Kayamba

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Caïamb from Réunion

Kayamba , also kiyamba, kayamb, caïambe , is a flat, rectangular rattle that consists of two layers of reed mats with grains sandwiched between them. It is used in Kenya , Tanzania , the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius ( maravanne ) and Réunion ( caïamb ) as well as under other names in Uganda and in some countries in southeastern Africa to accompany singing and dancing. In terms of instruments, the kayamba is one of the vessel rattles, according to its appearance it is called a raft rattle.

distribution

Bells on the leg of a dancer in the Rwandan war dance intore.

Rattles are idiophones of any shape, excited by shaking , in which small rattles strike against each other and usually against the body in which they are enclosed or against the frame to which they are attached. They are among the oldest musical instruments and have always been a link to the otherworldly world as an aid in magical healing procedures and other ritual dances. Rattles made of egg-shaped clay vessels are known from the predynastic period in ancient Egypt and basket rattles with handles have been preserved from the late period . In late ancient Egypt, rattle drums were also used as cult instruments. In the West African musical tradition, basket rattles are absent.

Vessel rattles, many of which have a handle, occur in Africa, America, and the Pacific Islands. Besides the small bells, the most widespread vessel rattles are the calabash rattles, which are imitated by clay vessels, wicker baskets or other materials in areas where no pumpkins thrive to make calabashes . Calabash rattles are common in sub-Saharan Africa . Typical is the enyimba (also oburengo ) of the Ankole in the southwest of Uganda , which consists of a bottle gourd with a few stones placed in the neck after drying. The vessel is perforated with small holes to enhance the sound.

A notion that belongs to African musical cultures is that musical instruments are rarely "played" in an abstract manner. Often the activity of making music on an instrument is referred to with a verb from the word context "to beat". This even applies to wind instruments, which are literally "struck" in Kiswahili . In Uganda, among other things, the natural horns amakondere and the gourd music bow egobore are “beaten” ( okuteera ). There is a verb in Uganda for shaking some vessel rattles, such as the enyimba or the amajugo bell tied around the ankles , which means “to make to speak”. The Ugandans use their own word specifically for the use of the flat raft rattle rugaaniire , which can be translated as "seven" and "waffle".

Rattles with fruit capsules worn on the leg. Madagascar, 19th century.

In central and southern Africa, instead of bells, dancers also tie braided boxes filled with stones to their legs on ritual occasions and thus produce a rhythm or complement the rhythm of the drums. In the past, the hard shells of small fruits were also used as rattles on the legs. According to a report from 1917, some San in South Africa tied the ears of springboks filled with stones (ankle rattle keriten ) and otherwise the fruit peels of a wild bean species to their legs while dancing . The Zulu in South Africa weave small boxes from the leaf fibers of a fan palm species ( Hyphaene ventricosa subsp. Benguelensis , Zulu ilala ), which they fill with stones and carry several dozen of them bundled on a string around their ankles while dancing. They are known by the Zulu as amafohlwane (singular ifohlwane ) and by the Swazi as emafahlawane . Such fruit bowls worn during dancing occur in Africa with many variations and names. The stick rattles mahea , tied to the legs by the Chewa men in northern Mozambique , for example, consist of the Oncoba spinosa fruit capsules placed on sticks . Metal bells that dancers wear on their legs in East Africa are called njuga , while msewe (plural misewe ) refers to containers made of coconut fibers that are attached to the leg and filled with stones. The vessels made of a solid material or wickerwork must always be so stable that they cannot be pierced by the appropriately selected rattles made of light seeds or heavier stones. The East African rattle rattles made of reed, which are shaken in the hands during dances, are a technically different kind of the originally primarily ritually used vessel rattles on the legs of the dancers.

Outwardly similar to the kayamba are the Central African raft zithers , but they belong to a different group of instruments. Raft zithers consist of a bundle of plant tubes that are connected with cords in a plane. An outer strip is split off from each tube as an idiochorde string and is spaced parallel to the tubes by means of crossbars inserted on both sides. With some raft zithers, seeds or stones are also integrated into the construction, which add a rattle sound when the strings are plucked with the finger.

