Mbila

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mbila is a name common in southern Africa for different xylophones and lamellophones . In several Bantu languages , both spellings are interchangeable due to the similarity of sound between mbila and mbira and both mean in the singular "a sound plate / lamella" or "a tone" and at the same time as the plural word the instrument made from it and the associated musical style. Language related to mbila / mbira is limba / rimba , hereafter among others malimba and marimba for several xylophones and lamellophones as well as valimba for a frame xylophone in Malawi .

Among the mbira or Mbila mentioned Lamellophonen include in the Shona in Zimbabwe , the mbira dza vadzimu and the mbira dza vaNdau and in Venda in South Africa , the Mbila dza madeza (also Mbila deza ).

As mbila, plural timbila, a xylophone type is known in some variants with an individual resonator under each sound plate among the Chopi in southern Mozambique . Larger, but now largely gone, is the mbila of the South African Venda. The distribution area of ​​the term mbila for xylophone extends to the south of the Congo and the southeast of Tanzania , where Makonde play the dimbila , a spar xylophone with six sound plates. A trough xylophone called a marimba can be found even further north on the Tanzanian coast .

One-tone xylophone idimba with a calabash resonator from the Lunda in Zambia, which is called mbila, mbira or limba in other regions . Tropical Museum , Amsterdam.

Distribution of the word group mbila / mbira

This lamellophone of the Luvale in northwestern Zambia lies on a calabash that serves as a resonance amplifier and thus corresponds to the trough xylophone shown above with a sound plate. Tropical Museum, Amsterdam.

Both types of instruments are widely used in African music with different shapes . Not only mbila / mbira, but also variations of other names are used in numerous African languages ​​for both xylophones and lamellophones. One reason is that the playing style of one group of instruments is often adopted for the music of the other. Arthur Morris Jones put forward the thesis in 1973/74 that lamellophones had been created as "portable xylophones". Large xylophones with eight sound bars are operated by two players sitting opposite or next to each other with a mallet in each hand. According to this, a lamellophone player who plucks the lamellae with his two thumbs would take over the function of the two xylophone players. The exchange of the alveolar consonants L and R occurs frequently in Bantu languages, for example in the metathesis associated with mbila for lamellophones -limba to -rimba and -indimba .

The word ambira appears for the first time in a European language, in Portuguese, in 1609 in the work Etiópia Oriental e Vária História de Cousas Notáveis ​​do Oriente by the Portuguese missionary Frei João dos Santos († 1622), in which he speaks of his journey to the kingdom of Kiteve east of Zimbabwe reported in 1586. Dos Santos names ambira xylophones and lamellophones.

The root word -mbila in African languages ​​stretches across southern Africa to partly to East Africa. A Mbila called xylophone with a single sound panel hardwood over a Kalebassenresonator, which is played with a mallet with rubber head, came in for a description from 1936 Bassonge in Belgian Congo before. It corresponds to the didimbadimba of the local Baluba . The simbila is a heptatonic tuned xylophone with resonators of the Kanyoka ethnic group in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , reported by Hugh Tracey in the 1950s. The singular name timbili for a lamellophone of the Wute ethnicity in Cameroon , which occurs far outside of this region, is unusual . Gerhard Kubik (1964) considers a linguistic relationship to timbila to be unlikely. For the Congo the best known names for lamellophones are -sanzi, -limba and -kembe . In the south of the Congo -sanzi and -limba predominate , in the north and east the root word -kembe is more common. The lamellophone probably came to Uganda from the northeast of the Congo around 1900 , with -kembe being abandoned in southern Uganda under the influence of the Bantu languages.

Silimba the Lozi in Zambia.

The root word -limba is regionally modified to kalimba, malimba, ilimba, silimba or similar. From the valley of the Zambezi to the southern province of Katanga and again in the north of the Congo, the tribe -sanzi occurs. The distribution area of -sanzi therefore overlaps with that of -limba, among others . The latter includes approximately Zimbabwe, Zambia , Malawi , Tanzania and the south of the Congo: the Chewa in Malawi call Kalimba small lamellophones with fan-shaped lamellae and the Tumbuka those with a resonance box and sometimes with Mirlitons . Among the Gogo in central Tanzania, a similar lamellophone is called ilimba . Lamellophones with many lamellas in two rows and xylophones with a sound plate on the coastal region of Tanzania are known as malimba or marimba . Silimba is a xylophone of the Lozi in Barotseland in western Zambia and in the vicinity of Victoria Falls .

Mbira / mbila is used for lamellophones and xylophones by Shona , Venda and other ethnic groups in northern South Africa, Botswana , Zimbabwe and Mozambique. In the Shona language, mbira (singular and plural) is a general term for three large, complex types of lamellophones in Zimbabwe and surrounding areas, while other lamellophones have their own names such as njari, nyonganyonga, hera and matepe .

The related and synonymous nouns mbira / mbila and limba / rimba have prefixes to indicate the plural, such as ma- and ti- or the diminutive form ka- . The verb stem -imba , "to sing", which occurs in many Bantu languages, belongs to the word environment , to which -ila or -ira can be added to expand the meaning . Mbira and mbila therefore have the basic meaning "to sing for something".

The transfer of meaning of the word group mbila to different musical instruments is not the only thing , for example the word stem -dongo ( -dungu ) for lamellophones in Uganda was previously used to describe string instruments ( lyres , harps and musical bows ). The naming of the lamellophones is based on the regional characteristics of pronunciation, the type of instrument, on culturally determined classification systems and occasionally on the social context. Mambira is the name of a large lamellophone with a box resonator among the Bemba people in northeastern Zambia and a trough xylophone near Lake Chilwa in Mozambique.

In the Shona and Venda is Mbila the name for the hyrax , which in South Africa generally rock dassie is. A folk etymological derivation of the name for the music style mbila connects the habitat of the animals in rocky mountain areas with the retreats of the Venda in the rock caves of the mountains in which they used to hide during times of war. In most of the caves, the Venda found hyraxes, which gave a wake-up call in the morning that was amplified by the cave walls. Hunters can use this call to track down the animals. Among the Ndebele in the Transvaal , ilimba refers to the hyrax and the xylophone.

