‘공무도하가’ 반주악기 공후(箜篌)의 기원과 형태 연구--사료를 중심으로

Abstract

Gonghuin is the oldest of existing songs in Korea and the musical instrument that accompanies this historically and culturally celebrated song is the gonghu. But hardly any research on the instrument has yielded visible fruit as yet. Probing into this ancient instrument would be crucial in understanding not only ancient instruments in general but also the history of the instruments currently in use. I have drawn a set of conclusions about the gonghu in Gonghuin, through the following procedures: 1. I examined the Chinese and Korean sources most frequently referred to for the history of the instrument. Geumjo, Gogeumju, Taepyeongeoram, Akpusijip, Yeonamjip, and Haedongyeoksa mention the geum and the gonghu as accompanying instruments in, but infact, the two names refer to the same instrument, which is a kind of zither easily accessible to the public. 2. The historical sources also demonstrate that there are two variations of the gonghu: one being harp-like and the other zither-like. The latter was probably first called gamhu(坎侯), but somehow became gonghu(空侯) before it finally came to take on the present name, gonghu(箜篌). But the fact that different sources make different statements about the instrument, even employing unrecognized terms such as gonghuseul and jaenggonghu, points to a possibility that familiar names were given to the zither-like instrument which was unfamiliar to the Chinese. This set of facts demonstrate that the gonghu as employed in Gonghuin is a zither-like instrument native to the Korean peninsula.