Kamaica

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Manganiyar ensemble with barrel drum dholak , harmonium and vocals, rattle kartal and kamaica .

Kamaica , also kamāicā, kamaicha, kamacha, kamāyachā, kamāic, kumāic or kamantsche , is a painted bowl-neck lute that is played in the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan by the Manganiyar musicians to accompany singing. The Manganiyar trace the origin of the kamaica and its narrative and devotional song tradition back to the musician Tansen at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar I in the 16th century.

Origin and Distribution

Miniature painting from the Bundi school , around 1780. The musician tunes a string instrument similar to the kamaica .
Rahmat Khan (1843–1910) plays sursingar .

The history of string instruments in India is related to the presumed origin of the gauntlet ravanahattha , mostly played by street musicians in the folk music of Rajasthan and Gujarat . The oldest surviving Indian string instrument got its name from the mythical demon king Ravana , who invented a musical instrument from a wooden stick, a string taken from his own body and a calabash to accompany his hymns of praise to Shiva . Musicological treatises of the 11th to 13th centuries lead the then well-known, the mythical representation of the rod zither back to ancient Indian times. According to Nanyadeva (1094–1133), the ravanahattha was painted with a bow covered with horse hair . In ancient Indian times, string instruments were commonly called vina . A vina type that differed from the stick zithers were the lute instruments that were found on the reliefs of Buddhist stupas from the 2nd / 1st centuries AD. Century BC BC with a pear-shaped body and a long neck. On the reliefs of Gandhara from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, lutes with a short neck, two to three strings and a rounded body are depicted, as well as those with a laterally notched or waisted body, as it is today, for example, in the rubab , sarangi and dilruba occurs. There is no evidence that these were string instruments. The banam and bana in central India and the pena in the far north-east of the country are among the spit-fiddles that have survived in regionally limited folk music styles .

The most widespread string instrument in Indian music (apart from the violin in South India), the sarangi , can be derived from ancient Indian forerunners according to its design, but the first description of a string instrument was not until the end of the 16th century by Abu ' l-Fazl composed Āʾīn-i Akbarī, the third part of the official history of the Mughal rulers , Akbar-nāma . Abu 'l-Fazl writes that the sarangi is played like the ghichak , a Central Asian string instrument introduced via Persia, and that it is smaller than the spit-fiddle rabāb . Judging by the numerous illustrations on miniature paintings, the sarangi seems to be in the 17th / 18th centuries. Century to have become popular. The oldest known painting on this from the beginning of the 17th century shows a fakir sitting under a tree with a long, slender string instrument, the neck of which is slightly narrower than the box-shaped body. To this day, this is roughly the form of the sarangi in Gujarat folk music, but the body of the sarangi is waisted. Other images from the 17th century show a string instrument with an almond-shaped body with multiple notched edges and a short neck. The sarangi is also part of the devotional music of the Sikhs , which is why it appears on illustrations with dhadhis. Dhadis are singers who accompany their devotional songs addressed to Guru Nanak on the hourglass drum dhadd and the sarangi . Among the string instruments depicted in the 18th century, sarangi with a rectangular body tapered at the top are the most common.

Another string instrument with a characteristic two-part body, the lower half of which is covered with an animal skin as a blanket and the upper half forms an open chamber, is the sarinda, which is widespread in several variants from Afghanistan via northern India to Nepal . Engelbert Kaempfer described their shape at the beginning of the 18th century (in Amoenitates Exoticae, 1712). The sarinda is possibly derived from the kobys used by shamans in rituals in southern Central Asia .

The sarangi is believed to have originated in India and the sarinda was likely introduced with the Central Asian Persian culture. The kamaica has an influence from the sarangi , while the name also refers to Persia, where the kamantsche is a popular spiked violin in Iranian and Azerbaijani music today. Kamaica belongs to a group of words derived from Persian kamān (“bow, bow”, also Turkish keman ) for string instruments that differ according to their shape, such as the Turkish box- neck lute kemençe , the Turkish spiked violin kabak kemâne , the Armenian short-necked lute kaman with a narrow, rectangular body and a wooden ceiling as well as the spiked violin kaman aguz (also kamāncha ) with a small resonance body made from a coconut shell, which was previously used in Egypt for singing .

