Maddale
Maddale ( kannada ಮದ್ದಲೆ maddaḷe ), malayalam madhalam , tamil and telugu maddalam, is a double-skinned double-cone drum that is played with the hands, especially in religious folk music in the southern Indian states of Karnataka , Kerala and Tamil Nadu . The regional variants with similar names differ little in design and correspond to the type of mridangam played in classical South Indian music . The drums are used in a variety of temple festivals and processions, which are based on the annual cycle. In the south of Karnataka the maddale and the cylinder drum chande are part of the accompaniment of the yakshagana dance theater, in Kerala the madhalam plays in the ceremonial drum orchestra Panchavadyam .
Design
The body (kannada karusige ) of the maddale is divided into two parts from a stem section of Calophyllum inophyllum ( honne ), Pterocarpus massupium (Indian cinema ), Indian jackfruit ( Artocarpus integrifolia , kannada halasu ), gerber acacia ( Acacia catechu , kannada khadira ) or a tube cassia ( Cassia fistula, kannada kakke ) pricked out. Both conical parts have a flat bead at their larger end, where they are joined together. A brass ring stretched over it protects the connection point from slipping and serves as an ornament at the same time. The center diameter of two typical instruments measured in 1980 is about 20 centimeters; the left eardrum as seen by the player is slightly larger and has a diameter of 17 centimeters, the right eardrum of 16 centimeters. The total length is 40 centimeters.
There are smaller drums made of one piece of wood with a length of 30 centimeters and diameters of 15 centimeters, 13.5 centimeters and 13 centimeters. Your body ( kalase ) is hollowed out thin-walled (up to about 1.5 centimeters) on both sides with the chisel. Larger drums, which were still being made at the beginning of the 20th century, were 66 centimeters long and had a center diameter of 30 centimeters, about 20 centimeters on the left and 18 centimeters on the right.
The fixation of the two ( musky ) membranes made of untanned calf skin requires several work steps. Each skin should be one and a half times the size of the body diameter and consist of three layers. The three skins are laid on top of one another with increasing thickness; from bottom to top they are called adivattu, jivakavalu and melottu . From the two outer layers, cut a circular hole four or five centimeters in the middle, drill twelve evenly spaced holes through the outer edges and insert small iron hooks through them. The membrane prepared in this way is now spread over an opening in the standing drum and tensioned with a cotton cord from the hooks to an iron ring that is temporarily pushed over the lower half of the body. Pieces of wood under the ring secure its position on the body. Next, 32 evenly spaced holes are drilled through the membrane along the outer edge. Two strips of skin two and a half times the length of the circumference are now pulled through every other hole and tied together with a thick twisted ring ( hindige ) made of firm skin on the outside of the edge. The wet hides can now dry, after which the hook and iron ring are no longer necessary. The same procedure applies to the opposite membrane. A broad strip of skin approximately 34 times the length of the instrument, which is looped through both skin rings around the body, ensures the tensioning of the membranes.
A tuning paste ( karna ) on the smaller right eardrum ( bala mucchige ) is used to fine-tune the sound. To make them, finely ground iron slag is mixed with boiled rice in a ratio of 1: 3. In preparation, a circle in the middle of the eardrum is coated with the sap of the wild pea pea mixed with water . After drying, the voice paste is rubbed on with the thumb. Non-sticking powder is blown away and paste is applied until a slight bump is formed. Unlike a paste made from boiled rice and ash ( bona ), which is freshly applied to the left eardrum ( adi mucchige ) before each game, this paste lasts . A thicker application results in a deeper tone. The heads of most Indian double-cone drums are prepared in much the same way.
Style of play
To tune, the musician pushes wooden pegs into the correct position on the slightly larger side of the slightly asymmetrical drum under the tension cords. Alternatively, he can work on the edge of the skin ring with a hammer to achieve a higher tone. He should tune the maddale to the tone intervals ( shrutis ) of the raga intoned by the melody instrument or the singer . With two similar sized but differently tuned drums the pitch F3 was found on the right side of the lower instrument ( ili maddale ), with the other ( ilu maddale - ilu means “higher”) an octave higher, i.e. F4.
