Pansori is one of the art forms that represent Korean vocal music. Pansori is a musical drama in which a solo singer, holding a fan in one hand, delivers a long story by the means of sori(song), aniri(narration), and ballim (mimetic gestures). In a pansori performance the singer is accompanied only by a gosu.

▲ Pansori has enjoyed a great reputation as a part of traditional Korean music. Today there are dozens of Pansori education centers across the nation that run experience programs for foreigners in response to favorable receptions.

A full-length pansori performance generally lasts three to nine hours, with the singer depicting all the roles of the characters in the story. A gosu accompanies the singer on a barrel-shaped drum and enlivens the mood of the performance through sounds and words of encouragement, known as chuimsae, including “eolssu”, “eu-iee”, or “eolssigu”, or by replying to the singer as if s/he was a character of the story, making the performance more exciting. The idiom “first gosu, second master singer”emphasizes the importance of a gosu. Of course, it does not mean that the gosu is more important than the singer. Rather, it highlights that the gosu is integral to the overall pansori performance.
Pan and Sori have multiple meanings, but from each of these, it can be inferred that pansori means the songs sung in venues for enjoyment where many people gather. However, the important fact is that pansori is a form of performing art and that it is a vocal genre. In sum, all the various meanings of both pan and sori clearly show the nature of pansori as a form of musical art, and it explains why the term pansori is now generally used.
Pansori, a unique form of performance art, encompasses literature, music and drama and is distinguished from Western operas, Jing Ju (Chinese opera) and Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku of Japan. Lately, pansori is becoming more widely known to the international community, attracting people attention in famous European carnivals and being selected as a Masterpiece of Oral Tradition and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.