The name kumāic occurs in the epic poem Hammiraraso ( Hammir Raso ), completed by Kavi Jodhraj around 1725 or 1785 , which contains a list of musical instruments from Rajasthan. The Sarmāya-i `ishrat , which Sadique Ali Khan wrote in Delhi in 1875, mentions a stringed instrument called kamānca or kamānche , which was very popular in Punjab . Although the Persian spiked violin of this name was played in India during the Mughal period, an illustration in the work rather shows a dilruba with a sarangi body and the neck of a sitar . The confusion is also caused by the fact that another author wrote in 1895 that kamānca was synonymous with thousand , that is, with mayuri vina . While the name kamānca was less common in the course of the 19th century, the mayuri vina experienced a phase of particular popularity, especially in the second half of the 19th century, which lasted into the 20th century.

Musician in Punjab with a kamānca . Illustration in Sarmāya-i'ishrat, 1875.

The kamānca played in the Punjab was a bowl-neck lute whose long, rectangular, waisted body, like the dilruba, had a flat bottom. In this way it differed from the esraj in Bengal with a deep body, which probably emerged from the mayuri vina and the kamānca in the 19th century . The kamaica of Rajasthan with a round body possibly corresponds to a description given by Kaviratna Purushottama Mishra (around 1690–1750) in Sangitanarayana about a so-called sarangi type, to which he grants the elevated status of a vina . Although every detail is mentioned, it is difficult to get an idea of ​​the shape. Because the body is presented as a cobra head, it could have had a round shape. Joep Bor (1986) refers from this description to a miniature painting from around 1780 from Bundi , in which a woman plays a string instrument with a circular body and seems to be in tune. The instrument in the painting, which according to Bor has disappeared, has a slightly longer neck, but otherwise very much resembles today's kamaica .

The kamaica in Rajasthan only in the western districts of Barmer , Jalor , Jodhpur and Jaisalmer common and is played exclusively by the musician caste Manganiyar. The Manganiyar are Muslims or Hindus and also live in the Pakistani state of Sindh to the west . There are no written sources about the age of the kamaica playing tradition, but in their oral tradition the Manganiyar trace its origins back to Tansen , who was court musician of the Mughal emperor Akbar I in the 16th century. The kamaica is considered to be old and is said to have hardly changed since that time.

A related simple fiddle with a pear-shaped or, as with the sarangi, waisted body in the folk music of Rajasthan is the chikara , which is only played by the Naths. The kamaica bears a strong resemblance to the plucked long-necked lute dhrupad rabab or seni rabab , which was important in court music of the Mughal period and was played in the classical style dhrupad until the middle of the 20th century . It has a wide pear-shaped body. In the folk music of Rajasthan up to the middle of the 20th century, the closely related plucking lute rawaj ( ravaj ) was played. The three-stringed rawaj with a circular skin-covered body belonged to the Gujarati- speaking caste of the Barot in the 19th century . A further development of the dhrupad rabab introduced in the 19th century and rarely used today is the sursingar . A modified form is the Kabuli rubāb , which found its way into Afghan music in the 18th century . The sarod emerged from it in the mid-19th century .

Design

The kamaica is a heavy, short-necked lute whose body, neck and pegbox are carved out of one piece of wood, preferably from the mango tree . The total length is about 75 centimeters, the circular body ( Hindi pyalā or painda ) with a rounded base measures over 30 centimeters in diameter and has a wall thickness of about one centimeter. As mango wood tends to crack, it must be carefully stored before processing. The neck ( kangan or khali ), like the body, is hollowed out from above and then covered with a thin wooden plate ( nāli ). This distinguishes the kamaica from other string instruments such as the sarangi , in which the neck is hollowed out from below. The plate on the neck is often with two flower-shaped mother of pearl - inlaid decorated; it does not serve as a fingerboard, because the player shortens the melody strings, as with the other two string instruments of Rajasthan, sarangi and ravanahattha , by pressing on the side with the fingernails. The neck and pegbox ( mornā ) are rectangular in plan view. The pegbox, which is open at the top, protrudes downwards with a wide bulge and is crowned by a massive attachment ( choti ). A glued goat skin serves as a blanket ( chamdā ). A wide web ( ghodi ) stands in the lower area on the skin cover.

Two to four (usually three) thick melody strings ( ragan ) made of goat gut run from a wooden extension on the lower edge of the body on the left side of the bridge as seen by the player to the wooden pegs on the side of the peg box. There are also eight to eleven thin drone strings made of steel. Like the melody strings, they are bowed with a bow ( kamānī ). Sometimes four sympathetic strings are added, which are in one level below the other strings. The bow consists of a long stick made of shisham wood ( Dalbergia sissoo ), slightly bent in the middle and covered with horse hair.

