Kalangu

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Kalangu , also kalungu, kalanggual, kàlànguu, danko , is a small, two-headed hourglass drum with a wooden body , which is particularly used by the Hausa in northern Nigeria . By changing the tension of the membrane constriction during play, different pitches can be produced, which is why the kalangu is assigned to the speaking drums . The kalangu was already played in medieval Islamic rulers and is now very popular among the general public in popular music.

origin

In early Islamic times, according to a source from the 9th century, in addition to the general Arabic name for drum, ṭabl , there was also the double-headed hourglass-shaped drum kūba . A Persian silver vessel from the 8th / 9th centuries. The 19th century shows a kūba player who, as is customary today in West Africa, has his drum hung around his shoulder with a strap. The illustration shows a fixation of the two membranes with a parallel cord tension as in the kalangu and many modern hourglass drums. The Spanish-Arab historian Abū ʿUbaid al-Bakrī (1014-1094) reported that Gao kalangus played at the ruling houses . An hourglass drum has been known in West Africa since the 14th century under the name tama, which is common in Senegal .

Design

The body of the kalangu is 35 centimeters long, its diameter is 17 centimeters at both ends and tapers to 8 centimeters in the middle. The two membranes made of untanned animal hide are tied to rings tightly over the body edges. A tight V-shaped lacing braces the rings against each other. The player usually hangs the kalangu with a short shoulder strap under the crook of his left arm and hits the upper skin with a bent stick in his right hand. When he presses his arm towards the body, he increases the tension of the tension and thus increases the tone. At the same time, he can influence the sound with his left hand on the edge of the eardrum and occasionally add intermediate beats with his fingers.

How to play and spread

The kalangu does not belong to court music, but to popular popular music. Nevertheless, it is also played in the palaces of the rulers and in front of rich patrons. This dual social role makes the kalangu the most popular musical instrument of the Hausa. As one of the many West African speaking drums, the kalangu can imitate the rhythm of the language and, in tonal languages like Hausa, the pitch of the syllables. There are various forms of drum language, which the Hausa call taakee and which, if they are to be understood, require prior agreement between the sender and recipient. When taakee as youth language ( sàmàarii Taaken ) talking mainly about flirting and to courtship.

The kalangu used to belong exclusively to the butchers who advertised their goods in the markets with drum beats. Today it is used by young amateurs and professional musicians at family celebrations, for entertainment during communal fieldwork, and it accompanies young girls' dances called asauwara . In strictly Islamic families in Northern Nigeria, however, the girls are not allowed to take part in the dances that take place on market days with kalangu accompaniment . In addition to the Hausa, the kalangu serves as dance accompaniment to other ethnic groups in Nigeria, such as the Bolewa (Bole), Gbagyi (Gbari) and Kambari (Cishingini) in the center and the Bariba (Baatonun) in the west. The Gbagyi call the drum kalanggual . The butchers' assistants advertise the karamar kalangu , a smaller version of the drum , in the markets . Professional jokers ( yan kama or yan gambara ) also use the smaller karamar kalangu .

In the north-western states of Sokoto and Zamfara , the kalangu plays goge and percussive goge and percussive calabash shells ( kwarya ) in the accompaniment music of the Bori obsession with the single-string fiddle . The Lela (Dakakari) in the north-west of the country play kalangus at traditional funerals of important personalities and their close relatives. The nupe call the same drum danko and use it with the smaller munugi at Muslim festivals on Fridays and other special occasions.

Accompanying drum solos are part of the tradition of the price song singers (French generally griot , with the Hausa marok'i ), which are performed with the kalangu , with the hourglass drum tuned to a fixed pitch dan karbi or the small kettle drum kuntuku . A kalangu player can tie a dan karbi to his thigh and beat both drums at the same time.

The dan karbi is used for entertainment, while the hourglass drum jauje der Hausa, together with the metal trumpet kakaki, belong to the ruler's ceremonial orchestras . The hourglass drum dundun of the Yoruba in southwest Nigeria and the cylinder drum ganga are similar to the kalangu . With the Dagombas in northern Ghana and the Mossi in Burkina Faso , the hourglass drum comes under the name lunga .

