The Plucked Stringed Instrument and Harvesting Dance

The Korean nationality is good at singing and dancing, and the singing and dancing activities have wide mass participation. Besides on festive occasions, even at ordinary times and during timeout, men and women, old and young are able to sing extemporaneously and dance lightly.

Folk songs, which are called by the Korean nationality as "ballads", have beautiful melodies, and are natural, fluent, and full of artistic appeal as well as expressive force. When one person is singing, many others support him or her in chorus. It is not because that "a person who is good at singing has many followers" but that "songs from heart can appeal the strongest sympathetic response". Famous folk songs such as Song of the Root of Balloonflower, Lads from Ah Li, By the Riverside of Noduoer and so on are known to every household and sung by everybody.

The Korean ethnic music is famed in the world for its fresh, fluent, sweet and agreeable, and cheerful melody as well as rich and colorful rhythm. The traditional folk instruments are mainly woodwind instruments while the subsidiary ones are stringed instruments. The woodwind instruments that have been passed down are flutes, hollow vertical bamboo flutes and short vertical bamboo flutes. Copper wind instruments are suona horns and clanking horns. Stringed instruments are the plucked stringed instrument, and big belly instruments. Additionally, there are percussion instruments like the tambourine, darobokka and so on.

The plucked stringed instrument is a plucked instrument that is full of ethnic characteristics. It shapes like a zither. It is said that it was popular in the Jiaye Kingdom in the south of Xinluo. There used to be two types of it: instrument for ceremonial classic music and instrument for popular music. The former one is about 177 centimeters in length and 33 centimeters in width. Each has 12 strings, and each string has one post to adjust the pitch. The latter is around 152 cm long, and about 17-21 cm wide. Each has also 12 strings. After the reformation in China, the strings reach 18. Two pitches of 4 and 7 are added to widen the diapason and turn up the volume. When you play it, put one end of the instrument on your knee, the other end on the floor. Press the strings with your left hand, and choose tones with your right hand. It could be a solo and an accompaniment as well. 

The Korean dancing is dainty and elegant, coupling hardness with softness. When it is in motion, the dancing is like a white crane spreading the wings; when it is in stillness, the dancing is like willow branches sweeping the water surface. It is lyric and unrestrained or emotional and zealous alternatively, and has fully reflected the ethnic character of the Korean nationality, which is softness coupled with hardness, gentle yet not feeble, and refined yet not vulgar. The famous folk dances are harvesting dance, tambourine dance, dance while carrying water on the head, twisting hempen thread dance, fan dance, sword dance, crane dance and monk dance, etc.

Harvesting dance is a traditional dance, which expresses the happiness of harvesting of the Korean farmers. When it is danced, the players of all sorts of folk musical instruments dance trippingly with the music while beating the drums. There are supple and nimble dances as well as soaring and salient solo dances. Plots of a play are inserted now and then and provoke endless laughter. The atmosphere is fervent and of special flavor.

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