고려가요 여음구와 반복구의 문학적․음악적 의미

Abstract

Although the variety of refrains has been agreed as the dominant characteristic of the Koryo-gayo, its literary value has always been controversial. This paper investigated both literary and musical meaning contained in the refrains of the Koryo-gayo by analyzing the literary and musical structures of the Koryo-gayo. The refrains in the Koryo-gayo played a crucial role in combining contradictory emotion and developing ironic poetic concepts, which were the main themes of the Koryo-gayo. Therefore the refrains of the Koryo-gayo sholud be evaluated as the core structural factors in forming the paradoxical lyricism of the Koryo-gayo. However, this paper argued that the refrains in the Koryo-gayo also imply musical meaning. Thus the original forms of the Koryo-gayo such as the four line trimeter stanza, which had not yet been interrupted by the court music of the Koryo dynasty, should be also considered as meaningful literary forms. In conclusion, the Koryo-gayos should be approached as multilayer texts. The existing forms containing various refrains created the intrinsic poetic beauty of the Koryo-gayo while the original forms were the very foundation of the Koryo-gayo. The fruitful interpretation of the Koryo-gayo can be only achieved by such a multilayer approach.