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= Pansori = Pansori (Korean: 판소리) is a traditional form of Korean folk music. An art form of dramatic story-telling performed by a singer (Sorikkun or gwangdae) and a drummer (gosu). It is generally believed that Pansori formed around the 17th century for lower class patrons, possibly deriving from shamanist ritual music, and became popular with the upper class around the mid-18th century.

The term pansori is derived from the Korean words pan (판) and sori (소리), the latter of which means "sound." However, pan has multiple meanings, and scholars disagree on which was the intended meaning when the term was coined. One meaning is "a situation where many people are gathered." Another meaning is "a song composed of varying tones."However, the term Pansori has been translated in many other ways, some being “folk operatic song”, “Korean minsterels song”, or “a narrative-epic-dramatic vocal artform.”

Pansori has been designated as Korea's National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 5 since 1964. On November 7, 2003, pansori was registered as the UNESCO's Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity of Korea. In 2011, the pansori practiced by the ethnic Koreans in China was also nominated as the UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage by the governments of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Tieling.

Originally a form of folk entertainment for the lower classes, pansori was embraced by the Korean elite during the 19th century. While public interest in the genre temporarily declined in the mid-20th century, today's South Korean publics and government are passionate in registering and recognizing many pansori singers as "living national treasures of Korea." North Korea, on comparison, is yet to implement the systematic support of pansori at the government level, as Kim Jong-il believed that pansori's performance voice was too hoarse and did not distinguish between male and female to suit the taste of today's people.: 17

Description[edit]
Pansori performances are performed by "Clown", "Gosu", and "Audience".

Characterized by the dramatic and expressive vocals and body movements of the singer and the rhythmic accompaniment of the drummer. The singer represents all the characters in the stories through intermittent use of song (Chang) and spoken word. The audience also participates in the performance through encouraging shouts and cheers (chuimsae) to motivate the performers. In music, "Gugwangdae" describes a long story that takes as little as three hours and as much as eight hours or more. It is one of the traditional forms of Korean music that mixes body movements and songs to the accompaniment of a buk drum played by a gosu.

Pansori stories are epic tales involving heroic and legendary figures dealing with emotional turmoil and dramatic turns of events. Stories may be satirical, tragic, or comedic. Themes in Pansori are commonly based on Confucian morals. These Confucian morals include benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and filial piety.

In the late 20th century, the sorrowful "Western style" of pansori overtook the vigorous "Eastern style" of pansori, and pansori began being called the "sound of han". All surviving pansori epics end happily, but contemporary pansori focuses on the trials and tribulations of the characters, commonly without reaching the happy ending because of the contemporary popularity of excerpt performances. The history of pansori in the late 20th century, including the recent canonization of han, has led to great concern in the pansori community.