Litungu

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Litungu ( Luhya , plural kamatungu ) is a seven-string bowl lyre with a wooden body, mainly used by the Bukusu (Kusu) and also by the Logoli (Maragoli), both subgroups of the Luhya , and the related Tachoni in western Kenya and the Bukusu and Bagisu (Gisu, called lleidu by them ) and Wanga in eastern Uganda, also belonging to the Luhya . The Kuria in Kenya play a somewhat different bowl veil with eight strings called iritungu or litungu . In modern instruments, their wooden body has been replaced by a metal bowl. The two litungu types differ in shape and playing posture, but not in their clear tone. This arises because the strings swing freely over a bridge placed on the membrane. This distinguishes them from the Ugandan lyres without a bridge, in which the strings brush over the membrane and thus generate a rattling background noise. With the Bukusu, the litungu accompanies the most popular entertainment dance, kamabeka, and belongs to a style of presentation in which songs sung along with the lyre alternate with spoken text passages.

Furthermore, litungu denotes a seven-stringed casket with the Ragoli (Logoli) belonging to the Luhya in Uganda and a raft zither with the Bagisu in Uganda.

distribution

Eight-string nyatiti of the Luo .

The current, relatively narrow distribution area of ​​the lyres is limited to northeastern Africa and extends beyond from the Red Sea ( simsimiyya in Arabic folk music ) to the Persian Gulf ( tanbura native to Nubia ). According to the shape of the resonance body, a distinction is made between the two types of box veil and cup veil. The krar and the beganna in Ethiopia are among the few caste- veins ; apart from that, the cloven veils predominate in Africa, which presumably came from ancient Egypt in the first centuries BC through the mediation of the Meroitic Empire along the Nile to the south. Both types of lyre were probably already present in the Aksumite Empire in the Horn of Africa at the beginning of the 1st millennium . The organologically different types influenced each other in Africa. For example, the Ethiopian krar can have a bowl-shaped or box-shaped resonance body made of different materials, the bowl veil tom among the Schilluk in South Sudan has an unusual semi-tubular wooden body and in western Kenya there is an eight-string litungu with a more box-shaped body.

A second differentiating criterion for lyres is the playing technique. With lyres from the ancient Mediterranean, such as the ancient Greek kithara and the Israelite kinnor , the player stroked all the strings in both directions with a pick in one hand and muffled all the strings that could not be heard with the fingers of the other hand by gently touching the back should be. This playing technique is typical for the simsimiyya , the tanbura and some lyres in southern Ethiopia, but only occurs sporadically in East Africa. From the bowl lyres in South Sudan, which occurred among other things in the Schilluk, Dinka ( tom ) and Nuer (flat round bowl), to the southern border of the lyres around Lake Victoria and in the north of Tanzania , regardless of regional technical characteristics, mostly the strings are single plucked with your fingers.

In Kenya, lyres are only common west of the rift valley. The Kenyan cellophane veils are divided into three clearly distinguishable types according to the details of their construction: 1) The seven-string litungu has yoke arms protruding almost parallel from the resonance body. 2) The obokano of the Kisii (also Gusii), the nyatiti ( nytiti, also thum ) of the Luo and the iritungu of the Kuria have a triangular basic shape, their yoke arms diverge from the circular body in a V-shape. As a special feature, the obokano produces a background noise. For this purpose, two to three stones are placed in the sound box before the skin is covered, which act as rattles when playing , and a second reed bridge, which is glued to the center of the membrane and which the strings lightly touch, ensures a snarl. 3) The third type is the lyre pagan (or pkan ) of the Pokot ( Pökoot -speaker ) in West Pokot County , which like the ancient Greek lyra has a turtle shell as a body, small and almost square.

Five-string lyres of the Konso in southern Ethiopia. Parallel yoke arms and horizontal format body as in the seven-string litungu .

The lyres came from the north to western Kenya and Uganda on two possible routes. According to a popular theory, they arrived with the southern migration of the Luo, who speak a Nilotic language with Luo , in the 15th and 16th centuries. Century from South Sudan to Lake Victoria. Since lyres are missing in the Nilotic ethnic groups in northern Uganda and northern Kenya in the area of Lake Turkana and there is thus a gap in this distribution route, Gerhard Kubik prefers an origin of the lyres in western Kenya from southern Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, lyres are widespread in all parts of the country down to the lowlands in the east, in addition to the well-known krar and beganna lyres in the central highlands under the names dita, dul, shungui, goala and timba . In southern Ethiopia, the lyres usually have a flat, misshapen, rectangular wooden bowl as a resonance body, which is covered with animal skin. To confirm the Ethiopian origin of at least the West Kenyan lyres, Kubik draws a linguistic connection between Amharic beganna , Pökoot pkan ( pagan ) and the name obokano among the Kisii.

