Korean Barrel Drum - History

History

The barrel drums used for court music are usually fixed with nails on the rims, while ones used for folk music are usually tied up with leather straps to form the shape. Performers in the court music usually beat these drums with a single drumstick (called bukchae, 북채) in one hand or two hands together, while drummers in the folk music commonly use a drumstick in their right hand while hitting the other side with their open left hand. In the past, the jong (종, bell) was also referred to as "soebuk" (쇠북, metal drum) and included in the drum category.

Barrel drums have been used for Korean music since the period of the Three Kingdoms of Korea (57 BC – 668 AD) in light of mural paintings in Anak Tomb of Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) and records of Book of Sui on the kingdoms, Goguryeo and Baekje (18 BC – 660 AD). In the 3rd of Anak Tomb, two types are depicted in the paintings titled Juakdo (주악도, 奏樂圖, "painging of playing music") and Haengryeoldo (행렬도, 行列圖, "painting of marching") such as ipgo (입고, 立鼓) and damgo (담고, 擔鼓) respectively. The ipgo is a buk that performers beat as standing, while the damgo is a drum that drummers strike while carrying it on their shoulder.

During the Unified Silla period (668 – 935), daego (대고, 大鼓) or keunbuk, meaning "a big drum", was used along with a percussion instrument named bak (박, 拍) in music played by Samhyeon samjuk (삼현삼죽, 三絃三竹) which comprises samhyeon, three string instruments such as geomungo, gayageum, and hyangbipa and samjuk such as daegeum, junggeum and sogeum. In the Goryeo period (918 – 1392), as dangak and aak were introduced to Korea from China, a lot of drums such as janggu, gyobanggo, jingo began to be used for the court music.

While there are twenty types of buk used in the present Korean traditional music, most commonly used buk are jwago to perform Samhyeon yukgak (삼현육각, 三絃六角), yonggo for marching music, gyobango for bukchum (북춤, drum dance), beopgo for Buddhist ritual ceremonies, sogo used by Namsadang, and street musicians, soribuk or called gojangbuk for pansori, maegubuk (or called nongakbuk) used for nongak, and motbanggo used by farmers as working.