Lamellophones

Likembe of the Ambundu in Angola. Redpath Museum in Montreal.

In European languages, lamellophones were generally known as "sanza" or "sansa" until the 1960s. However, this word does not refer to lamellophones anywhere in Africa, but goes back to an erroneous note by David Livingstone instead of the names nsansi and sansi , which occur in the area where the Shire flows into the Zambezi in Mozambique . Furthermore, kasansi on the Zambezi means “little sansi ”, a lamellophone with only eight to ten lamellas. Livingstone's travel experiences began to appear in 1858. In order to correct the incorrectly used name sansa for 100 years, the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey (1903–1977) first proposed in 1953 to use mbira as a general name for this African type of instrument . He argued that the type of instrument had undergone its greatest technical and technical refinement under the name mbira . The inconsistency of using mbira in specialist literature for the few lamellophone types so called by musicians in southern Africa and as a generic term in literature for the African family of instruments ("mbira family") goes back to Tracey . Hugh Tracey put together nearly 100 different regional names for this.

Since the word mbira actually only occurs in a limited region, misunderstandings and problems arose with the assignment when instruments in distant areas, such as in West Africa, were also called mbira . In order not to generalize African names beyond their area of ​​distribution, Gerhard Kubik introduced the neutral instrumental term “lamellophone” in 1966, which has since replaced other inappropriate terms such as “thumb piano” or earlier English “ kaffir piano”.

The simplest type of lamellophone among the Shona of Zimbabwe is the karima with eight iron lamellas that are mounted in a row on a board. The karimba is considered to be the forerunner of all other regional lamellophones and is at the beginning of a relative chronology of lamellophone types established by Hugh Tracey (1948). The range extends to the rare instrument with a maximum of 52 lamellas in five rows called munyonga . Depending on the shape of the lamellar carrier, tray-shaped instruments without a body ( njari ) can be distinguished from those with a hollowed-out resonance box with the lamellas inside ( matepe ). The njari of the Shona of Zimbabwe and the Sena in the Mozambican province of Tete are used in ancestral rituals, as is the matepe dza mhondoro (also madhebhe ), which occurs in roughly the same regions and in the south of Malawi. Furthermore, the nyonganyonga , which is also called marimba or nsansi , belongs to ancestor worship . It is slightly smaller than the matepe and its lamellae are reversed compared to the matepe and other lamellophones, so that the lower- pitched lamellae are on the right-hand side. Another nsansi is also known as mana embudzi ("goat tooth") in central Mozambique. Its slats are arranged in two continuous rows from the low notes on the left to the high notes on the right.

Mbira dza vadzimu

Mbira dza vadzimu

The mbira dza vadzimu (" mbira of the ancestors / ancestral spirits"), also mbira huru ("large mbira ") or nhare ("iron"), is one of the oldest lamellophone types and became part of popular music in the 1970s. It is a symbol of the Shona culture. In Zimbabwe, the expression mbira without an addition is usually sufficient to distinguish this lamellophone from other types. The mbira dza vadzimu is traditionally used in ritual music, for example in rainmaking ceremonies, funerals, subsequent death rituals ( bira ) to worship the ancestral spirits ( vadzimu ) and in the Mashawe cult of possession. It has at least 22 slats, which are wider and more spaced than the karimba on a board. Two rows of heptatonic tuned lamellas with the two lower octaves on the left side face a row with smaller lamellas of the higher octave on the right. Their arrangement is V-shaped, that is, the fins that sound the deepest are in the middle, which is advantageous for handling.

Mbira dza vaNdau

In eastern Zimbabwe and central Mozambique, the Shona Ndau only play the mbira dza vaNdau or mbira ja vaNdau for entertainment . In addition to amateurs, older, professional hiking singers ( varombe ) sometimes accompany their singing with the lamellophone. Young men use it for courtship. The up to 30 lamellas are arranged in three rows one above the other and with a pitch rising from left to right on a hexatonic scale. They are plucked with both thumbs and the right index finger. The body consists of a soft wood panel that is deepened in the middle so that only the edge strips remain on the back and both long sides. As with other lamellophones, crown caps lined up in front of the lamellae create a buzzing background noise. A well-known mbira dza vaNdau player who was regularly heard on the radio in the 1970s and 1980s is the Ndau António Gande.

In an old type with 18 slats (eleven slats in the front row, three slats on the left and four slats on the right), the fifth slat from the left of the front row is operated either by the left or right thumb. The three lamellae are plucked on the far right with the index finger. Andrew Tracey (1972) subdivides three main regional variants of the Ndau lamellophones, all of which are similar to the old form. The tomboji type, named after the dialect of the same name, on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique south of Mutare , was mainly played by older musicians in the 1970s. Compared to the instrument with 18 lamellas, it is extended by a third row on the left with five lamellas. The mood is closer to the Shona style of playing. Younger players use the most widespread Danda type, which has twelve slats in two continuous rows and eight slats in the third row on the left. The most striking difference is the lack of the sixth pitch of the first octave and the second pitch of the second octave, while the intermediate steps are present in the higher octave. This results in a tetratonic tone sequence that is characteristic of the instrument in the lower register. In the third type (Utee type), instead of the high-pitched third row at the top left, there is an additional, deep-pitched row with five slats on the front right. These are plucked with the right thumb.

Mbila dza madeza

The Mbila dza madeza or Mbila deza , short- deza , the Venda in South Africa with at least 23 (about 26) lamellae corresponds to the shape to a large extent the mbira dza vadzimu . It is also tuned heptatonic and has a range of over three octaves. The two lower octaves on the left are plucked with the left thumb and the high octave on the right is plucked with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. There are also instruments in which the deep lamellas of the left half are exchanged for the high ones of the right half. The addition of the name deza or madeza refers to the large calabash resonator ( deze ) into which the instrument is placed to amplify the sound while playing. When playing, the musician holds the bowl-shaped calabash in an upright position on his knees with the opening facing him.

