Noraetgarak
Unknown (Gyeonggi Oral Tradition)
Region
Seoul–Gyeonggi
Genre
Usage
Gyeonggi Folk Song
Recreational Song
Noraetgarak began as a ritual song sung by Seoul shamans at gut ceremonies and spread into everyday life as a folk song. It is a refined Gyeonggi song set to sijo poetry: "norae" refers to the sijo verse and "garak" to the melody, so the name means "the tune for singing sijo." This record is archive material collected to organize and preserve the representative lyrics and the transmission context of Noraetgarak.
Commentary & Notes
Manjojeong (滿朝廷) and gagajae (家家在): Literary Sino-Korean phrases: loyal subjects "fill the court," and virtuous children and wives are found "in every household," a picture of an ideal, peaceful realm.
Seongju (聖主): A wise and virtuous ruler.
The song follows a distinctive rhythm of 5, 8, 8, 5, and 5 beats, setting sijo verse to a compressed, reshaped form of the sijo melody.
Cultural Background
Noraetgarak grew out of shamans' songs for welcoming the gods, but in the early 1900s gisaeng entertainers began imitating its melody, and once it reached the new theater stages it won wide popular affection. Today it is one of the first songs students learn when they study Gyeonggi folk singing.
Lyrics
충신은 만조정이요
효자열녀는 가가재라
화형제 낙처자하니
붕우유신하오리라
우리도 성주 모시고
태평성대를 누리리라
Loyal subjects fill the royal court,
and devoted children and faithful wives dwell in every home
Brothers live in harmony, wives and children in joy,
and friends keep faith with one another
Let us, too, serve a wise ruler
and enjoy an age of peace
