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The changgo, also
called the changgu, or changgi (uncommon), is a
double-headed drum with a body shaped like and hourglass. It
is used to accompany almost every genre of Korean music from
court music to shaman ceremonies. The body is usually made of
paulonia wood
(though there are examples of pottery bodies) which is varnished or
painted red,
and the heads are made of hide held into place with rope cords.
In accompaniment a bamboo stick called a ch'ae strikes
the right side of the drum making a tak sound, and the
palm of the left hand strikes the left head making a kung
sound.
There is very little historical
information on the changgo. It is depicted on a Silla
(57 B.C. - 935 A.D.) bell as well as in a stone relief from the
same period, and in a Koguryo (37 B.C. - 935 A.D.) tomb painting.
The first manuscript is not recorded until 1076 where it is described
as a field instrument used presumably during farming activities.
Almost forty years later in 1114, twenty changgo are recorded
as part of a gift from the Song Chinese Emperor to the Korean
Koryo Court (918 - 1392), but the provenance of the instrument
has yet to be explained.
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