Kuzhal

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Row of kuzhal players at a temple festival in Kerala.

Kuzhal , Tamil and Malayalam ( കുഴൽ ), also kuḻal, kulal, kurum kuzhal and kurunkuzhal , is a short cone-shaped double-reed instrument (cone oboe) of Indian music , which is mainly used in the southern Indian state of Kerala for Hindu temple ceremonies. Kuzhal means “ flute ” or “ reed instrument ” in Malayalam and Tamil and the prefix kurum refers to its shorter length compared to the South Indian cone oboe nadaswaram . The word kuzhal already stood in the ancient Tamil Sangam literature for "wind instrument" in the first centuries after Christianity and, according to popular belief, referred to a transverse flute, possibly also a reed instrument.

origin

In the 1st millennium the flute established itself as an attribute of Krishna , in the north vamsha and murali , in the south called kuzhal . Stone sculpture of the Chola , 11./12. Century.

In pictorial representations of ancient Indian time are mainly bamboo flutes ( Sanskrit vamsha derived bansuri , even venu, "bamboo") to see further few longitudinal flutes, the cult used conch ( shankha ) and long trumpets. The instrument name nadi , which appears in Vedic texts, could have referred to a reed instrument. South Indian sangam literature written in Tamil includes the epic Silappadigaram , which was probably written in the 2nd century AD and shows that the professional groups living in a city included musicians who played flutes and harps ( vina ). To accompany a dancer played the musicians after first hymns were sung, all available instruments together: harp, flute, drum, small cymbals and a double-reed instrument that a drone added, which was tuned to the height of the drum. Double reed instruments of the Aulos type were in use from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Known in the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia . Due to the Iranian and Greek cultural influence in the centuries shortly before the turn of the times, North India also had a share in the aulos tradition, which however soon disappeared.

Double reed instruments are often played in pairs, with one producing the melody and the other producing a drone. In North India this is part of the shehnai game practice . A wind instrument with two chimes, which is one of the single-reed instruments that are otherwise rare in India , is the pungi . In South India the long cone oboe nadaswaram is accompanied by the drone instrument ottu , which essentially corresponds to the nadaswaram , but has no finger holes. The musical necessity to underlay the melody with a drone led early in India to the development of bagpipes with two blowpipes ( mashak in northern India).

A Sanskrit name for an Indian double-reed instrument that can be traced back to the end of the 1st millennium is mohori , as a bowling oboe that is still played in folk music today is called. In the treatise on music, Brihaddeshi , ascribed to Matanga Muni (6th – 9th centuries) , mohori is probably mentioned for the first time as mavari and madvari .

Between the one-piece shehnai consisting of a short, wooden chime in northern India and the much longer nadaswaram with a wide bell in the south, there are other double-reed instruments of different sizes in India. Apart from the few illustrations and textual traditions from ancient Indian times, the shape of the Indian cone oboes and, above all, their frequent interplay with a drum can be traced back to Arab-Persian influences in the Middle Ages. The first Muslims, who reached northwest India in the 8th century, brought double-reed instruments such as the Arabic mizmar and the Persian surnay , which were probably part of the Naqqarkhana instrumentarium of the Persian palace orchestras in India from the 13th century . In the court chronicle of the Mughal Emperor Akbar , Ain-i Akbari , written by Abu 'l-Fazl at the end of the 16th century , the Indian shehnai is explicitly listed as an equivalent of the Persian surnay , which is related to the name . The oriental combination of cone oboe and drum presumably corresponds to the interplay of the nadaswaram with the barrel drum tavil in South India , although a separate Indian cone oboe drum tradition cannot be ruled out. While the name nadaswaram seems to be composed of Sanskrit naga (mythical snake) and svara (sound of the scale), tavil is connected to Arabic tabl via dhavul and Persian dohol . It is only recently that the nadaswaram has gradually separated itself from the shehnai through an increase in length . Another short bowling oboe in South India, which, like the kuzhal, is mainly used in Hindu temple music, is the mukhavina in Tamil Nadu. The dhanki kettle drum is often used with it. Other established and Indian names for cone oboes are pipori, pipahi, mwali, tota, sundari, nafiri (from the Persian trumpet nafīr ) and olaga .

distribution

The name mohori possibly goes back to Sanskrit mori ("channel", "channel", "tube"), as a reference to the shape comparable to sushira ("hollow"), as the group of wind instruments is called according to the Indian classification . The name is related to mohori , including the tangmuri in Assam . Likewise, kolavi means “tube” in Dravidian languages . In Kannada "tube" means kolala and in Tamil kuzhavi stands for both "tube" and a specific flute. The Kota, an ethnic group in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu, play a kegel oboe kuzhl and the Irula, an Adivasi group in the same region, play the kegel oboe kol (or piki ). The word environment consequently describes all tubular musical instruments, i.e. flutes and reed instruments.