Design and style of play

Kenya

The kayamba used to accompany dances along the entire Kenyan coast measures up to 40 centimeters in length and 20 centimeters in width. It consists of two layers of reed mats with seeds in them. A stick protrudes on both sides, on which the rattle can be held between the middle finger and ring finger with both hands. Graham Hyslop (1958) mentions such an instrument in the Giriama group of the Mijikenda (Midzichenda). The rhythm generated by shaking is complemented by strokes with the thumbs on a central cross bar made of bamboo or palm fiber. The reeds used are called mijikenda mitsuchi and the fibers used to tie the reeds together are called ngonge . The filled in seeds are red beans with black spots ( meto ) or green peas ( pojo, podzo ). On the southern coast (in Kilifi County ) the kayamba accompanies the dances chimungwe and chiringongo , on the northern coast the dance kifudu with the Giriama and the ritual dance of the healers makayamba with the Digo , who also belong to the nine Bantu- speaking ethnic groups known as Mijikenda become.

In the dance styles sengenya and gonda of the Mijikenda, the dancers orient their movements to the rhythm of the drums. The syllable rhythm of the voices is mainly repeated by drums and the kayamba . Songs and numerous musical instruments, including the kayamba , accompany the dances. The sengenya dance ensembles, which are mainly cultivated by the Digo , typically consist of six wooden drums of different sizes, including four double-headed tubular drums and two single-headed drums ( bumbumbu ) standing on three feet . In addition, the melody instruments include the flute chivoti with six finger holes and the cone oboe nzumari ( zomari , related to mizmar and zummara ) with five finger holes. The rhythm is set by a stainless steel plate with a curved rim ( patsu, upatsu or ukaya ), which resembles an Indian thali and is not whipped with the hands like a Yemeni cream , but with two palm leaves.

From the Mijikenda on the coast to the Luhya in the far west of Kenya, calabash rattles ( manyanga , singular linyanga ) are widespread , especially among the Bantu groups and rarely among the Nilots and Cushites . The Samburu and Turkana consequently have little or no rattle of vessels. The latter use small, banana-shaped tin rattles (onomatopoeic kling klong ) and a Y-rod with a crown cap attached to a string as an imitation of the tsanatsel ( sistrum ) common in the Ethiopian church . Kigamba (plural ciigamba ) or githoguo are small tin rattles that are worn on one leg by Kikuyu dancers . The Taita in southeastern Kenya have adopted the raft rattle kayamba of the Mijikenda. The Kisii (also Gusii) in western Kenya designate according to John Varnum (1971) to accompany the bowl lyre obokano attached to a leg, small vessel rattles as Kayamba . The rattles mark a uniform beat and correspond to the bells on the leg of the litungu player in the same region.

Uganda

The raft rattle rugaaniire in southwest Rwanda is the Ugandan variant of the kayamba . It consists of a reed mat laid around three cross pieces of wood (two on the edges, one in the middle) and tied at the ends. The finished instrument measures 25 to 30 centimeters in length and 10 to 23 centimeters in width. The two cavities created in this way are filled with hemp seeds, dried beans or other small things. The edges between the mats are filled with strips of a banana leaf or with cotton fabric. The rugaaniire is used by women and girls, more rarely by men, and by all population groups in the region with the exception of the Hema . The player holds the rattle sideways with both hands and moves it up and down in rhythm, while at the same time hitting the top with both thumbs. The rattle is always played together with other percussion instruments and clapping hands. At Lake Eduard , also in southwest Uganda, this raft rattle is called Lukonjo akayamba in the regional language .

A modern version of this rattle rattle consists of two layers of sheet metal that are bent and nailed around a rectangular, flat wooden frame. The sheets were perforated with numerous holes driven in with a nail. Sometimes the owner stamped his name with rows of holes. The Bagisu in eastern Uganda call such a flat brass rattle isaasi and use it together with bells tied to the leg ( bitsetse or bizeze ), which mark the main beat, for the rhythmic accompaniment of three melodic instruments: the one to two-stringed tubular violin siilili (corresponds to the endingidi ) , the seven-string lyre litungu and the fingerhole-free transverse flute ludaya .

