Composed of a core set of two drums and two gongs, p'ungmul is a South Korean tradition of rural folk percussion. Steeped in music, dance, theatre, and pageantry, but centrally focused on rhythm, such ensembles have been an integral part of village life in South Korea for centuries, serving as a musical accompaniment in the often overlapping and shifting contexts of labour, ritual, and entertainment. The first book to introduce Korean drumming and dance to the English-speaking world, ethnomusicologist Nathan Hesselink's P'ungmul offers detailed descriptions of its instrumentation, dance formations, costuming, actors, teaching lineages, and the complexities of training. Hesselink also evaluates how this tradition has taken on new roles and meanings in the 20th and early-21st centuries, investigating the interrelated yet contested spheres of history, memory, government policy, grassroots politics, opportunities for musical transmission, and performance practices and aesthetics. With colour and black-and-white photographs, notes, bibliography and index.