The mbila dza madeza is used specifically by the Lemba , a subgroup of the Venda, to accompany religious songs and for many shorter entertainment songs. There are also versions of the Venda reed flute dance tshikona played on lamellophones , in which otherwise men produce the melody with a set ( mutavha ) of over 20 single-tone flutes ( nanga ) of different lengths made of plant reed . The Venda are related to the Shona, from whom they split off a few centuries ago. Some of the songs played on the mbila dza madeza are of old age and lead back to an earlier stage of Shona music. According to Andrew Tracey (1989), what is probably the oldest song ( Bangidza ra Mutota ) played by the Shona on the mbira dza vadzimu is about Nyatsimba Mutota, who ruled the Munhumutapa empire in the 15th century . The Venda play the same title ( Bangidza ) on their lamellophone.

Dipela

One of the lamellophone types mentioned is the dipela (dipila), which occurs furthest south of the North Sotho speakers Pedi and Lovedu ( Balobedu ). The name dipela is the Sotho-speaking modification of mbila / mbira . The type has eight to 16 pentatonic lamellae, which are attached in a V-shape to a flat board that does not have the side strips common with other lamellophones. Just as the Pedi adopted the heptatonic playing of the reed flutes in the tshikona dance from the neighboring Venda for their pentatonic style of playing, they probably also adapted the lamellophone kalimba to their listening habits.

In contrast to almost all other lamellophones, the dipela is not plucked with the thumb, but with two or three fingers on each hand in a downward motion. Instead of the dipela , which is rare today , the Pedi more often use a box zither called a harepa , which is constructed according to the principle of the autoharp (without a keyboard). According to some dipela players, the harepa was taken over instead of the lamellophone when the musicians moved from rural areas to the cities in search of work. The simple box zither is called dipela tša harepa and the lamellophone is called dipela tša kota to distinguish it .

Xylophones

One-tone xylophone Mbila

One-tone xylophone limba with calabash amplifier from Manganja in Malawi. Drawing from 1901 with the title "Totentrommel".

In Zambia , Bemba , Bisa , Nsenga and Tabwa (Shila) refer to a one-tone xylophone as mbila . The same type of instrument is at the Manganja, a Bantu language group in the area of Chikwawa in the valley of the Shire in the south of Malawi limba . Bernhard Ankermann (1901) calls such a xylophone, which consists only of a chime stick over a calabash, "Mangandscha's death drum". According to his description, the edge of the calabash opening is coated with wax. Two of the four rods protruding from the calabash are connected by strips of skin on which the sound plate rests. The player hits next to a lump of rubber (or resin ) lying in the center of the board.

The name mbila for trough xylophones with a single sound plate is common in the north as far as the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the specimens of the Sanga in the Katanga province, which came to the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren (Belgium) in the 1930s, instead of the four straight, vertical pieces of wood in the vessel, two sticks bent in a semicircle with a thick one are used Resin layer attached horizontally to the calabash. The sound plate hangs close to the opening on a cord that is pulled through the plate through two holes at both ends and tied to the bars.

According to information from a collector (F. Grévisse, 1935), the mbila served as a ritual instrument for the elephant hunters' association (who also hunted other large game). In the preparation of such a hunt, in order to commemorate the spirits of the deceased hunters and to invoke the hunting spirits, even if the hunters were in a camp in the bush, if they had killed an animal or if a hunter died in the course of his activity or naturally they hit the xylophone. According to various statements, it was played in the camp either solo or together with rattles ( masonkolo ) and ax blades struck against each other ( tuzongele ), otherwise also with rattles and various drums. In each case the xylophone was used ritually and had a quasi-sacral status. An ensemble with the Shila at Mwerusee consisted of two mbila and also several drums.

The style of play is similar everywhere. A mallet in the right hand is used to hit the middle of the plate, while the left hand more or less covers the gourd opening to vary the sound. The musician either holds the calabash while sitting against his left knee with the plate in a vertical position or presses it against his chest.

The didimbadimba (plural madimbadimba ) of the Kiluba- speaking Baluba in the Katanga province was also played by big game hunters in the past, for example to accompany hunting songs that were sung after the animal had been brought into the camp and again to accompany dances, when they arrived in the village with the prey. This was also the reason to brew millet beer.

During a research trip to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1911/12, the Swedish ethnologist Eric von Rosen (1916) collected two single-tone xylophones called mbira , which were played while preparing wild animals or at funerals. One of the two specimens, like the mbila in the Congo, has two semicircular curved rods on an approximately round calabash (total height 46 centimeters), the other, according to the drawing, has four slightly curved, shorter rods protruding from a long oval sound box (height 60 centimeters). In the early 1960s, such a xylophone, named limba, was seen in the Petauke area of Zambia when the local Nsenga played it in front of a hippopotamus that had just been shot. Around 1912 the British tropical medicine specialist Hugh Stannus Stannus in Malawi acquired a xylophone called limba from a hunter of the Chewa (Nyanja) , the shape of which, including the resin lump, corresponded to the mbila of the Sanga in the Congo. He stated that he used it when hunting, in order to attract the elliptical waterbuck and to keep other antelope species away with its drum-like sound . The resin lowers the pitch and is applied to the membranes of drums in Zambia and Malawi for this purpose.

Madimba in Angola

The spread of the one-tone xylophone can be explained by the cultural connections that go back a long way, among others between the Bemba in Zambia, the Chewa in Malawi and the Baluba in Katanga. Even if this xylophone was widespread long before the Kingdom of Yeke, founded by Msiri (around 1830–1891), this kingdom, which existed from around 1856 to 1891 and stretched from the province of Katanga to what is now Angola and Zambia, is likely to spread hunting associations and thus contributed to the one-tone xylophone. Furthermore, under Msiri, the large xylophone madimba came north to the Sanga.

The northern Angolan province of Malanje belongs to the large area in which xylophones with calabash resonators occur. The local madimba is a large xylophone with 20 sound plates, which lies on the floor with the calabashes and is slightly curved. It is played by three musicians for the Mbondo and produces representative music for local chiefs. Another xylophone called madimba with 17 plates, which also lie in a slightly curved plane, is known from the Pende in the southwest of the Congo. In contrast to the rectangular plates of the madimba in Angola, the plates in the Congo are almost triangular with a point facing the player. The Chokwe in the province of Malanje another xylophone (is citanda ca ndjimba or short ndjimba ) with 17 rectangular panels for the practical reason more curved, so that the individual player can reach the plates of the long instrument with outstretched arms better.

