The ''sogeum'' (; also spelled ''sogum'' or ''sogŭm'') is a small bamboo transverse flute used in traditional Korean music. Unlike the larger ''
daegeum'', it does not have a buzzing membrane (although it did have one in ancient times). It is used in court, aristocratic, and folk music, as well as in
contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...
, popular music, and film scores.
The overall length and thickness are not constant because ''sogeum'' is made of natural bamboo, but it is 40 cm long and 2.2 cm thick.
Other larger flutes in the same family include the medium-sized ''
junggeum'' and the large ''daegeum''; the three together are known as ''samjuk'' (hangul: 삼죽; hanja:
三 竹; literally "three bamboo"), as the three primary flutes of the
Silla
Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...
period.
The ''sogeum'' has the highest and clearest tone among
wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...
s, and is often composed of singular numbers in ensemble, where other wind instruments are composed of multiple instruments.
Playing method
Sogeum is played in the same way as playing the Daegeum. Sogeum can theoretically sound all twelve notes of the
chromatic scale
The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce the ...
, but actually only eight notes are played naturally. Sogeum plays a role of making the songs that require high tone and clear tone in the main music, and it is rarely used as a solo instrument.
[{{Cite web, url=http://www.culturecontent.com/content/contentView.do?search_div=CP_THE&search_div_id=CP_THE008&cp_code=cp0225&index_id=cp02250010&content_id=cp022500100001&search_left_menu=, title=소금 - 문화콘텐츠닷컴, website=www.culturecontent.com, language=ko, access-date=2018-04-07]
See also
*
Bamboo musical instruments
*
Daegeum
*
Junggeum
*
Traditional music of Korea
*
Traditional Korean musical instruments
References
External links
''Sogeum'' page
Side-blown flutes
Korean musical instruments
Bamboo flutes