Tanzania

The center of the country is considered to be the most diverse musical style region in Tanzania . On numerous occasions, mostly for entertainment or at ceremonies, the dancers appear in groups and often act as musicians at the same time when they shake a kayamba in their hands while they are moving . The fiddle zeze is an old accompanying instrument for dances that men of the Wagogo play in the central Tanzanian region of Dodoma . The large hourglass drums in the ngoma dance of the Wagogo, on the other hand, are only beaten by women who hold them between their legs while they move their upper bodies and sing. Men accompany the women's dances with a kayamba or two . These ngoma dances are performed at celebrations for a girl's first menstruation, at boy circumcisions, and at weddings.

Malawi

Extra-musical cultural factors mean that African styles of music are changed to varying degrees by external influences. Neo-traditional music includes the adoption of African playing techniques on musical instruments introduced by Europeans as well as the appropriation of foreign musical and other cultural forms of expression for African instruments and situations. In the north of Malawi , shortly after the Second World War, the visekese women's dance, which is derived from the military parades introduced during the British colonial period and now organized on African ceremonial occasions, was probably created . The origin of the visekese music style from European military music is hardly recognizable in its performance, only the rhythm mimics the beating of cymbals if you listen carefully . From the 2/4-marching rhythm is a shuffle rhythm become, which is produced with a raft rattle. The raft rattle corresponds to the Kenyan-Tanzanian kayamba and was probably already present in northern Malawi before the appearance of the visekese . A typical medium-sized specimen is approximately 35 inches long, 25 inches wide, and 1.5 inches thick, made of reed and filled with red grains from a particular shrub.

In a recording from 1962, the dancers begin the performance with a militarily shouted “one - two!” Two women sing in a duet and other women form a choir. The musicians with the raft rattles sit in a circle or semicircle on the floor around the dancers in the middle. Hold the raft rattles horizontally with both hands by the edge, shake them sideways and also hit the top of the rattle alternately with your left and right thumb. According to the performers of the malipenga male dance groups in northern Malawi, which are said to be influenced by military drill and in which several calabash Mirlitone ( malipenga , singular lipenga ) imitate military trumpets , the visekese ensembles are called boma . The rattle rattles that characterize the dance style are also called visekese (singular chisekese ).

Mauritius

Sega dancers, a maravanne in the middle .

The Sega singing and dancing tradition on Mauritius originated among black African slaves and has become a national culture of the island. The origin of the Sega lies in the Dutch colonial times. A few years after the first settlement was established in 1638 on the previously deserted island, the Dutch brought the first slaves from Madagascar to work on the plantations. Many slaves fled inland and founded their own "shadow colonies". The first forms of Sega emerged among the slaves living there, who were called Maroons by the Europeans . Today Sega is also known on Réunion , the Comoros , on other islands of the Indian Ocean and since the late 1970s in some places on the East African coast. The traditional Sega, which consists of improvised songs and dances with percussive accompaniment, has been joined by modern forms influenced by Western pop music styles.

The rhythmic accompaniment of the dances is provided by three musicians who play a large frame drum ravanne ( ravane ) with a glued or nailed goat skin, a raft zither maravanne ( maravane, maravan ) and a triangle ( triang ) corresponding to the African kayamba . The maravanne consists of two thin sugar cane mats in a stable, rectangular wooden frame. The rattles (beans or rice) are filled through a round hole in a small board in the middle of the underside, which can be closed with a wooden disc.

