Koreans cry in the mode of their local folk music. When they are sad and unable to accept a situation, they cry using only certain notes. As they gradually come to terms with reality and reach acceptance or compromise, additional notes are introduced. These shifts in tone reflect emotional transitions embedded in the act of crying. Among traditional Korean musical genres, pansori is a form in which a solo performer narrates an epic story while expressing a wide range of human emotions through music. In pansori, emotional textures—such as denial, anger, sadness, and acceptance—are musically distinct and vividly realized. Listeners who share the same musical and cultural context often experience deep emotional resonance and immersion. This presentation examines how Korean music conveys emotion through the musical language of crying. By analyzing the musical and linguistic elements associated with different emotional states, we explore how sound operates as a shared emotional language in Korean tradition.

Dr. Hey-Jung Kim (Professor, Master of Music, Ph.D. in Literature) is a musicologist and the current president of the Pansori Society. She previously served as president of the Society for Korean Folk Songs. In her role as professor at Gyeongin National University of Education, she is dedicated to training future elementary music educators while simultaneously working to preserve and revitalize traditional Korean culture. Since the 1990s, Dr. Kim has documented and analyzed orally transmitted musical traditions such as Korean folk songs (minyo), nongak (farmer's music), and shamanic rituals. Her research explores the fluid and evolving nature of oral music traditions. Drawing upon extensive field data, she applies statistical and analytical methodologies to uncover the underlying principles of musical language. Her work involves the complex process of locating informants, recording traditional music, transcribing it into notation, and analyzing it. Because individual performers interpret each song differently, large-scale data analysis is crucial in identifying musical universals. Dr. Kim's contributions to the field have been widely recognized through academic citations and prestigious awards.