The basis of Hausa music is the sung song, the structure of which remains recognizable even in an instrumental version. One of the most famous Hausa singers was Muhamman Shata (1923–1999), who always had his traditional award songs accompanied by a kalangu drum group. Because of his role model, the kalangu became the Hausa's most popular accompaniment instrument. It is characteristic of Hausa music groups that they use a certain type of drum to accompany the song and thus maintain more or less the same rhythm throughout the piece, while the focus is on the poetic quality of the lyrics. The songs praise a wealthy person or a ruler, others deal with everyday issues.

Abdu Yaron Goge, who was nicknamed as the player of the fiddle goge in his hometown Jos , created a connection between popular Hindi film music from India and traditional music with Ahmadu Doka and others in the late 1960s and early 1970s Chants of the Hausa. Abdu Yaron played the Indian pop music with a singing voice, goge and kalangus , with the drums sounding like Indian tablas . The music titles of the films, which were sung in Hindi , were translated into Hausa, which was understandable for the population, and developed into popular light music outside of the cinemas. Hassan Wayam developed this style further and, in addition to the goge, used the smaller fiddle kukuma , the calabash gora and kalangus .

The relationship between the Christian churches in dealing with traditional musical instruments is roughly based on the specifications of the first missionaries, who soon allowed African drums in the services in addition to the harmonium . Their selection was made according to their previous religious and cultic significance. For example, the Yoruba do not allow to date the use of ceremonial honor of the god Shango used batá -drum. Instead, other hourglass drums with a secular background belong naturally to church music ensembles today.

literature

  • Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje: West Africa: An Introduction. In: Ruth M. Stone (Ed.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music . Volume 1: Africa. Routledge, New York / London 1998, pp. 449f, ISBN 978-0-8240-6035-0
  • KA Gourlay: Kalangu. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. Macmillan Press, London 1984, pp. 350f
  • KA Gourlay, Roger Blench: Kalangu . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. 9. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, p. 320
  • Anthony King: Hausa Music . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 9. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, pp. 141-146

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Meyer: Drums. Outside of Europe . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Part 9, Bärenreiter, Kassel 1998, column 860
  2. ^ Antoinette Tidjani Alou: Performance and Power: Cultural Strategies for Contesting Hierarchy and Political Authority. (PDF; 231 kB) Codesria. 12th General Assembly, 7-11 May December 2008, p. 6
  3. ↑ See David W. Ames, Edgar A. Gregersen, Thomas Neugebauer: Taaken Sàmàarii: A Drum Language of Hausa Youth. In: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute , Volume 41, No. 1, January 1971, pp. 12-31
  4. ↑ Ayesha M. Imam: Dossier 17: The Muslim Religious Right ('Fundamentalists') and Sexuality. Women Living under Muslim Law, November 1997
  5. ^ KA Gourlay, Roger Blench: Kalangu . In: New Grove, p. 320
  6. ↑ Andreas Meyer: Drums. Outside of Europe. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Part 9, Bärenreiter, Kassel 1998, column 860
  7. ^ Anthony King: New Grove , p. 145
  8. ↑ Abdalla Uba Adamu: The Influence of Hindi Film Music on Hausa Videofilm Soundtrack Music. In: Mark Slobin (Ed.): Globals Sounds: Worlds of Film Music. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 2008, p. 162, ISBN 978-0-8195-6882-3
  9. ↑ Abdalla Uba Adamu: Transnational Influences and National Appropriations: The Influence of Hindi Film Music on Muslim Hausa Popular and Religious Music. (PDF; 504 kB) Conference on Music in the world of Islam. Assilah, August 8-13 August 2007
  10. ↑ Akin Euba : African Traditional Musical Instruments in Neo-African Idioms and Contexts. In: Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (Ed.): Turn up the Volume. A Celebration of African Music . UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles 1999, p. 69