and e, and the haegŭm has a
range of three octaves. It has a nasal timbre which, though not especially
loud, is distinctive enough to be heard even in large ensembles. It is capable
of rich ornamentation and of dynamic contrast.Two-string spike fiddle of Korea (hae: name of a Tatar tribe; gŭm: ‘string instrument’). In some documentary sources it is also known as hyegŭm (Chin. xiqin) and, onomatopoeically, kkangkkangi. The haegŭm is about 70 cm in length, and the neck (of bamboo or wood), about 2·5 cm in diameter, curves gently forward at the top and passes at the bottom through a tubular soundbox of large bamboo root or hardwood (about 10 cm in diameter and in length). The soundbox has a paulownia-wood sound-table at the front and is open at the rear. Two strings of twisted silk are attached to a metal clasp at the bottom of the soundbox, pass over a small wooden bridge and are tied to two large pegs skewered into the curved portion of the neck; the pegs (about 11 cm long) have spools on which excess string is wound. The bow, about 65 cm long, is of slender and supple bamboo with loose horsehair; the horsehair passes between the two strings of the fiddle (see illustration). It is said that the haegŭm, as it was built in former times, was the only instrument to use all eight sonorous materials of the Chinese classification system (earth, metal, silk, gourd, wood, skin, stone and bamboo).
The
performer sits cross-legged, with the haegŭm propped up vertically
on the player’s left knee, the bow held horizontally in the right hand. The
tension of the horsehair is altered by pushing down on it with the fingers of
the bowing hand; according to which string is played, both sides of the
horsehair are used. The player’s left thumb is hooked round the slender neck,
and the other fingers pull the strings towards the neck, there being no
fingerboard. There is a position system for the left-hand fingering, as with
the Western violin. The small bridge is slid to the centre of the soundtable
when a full sound is required, as in ensembles with loud wind instruments, and
closer to the upper edge when a gentler sound is called for, as in ensembles to
accompany singing. The strings are tuned a 5th apart, a typical tuning being a and e, and the haegŭm has a
range of three octaves. It has a nasal timbre which, though not especially
loud, is distinctive enough to be heard even in large ensembles. It is capable
of rich ornamentation and of dynamic contrast.
The haegŭm is thought to be of Mongolian (Tatar) origin. It was used in China by the 10th century, and the first known citation of the name in Korea occurs in a poem of the first half of the 13th century. Until at least the end of the 15th century it was used only in Korean hyangak (‘native music’), but it is now also used in tangak (‘Chinese music’); this reverses the usual Korean pattern of a foreign instrument used initially for foreign music and only later adapted for native music.
Today the instrument is usually played in mixed ensembles. Like the bowed long zither Ajaeng it can sustain notes and therefore often appears in so-called ‘wind’ ensembles. It is a favourite instrument in shaman ensembles (sinawi) and folksong accompaniments, and it occasionally serves as soloist in the virtuoso genre sanjo.
Sŏng Hyŏn, ed.: Akhak kwebŏm [Guide to the study of music] (Seoul, 1493/R), 7.8a–9b
L.E.R. Picken: ‘Early Chinese Friction-Chordophones’, GSJ, xviii (1965), 82–9, esp. 85
Chang Sahun: Han’guk akki taegwan [Korean musical instruments] (Seoul, 1969), 61–4
Ch’oe T’aehyŏn: Haegŭm sanjo yŏn’gu [A study of haegŭm sanjo] (Seoul, 1988)
K. Howard: Korean Musical Instruments: a Practical Guide (Seoul, 1988), 214–28
ROBERT C. PROVINE