Downr

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Daunr , also daunra, daunru (Garhwali language), is a double-headed hourglass drum that is used in Indian folk music in the Garhwal region in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand to accompany secular epic songs ( pawada ), folk theaters and religious obsession ceremonies ( jagar ) in closed And is always used together with the flat gong thali . The daunr is somewhat more compact than the hurka played in the same region and is sometimes incorrectly equated with the hourglass-shaped rattle drum damru ( damaru ), which is played differently .

Origin and Distribution

Wooden hourglass drum utukkai from Tamil Nadu .

The very large number of Indian drum types today corresponds to hundreds of names for drums that have been handed down in Sanskrit and Tamil since ancient Indian literature . Most of the drums had a religious or magical meaning; food and drink offerings were spread in front of some. Probably the best known ritually used drum is the small hourglass-shaped damaru , which is mainly depicted as an attribute of Shiva . In the form of Nataraja , Shiva created the world according to Hindu mythology in his cosmic dance ( tandava ). The strong voice of a god could be heard in the beating of some drums, other drums were used to drive away evil spirits. The name dundubhi , used in Vedic texts from the 1st millennium BC. Appears, usually referred to a war drum with a large cauldron-shaped body made of wood. The dhamsa is a large kettle drum with an iron body that is played according to regional North Indian music .

A name for a group of double-headed tubular drums that appeared in several Sanskrit texts as early as the 1st millennium BC. Chr. Occurs is mrdanga (from mrd , "clay"). According to the work Natyashastra , which was written around the turn of the times, this included drums that were divided according to their handling, standing vertically on the floor or played horizontally in the lap, such as the double-cone drum mridangam derived by name in southern India . A second group of wooden drums is known to have the name dardara referring to a barrel-shaped drum. Today's barrel drums in northern India are dhol , dholak and dholki . A second type of wooden drums is not described and named panava mentioned third guy was an hourglass, as the dimensions of the large head diameter eight angulation (for a finger), for the small head diameter five angulation and the body middle four angulation indicated become. Converted, this results in skin diameters of 12 and 7.5 centimeters for the ancient Indian panava and 6 centimeters for the middle of the body with a length of 24 centimeters.

Hourglass drums are depicted on reliefs on the stupa of Bharhut (2nd century BC). According to the illustrations, the eardrums of the ancient Indian tubular drums were braced against one another with an X, Y or W-shaped lacing. The types of lacing result from the arrangement of knots or movable rings, with which the tension and thus the pitch can be adjusted. Hourglass drums can also be tightened by a cord running around the middle in a ring. In addition to the daunr and the hurka , the dhadd, played by the Sikhs in Punjab to accompany religious songs, is another small hourglass drum in northern India. Several hourglass drums, all of which are larger, are played in southern India. These include the idakka and timila , both used in Hindu temple music in Kerala , and the tudi used for song and dance accompaniment in Karnataka and Kerala . In north and south India, hourglass drums are also widespread, the name of which is derived from Sanskrit hudukka , like the hurka : in the north they are called huruk in Hindi and in Tamil Nadu in the south they are called utukkai .

Design

The daunr is around 20 centimeters in length much shorter than the 38-centimeter-long hurka , but has a slightly larger diaphragm diameter of 16 centimeters on both sides. At the waist in the middle of the body, the diameter is 13 centimeters. The body is made of copper, brass or wood. Goat skin is usually used for the thicker and heavier membranes compared to the hurka . The goat skin is pulled over metal rings that are larger than the body openings and tied to them with a cord. The protruding rings are braced against each other in a V-shape. A string or a strip of cloth running across the middle is used to tension the membranes to the correct pitch before playing. The daunr only produces the pitch that is tuned. In contrast to the hurka and most other Indian and African hourglass drums, the player does not press the lacing during the game in order to achieve different pitched drum beats.

The player sits on the floor and fixes the daunr between his knees - with one knee above and one knee below the drum - or sometimes under his leg and hits the right eardrum with a thin wooden stick about 25 centimeters long. Its diameter is at the upper end, with which it is held between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, about 8 millimeters and at the lower end 10 millimeters. In this position, the stick protrudes between the middle finger and the ring finger under the hand, which is moved to strike with a twisting movement of the forearm clockwise and back. The left membrane is hit with the flat left hand.

Because the word daunr is often pronounced with a vowel ending as daunra or daunru , there is a risk of confusion with the smaller hourglass drum damru ( damaru ). The name damru is sometimes equated with daunr , although the attribute of Shiva is usually represented as a completely different rattle drum after the sound generation. Since the rattle drum is used nationwide by street musicians and beggars, some Garhwalis would like to see it named under the previously only regional name dugdugi (cf. duggi ) and to see Shiva's drum as an hourglass drum struck with sticks. Then daunr and damru would denote the same divine instrument.

