The drum talk is a shaped hourglass drum from West Africa, the pitch can be set to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by a leather strap, allowing the player to modulate the pitch drum by squeezing the rope between their arms and body. The skilled player is able to play the entire phrase. Most of the talking drums sound like hum humming depending on how they are played. Similar hourglass drums are found in Asia, but they are not used to imitate speech, although idakka is used to mimic vocal music.
Video Talking drum
Name in West Africa
Maps Talking drum
History
Hourglass-shaped talking drums are some of the oldest instruments used by Western African griots and their history can be traced back to the Yoruba people, the Ghana Empire and the Hausa people. The Yoruba people from south western Nigeria and Benin and Dagomba from northern Ghana) have developed a very sophisticated griot music genre centered on the talking drum. Many of the drum variants that speak evolve, with most of them having the same construction mentioned above. Soon, many forms of non-hourglass appear and are given a special name, such as drums Dunan, Sangban, Kenkeni, Fontomfrom and Ngoma. Interestingly, this construction is limited to the contemporary boundaries of West Africa, with the exception to this rule being North and Chad western Cameroon; areas that share populations that belong to the dominant group in the adjacent West African countries, such as Kanuri, Djerma, Fulani and Hausa.
In the history of Senegal and the Gambia, first (Serer) is one of the musical instruments used in the Serer tradition of people "Woong" ("the dance performed by the boys Serer has not yet circumcised "or a circumcised future, also known as " Xaat " in Serer). The drum, has the religious connotation of Serer (which preceded the Ghanaian Empire). In the tradition of Xaat , first form the fourth musical ensemble. Serer drums are played including: Perngel, Lamb, Qiin and Tama.
From a historical perspective, the first one (like Serer junjung), was beaten by the senrial kings griots on special occasions, such as during the war (calls for weapons), when the kings wanted to talk about their people, and in particular the state of Serer - call for martyrdom, such as the chaos in Tahompa (19th-century shock attacks) and the Battle of Naoudourou, where the loser of Serers (by the Senegambia Muslim-marathon) suicide from being conquered by Muslim forces or forced to submit to Islam. Suicide is allowed in the Serer religion only if it satisfies Serer's principle of Jom (see Sererity religion). The word "Jom" means "honor" in the Serer language.
How they "talk"
Pitch drums vary to mimic the tone patterns. This is done by varying the tension placed on the drumhead: the opposite drum head is connected by a common voltage cable. The waistband of the drum is held between the arm and the player's rib, so that when pressed, the drumhead is tightened, producing a higher tone than when it is relaxed; tones can be changed during one tap, resulting in a warbling tone. Drums can capture the tone, volume, and rhythm of human speech, though not vocal or consonant qualities.
The use of drumming as a form of communication was known to Europeans in the first half of the 18th century. A detailed message can be sent from one village to the next at a faster rate than one can ride a horse. In the nineteenth century Roger T. Clarke, a missionary, realized that "the signals represent the syllable of the conventional phrases of the traditional character and very poetic." Like Chinese, many African languages ​​are tonal; that is, pitch is important in determining the meaning of a particular word. The Yoruba language of the Yoruba people is for the most part determined by the tri-tonic scale, consisting solely of tonic sol-fa notes, do, re, mi, different inflections which are then used to convey different messages, this same principle also applies to how drums speak in all the music and culture of the Yoruba community. The problem is how to communicate complex messages without using vowels or consonants, just use the tone. An English emigrant to Africa, John F. Carrington, in his 1949 book The Talking Drums of Africa explains how African drummers are able to communicate complex messages in great distances. Using low tones referred to as higher male and female tones, drummers communicate through phrases and pauses, which can travel upwards of 4-5 miles. This process can take up to eight times longer than communicating a normal but effective sentence to tell a neighboring village of a possible attack or ceremony. He found that for every short word beaten on drums added additional phrases, which would be exaggerated in speech but provide context to the core drum signal.
Example
The "Return to Home" message might be translated by the drummer as: "Get your feet back in the first place, make your feet back first, plant your feet and your feet beneath, in the villages that belong to us."
Single words will be translated into phrases. For example, the "moon" will be played as "Moon is looking at the earth", and "war" as "war that causes attention to ambush".
Additional phrases provide context for understanding basic messages or drum beats. These phrases can not be randomized, while learning to play the drum students are taught certain phrases coinciding with each word. This reason alone makes learning to speak in drumming very difficult and not many are willing to take the time to do so. The extra drum beats reduce the ambiguity of meaning. The irony is that by the time the West understood the drum mechanisms they were beginning to wane used in Africa. It is also unusual words to lose meaning. In an interview with Carrington he explained that when words are not used often, the phrases associated with them are forgotten. When given a knock to the young girl, the drummer thinks that the phrase being played is actually one for the fishing nets.
As emphasized by Finnegan, the messages sent through the drum are not limited to utilitarian messages with little literary flavor. The language of the drum can also be used for special literary forms, for proverbs, panegimes, historical poetry, dires, and in some cultures almost all types of poetry. The forms of ritual and the name of the drum are a type of oral literature. Among some people like Ashanti or Yoruba, the language of drums and literature is highly developed. In these cultures, drumming tends to be a special and often hereditary activity, and expert drummers with vocabulary mastery received from drumming and literature are often attached to the king's palace.
