Muak

Muak (musok eumak) is the ritual music of Korean shamanism, performed at gut ceremonies by shamans (mudang) and professional musicians to summon, entertain and dismiss the gods. Ensembles of barrel and hourglass drums, gongs, the taepyeongso oboe, fiddles and flutes accompany the shaman's singing and dancing through the ritual's segments (geori), each with its deity, costume and tempo. Regional schools (tori) divide the tradition, the ecstatic east-coast byeolsingut, Seoul's hereditary rites and Jindo's ssitgimgut funerary washing rite among them, and modern ensembles have carried muak from the shrine to the concert stage.