Isankuni
Isankuni , also isigankuri , is a single-stringed zither stick with a short bow ( itshoba ) in South Africa , whose resonance body consists of a tin canister open at the top. The isankuni is a simpler variant of the trog zither segankuru played in Botswana and other countries in southern Africa and, unlike that, has no tuning pegs. With a special bowing technique, several partial tones can be isolated and melodies can be generated. The stringed instrument, which comes from the tradition of the shepherds, is used as a soloist and to accompany singing.
Design
In the simplest stringed instrument, the musical bow , a flexible and curved string carrier keeps the string tied at both ends under tension. With a stick zither (or music stick) the pretensioned string runs over a rod-shaped rigid string support. In order to keep the string of the stab zither parallel to the string carrier at a distance, spacers are placed underneath as saddles on both sides . Alternatively, a central bridge in the notched zithers ( mvet ) ensures a split string that is raised in the middle. The third construction principle occurs among other things in the segankuru and in some lute instruments . The string attached to the outside of a tuning peg protruding far from the string support runs at an acute angle to the other end of the support.
Music bows and stick zithers require separate resonance bodies, which are rigidly attached to the string support or loosely brought into contact with it. Calabashes or other hard fruit peels are usually used for this . At the isankuni the tin canister takes on the function of the resonator and at the same time of the missing tuning peg. A five-liter tin canister for petroleum with a cut-out lid is used for this purpose, and a wooden stick about one meter long is placed in it. If the preferred branch of a poplar, which is rare in South Africa, is not available, any other type of wood can be used instead. A thin iron wire is stretched as a string between the end of the rod and the next corner on the bottom of the canister. The string tension places the rod in a diagonal position between the rear lower corner and the front upper edge of the canister. The wooden stick protruding at an angle from the canister may only be so long and heavy that the entire construction does not fall over when it is on the floor. The free string length is about 75 centimeters. The habit of heating the metal canister and the wire with a flame during assembly has no noticeable influence on the sound quality, but obviously only serves to burn off the paint and give the instrument an archaic appearance. Rectangular sound holes are cut into the side walls.
At around 13 centimeters, the bow of the bow is even smaller than that of the segankuru and is constructed differently. A bundle of beef tail hair is tied at one end to a slightly curved, thin piece of branch. The name of the bow, itshoba , refers to the bushy hair of a cow's tail. The end of the hair bundle is not connected to the other side of the bow, but rather wrapped around a wooden pin that the musician clamps between the middle and ring fingers. A layer of dried milk juice from a milkweed plant ( Euphorbia pulvinata, Shona , Zulu inkamamasana or isihlehle ) is placed on the upper front edge of the tin canister as rosin , which can be rubbed into the bow hairs before the game and in between.
Origin and Distribution
Percival Robson Kirby first described a string zither called isankuni in the early 1930s among the Mpondo in Pondoland , which is said to have been introduced from the north a little before. He found a number of other string zithers in southern Africa including the segankuru , all of which except the isankuni had a tuning peg. Kirby attributes the isankuni to the arch of the mouth umqunge ( umrhubhe ), which occurs only in the Mpondo. For the South African province of Eastern Cape , David Rycroft in 1966 divided the single-string musical bows into four groups: mouth bows, the string of which was rubbed; Musical bows to which a resonator is held to amplify the sound and whose strings are rubbed; Music bows with resonator and tuning loop, the string of which is struck with a stick, and music bows without a tuning loop. The umqunge with a stick length of 66 centimeters measured on a specimen belongs to the first group. Its string is rubbed with a 50 centimeter long, thin branch with a rough surface. The player holds the arch of the mouth straight down in front of the body. He takes the upper end of the bow stick in his mouth and holds the lower end with his left hand while he strokes across the string with the rubbing stick in his right hand. With the middle finger of his left hand, he touches the side of the string to bring out a second keynote . The isankuni with a similar playing posture could be a further development of the rubbing stick technique with its bowed bow. The tonal variation possibilities are less than with an oral arch, because the volume of the resonator canister cannot be changed while playing.
The origin and age of the isankuni are unclear. It is possible that the comparison with the ramkie points to a parallel development. The simple African plucked gourd resonator, as it had been known since the 18th century, gave way to cheap copies of European guitars at the beginning of the 20th century. A European model can be seen in the four-string igqongwe , whose body, consisting of a petroleum canister , has a central sound hole and a guitar-like pegbox. Tin cans have also become a modern replacement for older calabash resonators for musical bows.
The same or comparable string zithers like the isankuni with tin canisters are known regionally with different names in South Africa. In the Joe Gqabi district the string zither was called igqongwe , otherwise this is the name of a self-made guitar with four strings similar to the ramkie among the Zulu in the province of KwaZulu-Natal . In the district of Amathole came onomatopoeic name kratsi-kratsi ago. The sikhel throat of the Swazi consists of a long wooden stick that is stuck in a metal canister along one edge. The string leads from the opposite edge to a tuning peg. The musician holds the sikhele throat the other way around than the isankuni and, like the segankuru, with the metal canister up over one shoulder. The tin canister has its original shape and is not compressed like the segankuru . The bow, covered with animal hair, and the tuning pegs reveal a relationship to the East African tubular violins such as the Ugandan endingidi . Their origins lie in China, from where they were spread through the intermediary of Arab traders in East Africa from the end of the 19th century. In addition to the typological similarities, there are great differences in the style of play.
Style of play
The standing musician fixes the metal resonator with the fingers of his left hand from below and presses it lightly against his stomach with the upper edge. The left arm should be approximately stretched and not touch the metal canister so as not to impair its resonance properties. The string carrier protrudes vertically upwards and rests on the left shoulder. With his right hand he holds the bow between thumb and forefinger and between the middle and ring finger he pulls the hair covering against the ball of his hand. For bows whose tufts of hair are not wrapped around a wooden pin at the end, the player wraps the bow hair around a finger. Before the game, the hair is rubbed with inkamamasana .
Several partial tones can be isolated through a combination of a certain bow movement and at the same time changing the tension of the bow hair. Similar to the segankuru and the sikhele throat , the player moves the bow over the string in a circular motion. With the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, he touches the string in two places, thus producing two more basic tones in addition to the string that has not been struck. Melody sequences can be played with the basic tones and partial tones reinforced from them. With a correspondingly tense bow, the accompanying octave and the fifth above the respective keynote are particularly emphasized. The octave sounds louder than the fundamental. Additional harmonics can be made selectively audible with a difficult-to-learn bow technique. Correct bow tension seems more important to tone production than the position of the bow on the string.
literature
- Luvuyo Dontsa: The Tonalities of the “Isankuni”. In: The Galpin Society Journal , Vol. 60, April 2007, pp. 161-166
- David Rycroft: Friction Chordophones in South-Eastern Africa. In: The Galpin Society Journal , Vol. 19, April 1966, pp. 84-100
- David Rycroft: Evidence of Stylistic Continuity in Zulu. In: Nino Pirrotta (Ed.): Essays for a Humanist: An Offering to Klaus Wachsmann. The Town House Press, New York 1977
- David Rycroft: Isigankuri. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 55
Individual evidence
- ^ Percival Robson Kirby: The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa. Oxford University Press, London 1934, pp. 193-245
- ↑ David Rycroft, 1966, pp. 85, 94f
- ↑ David Rycroft, 1966, pp. 84, 87f
- ↑ David Rycroft, 1966, pp. 94f
- ^ David Rycroft, 1977, p. 242
- ↑ Luvuyo Dontsa, 2007, p. 162
- ^ David Rycroft, 1977, p. 245
- ↑ Luvuyo Dontsa, 2007, pp. 163-165