The lyres therefore first came to the Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in western Kenya and from there perhaps in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century to Bantu-speaking and Nilotic groups in Uganda. The Luhya, along with litungu, were one of the first Bantu language groups to have adopted the lyre a long time ago. The obokano and nyatiti lyres, introduced a little later, can be used as models for the Ugandan types. These differ from the Kenyan ones in that they lack a bridge . One such seamless lyre is the enthongoli ( entongoli, also entongooli ) of the Basoga. It was adopted by the Baganda as endongo in the middle of the 19th century . In lyres without a bridge, the strings run a short distance directly on the membrane and cause a rattling background noise when struck, which is a desired effect on many African musical instruments.

Klaus Wachsmann (1971), to whom the thesis of "Luo migration" goes back, explains the gap in the distribution of the lyre in a width of 300 to 450 kilometers with the general material poverty of the peoples living around Lake Turkana, who are predominantly cattle breeders ( including Turkana , Rendille and Mursi ). According to their string tuning, Wachsmann distinguishes between two types of lyre, each of which has its own origin: the Ethiopian beganna and the lyres of the Basoga and Baganda belong to an eastern region , the strings of which are tuned in leaps and bounds. The lyres of the western region, which are related to the Ethiopian krar , have fewer strings that are tuned to ascending pitch. The Kingdom of Buganda is an area in which, exceptionally, lyres and harps - here the eight-string bow harp ennanga - occur at the same time, otherwise the regions of distribution of the lyres and harps in East Africa are separated from each other.

Design

Seven-string litungu

Seven-stringed lyre of the Alur in the northeast of the Congo without a bridge, but with a one-sided sound hole as in the litungu. The position of the yoke arms corresponds to the iritungu and the endongo .

The bowl-shaped, rather oval wooden body ( siiye ) of the seven-string litungu of the Bukusu measures approximately 35 centimeters in width, 25 centimeters in the longitudinal direction and 15 centimeters in depth. A membrane ( lisielo ) made of animal skin is pulled up as a cover and bent over at the edges. Goat, sheep or cow skin is commonly used as a membrane for lyres in the region. When litungu cowhide today replaces the previously common skin of a Warans . The membrane of other East African lyres is tensioned with straps running around the underside, with the litungu it is fastened a few centimeters from the edge with wooden pegs or is now simply nailed on. The yoke arms ( kimikhono ) of the approximately 75 centimeter long instrument lead almost parallel from the inside of the body over its upper edge to peg holes in the crossbar ( lusala lukhikha ). Over a length of about 45 centimeters, the distance between the yoke rods and the crossbar increases from about 28 to 30 centimeters. The membrane is cut out around the exit points of the yoke arms.

The corpus used to consist of the soft and pest-resistant wood of mulberry fig ( kumukhuyu nandere ), Euphorbia candelabrum (genus milkweed , kumutua ) and Erythrina abyssinica (genus coral tree , kumurembe ). After the British colonial government had banned the felling of these and some other trees under threat of punishment in 1937, the instrument makers had to switch to types of wood that were previously considered unsuitable.

The strings ( chisia ) run from their attachment points at the lower edge of the body over a bridge ( sisala ), which consists of a flat piece of wood loosely pushed under the strings, to the crossbar (yoke). One example of the Bukusu has two strings on both sides at the lower end and three strings in the middle to the fastening points arranged next to one another on a sheet metal strip. Another seven-string lyre has three strings from one attachment point and four from another. Due to the bridge, the strings produce a clear tone desired by the Luhya and not the additional buzzing noise of the Ugandan, bridge-free lyres. The strings are fixed to the crossbar with the help of multiple wrapped cord loops ( kamafundikho ) made of non-string material. The strings can be tuned by turning these ball windings; Inserted tuning knobs, which are often used and are already known from Mesopotamian lyres, are missing in western Kenya. The strings of older lyres consist of twisted animal tendons or intestines, as is customary throughout the region; modern lyres are more likely to be strung with nylon (strings from fishing nets or tennis rackets). A single round sound hole ( kumuanya ) is located on the left side of the membrane as seen by the player. In addition to its function to amplify the sound, the opening is used by the audience to give the musician a few coins during the game. The seated musician places the body of the litungu on his knees with the string plane slightly upwards or inclined to the right side away from the body and plucks the strings from above with both hands.