The daunr is always used together with a thali . The thali is a round metal plate with a bent edge on which an Indian meal is usually served. A brass tray with a diameter of 22 centimeters, which is hit from above on the middle of the underside, is usually used as a musical instrument. In one striking technique, the plate lies on the floor, lifted by the tip of a foot on one side, and is struck with two sticks, both of which produce the same open sound. In the other method, the player places the thali on the open top of a round wooden container ( pathu ), which otherwise serves as a grain measure . In this case, he hits the plate with a piece of deer antler in his right hand and holds it by the edge with his left hand. If he hits the plate on top, a darker sound is produced; if he lifts it up at an angle, a lighter sound is produced, which is amplified by the wooden container as a resonance body.

Style of play

The most extensive list of Uttarakhand musical instruments includes 34 instruments from all categories that are played in traditional folk music. This does not include the instruments used in Indian classical music . Folk musical instruments are divided into two large groups according to their use at outdoor events (wedding parades) or in closed rooms (epic singing, dance accompaniment, obsession ceremonies). In both groups there are instruments that are always played in pairs. Typical for outdoor music is the indispensable pair of drums at weddings, consisting of the large barrel drum dhol and the flat kettle drum damau , which is melodically amplified by the bagpipe mashak . On some festive occasions, the curved trumpet ransingha or the straight trumpet bhankora blown in pairs is used. The daunr, which is always played in closed rooms together with a thali , is the second most important musical instrument after the dhol . Another pair of instruments for closed spaces are the hurka and thali .

The caste structure of the Varnas (main castes) in Garhwal differs from that of general Hindu society. Among the numerous professional casts within the Varnas there are musician casts who only play one specific instrument or group of instruments. The Bajgis are the numerically strongest caste of musicians who play all of the above instruments for ceremonial outdoor performances. Beda (also Baddi) perform as entertainers with dholak and harmonium . Other music specialists do not belong to any musical caste, although they have an essential role in the conduct of ceremonies. The musicians in this group are mainly addressed with five names: hurkiya and daunriya (player of one or the other hourglass drum), ghariyala (also daunri player, i.e. synonymous with daunriya , sometimes also related to hurkiya ), dhaunser (player of the dhaunsi , a name the hurka in some areas) and jagariya (someone who performs the possession ceremony called jagar , healer or shaman ). The hurka-thali and daunr-thali instrument combinations are the most common instrumentations for traditional light music styles and indoor ceremonies in Garhwal. Hurka and daunr are interchangeable on many occasions, but most drummers specialize in either the hurka or the daunr . In contrast to the drummers, the thali player does not need a very thorough musical training, which is why a special thaliya group is missing. In general, the casts of instrumentalists, despite their importance in secular and religious ceremonies, have a low status, with the social position of the dholak players being classified below that of the hurka and daunr players.

The entertainment repertoire includes forms of singing that are divided into gatha (long epic ballads) and lok-git (shorter folk songs) more according to their length than according to stylistic characteristics . The further subdivision of the gatha repertoire is not standardized. The epic ballads are consistently divided into religious jagarn , which are sung during necromancy rituals and contain the stories of gods, and into more secular heroic stories pawara . A daunr-thali or a hurka-thali group accompanies this repertoire and the lok-git repertoire, which consists of mangal git , auspicious wedding songs and several group dances for entertainment. The name chaunphala is best known for various styles of singing and dancing. There are also other dance styles such as the jhumailo and tharya circle dance , both of which are performed in spring. The dance songs are often sung alternately by the dancers divided into two groups.

Most of the folk tales in Garhwal come from the classic Sanskrit epic Mahabharata , from which only part of the episodes have been taken over in a modified form and these have been supplemented by motifs that only occur in the Garhwali folk tradition. These include stories of the god Nirankar, who is a local appearance of Shiva. In the heroic songs ( pawara , from Sanskrit pravada , “saying”, “way of speaking”), sung sections of the story alternate with dances that are accompanied by songs. The drummer and singer regulate the course of the event by determining the frequency of the intervening dances. Performances that take place in private houses rarely offer space for more than four dancers at the same time due to the limited space available. If performances last the entire night, there are pauses at certain intervals after the end of a dance in which the drummer can rest.

Obsession ceremonies ( jagar ) pursue the goal of inviting a certain deity ( devta ) into a medium so that this medium falls into an obsession dance and can carry out the desired divinations. This performance is not interrupted by breaks and combines narrative and dance. The possession ceremonies are shorter than the performances of the heroic songs; its duration depends on how quickly the medium falls into a trance. You begin with a solo of the percussion instruments ( dhunyal ) designed to favor the gods, followed by a monotonous high-tempo recitation accompanied by repetitive rhythmic patterns. Typical of the Garhwal style of presentation is a long vowel called bhaun (also called baunr ) aa at the end of each line of text, with which an accompanying choir supports the singing of the jagariya .