The maddale player ( maddalegara ) sits cross-legged on the floor and holds his instrument in front of him, the right side rests elevated on the thigh, with the sole of the left foot he supports the lower edge of the left eardrum. During processions, the madhalam hangs on a shoulder strap in front of the player's stomach. The different drumbeats are memorized with a special syllable language called bidtige ( bol in northern India ). The player has pulled sleeves from a dried rice flour-clay paste over the fingertips of his right hand, which provide a hard blow.
Some ways to play with the right hand: Gumpu means to hit with three or four fingers without a thumb. Are gumpu gives lighter strokes ( are , "half"), only the index finger hits the middle. With chapu , the index finger strikes while the little finger rests lightly on the edge of the karna . If the index finger hits the edge and at the same time the little finger hits the middle, kapal ("blow") is created and only the index finger hits the edge is called teka . Four fingers just outside the karna results in ttam . The fingers of both hands in a rolling motion produce urulike ("rolling") with the result ta ri ki ṭa ki ṭa ta ka , each sound a language syllable .
The left hand has other names: dim, hit the edge and pull your fingers away; sanna dim ( sanna, "small"), beating the middle and ring fingers while the ball of the hand is dampening; and finally ta , hit the center with four fingers (excluding the little finger) and pull away. A dim together with a ttam is typical for the end of a rhythmic pattern ( tala ).
The talas used to accompany the Yakshagana theater are: Eka tala with four beats, rupaka tala with six beats, jhampe tala with five beats, trivude tala, ashta tala and titti thai , different rhythm patterns with seven beats each and adi tala with eight Blows.
distribution
The maddale belongs to a group of double-cone drums , a form of tubular drums that occur almost exclusively in Indian culture and are played in classical and popular music. They represent one of about ten Indian drum types, of which there are countless regional variants. In addition to the south Indian mridangam , this design includes its north Indian counterpart pakhawaj , the similarly large Nepalese pashchima and the slim, almost symmetrical pung from Manipur. Dholak usually refers to a north Indian, slightly curved barrel drum, occasionally also a double-cone drum.
It is not entirely clear where the name maddale comes from; in South India the mridangam is also sometimes called maddalam or maddale . Similar spellings such as madal, mardal and mardala also stand for double-headed barrel or double-cone drums in other parts of the country: in the central Indian Adivasi areas especially with the Santal , Oraon, Baiga, Ghasia and neighboring groups. A madal belongs to the folk dance songs dalkhai and rasarkali in the area of Sambalpur and can be used in the mask dance Purulia chhau . Marda leads back etymologically to the Sanskrit root ṃṛid (“earth”, “soil”, “clay”), consequently mardala is related to the earlier clay mridangam (from ṃṛid and anga, “body”). The relationship between marda and maddale or maddalam cannot be proven, only assumed. Sanskrit mādalā corresponds to Pali maddalo , Marathi mādlā , Telugu , maddeḷa , Tamil maṭaḷam and Hindi mandal.
Typical of Nepalese music is the small, flat vaulted barrel drum madal (also madel, mader, magdal ). In the past, the instrument was only played by the Magar ethnic group. The barrel-shaped or slightly conical drum magar ( madal ) with a body made of clay is widespread mainly among the tribal population ( Adivasis ) of northern and eastern India . As usual, it serves as a rhythm generator for folk dances when hung on a carrying belt in front of the body. In West Bengal they play various Adivasi groups together with the kettle drum dhamsa .
According to the ancient Indian Gandharva music theory, as described in the work Natyashastra , which was written around the turn of the century , there were musical instruments such as the double-headed barrel drum mridangam ( pushkara probably denoted drums in general and dundubhi kettle drums ), the bow harp vina and a flute, the latter blown by God Krishna personally. A medieval Sanskrit author describes a drum mardala with a 40 centimeter long wooden body in the shape of a barrel and membrane diameters of 25 and 20 centimeters. Both eardrums were rubbed with a paste of ashes and cooked rice. In addition, in the literature written in Tamil from the Sangam period (roughly between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD) there are several drum types called muraja or murava , which obviously have the shape of the maddale ( mridangam ) possessed.
