'–c'''.Korean
mouth organ. It is constructed of a bowl-shaped windchest (originally a gourd,
now usually of wood or metal) with 17 slender bamboo pipes of varying length
mounted into the top. One of the pipes is mute, the other 16 having free metal reeds;
each pipe has a finger-hole located below the reed so that the pipe sounds only
when the hole is closed. A short, stubby mouthpiece with a square opening leads
into the windchest. The pipes sound on both inhaling and exhaling, and in
current usage up to three are sounded simultaneously. Adjustable slits at the
tops of the pipes allow for tuning. The range of the instrument is e'–c'''.
According to Chinese sources the mouth organ was played in Korea during the Paekche dynasty (18 bce–663 ce), and such an instrument appears in relief on a bronze bell cast in 725 ce and in a stone carving of roughly the same period. Among the large gifts of instruments in 1114 and 1116 from the Song Chinese emperor to Korea were 90 mouth organs, but since they were made of gourd they eventually rotted. By the 15th century the Koreans were making their own mouth organs on the model of two instruments bestowed by the Ming Chinese emperor in 1406.
Mouth organs were prescribed by the treatise Akhak kwebŏm (1493) for aak (‘ritual music’), tangak (‘Chinese music’) and hyangak (‘native music’). The treatise distinguishes three types, based on research into Chinese theoretical sources: the hwa (Chin.: he), a small instrument (34.7 cm high) with 13 pipes (one mute); the saeng (Chin.: sheng), a medium-sized instrument (44.4 cm) with 17 pipes (one mute; see illustration); and the u (Chin.: yu), a large instrument (55.9 cm) with 17 pipes (one mute), pitched an octave lower than the saeng.
The present day repertory for saenghwang is very limited, although a favourite duet, Suryongŭm, pairs it with the notched flute Tanso.
Sŏng Hyŏn, ed.: Akhak kwebŏm [Guide to the study of music] (Seoul, 1493/R), 6.14a–15b
Chang Sahun: Han'guk akki taegwan [Korean musical instruments] (Seoul, 1969), 47–52
ROBERT C. PROVINE