Gayageum Sanjo – Hwang Byung-ki, Korea (Traditional)

A dynamic system of structured improvisation and expressive agency, where the performer co-creates aesthetic causality within a ritual framework of gesture and breath

Thinking Through Alfred Gell (1945-1997)’s Art and Agency

Introduction

Sanjo (산조) is a solo instrumental form in Korean traditional music, developed in the late 19th century. It is typically performed on the gayageum, a 12-string zither, although variants exist for other instruments. Sanjo unfolds as a multi-sectioned suite (often in jo-ha-gyeol form: beginning, development, conclusion), and though rooted in traditional rhythmic cycles (jangdan), it incorporates personal improvisation, tempo modulation, and ornamental nuance.

The late Hwang Byung-ki (1936–2018) was Korea’s most renowned gayageum virtuoso and composer, who both preserved and innovated the Sanjo tradition. From the viewpoint of Alfred Gell’s Art and Agency, Sanjo is a prime example of relational art action—a system of distributed agency and technically mediated enchantment, where form and improvisation interact to produce causality.

Art as Index of Expressive Agency and Tradition

According to Gell, art is a material index of intentionality. Sanjo is:

An index of the performer’s musical decisions, through choice of tempo, phrasing, and ornamentation,
Simultaneously an index of the tradition—its rhythmic structures, modal tunings, and historic lineage,
A trace of internal emotion, externalized through finely shaped auditory gesture.

Hwang Byung-ki’s performances are not purely personal expression, but rather ritualized re-compositions of collective memory, where his aesthetic agency becomes visible through the formal surface of tradition.

Distributed Agency: Instrument, Form, Rhythm, Performer

Gell’s concept of distributed intentionality maps clearly onto Sanjo:

The instrument (gayageum) is not passive—it resonates, resists, and colors each phrase,
The jangdan rhythmic cycles (e.g., jungmori, kutgeori, hwimori) act as temporal scaffolding—each tempo carries emotional energy and structural logic,
The performer is a negotiator, responding to both structure and audience (if present),
The listener participates in anticipation, emotional empathy, and silence.

Sanjo is thus not a solo—it is a collaborative enactment, where musical time becomes a site of multiple agencies unfolding together.

Improvisation as Causal Action, Not Decoration

While Sanjo contains composed material, it also allows space for improvised elaboration:

This improvisation is bounded—rooted in modal constraints (jo) and rhythmic expectations (jangdan),
The artist expresses their emotional state, season, or philosophical mood through melodic inflection,
Each variation is a choice—a visible trace of intentionality in the moment.

Gell would view these choices not as decoration, but as causal gestures—each trill, slide, or delay does something: it marks a temporal shift, heightens tension, or induces emotional resonance.

Gayageum as Living Artifact

The gayageum is a bridge between history and performance:

Its tuning can be altered for each piece, shifting the aesthetic and tonal terrain,
Its strings and wood amplify gesture—left-hand bends (nong-hyun) and vibrato are signature techniques that carry expressiveness,
The instrument’s resonance and timbre are both aesthetic and indexical of tradition.

In Gell’s theory, the gayageum is not simply a tool—it is an agentive artifact that co-creates the performance. It acts upon the player, requiring tactility, restraint, and inner awareness.

Temporal Elasticity and Jo-Ha-Gyeol Form

Gell viewed artworks as structures that act upon time. Sanjo unfolds in three-part temporal form:

Jo (Beginning) – slow, introspective, meditative. Establishes mood and mode.
Ha (Development) – rhythmic acceleration, increased density, expressive climax.
Gyeol (Conclusion) – release, virtuosic closure, return to balance.

This form is not just musical—it’s existential: a journey from inner calm, through expressive tension, to resolution. Each section reconfigures the listener’s temporal experience, guiding them through felt narrative space without words.

Enchantment Through Touch and Ornament

In Gell’s aesthetics of enchantment, technical mastery generates affective power. Sanjo achieves this through:

Micro-inflections: sliding pitch bends, expressive ornaments, left-hand articulation,
Subtle tempo fluctuations: accelerando or ritardando within a phrase without violating the jangdan,
Breath-based phrasing: silence and sound are equally charged.

The audience becomes entranced not by spectacle, but by the performer’s total command of nuance, their ability to pull the listener into each breath and gesture.

Ritualized Emotion: Not Performance, But Offering

Sanjo, especially in Hwang Byung-ki’s hands, is more than performance:

It is an aesthetic ritual, merging the philosophical, emotional, and formal,
It channels Korean values of subtlety, grace under pressure, and introspective dignity,
Even when performed on stage, it carries the spirit of private ritual—a sonic offering to the moment, the listener, and the form itself.

Gell would interpret this as artwork-as-action: the Sanjo performance does not represent emotion—it manifests it, sculpting the shared space through sound.

Conclusion

Through Alfred Gell’s anthropological framework, Gayageum Sanjo is a ritualized, relational artwork, where tradition and individuality co-create a field of sonic agency. It is not “just a solo” but a temporally embedded act, in which structure and emotion dance in mutual causality.

The gayageum, the performer, and the listener are not separate—they breathe each other through gesture. In this way, Sanjo is an enchanted system, an acoustic ceremony, and an index of the performer's cultivated spirit acting through sound.