Bongo (drum)

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Skin-covered bongo drums

The bongo or bongo drum ( Spanish bongó ) is a small, single-headed, tunable tubular drum with cylindrical sides that is usually used in pairs , which is beaten with fingers or hands. Three to four bongos are also played at the same time. The bongo drums come from Cuba . The smaller drum is called macho (Spanish male), the larger hembra (Spanish female). In Son Cubano and styles derived from it, whoever plays the bongos changes to a cowbell , in Spanish cencerro , in the part of the piece called Mambo or Montuno . The player of the instrument is called bongocero .

origin

Cuba and the Arawak who lived there came under Spanish control in the first half of the 16th century. Spanish planters bought thousands of African slaves to grow sugar cane in the 17th and 18th centuries.

During the uprising against the French colonial power in Saint-Domingue (today Haiti ) in 1791, many black farm workers fled to the neighboring island of Cuba and brought their drum rhythms with the associated customs, chants and dances. Over time, these mingled with the guitar music of the Spanish farmers. A rural group of instruments dedicated to the son consisted of just three players who traveled the country with tres , guiro and bongos. The membranes were originally made of goat skin.

Design and materials

The bongos are two small, differently sized tubular drums covered with a skin (goat or plastic skin), the body of which tapers slightly towards the bottom and which are connected to one another by different constructions. In the most common method, the two drum bodies are screwed or glued together using a simple block of wood. Modern versions of the bongo also have connections made of metal and / or plastic, such as. B. the "Free Ride" bongos from the German manufacturer Meinl . Conventional instruments are made in a barrel construction, which means that small wooden staves are glued together, just as we know it from a wine barrel. But there are also constructions that use a production method from drum construction. To do this, several thin layers of wood veneer are glued together to form a cylinder. Modern bongos are often made of fiberglass . The height of the sides is 14 to 17 cm, the skin diameter of the drum is about 15 to 23 cm. Today there are also bongos that are made of plastic and / or have a plastic covering. These bongos are weatherproof and can therefore be used outdoors without any problems.

Style of play

Bongos belong to the group of membranophones , as the sound is generated by striking the heads. You can hit the edge over the edge and on the skin or just on the skin, you can play with the whole hand or just your fingers, you can dampen with one hand while the other is playing, or you can dampen a single hit immediately by leaving the hitting hand on the skin. But you can also play bongos with drum sticks. The bongos are used in all Cuban dances. "Martillo" (hammer) is the basic rhythm of the bongos.

Bongos are mainly used in Son Cubano and in salsa music . Since bongos are pitched very high and therefore sound very penetrating, they are usually used for solo voices. The conga is more used for accompaniment. The bongos are the best- sounding skin instruments of the Latin American hand drums and, along with the congas, are the most typical, probably most widespread percussion instruments from Cuba. Bongos can be tuned roughly in the range of a fifth (larger bongo from g to d´, smaller ones from a to e´), they are usually tuned to each other in fourth , fifth or small sixth .

See also

literature

  • Isabelo Ernesto Marrero: Drumming the Latin-American Way . EB Marks Music, New York 1949
  • Winfried Pape: Instrument manual. Spread, plucked, blown u. Percussion instruments in tabular form . Music publisher Gerig, Cologne 1971
  • Humberto Morales, Henry Adler: Latin-American Rhythm Instruments and How to Play Them . New York 1954

Web links

Commons : Bongos  - collection of images, videos and audio files