From the classic Sanskrit theater to popular performances, many dramatic pieces and dances are in the ancient Indian tradition, in which rhythmic accompanying music is produced by double-headed tubular drums. An example is the Nataka folk theater of Orissa , dedicated to Krishna , in which a cantor ( gahaka or gayaka ) appears with three musicians playing a barrel drum mardal (or mardala ), a brass cymbal ( gini ) and harmonium .
On the coast of Karnataka, professional dance groups perform the Yakshagana dance theater during the dry season in the winter months. Its accompanying orchestra consists of a maddale and a vertical, one-sided cylinder drum chande . The singer ( bhagavata ) also acts as a director and gives the beat in the northern style ( badagatittu ) with his cymbals ( tala ), in the southern style ( tenkutittu ) he strikes a brass gong .
In Kerala, the madhalam plays in the ceremonial drum orchestra Panchavadyam (“five musical instruments”) together with the hourglass drums idakka and timila , the small bronze pair of cymbals elathalam and the only wind instrument, the curved natural trumpet kombu . Large panchavadyam orchestras usually have one or two idakka players, a few more madhalam players, and twice as many of the other instruments as there are madhalams . At temple festivals, a Panchavadyam performance that begins in the morning lasts eight hours, with further hours following in the evening and at night.
Madhalam, idakka and the cylinder drum chenda (similar to the chande in Karnataka) also play together in the Kathakali dance theater in Kerala . One of the leading madhalam players at Kathakali was KK Gopalakrishnan, who died in 2008. Keli is a style of music used to introduce a Kathakali performance or a religious festival. In this maddalam keli , several maddalams play together with percussion instruments. Kuzhal pattu belongs to a temple festival, in this style the drummer is accompanied by the double reed instrument kuzhal (similar to a shehnai ).
The Tamils brought the maddalam to Sri Lanka , where it became part of the Sinhalese tradition and is practically identical in construction under the name demala bera as a rhythmic accompaniment to songs and dances together with the small double-reed horanewa in the Nadagam folk theater .
Discography
- Ritual Percussion of Kerala. Vol. 1: kshetram vadyam , vol. 2: tayambaka. Recordings by Rolf Killius. 2 CDs from VDE Gallo 971-2, 1998
literature
- Richard Emmert et al. a .: Description of Musical Instruments. In the S. (Ed.): Dance and Music in South Asian Drama. Chhau, Mahākāli pyākhan and Yakshagāna. Report of Asian Traditional Performing Arts 1981. Academia Music Ltd., Tokyo 1983, pp. 283-286
- Hiriyadka Gopala Rao: Rhythm and Drums in Badagatittu Yakshagāna Dance-Drama. In: Emmert, pp. 188-204
Web links
- Yakshagana Taala Maddale # 4 - Gopal Bhat, Jogi Mane. Youtube video ( Yakshagana accompanying music in Karnataka with maddale , harmonium, cymbals and vocals)
- Panchavadyam - Maddalam vayana. Youtube video ( Panchavadyam performance in Kerala: several maddalams and kombus )
Individual evidence
- ^ Description, Emmert, p. 184
- ^ Rao, in: Emmert, p. 190
- ↑ Description, Emmert, p. 286; Rao, in: Emmert, pp. 193, 204
- ↑ Madal. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, pp. 357f
- ^ Description , Emmert, p. 284
- ^ Felix Hoerburger: Studies on Music in Nepal. (Regensburg contributions to musical folklore and ethnology, Volume 2) Gustav Bosse, Regensburg 1975, p. 16
- ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments. National Book Trust, New Delhi 1977, p. 37
- ^ Prahlada Nataka, Indian Theater. Indian Net Zone
- ↑ ML Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Loka Ranga. Panorama of Indian Folk Theater. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 1992, pp. 234, 291
- ↑ Suganthy Krishnamachari: symphony Leading to unrehearsed . The Hindu, October 8, 2010
- ↑ Master of the Maddalam. KK Gopalakrishnan. The Hindu, February 1, 2008
- ↑ Maddalam Keli. Youtube video. (Recording by the music producer Rolf Killius)