Musical bow
The musical bow (bowstring or string bow, a subset of bar zithers) is a simple string instrument used by a number of African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via the slave trade.[1] It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1.5 to 10 feet (0.5 to 3 m) long, and strung end to end with a taut cord, usually metal. It can be played with the hands or a wooden stick or branch. It is uncertain if the musical bow developed from the hunting bow, though the San or Bushmen people of the Kalahari Desert do convert their hunting bows to musical use.[2]
Types of bow include mouth-resonated string bow, earth-resonated string bow, and gourd-resonated string bow.[3][2]
History
There is speculation that the
Whether the bow in the cave illustration is a musical instrument or the hunting tool in a paleolithic hunt, musicologists have considered whether the bow could be a possible relative or ancestor to the
The bows used for music required a resonator, a hollowed object like a bowl, a gourd, or a musician's mouth, in order to produce audible sound.[10] Although the musical bow could be manipulated to produce more than one tone, instruments were developed from it that used one note per string.[10][12] Since each string played a single note, adding strings added new notes for instrument families such as bow harps, harps, and lyres.[12] In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords.[12] Another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck, creating the lute.[13]
Musical bows are still used in a number of cultures today. It can be found as far south as Eswatini, and as far east as eastern Africa, Madagascar, and Réunion. and also outside of Africa, as in the case of berimbau, malunga (derivations of the African musical bow) or the Appalachian mouth-bow.
Playing ways
The usual way to make the bow sound is to pluck the string, although sometimes a subsidiary
The most usual type of resonator consists of a gourd attached to the back of the string bearer. The bow may also be stood in a pit or gourd on the ground, or one end of it may be partially placed in the mouth. This last method allows the size of the resonator to be varied as the instrument is played, thus allowing a melody to be heard consisting of the notes resonating in the player's mouth. As well as these various forms of resonators, the bow is frequently played without a resonator at all.
In Africa, the musical bow is usually played by a solo performer. In capoeira, the berimbau is played as part of the roda, a musical group standing in a circle, in the centre of which the capoeiristas perform or play. The Appalachian mouth-bow can be played amplified in old-time music jams.
In Africa
See: Uhadi musical bow See:Umuduri
Due to the nature of their construction and playing, musical bows are quiet instruments, therefore needing a resonator to resound. The resonator can either be a gourd (as in uhadi, umakhweyana, segankure, xitende, berimbau, etc.) or the player's mouth (as in umrhubhe, umqangala, tshihwana, xizambi, etc.)
Musical bows are the main instruments of the Nguni and Sotho people, the predominant peoples of South Africa. Historians believe that many of the musical bows came from Khoisan peoples. Although there are many differences between musical bows, all of them share two things: a resonator, and at least two fundamental notes.
The strongest notes are the fundamentals, the deepest notes produced by the string, whereas the higher notes (the harmonic partials) are produced by the resonator.
There are at least two fundamental notes produced by all musical bows, an open (when the player does not shorten it or touch it) and a closed (where the string is shortened or stopped by the player's hand). In Xhosa they are called vu (from the word Vuliwe, 'open') and ba (from Banjiwe, 'held') respectively. These two notes can already be on the string, if it is divided or stopped by a string attached to the gourd, as in the case of umakhweyana, xitende, berimbau, hungu, etc. The pitch difference between a vu and a ba is usually about a whole tone. In certain places, it can be closer to a semitone (e.g. Zulu) or closer to a minor third (Tsonga).
Some of those instruments have more than two notes, for example the Zulu umakhweyana and the Tsonga xitende have three, whereas the Venda tshihwana has four.[14]
Other names
Musical bows are known by various names in the different languages of South Africa - some refer only to musical bows using gourds as resonators, others using the mouth:[14][15]
- Akele: ngongo
- Kimbundu: hungu
- Nguni: makhoyane
- Pedi: lekope
- S. Sotho: lesiba, thomo, setolotolo
- Tepehuán: gat
- Tswana: segankure
- Tsonga: xizambi, xitende
- Umbundu: ombulumbumba
- Venda: tshihwana, lugube, tshijolo
- Xhosa: uhadi, umrhubhe, umqunge, inkinge
- Zulu: umakhweyana, ugubu, umqangala, umhubhe[16]
- !Kung: m'bolumbumba
- Lingala: tolo-tolo
- umqangala
In other places
The most popular musical bow today is the Brazilian adaptation of the musical bow, the berimbau, most commonly associated with the jogo de capoeira.
Belembaotuyan is found in Guam, probably introduced through trade between South America and Asia in the nineteenth century.
Bobre, musical bow of Mauritius and Réunion.
Kunkulkawe is the name of a musical bow found among the Mapuche people in Chile and Argentina.
