조선조 세종대 문묘제례악에 대한 추고

Abstract

Korean memorial music for the Confucian shrine that is now observed today(韓國文廟祭禮樂) remains as part of the Memorial service Ah-ak music(祭祀雅樂) which was newly developed and established during the Joseon dynasty period, in 1430(12th year of King Sejong's reign) to be exact. Yet, considering the structure of this 'newly created' Memorial service Ah-ak music of the Sejong's era, the current Korean memorial music for the Confucian shrine shows some apparent contradictions, in many aspects. Originally, the Ah-ak music of the Sejong's era had 12 types of basic melody formats, and each format was equipped with 12 Gung/宮 units, resulting in a grand system of total of 144 music pieces in its collection. This had very much to do with the efforts of the people of the time to establish a Confucian institution of protocols and music. And this grand collection suggests that an ideal condition, in which the users would be able to find and select any musical piece that they deemed appropriate for various types of memorial services, found usable for a variety of procedures, and also considered suitable for the status of the conductor itself, was finally secured in terms of musical protocols. In this article, the Sejong era's newly created memorial music for the Confucian shrine, which practically gave birth to the current Korean memorial music for the same purpose, is examined in order to suggest ways of amending the contradictory aspects apparently existent in the current version. In order to remedy the problems of the current Korean memorial music for the Confucian shrine, several corrections should be made. ① Only the Deung-ga section should contain a musical piece, abiding by the traditions from the early half of the Joseon dynasty period. ② All music for the procedures and steps should be replaced with the Sejong era's newly established memorial music for the Confucian shrine, to eliminate the malpractice of playing the 'Yeongshin' music in every phases except the 'Songshin' phase. ③ During the first offering of a drink, the music that was played in Jeongwi and 4-Baewi phases(according to the 「Musical score」 in 『Annals of King Sejong's reign』) should be used, to rectify the wrongdoing of only playing the Jeongwi musical piece. ④ During the Munmu-twae․Mumu-jin phase, instead of the Goseon-gung piece(a 'welcoming spirit' type of music) which belonged to the Dang-Ha-ak category, the 'Seoan-ji-ak' that had been used since the Sejong era(recorded in 『Akhak Gwaebeom』) should be played. Suggestions made here could be considered as options to be used in resolving the contradictory aspects inside the current Korean memorial music for the Confucian shrine, yet playing the Ah-ak instruments is a truly difficult task and thus requires a high-level musical training, so it would be considerably difficult to pursue all these suggestions as viable solutions.