Talking drum variance
Dimensions
Various sizes of the drum speak the hourglass there, with different drum dimensions between ethnic groups, but all follow the same template.
The Tama of Serer, Wolof and Mandinka community is characterized by a smaller dimension, having a total length of drum length of 13 cm (5 inches) with a head diameter of 7 centimeters (2.75 inches). This produces a much higher pitched tone than other speaking drums of the same construction.
The Yoruba and Dagomba on the other hand have some of the biggest dimensions for drums in their Lunna and DÃÆ'¹ndÃÆ'ºn ensembles, with typical lengths of 23-38 centimeters (9- 15Ã, inches ) and the diameter of the drum head is between 10-18 centimeters (4-7Ã, inch). In Yoruba talk-drum ensembles, this is used with a smaller talk drum similar to Tama , called Gangan in Yoruba.
Play style
The style of play is closely related to the drum construction and the tone qualities of each language. There is a clear distinction in the style of play between the areas with the dominant Fulani and Mande populations and traditionally non-Mande areas further east.
The dominant styles of play in the western regions more like Senegal, Gambia, West Mali and Guinea are marked by rapid rolls and short bursts of sound between the hands holding hands and the accompanying free hand, and correlate with the various tone and non-tonal accents of the language heard in this area. This is a style that is usually heard in the popular Mbalax genre of Senegal.
From eastern Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana, to Niger, west-Chad and Nigeria, (with the exception of areas with the majority of Fulani and Mande speak) the drum-speaking style of focus centers on producing long and sustained records by hitting the head drum by holding hand and hand wand the accompanying free is used to muffle and change the tone immediately after being hit. This produces a rubber-like texture for the game, which mimics the heavy and complex tones used in the language of this area (see Niger-Congo's tonal language chart). This distinctive style can be heard clearly in popular music in this area, especially where the talking drum is the main instrument, like Fuji Yoruba music from Nigeria.
Use in popular music
In the 20th century drumming talk became a part of popular music in West Africa. It is used in playing Mbalax music from Senegal and in Fuji and JÃÆ'¹jÃÆ'º Nigerian music (where it is known as dÃÆ'¹ndÃÆ'ºn, not to be confused with drum dundun bass of the nation of Mandà ©  ©).
King Crimson used a talking drum on his album Larks' Tongues in Aspic , for the song "The Talking Drum".
Tom Waits used a drumming speech on his song "Trouble's Braids," a song from Swordfishtrombones album .
Erykah Badu used a talking drum in her song "My People", from the album of New Amerykah Part One (World War 4) .
Sikiru Adepoju is a talking drum master from Nigeria who has collaborated with artists from Grateful Dead to Stevie Wonder and Carlos Santana.
NanÃÆ'¡ Vasconcelos, the percussion master, began playing drumming in the early 1980s and has been using it ever since.
Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac has been using speech drums on the track "World Turning" on the 1975 eponymous band album and in concert performances of the song.
In popular culture
In the Patapon game series the player is a god who communicates with his followers using four Talking Drums. Each has a unique sound: 'Pata', 'Pon', 'Don' and 'Chaka.'
In the Dead Like Me television series, speech drums are discussed as a means to celebrate the lives of the dead.
They can also be heard in the 1959 movie The Nun's Story, starring Audrey Hepburn, when he arrived at what was then the Belgian Congo.
Bill Kreutzmann, a drummer for the Grateful Dead, occasionally plays the talking drums in the band's live performances during the "drum" segment of their performances in the second set.
Drum speak has a prominent feature in the 2018 movie scores of Black Panther . The score, compiled by Ludwig GÃÆ'¶ransson, uses a talking drum in the core of the main motif associated with the film's protagonist, T'Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman).
Drum name
In some ethnic groups, each individual is given a drum name . An example of a Cameroonian Fur is "Even if you dress fine, love is the only one" or "a giant wood rat does not have a child, a house mouse has no children". A talking drummer sends a message by entering the recipient's name, followed by the sender's name and the message.
See also
- Drum (communication)
- Whistle language, tonal transposition of spoken language.
Note
References
- (In French) Gravrand, Henry, "Civilization civilization - Pangool , vol 2, Les Nouvelles Edition Africaines du Senegal, 1990, p 40 , 48-49, ISBN: 2723610551.
- (in French) Gravrand, Henry, "L'Heritage Sereer spirituel: Valeur traditionelle d'hier, d'aujourd'hui et de demain", in Ethiopiques , numÃÆ' Â © ro 31, rÃÆ' Â © vue socialiste de culture nÃÆ' Â © gro-africaine, 3e trimestre 1982 [2] (taken May 7, 2012)
- (in English) Joof, Alhaji Alieu Ebrima Cham, "Senegambia, our heritage land" (1995)
- (in French) Sarr, Alioune, "Histoire du Sine-Saloum" (SÃÆ'  © nÃÆ' Ã… © gal), Introduction, bibliography and par record of Charles Becker, Bulletin de l'Institut fondamental d 'Afrique noire, Tome 46, Serie B, n  ° 3-4, 1986-1987, p.Ã, 42.
- "Telegraphy Drum". TIME , September 21, 1942. The online version is accessed November 7, 2006.
External links
- Nigerian drumming video, known as Dundun , about 8 minutes
- Senegalese drumming videos, known as Tama - "Men" and drums talk from africa "(in) Youtube (Accessed: May 7, 2012)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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