P ansori is the quintessential traditional Korean musical drama, in which epic tales are sung and narrated by a solo singer accompanied by a drummer. Drawing on her extensive research in Korea and its diasporas, Haekyung Um describes and analyses the creative processes of p ansori, weaving into her discussion musical, social and cultural aspects that include the evolution of p ansori performance, origins and historical development, textual and musical materials, stylistic features of different p ansori schools, transmission of knowledge, aesthetics, and changing interpretations of tradition....