In the last article, we learned about Tang-ak, one of the three types of Joseon court music, and today we’re going to take a look at A-ak. Like Tang-ak, A-ak is a type of ancient Chinese music that was introduced from the Song Dynasty during the Goryeo Dynasty, but A-ak only refers to songs that were introduced from the Song Dynasty during the Goryeo Dynasty, so in that sense, Tang-ak is called a broad song form China and A-ak is called a narrow song from China. After being introduced from the Song Dynasty in 1116 during the Goryeo Dynasty, it was immediately adopted as court ceremonial music and has been used for important royal events ever since.

From the Goryeo to Joseon Dynasties, A-ak has undergone many changes since its introduction, so in modern times, A-ak is divided into four periods to describe the changes in A-ak: the first period is the period from the king Yejong to the Uijong in Goryeo, when the Song-introduced was used relatively in its original form, and the second period is the period when the original form was lost due to the lack of instruments and musical forms. The third period is the period from the king Myeongjong of Goryeo to the king Sejong of early Joseon Dynasty, when the chaos of the early founding of Joseon Dynasty was stabilized and efforts were made to maintain the buildings, and when the A-ak was restored independently and its use was expanded to society, not just the court, and the fourth period is the period when the Aak, which was fully equipped during the time of king Sejong, was atrophied due to the Im-jin War(Invade of Japan) and the Byeong-ja Horan(Invade of Chung, one of the countries of ancient China). Since then, only the Seokjeon (rituals dedicated to Confucius) at Seong-gyun-kwan, where is the office for scholars of Joseon and now is the place for ritual events, has maintained its reputation, and thus is the only extant A-ak, which is not even in China, the country where A-ak originated.

Munmyo Ritual Music was introduced from Northern Song during the Goryeo Dynasty, and as mentioned above, it is only used in the Seok-jeon of Sung-kyun-kwan. It originated in the ancient time in China and is known as the oldest music in the East Asia, and is currently only found in Korea. There are eight types of musical instruments for A-ak, including iron, stone, thread, bamboo, ba-ga-ji(which is the stuff, made of gourd), soil, leather, and wood, depending on the material, but unlike other A-ak, the Munmyo ritual music uses all of these eight types of instruments.