Igemfe

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Igemfe ( IsiZulu , plural amagemfe ), also igekle, igenkle, igenxe, igerre and igexhle , refers to two types of flutes of the Zulu in South Africa , both of which are obsolete in the 21st century: mainly a finger hole-free, simple form of nuclear fission flute , which is always of boys and was played in pairs, as well as a small transverse flute with two to four finger holes, which was already rare in the 1930s . The unusual lengthwise flute consists of a thick plant tube, which is blown into, and a thinner tube firmly attached to it, which is open at both ends. It produces two tones. The tone, which is a fourth lower, is created when the lower end is closed with the finger.

Origin and Distribution

The simplest wind instrument of the Zulu and Xhosa is a small pipe made from a plant pipe ( impepe , plural izimpepe ), which is cut straight at the upper end and closed at the lower end by an ovary . The sound is produced by the player placing the end of the pipe on the tip of the tongue and blowing it diagonally over the upper edge. The impepe , used by boys as a toy, produces a high fundamental tone and only occasionally the first overtone a duodecime higher on slightly longer instruments . In a dictionary from 1878 the impepe is listed as a bone flute . The British missionary Allen Gardiner (1836) mentions a flute made of sheep or goat bones among the Zulu . The flute, which was blown into the thinner end and probably closed at the lower end, produced such a shrill sound that Gardiner had to go to the opposite side of the dance circle every time he heard it playing to the accompaniment of all kinds of dances. A dictionary from 1923 mentions a flute made from a quill pen with the name mpempe . Pedi boys call small reed flutes, which usually only produce the keynote, naka ya lethlaka .

In a similar way to the reed flutes, various animal horns were blown from the open end against the closed tip and used by San and Damara, among others, as signaling instruments during hunting. The Herero blew such single-tone flutes from the horn of a springbok during happy festivities; All over the country there were whistles made from the horns of small antelope species such as springbok or duiker , which were used for various purposes, such as by the Swazi and Venda , to fetch dogs.

The bone flutes also included a signal whistle made from the shin bone of a springbok among the Koranna in the southwestern Transvaal . In addition to the bone flutes, cut at right angles at the upper end and naturally closed at the lower end, as in this case, there are or were other flutes with an open lower end that is closed by a plug. This includes the lengwane , made from a goat or sheep bone , that Pedi boys blow. The instrument is carefully crafted with a V-shaped vent at the thicker end and a thinner distal end sealed with beeswax. A pipe closed with a stopper is also the naka of the Balete, which is a subgroup of the Batswana in Botswana , made from the shin bone of the secretary bird . The naka is one of the devices of the natural healer, who goes out when thunder and lightning is approaching to protect the village from harm and uses it as an aid in divination. For this purpose, the Pedi natural healers use a flute called a tsula made from the shin of an eagle or a South African wildcat species ( Felis lybica cafra ). Natural healers from other ethnic groups also use similar mammal and bird bone flutes for magical purposes. The Swiss missionary Henri-Alexandre Junod (1913) describes a bone flute corresponding to the tsula among the healers of the Tsonga , who wanted to keep lightning away with the so-called "sky flute". The entire flute, about eight centimeters long and thickened at its lower end, was covered with lizard skin. The certain substances that were mixed with the wax plug should make the sound audible up to the sky when the flute player sounded his instrument from a hill when a thunderstorm was approaching. The Venda people call the magical bird-bone flute nanga ya danga .

Some flutes, such as the naka ya pathola of the Pedi, were prepared with magical substances because they were carried by warriors and were supposed to give them protection. If the owner of the flute was killed in battle, someone else from his troop took over the flute to blow it in his place. A boy played the flutes appropriate for his age group and only then practiced the difficult-to-play flute of his father, which he received when he died.

The imbande of the Zulu was an approximately 13 centimeter long bird's bone flute with an upper end that was pointed on two sides and held against the lower lip - similar to the igemfe . The lower end that had just been cut off was covered with a finger in order to produce two high- pitched tones approximately a third apart , as in the dzhio of the Venda . Reports from the 19th century describe the imbande as a flute made from the shin bone of a goat or a large reed buck , which was probably adopted by the San. The name umbaendi , which has been handed down for a pipe that San wore around their necks, indicates this origin .