Portuguese travelers in Angola in the 17th century noted the name madimba for bracket xylophone . The first known illustration of a xylophone with calabash resonators and carrying handle in this region is from 1692 and comes from the Capuchin missionary Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento (1650–1697), who was traveling in the kingdoms of Matamba and Ndongo , which partly included the province of Malanje.

The word madimba can be derived from malimba / marimba . The sound shift came about because it in Kimbundu no R 's and R or L inevitably D be changed. Only in the Portuguese literature on the province of Malanji is the xylophone called marimba and the Angolan xylophone players are called marimbeiros .

Mbila mutondo of the Venda

Two xylophones with ten chimes and calabash resonators in Brazzaville , then French Equatorial Africa , 1907.

The xylophones best known under the name mbila (plural timbila ) are played by the Chopi in southern Mozambique. The Venda mbila in South Africa have practically disappeared. Typologically, both belong to the xylophones with individual resonators and are or were used in different tunings in large orchestras.

During his trip in 1586, Frei João dos Santos found an instrument used by Kalanga speakers north of the Limpopo River in what is now Zimbabwe. The xylophone called ambira had 18 sound plates, under each of which was a long calabash as a resonator , as with the West African balafon . The bars were arranged in a row, with the smallest, highest-sounding ones on the player's left. As is common in almost all African xylophones with individual resonators to this day, a small hole at the lower end of each calabash was pasted with a fine spider web that serves as a Mirliton. The sound bars hung on two strings over the calabash openings. According to this oldest description of the xylophone, the musicians used two mallets , the heads of which were made from spherically rolled up tendons. An orchestra consisted of many xylophones. The Kalanga no longer use this type of xylophone, it probably corresponds more to today's timbila of the Venda than the xylophones of the Chopi.

There are also two travel reports from the 18th century from the area south of Limpopo, which show that such a xylophone had already arrived in the Cape Colony . The French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (1713–1762) writes about his stay at the Cape of Good Hope on January 1, 1753 about an instrument he saw with the " Kaffirs ", which means the Xhosa :

“It's made up of 12 rectangular boards, each 18 to 20 inches long. They become narrower and narrower in width from the first, which is about six inches wide, to the last, which will not be more than three-and-a-half inches. These little boards lie next to each other on two wooden triangles to which they are attached with leather straps; so that the whole instrument represents a sort of tablet four feet long and twenty inches wide: under each bun is a piece of a calabash (hollowed coconut shell) made on it to give it a resonance to help. A guy carries this instrument in front of him, almost like our women in Paris who carry something around for sale, their flat baskets, and plays on it by hitting the board with two wooden hammers ... "

Lacaille describes a bracket xylophone with approximately the same length (between 46 and 51 centimeters) and decreasing in width (15 to 6 centimeters) sound bars that he saw at the Cape. Since there are no further reports of such a xylophone from there, the specimen mentioned, as Percival Kirby judges from its shape and style of play, may have been an introduced mbila of the Chopi. The Venda's xylophones are larger and cannot be worn while playing.

The description of the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg (1743–1828), who claims to have seen a xylophone without calabash resonators among the “ Hottentots ”, ie the Khoikhoi , in 1773 seems less reliable . This would have to have been the takeover of a single xylophone, because the mostly nomadic Khoikhoi did not own such large musical instruments.

Design

Four mallets with rubber heads and a broken resonator (bottle gourd) of a mbila mutondo . Before 1930. Tropical Museum, Amsterdam

Perhaps the first description of a mbila among the Venda comes from the Lutheran missionary Hermann Theodor Wangemann who, on his second trip to South Africa in 1884, found a xylophone at the then Tshewasse mission station (near the city of Sibasa in the Transvaal province), which he named "Bela" : “The bela is a fairly well-developed musical instrument; sounding wooden sticks are intoned according to the scale; their sound is amplified by artificially cut bottle gourds as a soundboard. To hit the wooden sticks, they use a clapper with a ball of rubber elasticum , which is often found in the woods. ”The following is the description of the dancing troupe that greeted him, on which occasion the large xylophone was played:

“Two men were playing at the same time; who played the upper voice had two clappers, the lower one, three of them, holding two clappers in his left hand for the bass notes, by means of which he struck different notes at the same time. […] The left hand of the treble player or the right hand of the bassist led the simple but clearly recognizable melody (e – d – c – b), while the other tones, always five at the same time, partly the harmony, partly artfully the melody added moving variations in fast runs and new clay figures. "

The Xylophone of the Venda, which has almost completely disappeared today, is called mbila mutondo and consists of two parallel, thin but stable support rods about two meters long, which are connected at the ends by crossbars or a rectangular construction made of wooden rods to form a frame called a magomate . The laterally protruding crossbars serve as handles during transport. The chime bars are tied close to each other to two strips of cowhide stretched over the frame and hang freely over the frame. They are made from the dark brown, hard wood of a tree called mutondo in the Shona language (East African Padauk, Pterocarpus angolensis , in Zimbabwe Julbernardia globiflora , Tribus Detarieae ). The Venda use this valuable wood to make most household items. The mutondo distinguishes between male and female trees and, depending on the case, preferred by individual instrument makers.

The bottle gourds ( mikhumbu ) hanging under each sound plate - with the exception of the three smallest - are fixed by cords with their opening just below the plates in an inclined position. To function as a resonance amplifier, the volume of the calabashes should be adapted to the tone frequency of the chime bars. If the volume of a calabash is not sufficient for the largest chime bars, it is lengthened with half of another calabash glued on with resin. On the side at the lower end of the calabash, a hole made of solid resin is modeled around a hole, which is covered with a spider's web ( mbubwe ) as a Mirliton, which creates a buzzing background noise. The chimes are clearly thinned in the middle between the cord fastenings. For example, a 35 centimeter long and 14 centimeter wide bass tone bar is 3.1 centimeters thick at the ends and only 0.6 centimeters thick in the middle. At the ends, the plates are decorated with notched geometric patterns. The sticks are made from the wood of Spirostachys africana (Venda language muonza, Afrikaans tamboti ), the bark of which has medicinal value and is used as a deodorant.

