DAEGEUM: Korean musical instrument

The daegeum is a large bamboo transverse flute that is used in the traditional musical of Korea. The musical instrument has a membrane that gives it a unique tone quality. The musical instrument is used in the court music, aristocratic music, and the folk music and also in the modern day classical music, popular music and also the film scores.

Smaller versions of flute that belong to the same family as this musical instrument include; junggeum and sogeum, none of them are having a buzzing membrane today. The three musical instruments together are called samjuk as the three main musical flutes of the Silla period.

The daegeum, according to the Korean folklore, is believed to have been fabricated when King Sinmun of Silla was told by his caretaker, Park Suk Jung in 618 that a small island was moving in the direction of a Buddhist temple in the Sea of Japan. The king commanded the caretaker of the sun to test if this was a good fortune. The caretaker said that a dead king who transmuted into a sea dragon and two pronounced warriors are giving a gift to guide Silla and if the King would officially visit the sea, he will obtain the inestimable gift. The king sent somebody to know what the gift is all about. The person came back and answered back that a bamboo tree that is on the top of the island turn out to be two in the morning but will turn to one in the night. On the next day, the world shuddered and a heavy rain fell and wind blew and the world was flung to darkness for one week. When the king got to the place himself, a dragon showed up and told the king that if the bamboo that is on the top of the island was cut down, prepared into a flute and played, the country would be peaceful. The king did so and the flute manufactured from the bamboo was known as Man Pa Sik Juk.