Style of play

Singing group in Rajasthan with kartal , harmonium, kartal, kamaica and dholak .

While the playing technique of the left hand corresponds to the other string instruments in Rajasthan, the bowing differs significantly. With the kamaica, the bow does not strike a single string one after the other to form the melody, but instead always strikes the resonance strings in addition to the melody string, which gives the instrument a darker and fuller sound. The three melody strings are tuned to the pitches ( swara ; seven swara form the Indian counterpart to the western scale ) low Sa (starting level of a raga scale), low Pa (fifth level) and medium Sa (one octave higher). The drone strings are tuned to Dha, Ni, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa.

The Manganiyar musicians are dependent on their patrons , in whose house they perform at family celebrations such as births, weddings and funeral ceremonies. In return, they receive a set amount of gifts throughout the year, and the patrons pay for the celebrations at weddings and funerals in the musicians' families. Each Manganiyar ensemble carefully adheres to its musical tradition for the sake of the patrons and protects it from the influences of other musical groups and styles. Another caste of musicians in Rajasthan with a similar playing tradition are the Langa.

The kamaica accompanies the epic singing and devotional songs of the Manganiyar. The tonality of this demanding vocal style is based on the classical ragas, the repertoire is extensive and forms an independent tradition traced back from the Manganiyar musicians over 20 generations to tansen, which can best be compared with the light classical style of Khyal . According to their use, the Manganiyar divide music into two categories: The music for processions, ceremonies and family celebrations is considered "outside the raga". The songs chhota (also “little songs”) sung for this purpose have a simpler structure and are primarily tailored to the occasion. As “within the raga” are the mota (also “big songs”), which are performed in separate musical performances ( kacheri ) for patrons or for other Manganiyar. The mota are based on their own Manganiyar ragas, whose rules, in contrast to classical music, have to be observed less strictly. Some well-known ragas are Khamaichi, Soob, Maru, Bhairavi, Sorath, Samari, Goond malhar, Bilawal and Kalyan. Most of the songs were composed by famous poets and venerated saints such as Kabir (1440–1518), Mirabai (around 1498–1546) and Surdas (16th century). The Manganiyar understand mota as songs of praise for a patron, a god or for the sung raga itself.

Corresponding to the instruments of classical Indian music, the kamaica offers all the technical possibilities that enable it not only to accompany singing but also to improvise solo, even if the latter is less common. The singer can play the kamaica to support his singing performance or he can fill in the pauses between his singing instrumentally with melodic embellishments. If another musician accompanies the singer, the kamaica follows the vocal melody at a very short interval and occasionally introduces new melodic forms that the singer then picks up. In the pauses between singing, the instrumentalist repeats the singer's entire melody or adds new variations to it.

The musical versatility of the Manganiyar is otherwise evident in the unusually large set of instruments in their ensembles, to which, in addition to kamaica and sarangi, the box zither swarmandal , the harmonium , surna (i) (double reed instrument that differs in shape and playing style from the classical shehnai ), murli (Double clarinet), morchang ( jaw harp ), kartal (wooden rattle), dhol (large double-headed barrel drum), dholak (smaller barrel drum) and gharra (clay pot like the south Indian ghatam ). A song begins with a free rhythmic introduction at a slow pace, during which the lyrics ( doha, also duhā ) are performed. The kamaica (or sarangi ) fulfills the function of a drone instrument according to the tanpura , harmonium or shrutibox in classic alap . In contrast to the improvised alap sung with tone syllables , the opening part of the mota is largely determined musically by the lyrics of the song. Next comes the rhythmic part of the song with the barrel drum dholak . After this, the singing part is over and the dholak player creates different rhythmic structures in the lehara part. An instrumental play on the kamaica is often accompanied by kartal and morchang with a strong rhythmic accent at a faster pace. A solo game on the kamaica lasts a maximum of eight to ten minutes with increasing intensity. The development of a piece of music from a free rhythmic slow melody with no drone accompaniment to the final climax in a fast rhythm is also characteristic of some devotional singing styles such as kirtan and qawwali as well as of North and South Indian classical music as a whole.