A lyre, which is more closely related to the seven-string litungu because of its parallel yoke arms, is an eight-string instrument that Gerhard Kubik found in 1976 with a street musician from western Kenya in Nairobi. Its litungu consisted of a rectangular resonance box with a flat bottom, bulging at the sides. The box was made of boards and covered with a membrane nailed to the edge. Eight almost parallel strings ran across the high bridge, which was placed in the middle of the membrane, to the tuning loops on the crossbar.

The strings are tuned hexatonic ( khuyinga litungu , "tuning the litungu"), whereby the two highest strings are an octave above the two lowest strings. The tuning is understood as equi- heptatonic , the octave is divided into seven equal pitches , with one pitch missing. The three lower strings on the left (the side of the sound hole) are considered "female" ( chisia chikhasi ), the four higher strings on the right as "male" ( chisia chiseecha ). The interval between the first three strings is a whole tone , between the third and fourth strings a semitone, between the fourth, fifth and sixth strings a whole tone and between the sixth and seventh strings a minor third . A game is considered to be of good quality if the musician plucks the female and male strings in a balanced ratio with the thumb and forefinger of the left and right hand. Some modern instruments are equipped with twelve strings to expand the range upwards so that they can be better played in ensembles with guitars and keyboards .

Eight-string iritungu

Nyatiti the Luo in the same playing stance as the iritungu .

In the eight-string iritungu (or litungu ) of the Kuria in the province of Nyanza , the yoke arms spread a little more apart to form a crossbar. With its bowl-shaped, circular wooden body, it resembles the nyatiti ( thum ) of the Luo. Instead of the wooden body, modern lyres use a round metal bowl with a diameter of about 40 centimeters. The membrane consists of zebra skin, which is bent around the edge and fastened to pegs inserted in the wooden body by means of zigzag lacing. The yoke arms protrude about 40 centimeters from the body and are pegged into the approximately 60 centimeter long crossbar.

The playing posture of the iritungu corresponds to that of the Luo, Baganda and Basoga lyres and is completely different from that of the litungu of the Bukusu. The musician crouching on the floor places the instrument upright with one side on the ground with the string level in a vertical position and plucks the strings from both sides. With the upper yoke arm pressed against one of the lower legs, he grips over it with his left hand to pluck the higher strings on the side facing away from him. With his right hand he plucks the lower, lower strings from the front. The membrane has no sound hole. The end of the crossbar that protrudes upwards in this position is formed into a flat bowl and, as a depository for coins, fulfills the same function as the membrane hole in the Bukusu-litungu.

The strings previously made of gut were replaced in both types by thinner strings made of nylon after the middle of the 20th century, making such instruments sound much higher. The original pitch of the lyre cannot be maintained with the nylon obtained from old tennis rackets, but only with appropriately strong nylon strings from fishing nets. In contrast to the replacement of the gut strings with nylon strings, the use of metal bowls ( Swahili karai , plural makarai , from Hindi karahi ), which are otherwise used in the household (as wash bowls), apparently did not result in any noteworthy sonic changes.

Style of play

The Bukusu, called Babukusu in their language Lubukusu, are a subgroup belonging to the Luhuya who, together with other Bantu- speaking ethnic groups from the area of ​​today's Cameroon, went to Uganda to Mount Elgon and then because they came into conflict with the Kalenjin there migrated to western Kenya. Their main settlement area is Kanduyi Division in Bungoma County . In their creation myth, the supreme god formed the first Bukusu man (Mwambu) out of clay and immediately added a woman (Sela) to him. The stories about this and about the hike to Mount Elgon, forced by overpopulation and hostilities, were passed down orally in songs, especially in the often performed song Ewuyo Ino ("This Hike").

The seven-string litungu is the most important instrument for song accompaniment and every social occasion has its own dedicated music. The Bukusu use the nickname lusia , literally “one string” , for litungu . With lusia lulayi , “a good string”, good music is paraphrased because it is agreed that such music is produced at litungu . For entertainers who accompany songs at the litungu , a strong basic beat is typical, which can be generated by stamping with the right leg to which a bell or bell is attached. The litungu produces sliding melodic phrases or sets an offbeat against the beat continuously held by a percussion instrument . The vocal part follows the lyre melody, either in unison or in parallel at octave intervals. In addition to light music , the litungu is also used on ceremonial occasions.

