Dr. Robert C. Provine is Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland’s School of Music. He also holds a B.A., two M.A. degrees, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He researches the music of East Asia (China, Korea and Japan), with a particular focus on Korean traditional music. He taught from 1978 to 2000 at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, where he rose from Lecturer to Professor and Chair of the Department of Music. He has served as President of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (1993–95) and President of the Association for Korean Music Research (1996–2000). He has contributed entries to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001), and is the author of Essays on Sino-Korean Musicology: Early Sources for Korean Ritual Music (1988), and many articles in various academic journals.
The Korea Society is very pleased to present the traditional music and dance of the Chosŏn Kingdom courtesan, performed by Han TeRra, an extraordinary kayagŭm (12-string zither) player from Korea. Dr. Robert Provine, a renowned ethnomusicologist, will provide historical context for her performances, shedding light on the life and artistic world of a kisaeng.
During the half millennium reign of the Chosŏn Kingdom in Korea (1392-1910), there was a class of women whose fate was both appalling and seductive. The kisaeng, sometimes translated as “skilled women,” were selected from an early age for their beauty, given extensive education in poetry, music, the arts, and dance, trained in the skills of courtesanship, and then assigned as professional entertainers to the court and the high government bureaucracy. The Changak-won, one of the national institutes specializing in court performing arts, selected the most talented entertainers, kisaeng, from eight local provinces for annual court ceremonies or events. The selected entertainers were officially named Sŏnsang-gi. They had been trained in a music and dance tradition completely different from the existing court and folk forms. As a result, they played a critical role in the development of culture and arts in Korea.
LIVE HOUSE KOREA is made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts.
Sonnet of an Innocent Flower:
Music and Dance of the Chosŏn Kisaeng
Performed by Han TeRra
with accompanying lecture by Dr. Robert Provine, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Thursday, January 17, 2013
6:30 PM
The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, 8th Floor