In addition to classical North Indian music, the Manganiyars' vocal style is influenced by the devotional Sufi music in the Pakistani province of Sindh, in which Sindhi verses in the Sindhi musical system , especially aimed at the Sufi scholar Shah Abdul Latif (1690–1751) ( sur ) to be presented. Originally, sur chants managed without instrumental accompaniment, today the long-necked tanburo belongs to a religious singing group . The Sindhis and Manganiyar songs are based on their respective local narrative traditions and deal with the everyday way of life of farmers and herdsmen in desert regions.

One of the best-known kamaica players was Sakar Khan (1938–2013) from the village of Hamira a few kilometers east of Jaisalmer . In 2012 Sakar Khan received the Padma Shri , one of the highest honors of the Indian government.

Discography

  • Rajasthani Folk Music. Traditional music of the Langas and Manganiyars. Recordings by Caroline Swinburne. Saydisc Records, Wotton-Under-Edge (England) 1992, tracks 9-11
  • Musician Communities of Rajasthan - the Manganiar. Various artists. Recordings by Daniel Neuman. Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2008
  • At Home with Sakar Khan. (AMAR 006) Amarrass Records, New Delhi 2012

literature

  • Shalini Ayyagari: Spaces Betwixt and Between: Musical Borderlands and the Manganiyar Musicians of Rajasthan . In: Asian Music, Vol. 43, No. 1, Winter – Spring 2012, pp. 3–33
  • Alastair Dick, Neil Sorrell: Kamāicā . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 105
  • Allyn Miner: Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries. (Florian Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1993) Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi 1997
  • Suneera Kasliwal Vyas: Musical Patterns of Kamaicha; A Bowed Folk Instrument of Rajasthan. In: Proceedings of the International Seminar on 'Creating & Teaching Music Patterns.' Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University, 16. – 18. December 2013, pp. 234–242

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joep Bor: The Voice of the Sarangi. An illustrated history of bowing in India. National Center for the Performing Arts, Quarterly Journal, Vol. 15 & 16, No. 3, 4 & 1, September – December 1986, March 1987, p. 40
  2. ↑ Walter Kaufmann : Old India. Music history in pictures. Volume II. Ancient Music. Delivery 8. Ed. Werner Bachmann. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, p. 36
  3. ↑ Joep Bor: Sarangi. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 4, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 384
  4. ↑ Joep Bor, 1986/1987, pp. 55f
  5. ↑ Joep Bor, 1986/1987, p. 77
  6. ↑ John Baily , Alastair Dick, Joep Bor: Sārindā. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 4, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 388
  7. ^ Alastair Dick, Neil Sorrell, 2014, p. 105
  8. ↑ Allyn Miner, 1997, p. 235, footnote 37
  9. ^ Allyn Miner, 1997, p. 57
  10. ↑ Allyn Miner, 1997, p. 59
  11. ↑ Joep Bor, 1986/1987, p. 67f
  12. ↑ Suneera Kasliwal Vyas, 2013, p 236
  13. ↑ Suneera Kasliwal Vyas, 2013, p 237
  14. ↑ “Chikara” a Rajasthani folk instrument. Youtube video
  15. ↑ David Courtney: Seni Rabab . chandrakantha.com
  16. ↑ Gordon Thompson: The Bāroţs of Gujarati Speaking Western India: Musicianship and caste identity . In: Asian Music , Vol. 24, No. 1, Fall 1992 - Winter 1993, pp. 1–17, here p. 14
  17. ↑ David Courtney: Sursringar or Sursingar . chandrakantha.com
  18. ↑ Suneera Kasliwal Vyas, 2013, p 237f
  19. ↑ Shalini Ayyagari, 2012, p. 16
  20. ↑ Suneera Kasliwal Vyas, 2013, p 239
  21. ↑ Nazir A. Jairazbhoy: Music in Western Rajasthan: Stability and Change. In: Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 9, 1977, pp. 50-66, here p. 55
  22. ↑ Shalini Ayyagari, 2012, pp. 17f
  23. ↑ Suneera Kasliwal Vyas, 2013, p 240
  24. ↑ See Edward O. Henry: The Rationalization of Intensity in Indian Music . In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 46, No. 1, Winter 2002, pp. 33-55
  25. ↑ Shalini Ayyagari, 2012, p. 20
  26. ↑ Sakar Khan. Amarass Records
  27. ↑ Kamaicha maestro Sakar Khan dead. The Hindu, August 12, 2013