Kŏmun’go

(from kŏmun: ‘black’; go: ‘zither’).

Korean six-string, fretted, plucked long zither . In Chinese-character texts it is referred to as hyŏn’gŭm. The kŏmun’go is about 150 cm long (though somewhat smaller instruments exist for folk music) and its slightly tapering width is 20 cm at the widest point. The body is made of two main pieces, the slightly curved front of paulownia wood and the back of chestnut; the interior is hollow. Six strings of twisted silk run from a broad, curved bridge on the performer’s right to moorings looped through holes at the far end; reserve string is kept in coils near the moorings. Glued perpendicular to the body are 16 thin wooden frets, nearly rectangular in shape and ranging in height from about 6 cm down to only 6 mm. The frets are only wide enough to lie under the second, third and fourth strings, the tallest fret acting as a bridge which suspends these three strings just above the remaining frets. The first, fifth and sixth strings are held up with small movable wooden bridges (‘wild-goose feet’). The strings are plucked with a wooden plectrum (sultae), and the face of the instrument is protected in the plucking area by a leather cover.

The kŏmun’go has several tunings, a typical one for court music being E–A–D–B–B–B'. Its compass is quite wide, from the open B' up to b' on the 16th fret. The instrument is played propped slightly up on the edge and angled away from the performer so that the bottom lies against the left knee and the right end is supported on his right knee; as a result, only a single corner rests on the floor (see illustration). The performer plucks the string, both downwards and upwards, with a plectrum held in the right hand between forefinger and middle finger, being secured by thumb and forefinger. The left hand is positioned by keeping the ring finger pressed on the second string (normally on the fourth or seventh fret) and the middle finger on the third; the forefinger and thumb move about freely, the melody normally being played on the second and third strings. Shading and vibrato are obtained by pressing the strings laterally along the top of the frets.

The sound of the kŏmun’go is rather weak, partly as a result of low string tension, and there are intrusive sounds from the performing techniques, such as the plectrum striking the leather guard or the rubbing of wound strings against the frets. But the kŏmun’go is considered a noble and masculine instrument, as distinct from the more feminine Kayagŭm, and its player is normally the most influential member of an ensemble.

Fretted long zithers, apparently forerunners of the kŏmun’go, appear in a number of tomb paintings of the Koguryŏ period (37 bce–668 ce; see illustration). The richness of the tomb iconography, which extends westward into China, has led to some controversy as to whether the drawings depict proto-kŏmun’go or ancient Chinese wo-konghou (‘horizontal harps’).

The kŏmun’go was one of the three main string instruments, together with the kayagŭm and pip’a, during the Three Kingdoms (57 bce–668 ce). A legend in the Samguk sagi (‘History of the Three Kingdoms’, 1145) recounts how a man named Wang Sanak of Koguryŏ modified a Chinese qin and made a new instrument; when he played it black cranes flew in and danced, so he named the instrument hyŏnkakkŭm (‘black crane zither’), the name later being shortened to hyŏn’gŭm (‘black zither’) or, in pure Korean, kŏmun’go.

The kŏmun’go has a long and continuous performing tradition. The Akhak kwebŏm (1493) devotes to it the longest single instrumental entry, with detailed modal and technical information, and the descriptions apply to the modern instrument in nearly every detail. At about the turn of the 16th century an efficient and precise tablature notation system (hapchabo) was devised, based in part on Chinese qin tablature, and numerous volumes in this notation survive from 1572 onwards.

The kŏmun’go is used in many court and folk ensembles, as well as in the solo virtuoso genre sanjo, in which it is particularly effective.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sŏng Hyŏn, ed.: Akhak kwebŏm [Guide to the study of music] (Seoul, 1493/R), 7.13b–21a

Chang Sahun: Han’guk akki taegwan [Korean musical instruments] (Seoul, 1969), 64–75

Yi Hyegu: Han’guk ŭmak nonch’ong [Essays on Korean music] (Seoul, 1976), 147–63

Song Bang-song: The Sanjo Tradition of Korean Kŏmun’go Music (Seoul, 1986)

K. Howard: Korean Musical Instruments: a Practical Guide (Seoul, 1988), 191–213

ROBERT C. PROVINE