Also kuzhal , an ancient South Indian term for a flute, heard this. After the introduction of the Brahmi script in South India in the 2nd century BC. The Tamil poetry, which had been handed down orally and performed by bards, was recorded in writing in a literary form. Some bards performed folk theater in the street, accompanied by drums ( mulavu ). Another group of musicians, dancers and actors apparently used a bamboo horn called a vayir or netunkuzhal . There were also the employed professional musicians kannular , who played the bamboo flute kuzhal , different sized bow harps yal and the drum mulavu . There were also young women who danced and sang.

The kuzhal was the leading instrument in accompanying the dance. Like the word vankiyam in the Tamil literature of the 1st millennium, Kuzhal denotes a transverse flute which, according to descriptions, was a bamboo tube 38 centimeters long and 9 centimeters in diameter. Other materials were wood and bronze. The tube was closed at the end of the injection port and had seven finger holes and another hole that remained open. A flute called mullaikuzhal had five finger holes. Radhika Balakrishnan (2016) is of the opinion that in the ancient Tamil epic Silappatikaram (2nd century) the word kuzhal stood for a double reed instrument that played the leading role in dance music. Balakrishnan argues that in the third chapter of the Silappatikaram designations for components of the kuzhal are mentioned, which are also known for parts of today's nadaswaram .

Bamboo flute venu or pullankuzhal of carnatic music.

In Sarangadeva's 13th century musicological treatise Sangita Ratnakara , the flute vamsha is mentioned as one of two instruments suitable for playing ragas . Later their use in ragas declined and it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that flutes were taken up again in Indian classical music : in the north as a long bamboo transverse flute bansuri with seven finger holes and in the south - promoted by the flautist Sarabha Sastri (1872–1904) - as a shorter venu , which is also called kuzhal or pullankuzhal . The venu played today in Carnatic (South Indian classical) music is a bamboo flute about 30 centimeters long with a relatively large diameter and eight finger holes.

Herbert Arthur Popley (1921) mentions a panpipe called kuzhal , which is played by shepherds and consists of a few reeds or bamboo canes of different lengths and intervals. It should have sounded shrill. In Tamil Nadu, the pungi , the double clarinet of the snake charmers, is known as makuti and pambatti kuzhal .

An unusual double flute in Tamil Nadu in the form of a centrally blown transverse flute is called nedun kuzhal . The instrument consists of a thick, long bamboo tube with three internodes . The player blows in through a short tube in the middle. A hole is cut into the outer wall of both shoot nodes, which is partially covered by a metal sheet serving as a cutting edge. The instrument, held vertically when playing, has eight finger holes on the lower melody tube, the upper half has no finger holes and serves as a drone tube. Similar doubled flutes are the surpava in Maharashtra and the dobandi bansi in Odisha .

Design

The kurum kuzhal consists of a 30 to 40 centimeter long, conical play tube made of wood, which is called olavu , and a metal bell attached. It is thus related to the small north Indian cone oboes like shehnai, mohori and tangmuri as well as to the south Indian mukhavina ; the latter two have a detachable wooden bell. Some specimens consist of a one-piece tube that widens like a funnel. The removable mouthpiece ( nelhi ) is a small tube into which the reeds of a wild plant species are plugged . One pirouette is missing. As with most other Indian double reed instruments , the kuzhal has seven finger holes on the top and another hole at the bottom at the near end, which the player closes with the left thumb.

When playing, the short reeds are completely enclosed in the mouth. The sound of the kuzhal is shrill and piercing.

Style of play

Panchari melam with a row kuzhal and opposite a row with cylinder drums chenda .

In the South Indian musical styles, the nadaswaram has largely replaced the kuzhal , which is practically only used in Hindu temple music in Kerala. The ceremonial music in the Hindu temples and in processions at the temple festivals is performed mainly by professional musicians from the upper castes, who make up around a third of the Hindus in the state. Under the upper boxes, the Marar, who mostly live near the village temples, form a small and particularly high-standing group. Their main instruments are the double-headed cylinder drum chenda , the double-headed hourglass drum idakka , the hourglass drum timila , which is only beaten on a skin, and the small pair of cymbals elathalam . They also appear as singers of the Keralesian temple singing style sopanam sangitam . Other caste groups have specialized in one instrument; Certain members of the Nambiar are the only ones entitled to beat the large copper drum mizhavu , and it is mostly members of the Nambeesan Brahmin caste who play the madhalam drum . The nayar also play madhalam and also the barrel drum tavil , the curved natural trumpet kombu , kuzhal, nadaswaram and small pair cymbals. An exception is the folk song genre Villu Pattu performed by the middle castes at the temples .

