• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.36
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• pp.415-440
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• 2018

On September 23, 2015, the Ministry of Education announced the 2015 revision of educational curriculum which aimed at 'cultivating creative talents' based on the Article 23, Section 2 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Law. As a result, music curriculum have also been partially revised, which seems to maintain the 2009 revision of music curriculum. Although Jeongganbo 井間譜 is already exposed in the music curriculum for the third and forth grades of elementary school, the learning content about how to read Jeongganbo and how to express the pitch and length of sound including the origin of its name and the background of its invention are dealt with specifically in the fifth and sixth grades. Jeongganbo is known as the oldest mensural notation in the Orient created by King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty in the middle of the $15^{th}$ century, and it was used for the first time in Sejong sillok akbo 世宗實錄樂譜 (Scores in the Annals of King Sejong), the oldest musical score still in existence. However, in the music textbooks as well as the most of specialized books related to the Korean traditional music, it is uncritically accepted without providing clear grounds that Sejong invented Jeongganbo himself. If so, it is necessary to investigate on which grounds it is claimed that Sejong invented Jeongganbo. This paper first examined the grounds of the proposition that "Sejong invented Jeongganbo," which is introduced in the music textbooks for the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school, by separating it into Sejong's creation of Sinak 新樂 (new music), Sejo's invention of Jeongganbo and Sejong's invention of Hangeul. Next, this paper examined how the subject of the invention of Jeongganbo has been described in the textbooks for the fifth and sixth grades in elementary school based on the 2009 revision of music curriculum, and suggested the direction of a desirable music education by pointing out the related problems. According to historical records and circumstances such as Sejong's creation of Sinak, Sejo's invention of Jeongganbo with 16 Jeonggan (square) in one vertical line, Sejong's invention of Hangeul and so on, it seems to be the most reasonable that Sejong is the subject of the invention of Jeongganbo as of now. However, the attitude of the musical academy to accept and educate the unclear thing as if it is a fact does not seem desirable. Therefore, I suggest that it should be described "Jeongganbo was invented in the period of Sejong" or "it is supposed that Jeongganbo was invented by Sejong" rather than presenting "Sejong made Jeongganbo" or "created" until revealing the clear evidence about the subject of Jeongganbo.