In the absence of an animal horn, a flute could also be imitated from wood, just as the natural phalaphala horn was occasionally replaced by an imitation wood. The Swazi's luveve was made from a piece of hardwood shaped like a small antelope horn . This was divided lengthways in the middle, hollowed out both halves, put them together again to fit exactly and wrapped around them with the wet skin of an oxtail. The flute was hung around the shoulder with a strap. With it the Swazi sent signals during the hunt and in combat; a healer called otherworldly spirits with them during magical acts. The Zulu flute was called uveve . The Methodist missionary and historian William Clifford Holden reports (1866) on the use of this high-pitched and piercing flute with the antelope hunting.

A long, thin Zulu flute, open at both ends, was the fingerhole-free umtshingo (plural imitshingo ), also ivenge , made of a plant tube and an obliquely cut blowhole. The player formed an air channel with his tongue and with the lower end opened or closed with a finger could produce two series of overtones from the fourth to the twelfth overtone. This overtone flute is known by the Swazi as umtshingosi and by the Basotho as lekolilo . The umitshingo served the Zulu cattle herders as a signaling instrument and its game was intended to be beneficial for the cattle in the pasture. The umtshingo represents a significant leap forward compared to the aforementioned bone flutes with their tonal options.

As a further step towards the notch flutes, the begu der Zulu , which consists of a plant tube, has a U-shaped cut-out end. This allows the player to place his tongue in a stable position on the underside of the blow hole to create a simple core gap. The begu is always played in pairs. The somewhat longer, “male” flute is called indota and the shorter, “female” flute is called circumferential . The two tones produced with the closed or open lower end are sufficient for playing, further, in principle playable overtones are not required. The begu is mostly blown by young cowherds. The “female” flute takes over the rhythmic guidance with its two alternating tones, while the “male” flute repeats the same constant rhythm.

Design

Apart from the begu, the longitudinally blown igemfe was the only paired flute in South Africa. It consists of a 30 to 50 centimeter long reed without finger holes, which - extremely unusual - is composed of two parts. The upper, much thicker part is closed at one end by an ovary and cut off at the other, open end just below the next ovary. A round hole that is exactly the same size as the thinner pipe is cut in the sealed end. This tube, which is open on both sides, is thinned out slightly at the top so that it can be inserted into the hole of the thicker tube with a perfect fit and airtight. The open end of the thicker pipe is prepared as a blowing opening and, as with the begu, cut out on both sides in a U-shape rounded inwards at approximately a 45-degree angle ( double-notched ), with one of the cuts being slightly larger than the other. The player places the larger cut side against his lower lip while holding the flute almost vertically downwards, so that a gap remains above the lip as an inlet opening and the blown air is directed against an edge formed by the upper part of the pipe end according to the principle of the core gap flute . This flute end, which precedes the construction of the beak flute ( recorder ), has been known since the Paleolithic . A find with a corresponding upper end is the griffon vulture bone flute from the hollow rock cave in Baden-Württemberg , whose age is estimated to be at least 35,000 years and is therefore one of the oldest surviving flutes.

With the index finger of the right hand, the player closes the lower end, creating a tone that is about a fourth lower than the open end. If the two pipes individually named, it means thicker igemfe and the thinner isitukulu . As with the begu , the slightly larger flute is considered “male” and the smaller one is “female”. The pitch difference is a semitone or a little more. For the most part, only the two lowest notes are used in playing, although a range of overtones are available. Compared to the begu , the length of which is determined by the maximum distance between the ovaries , the igemfe represents a further development because the pitch can be adjusted by cutting off the thin tube at the lower end.

In addition to the longitudinal flute igemfe an eponymous flute Zulu is known, already rare in the 1930s and either occurs sporadically or has completely disappeared. The reed flute igemfe has two to four finger holes and is similar in South Africa to the shitiringo of the Venda with three finger holes and the umtshingosi of the Swazi with three finger holes and in East Africa the ibirongwe with four finger holes. Percival Kirby (1934) describes two transversely blown amagemfe with three finger holes that are open at the distal end, and a transverse flute that is closed at both ends with four finger holes arranged in pairs. Another igemfe with three finger holes has two in the middle and one near the bottom. The inconsistent shapes suggest that the instrument was adopted from elsewhere and imitated without thinking about it. Sometimes other wind instruments are also called igemfe .

