[KS] leaf

[Keith Howard]

Lauren,

Akhak kwebom has a picture, but it is nothing more than a flat leaf, 
front and back (in Yi Hyegu's 1979 modern Korean version, vol.2, 
p.147). The description talks about mandarin orange and citron tree 
leaves, although I encountered mandarin orange leaves being used in 
Chindo ... much as you describe, placed laterally between pursed 
lips, with one leaf being folded back on itself to create a double 
reed, leaving a section jutting out from the mouth that was bent 
slightly upwards. Akhak kwebom also talks about using peach leaves, 
but the drawing appears to be birch. Robert Provine, in his entry in 
the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, talks about an 
'obsolete tubular kazoo'; to a Brit like me, it is rather like the 
comb and paper children use to create a similar sound, but without 
the relatively strong frame (of the comb), and hence, as saliva 
affects its constituency, it has a short life span.

There is also plenty of information about what Laurence Picken in a 
1977 arricle in Chang Sahun's SNU festschrift calls 'stripped-bark 
pipes', variously known as hodugi, hodulgi, holtaegi, hoettoegi, 
hoettigi, hwottaeggi. Here, bark is detached from the wood pulp/core 
by twisting and an integral 'reed' is fashioned. While I once thought 
(on the basis of discussions with Korean musicologists) that this 
instrument was no longer played, in 1992 I encountered an old woman 
in a subway just by Pyongyang Station trying to sell blades of a 
thick grass that she had made into a similar type of reed pipe.

Although I have one picture of an old genleman playing the leaf back 
in 1983, calling it the ch'aegum, I haven't encountered any 
photographs in Korean books.

Keith


>I'm curious about what the process looks like. Any photos?
>
>As a child we were taught to pluck a sturdy, bu pliable "weed" 
>(looking more like a mini bamboo leaf) and, holding it along the 
>length and between two thumbs with bent first joint, we were able to 
>blow on it and make a sound. Successful, it was "fuzzy" like a 
>daegum with it's membrane.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Lauren
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Keith Howard
>Sent: Mar 16, 2006 1:14 AM
>To: Korean Studies Discussion List
>Subject: Re: [KS] leaf
>
>Kevin
>
>There's plenty of tradition for the leaf. I wrote about this in my 
>Korean Musical Instruments: A Practical Guide (1988) and also 
>mentioned it in Bands, Songs and Shamanistic Rituals (1989/1990). 
>Akhak kwebom shows the leaf and details how to make and play it as 
>an instrument -- so that takes us back to the 15th century. There 
>are two commercial recordings available featuring the leaf:  taken 
>from SPs produced between 1929-1950, 'Taegum. T'ungso/ P'ulp'iri ui 
>myongin. Myongin myongch'ang sonjip 8 (Jigu, JCDS-0472, 1994), and 
>contemporary recordings, 'Myongin myongch'ang 4: podul p'iri myongin 
>Pak Sanil (Jigu, JCDS-0613, 1997). The folk music scholar Lee 
>Bo-hyung also has a huge number of field recordings featuring the 
>leaf, and I recall, but cannot find a reference for, an album he put 
>out with his Han'guk koumban yon'guhoe journal that had some leaf 
>recordings.
>
>Keith
>
>>This is going to sound a bit odd, but i've recently seen some nice 
>>video of a Daegum player. He's a pretty fine player and plays some 
>>sanjo type passages on the Deagum and when he's done he plucks a 
>>leaf from a plant and plays Milyang Arirang on the leaf. I can't 
>>say that i have ever seen such a thing. I know that in some areas 
>>there are unusual instruments in some coastal places and islands 
>>like in Cheju-do, etc. But, is there any tradition of playing the 
>>leaf in Korea? Or is this just a goof?
>>
>>cheers,
>>
>>kevin
>>
>
>
>--
>Dr Keith Howard
>Reader in Music, SOAS,
>Director, AHRC Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance
>Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
>Tel: 020 7898 4687; Mobile: 07815 812144; Fax: 020 7898 4519
>Website: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/kh/
>
>
>Lauren W. Deutsch
>835 S. Lucerne Blvd., #103
>Los Angeles CA 90005
>Phone: 323 930-2587
>e mail: lwdeutsch at earthlink.net


-- 
Dr Keith Howard
Reader in Music, SOAS,
Director, AHRC Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Tel: 020 7898 4687; Mobile: 07815 812144; Fax: 020 7898 4519
Website: http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/kh/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20060318/9726b7dd/attachment.html>