Piompirintzi is the name of a musical bow found among the
Latajkiaswolé is the name of a musical bow found among the
In the United States a musical bow is primarily found in the Appalachian Mountains, where it is called a "mouthbow" or "mouth bow".
In northwestern Mexico, the Tepehuán Indians of Durango use the musical bow during their mitote. The Tepehuán's musical bow has a gourd attached to it.
The kalumbu is played by the Tonga and Ila people of Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The ku is a Maori instrument from New Zealand, made of matai wood and a fibre string, and is tapped with a rod.[18]
The
The Yelatáj chos woley is a musical bow (played with another bow), from the Wichí culture of the Argentinian Gran Chaco.
In the Caribbean, on the island of Curaçao, the benta is a one-stringed musical bow, played using the mouth as a resonating chamber. Most probably brought to the island by Africans from Ghana, Angola, Nigeria during the slave trade, it is played as a leading instrument in "muzik di zumbi", ghost music (zumbi means ghost).[19] The name refers to the spooky atmosphere on the plantations since there was no electricity, and the hauling wind carries the sound of the music in all directions. It is mostly accompanied by drum, hoe and "wiri" (scraper of a serrated piece of iron). The Curaçaoan benta resembles the
A variant called the "whizzing bow", which is swung with the arm in a circle is played in Central America, China, Indonesia, and west Africa.[20]
See also
References
- ^ "Musical Bow". metmuseum.org.
- ^ a b Donald Keith Robotham. "African music Musical bows". britannica.com.
- ISBN 9781920051624
- ^ Joep Bor (1986–1987). "The Voice of the Sarangi, An Illustrated History of Bowing in India". National Center for Performing Arts Quarterly Journal. 15 & 16: 38–47.
[Three issues of this quarterly journal were combined into one; Volume 15 (issues 3 and 4) and Volume 16 (issue 1).]
- JSTOR 40461485.
- ^ a b "Trois Freres Cave". Retrieved March 27, 2015.
Henri Breuil surveyed the cave... a detailed study was published by H.Breuil and R.Begouen of the hundreds of engraved drawings in the deep gallery known as the "Sanctuary"...Its walls are filled with some 280 engraved (often superimposed) images of bison, horses, stags, reindeer, ibexes, and mammoths...
- ^ a b Garcia, Alfredo (5 October 2014). "EL ARTE RUPESTRE PALEOLÍTICO EN LAS CUEVAS FRANCESAS. LA CUEVA DE LASCAUX". algargosarte.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2018.
[Concerning a pair of images below the text; the top image is a line drawing showing a herd of animals drawn over one another with the hunter and bow in the pack; the other image is a photo of the cave wall with that image, enhanced to show the hunter and animals directly in front of him distinctly:] En Les Trois Frères destacaría su estilo tan naturalista... Es famosa la escena que del hombre camuflado como un bisonte, ¿Un chamán o un cazador?, que persigue o conduce a otros animales y que he destacado del conjunto superpuesto de abajo.
[In Les Trois Frères I would highlight his naturalistic style...The scene is famous, that of the man camouflaged to resemble a bison, (a shaman or a hunter?), that pursues or leads other animals, and that I have stood out from the set superimposed below...] - ^ ISBN 978-0-8078-1758-2.
a semi-human figure dances in the midst of the animals...herding the beasts and playing a musical bow. He wears the head and fur of a bison with human legs...
- ^ Campen, Ank van. "The music-bow from prehistory till today". HarpHistory.info. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
A cave-painting in the "Trois Frères" cave in France dating from about 15,000 years ago. The magician-hunter plays the musical bow.
- ^ ISBN 9780393020687.
- ^ ISBN 9780393020687.
- ^ a b c Dumbrill, Richard J. (1998). The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East. London: Tadema Press. pp. 179, 231, 235–236, 308–310.
- ^ Dumbrill 1998, pp. 308–310
- ^ ISBN 9781904303367.
- ^ "Musical Bow". Retrieved 2015-01-22.
- ^ Dargie, Dave (September 2001). Oehrle, Elizabeth (ed.). "Magical Musical Bows". The Talking Drum (16). Digital Innovation South Africa.
- ^ JSTOR 842168.
- ^ Best, Elston (2005). Games and Pastimes of the Maori. pp. 313–4. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
- ^ "Isocco Performance @ Curacao International Song Festival 1987". YouTube. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
- Oxford Music Online, published January 20, 2001.
External links
- History and playing instructions for the Appalachian mouthbow
- The Mouthbow – Making Music on a Weapon by Buffy Sainte-Marie for the Cradleboard Teaching Project
- British Library, David Rycroft South Africa Collection: Musical bow lecture examples 1979: Zulu umakhweyana
- British Library, David Rycroft South Africa Collection: Guitar talk tape A: Umakhweyana musical bow solo
- Muzik di zumbi, benta played by Issoco in Curaçao
- Isocco Performance @ Curacao International Song Festival 1987