Gimbri

Gimbri players in Marrakech

Gimbri ( Arabic كمبري) other spellings guinbri, guembri, gmbri, gnbri, gnibra, gombri, gunbri and gunibri, plural gnabir, gnaber , high Arabic qunbrī, is a 1–1.5 meter long plucked box- neck lute with three strings in the Maghreb countries of Morocco , Tunisia and Algeria . It has a long, round neck and a rectangular body made of one piece of wood, the top of which is covered with an untanned animal hide. The strings are usually made of sheep gut and will not be with vertebrae attached, but with a leather strap around the neck.

The gimbri is a black African instrument that could have its roots in Guinea and perhaps came to Morocco with the Gnawa in the 13th or 14th century . Which is occupied first written Gimbri at Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) as qanābir (Pl.). The lute became a simple accompanying instrument of Moroccan folk music, in contrast to the Turkish-Persian ṭunbūr of classical Arabic music, which was introduced by the Arabs in the 7th century .

Since the gimbri is covered with skin, it is not only used as a string instrument , but also often as a drum . That means you can drum with it and play notes at the same time.

The three instruments with which Gnawa perform at concerts and which they use in the derdeba obsession ritual are, in addition to the gimbri, the large cylinder drum ṭbal and metal hand rattles qaraqib (Sing. Qarqaba ). The gimbri is identified with the possessed in this therapeutic ritual and is used to invoke the spirits. It may only be played at night within the meeting place. The gimbri has the same central importance in the Tunisian possession ritual Stambali .

The gimbri is related to the four-string tidinit played by the Sahrawis and in Mauritania and the three-string tahardent of the Tuareg . The shorter Moroccan bowl-neck lute gnibri has a small sound box made from a turtle shell.

literature

• Lucy Durán: Guinbri. In: Grove Music Online , September 22, 2015

Web links

• Gimbri . omnia.ie (images of several gimbri ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Henry George Farmer : A North African Folk Instrument. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 1, January 1928, pp. 24–34, here p. 27