Anoop Chandola (1977) differentiates ten strokes in the daunr according to the type of execution. With the daunr almost as many types of beats are performed as with the dhol , which in Garhwal is considered to be the musically most complex drum due to its rhythmic expression. Dhol and daunr are different drum types, but they are similar in the way they play. Four of the beats do not differ tonally, but are executed in a constant sequence with different fingers approximately in the middle of the membrane. The rhythmic accompaniment by daunr-thali is related, as with the other pairs of instruments, to their tonal gradation, through which the music is intended to influence the course of the performance or the ceremony. With the daunr , the higher-sounding thali creates a constant soundscape against the silence with quick interludes. The naturally short drumbeats be the impact sequence on the thali lined, so a kind of monotonous drone of the more varied drumbeats added.

Narendra Singh Negi (* 1949) is Garhwal's best-known and most commercially successful popular music singer, who takes up the social situation in his homeland as well as political issues in his lyrics. In March 2006, shortly before the parliamentary elections in Uttarakhand, Negi released the music album Nauchami Narayana . Its title refers to nau chami , "nine rhythms" to which Narayana dances, as another name of the popular god Krishna is. In it, Negi uses satirical means to criticize the two leading Indian parties at the time ( BJP and INC ) for their mismanagement of the Uttarakhand province by, among other things, situationally placing the figures in the context of an possession ceremony. In the video of the song, Negi appears at the beginning, traditionally dressed as a jagarya and with a daunr in hand, in front of an altar, next to him is an accompanying musician who is playing thali . In the background, like a village ceremony, a male choir can be heard, which begins with a long aa at the end of the stanza. The name "Narayana" in the title is also an allusion to Narayan Datt Tiwari , then Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, who plays the flute ( murali ) like Krishna in the video . Most political analysts agree that Nauchami Narayana , the best-selling Garhwali song ever, played a key role in the electoral process of Tiwari and the loss of power of the INC in Uttarakhand in the parliamentary elections.

literature

  • Andrew Alter: Dancing with Devtās: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India. (2008) Routledge, Abingdon / New York 2016.
  • Anoop Chandola: Folk Drumming in the Himalayas. A Linguistic Approach to Music . AMS Press, New York 1977.
  • Alastair Dick, Andrew Age: auṅr . In: Grove Music Online, January 20, 2016, doi : 10.1093 / gmo / 9781561592630.article.L2290808 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Kaufmann : Old India. Music history in pictures. Volume 2. Ancient Music . Delivery 8. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, p. 33.
  2. ↑ Emmie Te Nijenhuis (Ed.): Saṅgītaśiromaṇi: A Medieval Handbook of Indian Music. EJ Brill, Leiden 1992, notes 138 on translation on p. 549.
  3. ↑ Walter Kaufmann, 1981, p. 33.
  4. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments . National Book Trust, New Delhi 1977, p. 42.
  5. ↑ Alastair Dick: Huḍukkā . In: Grove Music Online , 2001, doi : 10.1093 / gmo / 9781561592630.article.51110 .
  6. ↑ Andrew Alter, 2016, p. 77; However, Stefan Fiol (2010) mentions that the knees, between which the drum is held, exert pressure on the lacing: Stefan Fiol: Dual Framing: Locating Authenticities in the Music Videos of Himalayan Possession Rituals . In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 54, No. 1, Winter 2010, pp. 28–53, here p. 50, footnote 7.
  7. ↑ Anoop Chandola, 1977, p. 32.
  8. ↑ Andrew Alter, 2016, pp. 78f.
  9. ↑ Andrew Alter, 2016, p. 77.
  10. ↑ Anoop Chandola, 1977, pp. 27, 44f.
  11. ^ Andrew Alter, 2016, p. 79.
  12. ^ Andrew Alter, 2016, p. 42.
  13. ^ Andrew Alter, 2016, pp. 43, 72, 79.
  14. ^ Alain Daniélou : South Asia. Indian music and its traditions. Music history in pictures . Volume 1: Ethnic Music . Delivery 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, p. 88.
  15. ↑ Andrew Alter, 2016, pp. 49f.
  16. ^ Andrew Alter, 2016, pp. 49-53.
  17. ↑ Anoop Chandola, 1977, p. 18.
  18. ↑ Andrew Alter, 2016, pp. 169f.
  19. ↑ Anoop Chandola, 1977, pp. 39, 43f.
  20. ^ Andrew Alter, 2016, p. 218.
  21. ↑ Nauchami Narayana Part 1. Youtube Video; Nauchami Narayan - Narendra Singh Negi - Part 2 - Negi Da yana geet na laga. Youtube video.
  22. ^ Stefan Fiol: Articulating Regionalism through Popular Music: The Case of “Nauchami Narayana” in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. In: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 71, No. 2, May 2012, pp. 447-473, here pp. 447, 462.