Pansori

Pansori (Korean: 판소리) is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer. The term pansori is a compounds of 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."

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. The dramatic content of the drama is changed according to various rhythms based on the melody of Korea's local music. Pansori was originally called the "sori", and it was called Taryeong, Japga (잡가; 雜歌), Clown Song, and Geukga (극가; 劇歌). It was also commonly used in terms such as Changgeukjo (창극조; 唱劇調).