Musical Instrument With Six Strings (Geomungo)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 24 Feb 1886
name: label: Donor Name
content: Ensign U S N John B. Bernadou
notes: label: Notes
content: "Late 19th century. Paulownia wood with silk strings. This instrument has six strings of twisted silk; the second, third, and fourth strings are stretched over sixteen fixed frets, which are tuned by round pegs. The other strings are stretched over three movable bridges and are tuned by moving the bridge to the right or left (SMI (A Study of Musical Instruments in Korean Traditional Music), 1998: 42-43 for Korean terms for different parts of the instrument). When played, the geomungo is laid flat and the strings are plucked with a bamboo rod held between the index and middle fingers of the right hand. The left hand presses on the strings to produce microtones. This instrument was featured in a chamber ensemble or as accompaniment to classical lyric songs. Ceomungo also became popular to play folk tunes. The wood is decorated with a bat and a rebus for blessings, and the longevity symbols: rocks, bamboo, and pulloch'o, fungus of immortality... Collected in Seoul. Ref: Hough Korean Catalog pl. XXV; Bernadou Field Notes 113" [from: "An Ethnography of the Hermit Kingdom: The J.B. Bernadou Korean Collection 1884-1885", Chang-su Cho Houchins, 2004, number 152]
label: Record Last Modified
content: 16 Mar 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Korea, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Korean
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 016970
label: USNM Number
content: E93569-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Zither
physicalDescription: label: Height
content: 11.5 cm
label: Length
content: 162 cm
label: Width
content: 17 cm