The ravanne sets the pace and the rhythm, which is further subdivided by the maravanne , while the triangle sounds on the unstressed beats . In some performances up to six frame drums are used, which require a complex playing technique. The raft zither is much easier to play and only produces a harsh impact sound when moving diagonally downwards and a softer sound when swinging horizontally. In contrast to ravanne players, who sometimes also sing, the younger maravanne and triangle players limit themselves to their instrument. If there is no maravanne available, a plastic vessel half filled with sand can be used as an alternative for amateur performances and the triangle can be replaced by a spoon and a glass bottle. The bobre calabash music bow described in the 19th century , the string of which is struck with a stick, no longer belongs to the Sega ensemble. The bobre played the same percussive part as the triangle.

Different combinations of Western and African instruments are used in modern Sega forms. In the hôtel séga variant listed for foreign tourists in the resorts, these are exclusively Western instruments; for example, produces a keyboard melody and rhythm, while the dancers instead of maravanne Maracas and Eggshaker hold in your hands. The left-wing Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) party, founded in 1969, introduced political songs, séga engagé, to convey messages to the population. Because the content of the songs is in the foreground, they are sung without dances. With the songs, a new instrumental line-up was introduced, which consists of the traditional Sega instruments ( ravanne, maravanne and triangle), instruments of Indian music ( sitar , tabla and harmonium ) and Western musical instruments ( violin , guitar and drums ).

Reunion

Danyèl Waro with a caïamb .

Sega ensembles from Mauritius perform like local groups on the neighboring island of Réunion, where Sega is also the most popular style of dance music. As in Mauritius , the frame drum is called ravanne , the rattle rattle made from sugar cane mats filled with peas is known as caïamb, kayanm , kayamn, kayamb or caïambe . Other traditional instruments are the large cylinder drum with cowhide on one side, oulé ( rouleur, ouleur ) and a triangle. The violin, previously used as a melody instrument, was first replaced by the mandolin and then by the banjo . Occasionally guitar and accordion are added. Today, with the Sega, as it is performed in tourist hotels, mostly common chords are played on the guitar to accompany shallow lyrics. The rhythm consists of opposing binary and ternary bars .

With the Maloya , Réunion has a dance music style of its own, derived from the traditional Sega, which, like in Mauritius, is rooted in society and is instrumentalized for political purposes. The alternating two- and three-bar rhythm is also characteristic of the Maloya. The rhythm section essentially consists of a cylinder drum, raft zither and triangle, occasionally supplemented by the bobre calabash bow . This Maloya style, which was previously used in rituals, is now performed in a modified form on public stages and in nightclubs. In the late 1960s, songs with political content were added. A more modernized form with western instruments is called maloya moden ("Maloya modern").

