The Corean gamut, differing from the scale used in European countries, makes a fearful and wonderful difference in effect upon our ears. Some of their melodies upon the flute are plaintive and sweet, but most of their music is distressing to the ear and desolating to the air. One hearer describes their choicest pieces as “the most discordant sounds that ever were emitted under the name of music from brass tubes.” Some of the flute music, however, is very sweet. As most of the ancient music of Japan is of Corean origin, one can get a fair idea of the nature of the sounds that delight a Corean ear from the music of the imperial band of Tōkiō, which plays the classical scores. Yet it is evident that the modern tunes of Seoul are not melodious to Japanese auditory nerves. One would think that, as the mikado’s subjects “hear themselves as others hear them” when Corean musicians play, they would be delighted. On the contrary, Corean music seems to horrify and afflict the Japanese ear. Evidently, in the course of centuries the musical scales of the two countries, originally identical, have altered in tone and interval. Wan-ka is the father of Corean music—though the mere fact that he belonged to antiquity would secure his renown. The various stringed musical instruments known are the kemunko, a kind of large guitar; the kanyakko, mandolin; the ko-siul, or guitar of twenty-five strings; and the five-stringed harp or violin. The wind instruments comprise a whole battery of flutes, long and short trumpets, while cymbals, drums, and other objects of percussion are numerous. Ambassadors and other high officers at home, and when on duty to foreign countries, are accompanied by a band of musicians. Laborers on government works are summoned to begin and end work by music, but the full effect of a musical salvo is attained at the opening and closing of the city gates. Then the sound is most distressing—or most captivating, according as the ears are to the manner born, or receive their first experience of what tortures the air may be made to vibrate.