The Hindu religious music in Kerala is called kshetram vadyam . It is almost only instrumental ( kshetram, "temple", and vadyam , "musical instrument"), predominantly percussive and not associated with dance. Kshetram vadyam is divided into two categories: kutuka ("drumming") and pattu ("singing"). The kutuka includes the drums played in large orchestras and the pattu, in addition to the singing, also includes kuzhal and kombu , if they appear solo as melodic instruments. The melody instruments are always subordinate to the rhythm. In the large ceremonial orchestras , the wind instruments mentioned are mainly used rhythmically, which is why they are also included in the kutuka category .

The most popular kshetram vadyam orchestra is the Panchari melam , which has a small cast at almost every temple festival and a large cast for the annual festival of a temple. It is a musical form of the genus chenda melam (cylinder drum chenda and melam , "ensemble"). Musically, the Panchari melam is dominated by the chenda players standing in the front row, who are rhythmically supported by elathalam players standing behind it . Opposite them, musicians have lined up in the first row with kuzhal and kombu fans behind them . The task of the kuzhal and kombu players is to emphasize and lengthen the main beats of the chenda drums. When the orchestra sets off in a procession, an elephant or a priest of the Nambudiri Brahmin caste lead the way. The music is divided into five phases (layers, kalam ), which consist of a certain number of rhythmic cycles with increasing tempo. The last phase is the shortest and fastest, which comes to a close with maximum speed and volume of all instruments. At least 20 to 30 musicians are required for a performance and up to 200 musicians for a large temple festival. A typical orchestra consists of about 45 chenda , 30 elathalam , 15 kombu and 15 kuzhal . The procession begins at the entrance of the main temple and circles it clockwise, stopping at each of the eight cardinal points. The music is an essential part of the elaborate ritual for worshiping the deity in the temple.

A related orchestra with the same line-up - chenda, elathalam, kuzhal, and kombu - is the Pandi melam . The word pandi denotes a rhythm with 7 beats ( laghu ). A performance consists of four parts that last around two and a half hours in total.

In the temple orchestras, the kuzhal has the function of a percussion instrument ( tala vadyam ). The small ensemble kuzhal pattu is an exception . It is the only kshetram vadyam style in which a wind instrument acts as a solo melody instrument. The kuzhal pattu is rarely performed at large temple festivals, where the spectacular percussion orchestras are more popular with the audience. It also faces stiff competition from the classical music presented on concert stages. The chamber music ensemble of kuzhal pattu includes a kuzhal , occasionally another kuzhal as a drone instrument ( sruti kuzhal ), a chenda or a small version of the barrel drum madhalam that is hung around the neck ( toppi madhalam ), and paired cymbals elathalam . After the initial non-metric part, which corresponds to the introductory alapana of classical music, the sruti kuzhal leads over to metric raga compositions, which are in a cycle ( talam ) with 16 beats. The faster third part is a raga ( hamsadwani ) with a cycle of 4 beats . This is followed by a fourth part with a counting time ( eka talam ).

A kuzhal can also be used in Kerala for musical accompaniment to the Hindu ritual theaters Teyyam , Mutiyettu and Ayyappan tiyatta , the Sanskritt theater Kutiyattam and the shadow play Tholpavakuthu .

The best-known kuzhal players of the older generation include Pozhankandathu Rama Panicker, Kodakara Sivaraman Nair († 2017), Kombath Kuttan Paniker (Kombathu Kuttan Panicker) and Septuagenarian Kodakara Sivaraman Nair. A younger kuzhal player is Velappaya Nandanan Nair.