The most famous Maloya singer today is Danyèl Waro (* 1955), who vigorously shakes the raft rattle. He embodies the cultural, identity-creating tradition of the Maloya.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus P. Wachsmann : The primitive musical instruments. In: Anthony Baines (ed.): Musical instruments. The history of their development and forms. Prestel, Munich 1982, pp. 13–49, here p. 17
  2. ↑ Ellen Hickmann: Rattles. VI. Archaeological rattles. 2. Types and shapes of rattle . In: MGG Online , November 2016 ( Music in the past and present , 1998)
  3. ↑ Hans Hickmann: Western Asia and Egypt in musical exchange. In: Journal of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft , Vol. 111 (nF 36), No. 1, 1961, pp. 23–41, here p. 32
  4. ^ Erich Moritz von Hornbostel : The Ethnology of African Sound-Instruments (Continued) . In: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 6, No. 3, July 1933, pp. 277-311, here p. 281
  5. ^ Paul van Thiel: Enyimba . Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren
  6. ↑ Paul van Thiel: Amajugo. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren
  7. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Some basic terms and concepts of African music research. In: Ders .: To understand African music. Lit, Vienna 2004, p. 65
  8. ^ Sibyl Marcuse : A Survey of Musical Instruments . Harper & Row, New York 1975, pp. 83-86
  9. ↑ SS Dornan: The Tati Bushmen (Masarwas) and Their Language. In: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 47, January – June 1917, pp. 37–112, here p. 44
  10. ^ Percival R. Kirby : The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa. (1934) 2nd edition: Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg 1965, p. 6f
  11. ↑ Amafohlwane . In: Grove Music Online, September 3, 2014
  12. ^ Gerhard Kubik, 1982, p. 156
  13. ^ Gerhard Kubik, 1982, p. 23
  14. ↑ raft zither. Europeana Collections (illustration of a raft zither from Benin , second half of the 19th century)
  15. ↑ James Blades: Percussion Instruments and their History . The Bold Strummer, Wesport 2005, p. 39
  16. ↑ KA Gourlay: Kayamba . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 123
  17. ^ Graham Hyslop: African Musical Instruments in Kenya. In: African Music , Vol. 2, No. 1, 1958, pp. 31-36, here p. 34
  18. ^ Graham Hyslop: More Kenya Musical Instruments. In: African Music Society Journal, pp. 24–28, here p. 27
  19. ↑ George W. Senoga-Zake: Folk Music of Kenya . (1986) Uzima Press, Nairobi 2000, pp. 169f
  20. ↑ Paul N. Kavyu, Jean Ngoya Kidula: Music in Kenya . In: The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 1. Routledge, New York 2008, p. 65
  21. ↑ Valerie A. Briginshaw: Giriama and Digo dance styles. In: Journal of International Library of African Music , Vol. 6, No. 4, 1987, pp. 144–154, here p. 150
  22. ↑ Asante Darkwa: Sengenya Dance Music: Its Instrumental Resources and Performance . In: Journal of International Library of African Music , Vol. 7, No. 1, 1991, pp. 48-54, here p. 51
  23. ↑ George W. Senoga-Zake, 2000, pp. 17, 171
  24. ↑ Malcolm Floyd: A Bibliographical Index of Kenyan Musical Instruments . In: The Galpin Society Journal , Vol. 58, May 2005, pp. 132-159, here p. 133
  25. ^ John P. Varnum: The Obokano of the Gusii: A Bowl Lyre of East Africa . In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 15, No. 2, May 1971, pp. 242-248, here p. 247
  26. ↑ Paul van Thiel: Rugaaniire . Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren
  27. ^ Gerhard Kubik: The Endara Xylophone of Bukonjo . In: African Music, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1962, pp. 43-48, here p. 48
  28. ↑ Peter R. Cooke: “Ludaya”. A Transverse Flute from Eastern Uganda. In: Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 3, 1971, pp. 79-90, here p. 83
  29. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Tanzania, United Republic of. 2. Main musical style areas. (iv) Central area. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  30. ^ Gerhard Kubik, 1982, p. 202
  31. ↑ Basil Considine, 2013, pp. 2f, 22
  32. ↑ Traditional Sega dance from Mauritius. Youtube video (traditional Sega line-up with a singer, two ravanne , one maravanne and one triangle)
  33. ↑ Dehoutee Vina Ballgobin, Marc Antoine Laine: Traditional musical instruments from oral tradition: Folk music in Mauritius. In: Nelson Mandela Center for African Culture, Revi Kiltir Kreol, 3, Port Louis 2003, pp. 69–82, here p. 79
  34. ↑ Basil Considine, 2013, pp. 16-20
  35. ↑ Traditional Sega Instruments . Encyclopædia Mauritiana
  36. ↑ Basil Considine, 2013, pp. 17, 194
  37. ↑ Basil Considine, 2013, pp. 229, 331
  38. ^ Peter Hawkins: The Other Hybrid Archipelago: Introduction to the Literatures and Cultures of the Francophone Indian Ocean . Lexington Books, Lanham 2007, p. 109
  39. ↑ Monique Desroches, Brigitte DesRosiers: Rèunion Island. In: Alison Arnold (Ed.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 5: South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent. Routledge, London 1999, p. 609
  40. ↑ Monique Desroches, Brigitte DesRosiers, 1999, p. 610
  41. ↑ Jon Lusk: Maloyalty. Danyel Waro is the greatest contemporary voice of maloya - the music that they call La Réunion's blues . ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ethnoambient.net @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ethnoambient.net