The gayageum

Korea's twelve-string zither — movable bridges, left-hand bends, jeongak and sanjo

Related

The kotoGuqinZheng

The gayageum is Korea's twelve-string zither: one string to one movable bridge, plucked with the right hand and pressed with the left. The important number is not twelve but the movable bridge — every string's pitch can be reset, and a left-hand press to the left of a bridge bends it.

The main line: twelve strings, one bridge each

Twelve silk strings run from the bridge at the head to the tail, each supported by a movable bridge (anjok, also called a goose-foot bridge). The bridges are not glued; moving one left or right changes the pitch, and the twelve are set in a diagonal row like geese in flight. A jeongak gayageum is larger with slacker strings; a sanjo gayageum is smaller and tighter, suited to solo playing and song accompaniment.

Form: paulownia top, chestnut back, silk strings

The soundboard is usually paulownia, the back chestnut, the frame and bridges hardwood; the top is arched over a resonating box. Strings differ in gauge, thick for the bass and thin for the treble. The traditional jeongak instrument has a ram's-ear ornament at the tail; the sanjo instrument drops it and shortens the body. From the late twentieth century came 18-, 21-, 23- and 25-string models, the 25-string often tuned to a seven-note scale for new music.

Two hands: pluck, press, bend

The right index finger plucks, bright near the head bridge and softer near the movable bridges; the left hand presses to the left of a bridge, raising the pitch or adding a wrist vibrato — nonghyeon, the most voice-like thing on the instrument. In sanjo a note often arrives straight and is then pressed and shaken. To listen to the gayageum is to listen to what happens after the note has sounded.

Jeongak, sanjo and the 25-string

Jeongak is court and literati music: slow, quiet, ensemble-minded, with the gayageum holding its own part. Sanjo is a solo form that arose in the nineteenth century: the gayageum faces a janggu, the sections move from slow to fast, and the whole closes in a rapid cycle. The same instrument is a member of the group in jeongak and a speaker in sanjo. According to the Samguk Sagi (1146), King Gasil of Gaya modelled the instrument on the Chinese zheng and ordered the musician Ureuk to compose for it; this is the peninsula's best-known origin story, written long after the event, and should be read as traditional narrative.

Against the koto and the guqin

The Japanese koto has thirteen strings, movable bridges (ji) and picks (tsume) on the right hand, with the Ikuta and Yamada schools differing in attack; the gayageum has twelve strings, mostly bare fingers, and a more prominent left-hand bend. The Chinese guqin has seven strings and no bridges, with pitch set by stopped strings and harmonic nodes — one string, many notes; the gayageum takes one string, one pitch, then bends it. Three East Asian zithers, three ways of holding pitch in the hand.

Three things to take away

1. Twelve strings, one bridge each: pitch can be re-placed. 2. Right hand plucks, left hand presses: nonghyeon gives a note an afterlife. 3. Jeongak and sanjo: one instrument, two ways of speaking.

HS classification

The range of a twelve-string gayageum moves with the tuning and the bridge positions: the larger jeongak instrument, with slacker strings, sits lower; the smaller sanjo instrument, strung tighter, sits higher. The band is a schematic span for a common setup (G2–D5, common G3–C5), not a measurement of any one instrument; a 25-string model extends both ends.

Sources

• 伽倻琴的十二弦、雁足、正乐与散调两类形制、弄弦技法，参 Wikipedia "Gayageum" 与 Grove "Kayagum"；《三国史记》所记嘉悉王与于勒的起源叙述在正文标明为传统叙述；本文为原创表述
• 25 弦等现代改良型的弦制与七声定弦，参国立国乐院与国立国乐博物馆的乐器说明；曲库无伽倻琴录音，实例取 C1 韩国旋律与日本筝风格 MIDI 作参照；本文为原创表述

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.