Post by Blue on Apr 12, 2015 14:52:05 GMT
There are a few shops selling traditional Korean instruments in Seoul, primarily located between Jongno3-ga station, exit 7 of the Seoul Metro and Nagwon Instrument Arcade. The first four pictures show one such shop selling daegeum, sogeum, danso (aka duan xiao), and tungso (aka dong xiao).
The daegeum and sogeum are transverse flutes, with the daeguem being lower pitched and the sogeum being higher pitched. Observe that the blowing hole is much larger than the dizi counterparts. However, only the daegeum has something equivalent to the mokong, or hole for the buzzing membrane. Additionally, the Koreans use thicker material for dimo and protect it from breakage by using a shield.
The last image is the curtain call of a Korean concert where they allowed the audience to use their smart phones, cameras, etc. to take either pictures or videos.
The announcements and introductions of this concert were totally done in Korean. My Korean friend tried to periodically provide a summarized translation of what the announcer was saying, but we were constantly interrupted by an usher who warned “No speaking” in English. Well, then: it's the loss of the concert organizers if the only non-Korean in the audience wanted to understand the introduction to the concert.
Most people in the audience were wearing formal clothing (ie suit and tie) as if they went to the concert directly from work. It was a weeknight overall.
There were two performances, each consisting of one flute player and the drummer. Each performance lasted non-stop for 45 minutes. Yes, what I'm saying is that the flute player played non-stop for 45 minutes (to the point of losing all his saliva). With all the vibrato and shaking of the body, it's amazing that the flutist could maintain his embouchure that long. The 45 minutes consisted of the drummer producing a certain beat and the flute player playing a response. Sometimes I wondered if they were partially improvising because how in the world could the drummer memorize 45 minutes of beat sequences?