Style of play

There is no standardized pitch for the chime bars, the tuning is matched to that of the reed flutes used in the Venda national dance tshikona . Percival Kirby (1934) noted 21 names for the pitches of the heptatonic tuned flutes, which were also known for the xylophone records, whereby the xylophone players had almost forgotten their order at that time. For a mbila presumably more than 100 years old with 21 bars, he determined a range from Eb to Eb 2 ; an instrument made around 1920 with 22 rods had a range from D to f 2 .

When playing, the mbila lies on the floor with the sound bars inclined slightly towards the musicians and the deep-sounding plates on their left. According to Percival Kirby, two mostly male musicians crouch in front of each other. The older player on the left takes the lead and acts with three mallets ( tshiombo ): one in the right hand and two in the left hand, spread roughly at right angles. The other player on the right uses a mallet in each hand. He (called netzhizwane ) begins with a short ostinatos melody and determines the rhythm, whereupon the left player ( makwetane ) adds a slightly changing melody in the opposite direction with his right stick . He adds bass notes with his two left mallets. These mallets are never used at the same time, but only alternatively, so that the hand does not have to be moved too far with the large distances between several deep sound bars. The rhythms produced by both musicians can coincide in the emphasized units or run completely next to each other, so that they overlap to form a cross rhythm . According to Andrew Tracey, three men were operating a xylophone. The conductor sat in the middle, on his right side sat the second musician and hit the higher plates while the left player produced the bass notes. Compared to other African xylophone styles, the pace was very slow.

The xylophones and the large kettle drums of the Venda refer to cultural contacts with Mozambique, many pieces are related to the mbila dza madeza songs of the Venda and the music of the Shona of Zimbabwe. Mbila were part of the regular entertainment of the chief and his surroundings in the larger settlements ( kraals ) of the Venda, but there were only a few experienced musicians left in the 1930s. Occasionally, mbila players performed as traveling musicians outside of their own settlement. While xylophone music is still alive in neighboring Mozambique and Zimbabwe, the continuation of the mbila mutondo tradition seems questionable. At the end of 2003, the South African musicologist Ndwamato George Mugovhani found an old xylophone player and an old instrument maker in the Venda area who were able to provide well-founded information about the mbila game.

Timbila the Chopi

Timbila of the Chopi in southern Mozambique are constructed similarly, but smaller than the xylophones of the Venda. The plural timbila also stands for the very complex music that is played with the different sizes of this type of xylophone. The Tswa (BaTswa), an ethnic group living north of the Chopi in the Inhambane province , call their lighter, but otherwise almost identical xylophones muhambi . From the first missionary in south-east Africa, the Portuguese Franciscan priest André Fernandes, the oldest note on timbila is preserved in a letter from 1560 . The Swiss missionary Henri-Philippe Junod (1929) gave a comprehensive early description of the shape and manufacture of the timbila .

Design

Mbila the Chopi with ten chimes and carrying handle . Tropical Museum, Amsterdam

The tone plates of the timbila be makhokhoma known and consist of Niesholz ( Ptaeroxylon obliquum, Chopi language mwendze ), a hard, heavy, resinous wood, which is dried with heat and was formerly used for the construction of stable block houses. As with other xylophones, the sound bars are strung on two strings ( tisinga ). These consist of strips of beef skin or plant fibers (from Cordyla africana , "Wild Mango", Chopi language mtondo ) and are attached to a frame ( mewalo ). In contrast to other xylophones, only a central board acts as a longitudinal beam, in which a circular hole has been cut under each sound plate. At each opening of the board is black beeswax ( pula ) and plant fibers vertically protruding below resonance body ( dikosi , plural Makosi , () adhered to either large gourds sibembe ) or the smaller cup to the refractive nuts belong volunteer species Strychnos spinosa ( nsala ) can be used ( matamba ). The resonators with diameters between 4 and 15 centimeters, carefully selected according to their size, must fit exactly into the board opening. Wax is applied to the edge of the opening to fine-tune the resonance. In contrast to other types of xylophones, the rigid position of the resonance bodies allows their precise tuning and ensures the very loud sound of these instruments. A thin membrane made of cattle peritoneum serves as the Mirliton ( makosi ), which is glued over a hole on the side . To protect them, a ring-shaped piece of a small fruit bowl ( makwakwa ) is glued on with wax. A special feature of the timbila are thin strips of wood, which are placed as spacers between the next but one sound bar. They are attached to the middle board and are intended to prevent excessive movement of the panels.

Until the 19th century, the timbila lay on the floor while playing like the Venda xylophones with the calabashes. The types used to this day have a wooden frame with which they stand firmly on the floor at a low height. The timbila sound bars are in a horizontal position when playing and the musician kneels in front of them. A bracket that runs along one of the long sides is used for stabilization and enables the musician to stand up to play the instrument, which is hung with a ribbon around the neck, with the plates at a distance from the body. The heads of the mallets ( tikhongo ) consist of rubber balls, the weight and strength of which is determined by the pitch of the instrument. Heat and direct sunlight change the sound of the instruments, which affects the resonators more than the plates, which is why the musicians prefer to perform in the early morning or late evening.

Timbila are tuned equally heptatonic and are divided into several variants according to their pitch: The lowest instrument (comparatively double bass) is the chinzumana (also chikhulu or tshikhulu ) with one to four large plates that sound like a drum without a precise pitch. With four sound bars, each around 90 centimeters long, the instrument is around 150 centimeters long. The diameter of the calabash is up to 38 centimeters, some modern instruments use resonators made of metal.

The plates of the chinzumana sound in the octave below the lowest note of the dibhinda ( dibinde , bass) with ten (nine to twelve) sound plates. The dibhinda is about 135 centimeters long and its lowest sound plate is tuned an octave lower than the deepest plate of the chilanzane called dawumbila .

In the pitch in between is the rare dole (also didole, mbingwe, tenor) with nine to sixteen records. It is used more in the initiation of boys and other ritual occasions than in popular music. His playing technique differs from that of the other xylophones.

