장구

The instrument

The body is usually carved from paulownia wood, though clay and ceramic drums also exist. Its narrow waist, the jorongmok, shapes the tone: a wider tube sounds deeper and huskier, a narrower one harder and snappier. Each head is a skin stretched over a metal hoop and laced to the other with cords, traditionally twisted cotton; sliding adjusters on the cords tighten them to tune the drum.

The two heads are made of different hides. The left head, the gungpyeon or bukpyeon, is thick, of cowhide, horsehide or deerskin, and gives a deep, low sound. The right head, the chaepyeon, is thinner, of dog skin or light horsehide, and sounds higher. In court and refined chamber music it is played with a single stick on the right head and the bare left hand on the other. In folk music two sticks are common: the thin bamboo yeolchae and the round-headed gungchae, which takes the place of the hand.

How to listen

Listen for the two voices of the drum: a low, round stroke from the left head (kung), a sharp, dry crack from the stick (deok), and the two struck together (deong). A stick rolled on the right head gives a quick trill. These strokes, in patterns that repeat, mark out the rhythmic cycle that the melody moves over.

In the court piece Sujecheon the beat is so slow and so irregular that the janggu's patterns, together with the players' breathing, are what hold the ensemble together. In sanjo the drummer sits on the floor beside the soloist, keeps each cycle as the music gathers speed, and calls out short shouts of encouragement, chuimsae, to spur the player on.

A short history

Hourglass drums are traced to ancient India and spread east along the trade routes. In Korea the smaller, older yogo, "waist drum", appears in Goguryeo tomb paintings, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that early hourglass drums were struck with the palms. Written records of the janggu begin in the eleventh century; by the Goryeo period it was used in state ceremonies, at banquets and in both native and Chinese-style court music, and it grew to its present size. Later pictures show it in shamanic and folk settings too. The Joseon music treatise Akhak gwebeom already describes its four basic strokes.

Today it is heard throughout Korean music. It plays in the court orchestra, accompanies singers and dancers, is central to the farmers' bands (nongak), and is one of the four instruments of samul nori, with the buk drum, the jing gong and the kkwaenggwari gong.

Start with

Hear it lead the court orchestra in Sujecheon, and partner one player in Gayageum sanjo, Kim Juk-pa school, where Jeong Jun-ho accompanies Mun Gyeong-a's gayageum.

Questions

What is a janggu?

The janggu is a Korean hourglass-shaped drum with two heads of different hides, played with a stick and the hand or with two sticks. It keeps the rhythm in court, folk and shamanic music and in sanjo.

Why does the janggu have two different sides?

The thick left head gives a low, deep tone and the thin right head a high, sharp one. Struck alone or together, they give one drummer a range of strokes from deep to sharp. The two sounds are also said to stand for um and yang, the Korean yin and yang.