SAENGHWANG: Korean musical instrument

The saenghwang is a wind musical instrument from Korea. The musical instrument is a free reed mouth organ gotten from the Chinese musical instrument called sheng, though the tuning of the musical instrument is different.

The musical instrument is carved from seventeen bamboo pipes, each of the pipes having a metal free reed, attached in a wind chest vertically. Traditionally the wind chest of the musical instrument was manufactured out of a dried gourd but in the present days the musical instrument is more commonly manufactured of metal or wood. In contrast to some other traditional musical instruments from Korea, it is not popular today, even in the Korean empire, and very few music players are able to play the musical instrument. The musical instrument is used mainly in chamber music, normally along with some musical instruments such as the danso and yanggeum even though bands like Arirang Frontier and Orgasm have been branded to employ the musical instrument in a fusion setting. The musical instrument was referred to as saeng historically.