Gonghu is the first instrument in the historical documents about Korean music, and has a very interesting story about it. In ancient times a fisherman's wife sung with Gonghu about an old man's sorrow who drowned himself in a river. Later on Yeo-ok and Yeo-yong made this Gonghu song very popular, and then the words of this song was preserved in the form of poem. In the Chinese documents there is a song title of Gonghuin which is one of Sanghwaga(相和歌), popular song in the period of Southern Dynasties (R.C5~6th centuries). With the resemblance of song title, we can say there is possibility that the ancient Korean Gonghu song became prevalent to the land of China, even the Southern Dynasties. But it is hard to prove this assumption because of the lack of documentary sources. Actually in antient times the concept of national border did not exist as well as the one of nation itself Moreover during the ancient times Korean people basically cultivated field and also were in nomadic life. Therefore it is quite natural that they got the cultural exchange between different ethnic groups especially in northern part of Korean peninsula. Under this half nomadic and half farming life style, the Gonghu song could be prevalent to eastern and western part of Asia. As Zhang Jian of Han Dynasty had already have traveled over the Pamirs through Central Asia, even in the ancient times there was already a great movement of cultural exchange. We can imagine that ancient cultural exchange especially in Asia with the haegum distribution. Haegum is originated from the upper middle of Nanhe, where had been belonged to the district of ancient Korea. Xi tribe ("Hae tribe" in Korean) was one of Donghu tribe who had lived in Rehe district, and they made the two stringed zither, haegum. After Haegum was introduced to China, it has diverse Chinese names like Huqin, Nanhu, Wengzi, ect. There is another Chinese name, erhu which became a main instrument later in traditional Chinese ensemble. Koreans pronounce erhu "ee-ho". In Korean "ee" means two, and "ho" means "borderlands". Therefore "ee-ho" means two stringed instrument from borderlands. Haegum spread far and wide along the Silkroad. In Kazachstan there is two stringed instrument, so called "kobyz" resembling haegum; there are two kinds of kobyz, "kylkobyz" and "narkobyz". Especially Shaman uses kylkobyz, whose materials can be made by eight different materials. It is very interesting because Korean haegum also can be made by eight different materials. On the other hand Kirghizstan and Uzbekistan also have bowed instrument like haegum. It is called "kiyak" or "ghichak", maily producing sound to mimic animals. It is common use with haegum because in ancient times haegum also produced human and animal sounds. Actually the word, "kobyz" is Turkish. Mongol has a same instrument, which is "khuur". Nowaday the most popular instrument in Mongol is two stringed instrument "marin khuur" with a horse head ornamentation. It is known as "madugum" in Korea: "ma" means horse, and "du" means head. Korean haegum had been introduced to the eur-asia world like Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, denominating "kamanche" or "kemanche", and to Turk and Egypt, "rabab". Therefore Mogolian "morin khuur", Armenian "kamanche", and Turkish "rabab" all belong to the haegum family. The Korean two stringed instrument, haegum which originated from northeastern Asia, especially Xi tribe (Hea tribe), was disseminated to the western world following the trading and cultural exchange. The Studies on ancient Korean instruments like heagum has historic importance in music history, establishing the connection of musical instruments between the orient and occident world.
한국국악학회는 국악을 연구하여 음악학 및 민족음악의 향상에 기여할 목적으로 1948년 4월 봄에 이혜구, 장사훈, 성경린, 이주환 외 15명의 발기로 발족하여 1963년 12월 14일 사단법인체로 인가취득한 이래 1) 국악의 연구발표 2) 국악 관계자료서 수집 3) 국악에 관한 전시회 및 강연회 개최 4) 국악에 관한 출판사업 5) 국내의 학계간 교류 등의 사업을 진행해 오고 있다. 본 학회는 국악의 연구발표를 4000여회에 가까운 월례발표회를 가졌으며, 20회에 걸친 국악기 및 국악서적 전시회를 열고 3회의 신국악작곡 발표회를 가진 바 있다. 특히 학회에서는 1971년 한국음악연구 제1집을 발간한 이래 현재 제45집 출판에 이르렀으며, 30여종의 고악보 간행, 이혜구 박사 송수기념 음악학 논총, 장사훈 회갑기념 동양음악논총 등 30여권의 단행본을 출판하였다. 또한 1989년 제1회 국악학 전국대회를 열어 한국음악의 쟁점이 되는 주제를 선정하여 전국규모의 학술대회를 개최하고 있으며, 1975년 한·일간의 고려악 연구회를 발족시켜 일본의 음악학자들과의 공동연구로 심포지움을 개최하였으며, 1981년에는 국제전통음악학회(ICTM) 서울대회를 치뤄내고, 1994년에는 제1회 아시아 태평양 민족음악학회(APSE)를 서울에서, 1999년에는 제6회 아시아 태평양 민족음악학회(APSE)를 수원에서 성황리에 치뤄내는 등 외국학회와 교류에 힘써왔다.