In this article, we’ll take a look at the last of the three types of court music from the Joseon Dynasty: Tang-ak, A-ak, and Hyang-ak. Hyang-ak was named after the introduction of Tang-ak in the Three Kingdoms period to distinguish between foreign music and indigenous music, so it is indigenous Korean music that has existed since the Three Kingdoms period. This distinction between Hyang-ak and Tang-ak also influenced the names of musical instruments, and instruments such as pipa and piri (Korean traiditional woodwind) were categorized as Tang-pipa, Hyang-pipa, or Tang-piri, Hyang-piri, and there are differences in tuning standards and performance methods. Hyang-ak can be seen changing between the three periods from the Unified Silla period, when it was named, to the Goryeo Dynasty, and the Joseon Dynasty.

The Unified Silla’s concept of Hyang-ak, which began to be used as a symmetrical concept of Tang-ak, included both indigenous music of the Korea and foreign music that had already been adopted before the Unified Silla, which is likely to have been included in Hyang-ak because the foreign music introduced before this time had already become Hyang-ak and could not be separated. According to the Sam-guk-sagi (a history of the Three Kingdoms Period to the Unified Silla Period), before unification, Hyang-ak was centered on gayageum, but after unification, Hyangak added the three string instruments, gayageum, lyre, and Hyang-pipa, and the three woodwinds, dae-geum, jung-geum, and so-geum, as well as the Tang-instruments ,dae-geum and bakpan.

In the Goryeo Dynasty, the Hyang-ak was mainly called Sok-ak, and the Sok-ak can be divided into the early Goryeo Dynasty (918~1170) and the late Goryeo Dynasty (1171~1391). The early Goryeo period includes music inherited from the Unified Silla and a small amount of music created during the Goryeo period, all of which was written in Chinese characters and Chinese pronunciation. In the late Goryeo period, there were about twice as many lyrics written in Korean, although it was written in Chinese characters and pronounced in Korean, rather than in the specific alphabet form of Hangul as it is today.

The Hyang-ak tradition of the Joseon Dynasty was a process of fusing the three branches of court music, Tang-ak, A-ak, and Hyang-ak, into one, and through mutual musical influence, Tang-ak became like Hyang-ak, and Hyang-ak showed the process of being similar with Tang-ak. In the early Joseon Dynasty, Hyang-ak was largely conducted as part of the project to establish new music to praise the historical authority of the newly established Joseon Dynasty and the new dynasty. Most of the musical content at this time was based on the Hyang-ak inherited from the Goryeo Dynasty and sung with newly composed movements, so there were no major changes in form of Hyang-ak. This new music revival project was greatly developed during the reign of King Sejong, who created Jeong-dae-up, Bo-tae-pyeong, Bal-sang, Bong-rae-ui, Eon-in-ja, Yeo-min-rak, Chi-hwa-pyeong, Chi-pung-ryu, and Who-in-ja, which were created with reference to Hyang-ak, among these, Jeong-dae-up and Bo-tae-pyeong were adopted as Jongmyo ritual music, which is ceremonial music for the rituals of the Joseon kings, in the king Sejo Dynasty and are the main pieces of Hyang-ak passed down to this day, and Yeo-min-rak has also produced many derivative pieces. The Hyang-ak of the Joseon Dynasty, which flourished before the Imjin War, is recorded in the Dae-ak-who Scores, Si-yong-Hyang Scores, and Keum-hap-jabo, and according to these, it can be confirmed that the Hyang-ak of the Three Kingdoms period has completely disappeared from the Joseon biography. After the middle period of the Joseon Dynasty, the tendency of weakening Tang-ak became clear, and the distinction between Hyang-ak and Tang-ak became almost blurred, not only in terms of changes in musical content but also in terms of the use of instruments. Today, Jongmyo Ritual Music’s Jeong-dae-up, Bo-teo-pyeong, Yeo-min-rak, Su-je-cheon, Chi-ta, and Yeong-san-Hoe-sang are representative of the Hyang-ak tradition, and this article will take a look at Jeong-dae-up as an example.

Jeong-dae-up is currently one of the musical dances performed at the subsequent ceremonies of the Jongmyo ritual, and consists of 11 songs and corresponding dances. The dances in Jeong-dae-up praise the kings and ancestors who contributed to the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, and the dances are performed by eight rows of dancers, four in the front holding swords and four in the back holding spears, to praise and express the virtues of the founding of the Joseon Dynasty.