The sanje (also sange, alto) has up to 19 sound bars, measures up to 180 centimeters in length and is the Chopi's most popular xylophone. The highest (soprano) sounds the chilanzane (also tshilandzana ), which originally had ten records, was expanded to twelve to fourteen records at the beginning of the 20th century and today has fourteen or fifteen records, which are tuned an octave higher than the dibinde .

In the first decades of the 20th century, many Chopi were employed as migrant workers in the gold mines of Witwatersrand in South Africa, where they made timbila from the wood (simple conifers) and organized mbila dances (dance cycle ngodo ). These ngodo dance performances, first described by Portuguese in the mid-16th century, were the most spectacular and complex male dances on the gold mine site. took place at regular intervals; However, when there were violent clashes between different groups in dance competitions, the competitions were abandoned. Because of the limited choice of materials, the miners occasionally used sound plates composed of three pieces of hardwood with nailed strips of skin, resonators made of tin cans of different sizes and glued-on sections of rubber water hoses to protect the Mirlitone. They made the latter from beef intestines.

Style of play

Multiple timbila
Timbila Festival in Zavala , Mozambique, 2016

Timbila are intended for use in an orchestra, solo play is rare. Timbila orchestras, which should be headed by an experienced orchestra leader ( wasiki watimbila ), are part of every traditional festival event and accompany various Chopi dances. In the 1920s, Henri-Philippe Junod observed an orchestral performance with 17 instruments accompanying a war dance, 14 of which were chilanzane in two rows in front , two dibhinda behind them and behind these there was a chinzumana . A boy standing in front of the orchestra shook a vessel rattle ( ndjele, in this case a tin can with a handle). Generally, between 10 and 20 timbila form an orchestra , depending on the occasion . An average orchestra to accompany the ngodo dance today comprises ten sanje , one or two chilanzane, two dibhinda and two chinzumana , which are arranged in three rows one behind the other. There are also about four rattle players who provide the basic stroke. This orchestra accompanies up to 40 dancers and singers who have lined up in front of it. Hugh Tracey made the first recordings of timbila music in 1942/43, and they were released on vinyl in the late 1940s.

The music of the Chopi in southern Mozambique, with its heptatonic scale, consists of tone sequences that do not correspond to the pentatonic overtone series derived from musical arcs , which is widespread in southern Africa, such as the xizambi mouth bow played in the same region or the Xhosa mouth bow umrhubhe , so it is not easy to hear for the ethnic groups living further north in Mozambique. The timbila music is also more diverse than the rest of the country's traditional music, which is why it is considered the first national music of Mozambique and was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 . The international attention gained through this and through appearances abroad is countered by the lack of support from the Mozambican government, which is why the performances of timbila music have also declined since independence in 1975. The fact that the timbila dance is performed as a national dance on national holidays appears more as a symbolic politics. Before 1975 and the dissolution of the chiefdoms, each local chief had his own timbila orchestra, which for him was a status symbol. Rivalries were fought through competitions between several orchestras. To this day, the orchestras that appear on the weekends function as symbols of power for political elites at the local level. In the UNESCO award, however, the average age of the musicians and problems with young talent are lamented, although girls are now allowed to play in the orchestras. Furthermore, the increasing deforestation makes it difficult to get suitable wood for the production of the timbila .

The timbila presentation music comprises ten to twelve movements ( mgodo or kusynia timbila , in the language of Western music suites ). These contain pieces ( ndando, plural tindando ), which usually include a song. The sentences have proper names and - apart from certain preferences of the musicians or regional peculiarities - are performed in a generally binding order. Newly composed movements replace older compositions, so that a productive orchestra with its own composer usually performs a new program every few years. In contrast, an orchestra consisting only of older musicians often plays pieces that are decades old. For the experienced listener, the individual pieces differ significantly in their musical character. The central piece of timbila dance music is mzeno (“the great song”, plural mizeno , from -zeno, “to play slowly, in a calm way”), which is given a dramatic intensity by two changes in tempi. There are some ancient mizeno compositions that are widely known and played to this day. A Chopi musician usually recognizes another musician by his playing style as well as by his singing. The best-known timbila player before 1975 was Shambini wa Makasa from Mavila (near Zavala ), who had an easily distinguishable individual style.

Dimbila the Makonde

The dimbila is a small, hexatonic tuned spar xylophone with six sound plates from the Makonde in the north of Mozambique, where two musicians sit diagonally opposite each other while playing. It essentially corresponds to the mangwilo of the Shirima in the north of Mozambique and the jomolo of the Baule in the Ivory Coast. With the spar xylophone, the sound bars, separated by a soft intermediate layer, rest on two parallel wooden planks; with larger instruments it is often banana trunks or, less often, tufts of grass tied together. The plates of the small dimbila are attached in a special way: on one side the plates are pierced in order to fix them to the stile with a wooden stick inserted through the hole (with an intermediate layer of grass), while on the other side they are held by sticks between the panels are held in place. In the rare Mendzan spar xylophones in southern Cameroon, iron pins are driven into the spar for this asymmetrical type of fastening.

This technique is also used in some xylophones with resonators in Southeast Africa and - which has led to speculations about a cultural influence from Southeast Asia dating back to the 1st millennium - in Indonesia. Arthur Morris Jones (1960 and later), for example, believed that numerous musical phenomena in Africa and among the musical instruments xylophones, slit drums and small West African handbells (related to the Javanese kemanak ) could be traced back to an Indonesian influence. Many of the parallels cited by representatives of diffusionism have methodological weaknesses and suffer from an inaccurate material basis. On the other hand, it is likely that the East African zither zither, the trough zither marimba used by the Zaramo in Tanzania , which has a rectangular wooden box on which all sound plates rest (cf. the Indonesian gangsa ) and the use of drone tones in the dimbila and some others Xylophones go back to a South or Southeast Asian influence.

Andrew Tracey also mentions this theory in connection with the highly developed playing style of the timbila in the Chopi and their equidistant mood. Tracey follows the Scottish ethnomusicologist Percival Kirby (1887–1970), whose main work is used from 1934 to today for the description of South African musical instruments and for whom it was undoubtedly clear (1961) that the calabash-reinforced African xylophones have their origin in the Malay Archipelago .

