
The Institute for Korean Studies presents:
Korean Songs: From Sijo to K-Pop
Young-mee Cho
Rutgers University
Flyer: Cho Flyer [PDF]
Abstract: Professor Cho discusses one of the most prominent and enduring poetic forms of traditional Korea, sijo, a three-line verse form written to be performed in a musical setting, emerged in the latter part of the Koryŏ dynasty (918-1392), flourished through the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). After chronicling the rise of this distinctive literary/musical genre, I will then explore its developmental into the 18th century sasŏl sijo as a narrative form and modern sijo as written both in Korean and English. Finally, I will examine the 20th century emergence of song lyrics as a new literary genre in the context of musical performance: art songs based on poems at one end and Korean popular music (yuhaengga & K-Pop) at the other.