Korea's Traditional And Reform Dulcime

As we have examined above, comparing the stuctures and performance techniques of the korean tradional dulcime,the improved dulcime,the Chinese dulcimer,the korean traditional dulcime has some limit in playing original music pieces,in such areas as timbers, ranges, techniques, etc. After the liberation form the Japanese occupation,the dulcime was restored bur not improved much. though we have the improved dulcime now with widened ranges and specialized strings for low tones, milddle tones,and high tones, it is basically the same. thus,it is difficult to express its unique timbers and the results are not so splendid in playing original music piecesThough the Chinese dulcime has wider ranges and boasts more various techniques and its strings do not get overstretched easily, the tones are not to the taste of the korean people and the arrangement of tones is not proper in playing korean music, in most cases. the tones of the Chinese dulcime are close to touching sound of strings with woods more often than reverberating sound after plucking strings, in other words, sharp steely sound and wooden sound.The dulcime from korean can be said to be improved quite reasonably, taking national characteristics into account, while instruments for korean cassical music have a lot of restrictions with its 5-note scale and cannot play complicated original works,timbers,volumes, and ranges.Since the'production of the korean dulcime is based on original pieces, volumes can be controlled at will and ranges can be wider than other traditional instruments. It has the 12-note scale for the consistency of tone and volumes. While traditional instrument and improved version show difference in basic techniques, traditional instruments are sure to form the basis. The difference in basic techniques was the influence of morden western music.Today, the dulcime is an influential instrument in various forms of music not onl y as a solo performance but also for mixed orchestral music and instrumental duet music. Though the role of the dulcime is the accompaniment of other musical instruments, their colorful technical characteristics harmonize well with other instruments, performing solo melodies and performing parts individually.Thus, the dulcime made in korea can be used in playing korean original music pieces since they can achieve superb performance in the aspect of ranges, ti mbers, techniques, and tempos.