until this day, Korea maintains its unique and distinct culture, including food.

Have you eaten kimchi? Kimchi is famous Korean food that people can find in many restaurants in Hawai`i. Kimchi is a marinated cabbage. During the old days, there was no refrigerator. When people had no access to vegetables in the winter; thus, they fermented cabbage with salt and spices and stored those underground. By doing this, they will have vegetables to eat during the cold season. Same as kimchi, the roots of the doraji, the bellflower, can be stir-fried or marinated with spicy sauce and served as a side dish. The flower of doraji is in white and purple colors, and the root is bitter (Bburi Kitchen, 2015). 

Doraji is also a famous folk song, and it is about food. Folk materials are songs and chants that have been sung in past centuries. Folk songs are closely related to everyday life activities such as rituals, work, child rearing, and entertainment that represent the culture in that people live (Loong, 2007). Doraji depicts a scenery of people pulling doraji in a deep valley, and they fill their bamboo baskets with the roots of doraji. In the chorus part of the song, the singers sing in joy after filling in the basket. The farmers would cook and marinate the roots; they sold the rest of the doraji in the market in the old days. Because it provided the income, they sang Nae sa rang a (my love, doraji).

Here is the clip of teenagers in Korea singing doraji (2'15").

The students are the students of the national Gukak(Korean music) school. This school was established to educate traditional Korean music and dance by the Korean government. The students who performed in this video major in Korean folksong are around 11-13 years old. Most students in this school, especially the voice majors, start to learn to sing Korean traditional music when they are in elementary school (Sora Yoon, 2022). 

In activity #3, we discussed about classical instruments that have different tone colors/timbre. Same as instruments, voice also has different tone colors.

Describe the the tone colors of the these Korean girls' voice. Are they:

• • Bright, light, thin, nasal, or
    
  • Dark, heavy, deep, thick.
    

Now, let's learn the song by singing after Mrs Sora Yoon, she is a native Korean and a music teacher.

Doraji Music Score

Note: Since students do not know some of the rhythmic patterns in this piece (dotted eight-sixteenth and dotted quarter-eighth), thus this score only shows the solfege. The teacher still may sing the solfege following the rhythm of the piece. Or in other words, the students will sing the rhythm "by ear."

In Activity #5, we learned about the Pentatonic scale. In this activity, we will practice the pentatonic scale a Korean folk song, Doraji.

 Phrase 1:

1. In this piece, we will sing the note F as do. Your teacher will sing the above solfege for you once.
2. What is the first solfege? (mi)
3. Sing and hand sign this phrase.

Phrase 2:

1. Note that there is a "cousin" of la in the second phase, which is low la. Same as low so, which is the "cousin" of so. Your teacher will sing so and low so; la and low la for you. Can you tell which one are high and lower?
   
2. What is the last note of this phrase? (low so,) What is the first note of mm 7 (low la,).
3. Sight sing with hand signs mm 7-8.
4. Sing and hand sign Phrase 2.

Phrase 3:

1. Are mm 9 and 10, the same or different? (same)
2. What is the first note of mm9? (low la,) Besides low la, which note do you see? (do)
   
3. Sing and hand sign mm 9 and 10, then the whole phrase.

Phrase 4:

1. Phrase 4 is similar with which phrase? (Phrase 1)
   
2. Which phrase is different? (mm15) Sight sight this phrase.
3. Sing and hand sign the whole phrase.

Phrase 5:

1. Phrase 5 is the same as which phrase? (Phrase 2)
   
2. Sing and hand sign the whole phrase.
3. Can you identify the melodic form of this song? (abcab)
4. Note that there are low so, low la, do, re mi, so, and la in this song. There are five different notes; we call it a pentatonic scale. But the "cousins" of low so, and low la, are also here; we name it an extended pentatonic scale.

1. Sing and hand sign the whole song.
2. Sing the whole song with lyrics.

Doraji Traditional Singing (Kamsah Hamidah, Thank you to Sora Yoon)

Now, let's listen to this video and compare the 3/4 meter and the traditional Korean rhythm, which is in compound meter,

what do you notice? How are they different?

Now, let's try to dance with Miss Sora, can you feel the compound meter?

Now, let's listen to the traditional way Doraji is sung, accompanied by janggu.

Mahalo for feedback and suggestions from Katherine Alarcio, Janice Boychuk, Holly Cowdery, Lauren Fagaragan, and Kevin Morita.