Other Bukusu musical instruments are the one to two-stringed tubular violin isiriri (also asiriri, siilili, corresponds to the siilili of the Bagisu and the endingidi of the Baganda in Uganda), which was probably only introduced in the 1930s, the single-headed barrel drum engoma (alternatively an upturned one Plastic water canister ), the rectangular wooden box siiye (on the top of which two sticks are struck in each hand), the bichenje tied around the legs , which are used to evoke spirits in dance rituals ( wobilo ), the handbells chinyimba (cowbells with handles in circumcision ceremonies ), the wooden sticks chimbengele , which are used to hit a block of wood on the floor (like a slotted drum ), and the short, cross-blown animal horn lulwika . The litungu is most often played together with a plastic canister replacement drum engoma and a second litungu or a fiddle isiriri . The other percussion instruments and the natural horn lulwika are only used for some songs.

Litungu players and Bukusu singers convey their content in the regional language Lubukusu and in Kiswahili . A vocal performance consists of two alternating sections: the singing of songs with litungu accompaniment and the presentation style silao-sikeleko (“spoken text”), which means “language” and “speech melody” and from a spoken text also with instrumental accompaniment consists. The spoken lecture khulaa-khukeleka is part of the musical performance khulaa . If the solo singer is a recognized representative of society, he himself determines the relationship between spoken and sung texts. He can recite both forms or he gives a second reciter , who is called omukeleki ("teacher", plural bakeleki ), the sign to begin with the silao-sikeleko . When he has finished his narrative, the singer continues with songs. In this case, the entire narrative is spread out in the form of a dialogue. The most common form is the division of the spoken text between more than two actors as an alternation of question and answer. The lyrics are not written down and, like the music, are improvised to a certain extent, so that a certain song is presented a little differently every time. Actors and listeners at music performances and other gatherings behave in accordance with the established hierarchical order of society.

Such an ensemble consists of at least three musicians who are also singers and often include a few dancers. The instrumental part of litungu music, which consists of stringed instruments ( litungu, fidel isiriri ) and percussion instruments (drum, wooden sticks, chimbelenge ), follows fixed musical structures. At the beginning there is an instrumental prelude. Litungu and isiriri are related to the singing voice because they produce equally meaningful melodies. The melodic phrases of the singing voice use the tone stock of five or six whole tones and are mostly doubled by the isiriri and sometimes by the litungu according to the principle of theme and variation. The litungu is generally considered a male instrument and therefore takes on the musical leadership in accordance with the traditional social understanding of roles. The isiriri follows the litungu melody an octave or two above it. Often at the beginning and in the middle the litungu plays an ostinato to an organ point of the isiriri. The percussion instruments - idiophones and drums - produce a rhythmic pattern with partially overlapping and diverging structures.

To litungu -Music of the most popular entertainment dance belongs kamabeka , which is characterized by severe shoulder movements. Various expressions are available to describe shoulder movements. Khukhupa kamabeka means, for example, to shake the shoulders back and forth or up and down, while khutiembukha means to bend and stretch the upper body in time with the litungu music. Other dances with litungu accompaniment are called kumukongo and bitenga , where the shoulders are also shaken, and kumuchenje , a faster dance with head movements.

Cultural meaning

A boy is usually taught the litungu game by his father if he shows interest. Some litungu players did not learn the instrument from their father, but from a well-known player in the family as an apprentice. During the training, the student learns all of the music that is rooted in the culture, including the litungu's accompanying instruments , the songs and the musical forms suitable for the respective occasions. A litungu player is called omukhupetungu (plural bakhupetungu ), a musician is generally called omukhupi . A good singer and litungu player is highly regarded in the Bukusu community. He is respected ( bamua liria ) and feared ( bamuria ). The omukhupetungu knows all the news in the community very well, which is why he is invited by people and often treated as a guest of honor at events. He is feared by some because he can bring their misconduct to the public when he appears. It happens that the omukhupetungu receives a kind of bribe from the family of an evildoer in the form of a grazing animal so that the latter would hold back when performing. If a member of his community wants to make a proposal on a particular topic, he can first initiate the omukhupetungu so that he can present the proposal to the congregation with his greater prestige. Some bakhupetungu make litungu just for themselves, others make it for sale and thus contribute to their livelihood. Lyres made by an omukhupetungu are considered to be of particularly high quality and sell more easily.

Most of the members of the litungu ensembles are male, but unlike in the past, women are also allowed to play litungu today . In the ensembles, however, women are usually given subordinate positions. They very rarely appear as solo voices, more often as accompanying musicians and dancers. Furthermore, they ululate in the choir when it comes to increasing musical expression. The fact that women sometimes also play litungu is due to the group lessons in schools, which in addition to the normal teaching program include other activities such as participation in the Kenya Music Festival organized for young people .