Mambira in northern Mozambique

In 1962, Gerhard Kubik found a trough xylophone near Lake Chilwa in the Mozambican province of Niassa , which was named mambira by its owner . It had 17 sound bars made of light wood, which were placed on a resonance box made of five boards with an intermediate layer of soft rubber. On one side, the plates were fixed to the box wall with nails through a hole in their center. The hole was big enough for the plates to move. On the other hand, their lateral movement was limited by nails hammered between the plates. The description fits the Indonesian type declared as the model.

The range of this specimen was from about E-flat to b 1 two and a half octaves. The mambira was played in a horizontal position with the higher sound plates on the right by two musicians sitting next to each other. Both had a mallet in each hand that they used to strike the center of the plates. The unusual way of playing for the region included parallel tone sequences, mostly in thirds and octaves, which were repeated in short patterns . Alternating with the instrumental parts, the musicians sang short melodic phrases.

literature

  • Percival R. Kirby : The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa. (1934) 2nd edition: Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg 1965
  • Gerhard Kubik : African and African American Lamellophones: History, Typology, Nomenclature, Performers, and Intracultural Concepts . In: Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (Ed.): Turn up the Volume! A Celebration of African Music. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles 1999, pp. 20-57
  • Ndwamato George Mugovhani: Mbilamutondo music and instruments in Venda culture . (PDF) In: Sajah , Volume 24, No. 3, 2009, pp. 45–54
  • Andrew Tracey: Chopi Timbila Music . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music , Volume 9, No. 1, 2011, pp. 7-32
  • Andrew Tracey: Mbira. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 3. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, pp. 421-424
  • Hugh Tracey: Chopi Musicians. Their Music, Poetry, and Instruments. (1948) International African Institute. Oxford University Press, London 1970

