삼현육각이란 용어의 생성과 왜곡

Abstract

This thesis raises a question about the most well-known meaning of samhyeonyukgak. To find the correct definition of the term, the background of the formation of the word and the process of its distortion had to be studied. The term, ‘samhyeonyukgak’, derives from the Joseon-era word ‘samhyeon’ or ‘yukjaebi’. ‘Samhyeon’ used to refer to the three stringed-instruments of the Silla dynasty, geomungo, gayageum and hyangbipa. However, from the Joseon dynasty, the pieces of music performed by these instruments were also called the same. Especially the music the civilian performed was called ‘samhyeon’. Not only that, the term also referred to those 6 performers who played this music. It required 6 instrument players, one each for daegeum, haegeum, janggo, buk and two for piri. Because there were 6 members, people also called it ’yukjaebi.‘ In the early 20th century, ‘yukjaebi’ was introduced as ‘六樂’ in Chinese and ‘ryukgak’ in Korean on the cover of a gramophone record. It seems to have been transcribed as ‘ryukgak’ owing to the Korean word initial rule and the prolonged sound phenomenon. Later in 1917 and 1918, it happened that ‘六樂’ was wrongly spelled as ‘yukgak(六角).’ Yukgak(六角) is a mistranscription of yukak that represents samhyeon. Those who committed this error were the one whose pseudonym was ‘Pungryusaeng’ and the other that hasn’t yet been identified. These two don’t seem to have had enough expertise in Korean music and instruments. Because, of the 5 instruments performed by six players, they looked upon hyangpiri 2 as either dangpiri 1 or dangpiri 2 or hyangpiri 1. In 1927, another distortion of the term took place: ‘samhyeon’ was added to ‘yukgak’, forming ‘samhyeonyukgak’. This new term was first introduced by Kim donghwan in 1927; Since then it had been reinforced by Song Mingap, the pansori master singer in the 1920s; Choe Namseon, a writer and historian in the 1940s; and finally settled down as an official term by Yi Hyegu, the first generation music scholar in the 1950s. In short, ‘samhyeon’ or ‘jukjaebi’ originally meant and referred to six-member music and its arrangement, but during the Japanese Colonial Period, it was fist mistranscribed as yukgak and then to samhyeonyukgak. Since then, it has been established as an official music term without a challenge up until today. The reason for the distortion and mistranscription could be ascribed to the absence of an authority for recording our traditional music from 1890 to 1940. It has almost been 100 years since the wrong term started to be used, and it should be corrected: the original ‘samhyeon’ or ‘yukjaebi’ should replace ‘samhyeonyukgak.’