culture

People often appreciate the refined, soft and tuneful sound peculiar to national instruments as they listen to music from TV and radio.

The Korean ancestors created various instruments and developed them on a constant basis to meet the sentiments of life and emotion. 

In the period of the Three Kingdoms—Koguryo, Paekje and Silla that existed between the mid-3rd century BC and AD mid-7th century, various musical instruments were already made by famous musicians such as Wang San Ak, U Ruk and working people.

Musical instruments numbered over 50 in kind in that period and increased to more than 60 in the period of Koryo that existed between 918 and 1392 and nearly 80 during the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910).

Most of the Korean national instruments have soft and clear tone quality while producing plaintive feelings. They have characteristics distinct from foreign national instruments. 

Though they had unique sound and delicate presentation abilities in the past, they had such shortcomings as narrow pitch range and relatively low sound volume. 

But the defects were repaired under the concern of the DPRK which pursued the policy of inheriting and developing the advantages of national instruments.

In such efforts, the National Institute of Musical Instruments, which was founded in 1968, played a leading part.

Researchers and manufacturers intensified research into and manufacture of musical instruments to overcome a series of the limitations they had  in the form, shape and material while preserving their original tone quality, and improved their tune system so that modern executions could be applied.

In the course of updating several national instruments from the five-tone system into the seven-tone one, they increased the number of strings and enlarged the sound boxes of such stringed instruments as kayagum, and boosted the number of finger holes of wind instruments and newly introduced keyboard equipment (key levers) into  them.

As a result, clear, soft, refined and elegant tone was further enriched, and sound range and volume were extended remarkably.

They continued to conduct research in order to overcome even slight disadvantages revealed in the course of performance in close contact with professional musicians, while constantly improving them.

As a result, many national instruments were improved and material and technical foundations were provided for creating a mixed orchestra combining with national and Western instruments.

The improved national instruments can be played while harmonizing national and Western music at the same time and be widely used in different forms of performance including solo, ensemble and concert.

They also wrote various kinds of books that help understand national instruments and the theoretical basis for the manufacture of instruments, including “Illustrated Book of Korean National Musical Instruments”, “Making of Musical Instruments” and “Acoustics of Musical Instruments”. 

The institute also intensifies the work to introduce modern science and technology into inheriting and developing national musical instruments.

It developed a string instrument quality assessment program for making a scientific analysis of the acoustic characteristics of national instruments and thus made progress in the evaluation of tone quality which was carried out by relying on hearing alone.

The work of developing traditional national musical instruments continues to be carried on under close national concern and the methods of making several national instruments including kayagum and haegum were registered in the national intangible cultural heritage list.