There are many amateur and semi-professional musicians among the Bukusu. The first mythical ancestral couple of the Bukusu, Mwambu and Sela, possessed the gift of making music and composing and passed them on orally from generation to generation. In his musical performance ( khulaa ), the singer praises himself in relation to his ancestors and refers to the achievements of his clan and their origins. A term for the spoken lecture is khukhwilaa ("self- praising "). The litungu is essentially an instrument for pricing. If a singer addresses and praises one of the audience members by name in the course of a performance, the audience stands up, dances in the direction of the music group in appreciation and gives the litungu player some money or food.

The litungu music is performed for entertainment and on ceremonial occasions. A widespread custom in Africa is beer celebrations, which serve as an exchange of ideas among the adult married men of the community. Here, home-brewed millet beer ( pombe ) or, with the Bukusu, corn beer is drunk. The Bukusu used to sing songs in a language rich in proverbs and allusions in praise of old men.

Wedding songs ( kimienya kie siselelo ) are intended to convey traditional values ​​to the bride and groom and explain to the bride how she can find her way into the husband's new family. As a traditional bride price , the man hands over 13 cattle to the family of his future wife. The bridal couple and the cattle given by their names are honored in songs.

The music played during circumcision ( kimienya kie sikhebo ) is of a different character because the songs, like the ritual itself, are considered sacred. Circumcision songs, which also include spoken texts, may not be sung outside of their ritual context. They are designed to get the boy to steadfastly endure the procedure and introduce it to the adult world.

Funeral songs ( kimienya kie kamasika ) tell of the deeds of the deceased and remind the community of their ancestors. A funeral involves several consecutive rituals. Kumuse is the phase in which myths and historical narratives of the community are conjured up and associated with current events, which takes place in the sung and spoken form ( silao-sikeleko ). The stories are also about the otherworldly world ( emakombe ), into which the deceased enters and meets the ancestors there.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Kubik : Lyres. C. African lyres. II. On the migration history of the lyres. In: MGG Online , November 2016 ( Music in the past and present ), 1996
  2. ↑ Lyre, Nuer? Pitt Rivers Museum (illustration of a flat veil, probably the Nuer, before 1928)
  3. ^ 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. 245
  4. ↑ Timkehet Teffera: The Six-Stringed Bowl Lyre Krar of Ethiopia and its Function as a Melody Instrument . In: Gisa Jähnichen (Ed.): Studia Instrumentorum Musicae Popularis II. (New Series). Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2011, pp. 269–286, here p. 272
  5. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Lyres. II. On the migration history of the lyres . In: MGG Online, November 2016
  6. ↑ Ulrich Wegner, 1984, p. 107f
  7. ^ Klaus P. Wachsmann: Musical Instruments in Kiganda Tradition and Their Place in the East African Scene. In the S. (Ed.): Essays on Music and History in Africa . Northwestern University Press, Evanstone 1971, pp. 93-134, here pp. 126f
  8. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Lyres. I. Typology and distribution. In: MGG Online , November 2016
  9. ↑ Designations of the components according to: Mukasa Situma Wafula, 2004, p. 88
  10. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p. 12
  11. ↑ George W. Senoga-Zake: Folk Music of Kenya. (1986) Uzima Press, Nairobi 2000, p. 147
  12. ↑ Barasa Maurice Wekesa, 2015, p. 146f
  13. ↑ Ulrich Wegner, 1984, pp. 103f
  14. ↑ Graham Hyslop, 1972, pp. 49f
  15. ^ Gerhard Kubik: East Africa. Music history in pictures . Volume 1: Ethnic Music, Delivery 10. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1982, p. 106
  16. ↑ Mukasa Situma Wafula, 2004, pp. 103, 130
  17. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p 13
  18. ↑ Ulrich Wegner, 1984, p. 107
  19. ↑ Graham Hyslop, 1972, pp. 50f
  20. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p. 3
  21. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p. 10
  22. ↑ Ambene the famous litungu player. Youtube video (narrator with litungu and bells on his right foot)
  23. ^ Gerhard Kubik, 1982, p. 106
  24. ↑ Barasa Maurice Wekesa, 2015, p. 147
  25. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p 16
  26. ↑ introduced designation of Abigael Nancy Masasabi (2011, p 96)
  27. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, pp. 61f, 64
  28. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, pp. 71f, 78f
  29. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p. 19
  30. ↑ Mukasa Situma Wafula, 2004, p. 6
  31. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, pp. 167f
  32. ↑ Mukasa Situma Wafula, 2004, pp. 94, 97f
  33. ↑ Mukasa Situma Wafula, 2004, p. 124
  34. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, pp. 94–96
  35. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p 142
  36. ↑ Mukasa Situma Wafula, 2004, p. 73
  37. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, p. 8
  38. ↑ Abigael Nancy Masasabi, 2011, pp. 96–99