In Sri Lanka , the predominantly Hindu Tamil minority includes an ensemble with the barrel drum tavil and the long bowling oboe nadaswaram to the ritual music of the Hindu temples, while the Buddhist Sinhalese perform a musical worship ritual ( hewisi puja ) in the temple, in processions and in a theater genre playing short quadruple reed instrument horanewa . The lower Tamil caste of the Paraiyar ("untouchables", derived from the term pariah ), who live in Tamil Nadu and in the east of Sri Lanka, use the eponymous single-headed frame drum parai in India , which, as far as is known, not in Sri Lanka occurs. Instead, the Paraiyar in Batticaloa district play the tavil struck with one hand and a short stick , the pair of kettle drums struck with two bent canes, tampattam, and the kuzhal cone oboe . Such an ensemble occurs at temple festivals, possession ceremonies, funerals, and other domestic rituals.

literature

  • Kurum Kuzhal . In: Late Pandit Nikhil Ghosh (Ed.): The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India. Saṅgīt Mahābhāratī . Volume 2 (H – O) Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2011, p. 581
  • Rolf Killius: Ritual Music and Hindu Rituals of Kerala. BR Rhythms, Delhi 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ Walter Kaufmann, 1981, pp. 90, 100
  3. ^ Ann Weissmann: Hindu Musical Instruments . In: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (New Series), Vol. 14, No. 3, November 1955, pp. 68–75, here p. 74
  4. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: The Double-Reed Aerophone in India . In: Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 7, 1975, pp. 77-84, here p. 78
  5. ↑ Nazir A. Jairazbhoy: A Preliminary Survey of the oboe in India. In: Ethnomusicology , Vol. 14, No. 3, September 1970, pp. 375-388, here p. 377
  6. ^ Dileep Karanth: The Indian Oboe Reexamined . In: E-ASPAC: An Electronic Journal in Asian Studies, 2005, p. 6 ( online )
  7. ↑ Nazir A. Jairazbhoy: The South Asian Double Reed aerophones Reconsidered. In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 24, No. 1, January 1980, pp. 147-156, here pp. 149, 155
  8. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments of India. Their History and Development . KLM Private Limited, Calcutta 1978, S, 119f; Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, 1975, p. 79
  9. ^ Emmie Te Nijenhuis: India. II. Music of the Older Times. 3. The period of older Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism (600 BC to 200 AD). In: MGG Online, November 2016 ( Music in the past and present , 1996)
  10. ↑ Alastair Dick: Kuḻal . In: Grove Music Online , January 20, 2016
  11. ↑ Radhika Balakrishnan: The influence of Nagaswaram on Karnataka classical vocal music. (Dissertation) University of Mysore, 2016, Chapter 7 , p. 222
  12. ↑ Harold S. Powers: India, subcontinent of. III. Theory and practice of classical music. 6. Instrumental traditions. (ii) Aerophones . In: Grove Music Online, July 1, 2014
  13. ↑ Alastair Dick: vamsa. 3. Modern classical transverse flutes. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  14. ↑ Herbert Arthur Popley: The Music of India . (1921) Reprinted: Low Price Publications, Delhi 1990, p. 119
  15. ↑ Alastair Dick: Pūngī. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  16. ↑ Alastair Dick: Nedum kuḻal . In: Grove Music Online , September 22, 2015
  17. ↑ Kurum Kuzhal . In: Late Pandit Nikhil Ghosh (Ed.), 2011, p. 581
  18. ^ David B. Reck: Musical Instruments: Southern Area. In: Alison Arnold (Ed.): The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 5: South Asia. The Indian Subcontinent. Garland, New York 2000, p. 362
  19. ^ Rolf Groesbeck, Joseph J. Palackal: Kerala. In: Alison Arnold (Ed.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 5: South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent. Routledge, London 1999, pp. 931f
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  21. ^ Rolf Groesbeck: “Classical Music,” “Folk Music,” and the Brahmanical Temple in Kerala, India. In: Asian Music , Vol. 30, No. 2, Spring – Summer 1999, pp. 87–112, here p. 90
  22. ^ Rolf Killius, 2006, pp. 60, 62
  23. ↑ Traditional orchestras of Kerala. keralatourism.org
  24. ↑ Rolf Killius, 2006, pp. 74–76; see. India. Ritual Percussion of Kerala. Vol. 1: Kshetram Vadyam . Recordings by Rolf Killius. CD from VDE Gallo 971-2, 1998, Title 3: Kuzhal Pattu .
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  27. ↑ K. Santosh: Honor for Kurumkuzhal player. The Hindu, July 20, 2014
  28. ↑ Horanava. Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection
  29. ^ Anne Sheeran: Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of. 2. Tamil music and the music of Islam. In: Grove Music Online , 2001
  30. ^ Dennis B. McGilvray: Paraiyar Drummers of Sri Lanka: Consensus and Constraint in an Untouchable Caste. In: American Ethnologist, Vol. 10, No. 1, February 1983, pp. 97-115, here p. 103