Style of play

The igemfe is shown in an illustration by the English draftsman George French Angas in his volume with hand-colored lithographs The Kafirs Illustrated from 1849. A photograph in a work by the Tyrolean priest Franz Mayr ( A Short Study of Zulu Music , London 1908) shows several Zulu musicians playing the mouth bow umqangala along with other musical bows and igemfe .

The flute was mostly played by boys and always in pairs. One player added the two notes of the other to a melody in a special antiphonic form. In a typical example, the “female” flute of the amagemfe pair produces the notes c 1 (open below) and f sharp 1 (closed below), the “male” flute b 1 (open) and f 1 (closed).

Like the umtshingo , the Zulu were not allowed to blow the igemfe in earlier times before the annual king's festival, which usually took place at the end of December. At this festival called umkosi , the entire population gathered in front of the royal residence ( kraal ). The troops of the fortified military camps ( amakhanda , singular ikhanda ), which were scattered further afield, set up temporary huts, while the troops stationed nearby kept their camp for the night and returned there in the evening. No warrior was allowed to show himself without the formal clothing prescribed at court. Before the 1870s, when the regulation was relaxed, at least in theory, the entire male population of the Zulu had to appear before the king. The king was strengthened by his healers in a ritual and the crowd sang songs to worship the ancestors. The event took place after the harvest. On this occasion, the population received official permission from the king to begin consuming the new harvest. Until then, it was forbidden to prepare food from the new harvest, with severe penalties up to the death penalty. The time when happy songs could be blown on the flute ended in February and did not start again until the next umkosi .

Other musical instruments besides the flute igemfe and umtshingo , which adolescents typically played in the period before their marriage, were the bow- struck ubhelindhlela bowl zither (the tshidzholo according to the Venda), which is rare among the Zulu boys, and the rubbing drum used by girls in puberty rites ingungu .

literature

  • Percival R. Kirby : The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa. (1934) 2nd edition. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg 1965
  • David R. Rycroft, Andrew Tracey: Igemfe . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 10

Web links

  • Igemfe. Percival Kirby Musical Instruments Collection, University of Cape Town (illustration of a longitudinal flute)
  • Igemfe. Percival Kirby Musical Instruments Collection, University of Cape Town (illustration of a flute with four finger holes)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JW Colenso: Zulu-English Dictionary. (1878) 4th edition: Munro Bros., Pietermaritzburg 1905, p. 352
  2. ↑ Allen F. Gardiner : Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country, in South Africa. William Crofts, London 1836, p. 104
  3. ↑ Naka ya lethlaka. Percival Kirby Musical Instruments Collection, University of Cape Town (image)
  4. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 88-92
  5. ↑ Laurie Levine: The Drum Cafe's Traditional Music of South Africa. Jacana Media, Johannesburg 2005, p. 145
  6. ^ Henri-Alexandre Junod : The Life of a South African Tribe. Volume 2: The Psychic Life . Attinger Freres, Neuchatel 1913, p. 291f
  7. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 94-101
  8. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 104f
  9. ↑ David K. Rycroft, Andrew Tracey: Imbande . In: Grove Music Online , October 26, 2011
  10. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 107f
  11. ^ William Clifford Holden: The Past and Future of the Kaffir Races. London 1866, p. 277
  12. ↑ David K. Rycroft, Angela Impey, Gregory F. Barz, John Blacking, Jaco Kruger, CTD Marivate, Caroline Mears, James May, David Coplan: South Africa, Republic of. I. Indigenous music. 1. Nguni music. (iii) Musical instruments . In: Grove Music Online , November 9, 2009
  13. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 110, 113, 116f
  14. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 111f
  15. ^ AJF Veenstra: The Begu Zulu vertical flute. In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1958, pp. 40-45
  16. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, plate 42 B.
  17. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 274
  18. ↑ Michael Seifert: Earliest musical tradition in southwest Germany proven. Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, June 24, 2009
  19. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 120f
  20. ↑ AJF Veenstra, 1958, p. 40
  21. ^ Roger Blench: The worldwide distribution of the transverse flute. Draft, October 15, 2009, p. 13
  22. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 127
  23. ↑ Tandile Mandela: The Revival and Revitalization of Musical Bow Practice in South Africa . (Master's thesis) University of Cape Town, 2005, p. 23
  24. ^ Ian Knight: The Anatomy of the Zulu Army, from Shaka to Cetshwayo 1818–1879. Greenhill Books, Londres, 1999, p. 148
  25. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 116
  26. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 215