Web links

Commons : Lamellophone  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Xylophone  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Michael Williams: Mbira / Timbila, Karimba / Marimba: A Look at Some Relationships Between African Mbira and Marimba. (PDF) In: Percussive Notes , Volume 40, No. 1, February 2002, pp. 32-39
  2. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Lamellaphone. 4. Early history. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  3. ↑ George McCall Theal : Records of South-Eastern Africa. Collected in Various Libraries and Archive Departments in Europe . Volume 7. Government of the Cape Colony, 1901 (Portuguese text and English translation) Text Archive - Internet Archive
  4. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Lamellaphone. 5. Written and iconographical sources. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  5. ↑ Olga Boone: Les xylophones du Congo Belge . In: Annales du Musée du Congo Belge, Ethnography, Series 3. Tervueren 1936; after: Mbila . In: Sibyl Marcuse : Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. A complete, authoritative encyclopedia of instruments throughout the world. Country Life Limited, London 1966, p. 335
  6. ↑ Didimbadimba . In: Sibyl Marcuse, 1966, p. 146; J. Gansemans, KA Gourlay, FJ de Hen: Didimbadimba. In: Grove Music Online , 2001
  7. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Generic Names for the Mbira. In: African Music , Volume 3, No. 3, 1964, pp. 25-36, here p. 29
  8. ^ Claire Jones: A Modern Tradition: The Social History of the Zimbabwean Marimba. In: African Music: Journal of International Library of African Music , Volume 9, No. 2, 2012, pp. 32–56, here p. 35
  9. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, p. 25
  10. ^ John E. Kaemmer: Southern Africa: An Introduction . In: Ruth M. Stone (Ed.): The Garland Handbook of African Music. Routledge, New York 2008, p. 399
  11. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1964, pp. 30–32
  12. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira, 2014, p. 422
  13. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Generic Names for the Mbira . In: African Music , Volume 3, No. 3, 1964, p. 33
  14. ↑ Ndwamato George Mugovhani, 2009, p 46f
  15. ^ Hugh Tracey: A Case for the Name Mbira . In: African Music , Volume 2, No. 4, 1961, pp. 17-25, here p. 17
  16. ^ Hugh Tracey, 1961, pp. 21f, 25
  17. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, p. 22
  18. ^ Hugh Tracey: Handbook for Librarians. African Music Society, Roodepoort 1948
  19. ^ Paul F. Berliner : The Soul of Mbira: Music and Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1978, p. 32
  20. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, p. 422
  21. ^ Gerd Grupe: The art of the mbira game. Harmonious structure and pattern formation in the lamellophone music of the Shona in Zimbabwe. (Anthropological anthologies, Volume 19, edited by Wolfgang Suppan ) Hans Schneider, Tutzing 2004, p. 5
  22. ^ Paul F. Berliner, 1978, p. 187
  23. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira, 2014, p. 422
  24. ^ Andrew Tracey: Mozambique. 3. Instruments and instrumental music. (i) Idiophones . In: Grove Music Online , 2001
  25. ^ Andrew Tracey: The Original African Mbira . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music , Volume 5, No. 2, 1972, pp. 85-104, here pp. 101f
  26. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Deca . In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 2. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 37
  27. ↑ Andrew Tracey, Laina Gumboreshumba: Transcribing the Venda Tshikona Reedpipe Dance. In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music , Volume 9, No. 3, 2013, pp. 25–39, here p. 29
  28. ^ Andrew Tracey: The System of the Mbira. (1989) In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music , Volume 10, No. 1, 2015, pp. 127–149, here pp. 132f
  29. ↑ Andrew Tracey, 1972, p. 103
  30. ↑ Madimabe Geoff Mapaya: Dipela tša harepa: A possible transition from African solo performance to professional musicianship. In: Madimabe Geoff Mapaya u. a. (Ed.): Cultures of Limpopo: History, Culture, the Tangible and the Intangible Heritage of the People of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011, pp. 23-44, here pp. 30f
  31. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, p. 25
  32. ^ Bernhard Ankermann : The African musical instruments . (Inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig) Haack, Berlin 1901, p. 72 ( archive.org )
  33. ↑ F. Grévisse: Le Mbila ou xylophone à lame. In: Dossier ethnographique du MRAC, N ° 948, 1935, pp. 1-4
  34. ↑ Julien Volper: Call to the Hunt: The One-Note Xylophone of the DRC. In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music , Volume 9, No. 3, 2013, pp. 7–20, here pp. 8–10
  35. ↑ Eric von Rosen : Träskfolket. Svenska Rhodesia-Kongo-Expeditionens Etnografi ska Forskningsresultat. Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm 1916
  36. ↑ Julien Volper, 2013, p. 15
  37. ↑ Hugh S. Stannus: A Rare Type of Musical Instrument from Central Africa. In: Man , Volume 20, March 1920, pp. 37-39
  38. ↑ Julien Volper, 2013, p. 17
  39. ↑ Julien Volper, 2013, p. 18
  40. ^ Gerhard Kubik:  Xylophone. B. Africa, Latin America. VI. Xylophone with individual resonators. 2. Support bracket xylophone. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, Volume 9 (Sydney - Cyprus). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1998, ISBN 3-7618-1128-4  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  41. ^ Marie-Louise Bastin: Musical Instruments, Songs and Dances of the Chokwe (Dundo region, Lunda district, Angola). In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music , Volume 7, No. 2, 1992, pp. 23-44, here pp. 25f
  42. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Muxima Ngola - Changes and currents in the musical cultures of Angola in the 20th century. In: Veit Erlmann (Hrsg.): Popular music in Africa . (Publications of the Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, New Volume 53, Department of Ethnic Music VIII) Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1991, p. 261
  43. ↑ George McCall Theal: Records of South-Eastern Africa. Collected in Various Libraries and Archive Departments in Europe. Volume 7. Government of the Cape Colony, 1901, pp. 202 f., Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  44. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 47
  45. ^ Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille : Journal historique du voyage fait au Cap de Bonne-Espérance. Guillyn, Paris 1763, German translation: Des Herr Abts de la Caille, former member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. Journey to the Promise of Good Hope. Along with the author's life. Röttelbach'sche lending library, Altenburg 1778, p. 129 f., Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  46. ↑ Voyages De CP Thunberg, Au Japon, Par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, Les îles de la Sonde & c .... Benoît Dandré, Garnery, Obré, Paris 1796
  47. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 48f
  48. ↑ D. Wangemann : A second year of travel in South Africa . Verlag des Missionshauses, Berlin 1886, p. 158 Text archive - Internet Archive
  49. ↑ D. Wangemann, 1886, p. 161 f. Text archive - Internet Archive
  50. ^ John E. Kaemmer: Southern Africa: An Introduction. In: Ruth M. Stone (Ed.): The Garland Handbook of African Music . Routledge, New York 2008, p. 392
  51. ↑ Mbila mutondo. University of Cape Town (Figure from the collection of Percival Kirby)
  52. ↑ Ndwamato George Mugovhani, 2009, p 47
  53. ↑ Julbernardia globiflora (Benth.) Troupin. Flora of Zimbabwe
  54. ↑ Ndwamato George Mugovhani, 2009, p 48
  55. ↑ Ndwamato George Mugovhani, 2009, p 51f
  56. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 50-52, 157
  57. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 53
  58. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, pp. 423f
  59. ^ Gerhard Kubik:  Southern Africa (region). V. The music / dance cultures of Bantu-speaking groups. 2. Zone S. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, material part, volume 8 (flute suite). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1998, ISBN 3-7618-1109-8  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  60. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, p. 424
  61. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 53
  62. ↑ Ndwamato George Mugovhani, 2009, p 46
  63. ↑ Mbila or muhambi . University of Cape Town (Figure from the collection of Percival Kirby)
  64. ^ Hugh Tracey, 1970, p. 119
  65. ^ Henry-Philippe Junod: The Mbila or Native Piano of the Tshopi Tribe . In: Bantu Studies , Volume 3, No. 1, 1929, pp. 275-285
  66. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 57f; Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, pp. 422f
  67. ^ Hugh Tracey, 1970, p. 140
  68. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, p. 423; Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 57
  69. ^ Hugh Tracey: African Dances of The Witwatersrand Gold Mines. African Music Society, Johannesburg 1952, pp. 19f
  70. ^ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, p. 60, plates 20 A and B.
  71. ↑ Percival R. Kirby, 1965, pp. 58f
  72. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, p. 423
  73. ↑ Chopi Timbila. UNESCO
  74. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, p. 423; Andrew Tracey, p. 8
  75. ↑ Andrew Tracey, 2011, pp. 9f
  76. ^ Andrew Tracey, 2011, pp. 24, 30
  77. ^ Southern Mozambique. Portuguese East Africa, 1943 '49 '54 '55 '57 '63. Chopi, Gitonga, Ronga, Tswa, Tsonga, Sena Nyungwe, Ndau. Recordings by Hugh Tracey. SWP Records / International Library of African Music, 2003 (SWP 021), Andrew Tracey: Text booklet accompanying the CD, title 3
  78. ^ Yo Yin Bae: The Distribution, Construction, Tuning, and Performance Technique of the African Log Xylophone. (Dissertation) Ohio State University, 2001, p. 17
  79. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Theory of African Music . Volume 1. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1994, p. 16
  80. ^ Gerhard Kubik:  Xylophone. B. Africa, Latin America. II. Spar xylophone. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, Volume 9 (Sydney - Cyprus). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1998, ISBN 3-7618-1128-4  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  81. ^ Arthur Morris Jones: Indonesia and Africa: The Xylophone as a Culture-Indicator . In: African Music , Vol. 2, No. 3, 1960, pp. 36-47
  82. ↑ Cf. Roger Blench: Evidence for the Indonesian origins of certain elements of African culture: A review, with special reference to the arguments of AM Jones. In: African Music , Volume 6, No. 2, 1982, pp. 81-93
  83. ^ Gerhard Kubik:  East Africa. I. Ethnic groups, languages ​​and general history. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, Volume 7 (Myanmar Sources). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1997, ISBN 3-7618-1108-X  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  84. ↑ Andrew Tracey: Mbira , 2014, p. 423
  85. ^ Percival R. Kirby: A Musicologist Looks at Africa . In: The South African Archaeological Bulletin , Volume 16, No. 64, December 1961, pp. 122-127, here p. 126
  86. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Discovery of a Through Xylophone in Northern Mozambique. In: African Music , Vol. 3, No. 2, 1963, pp. 11-14