Mvet
The mvet , also called mvett ( Pangwe language), is a bridge harp or Kerbsteg zither played by the Fang in Cameroon and parts of Gabon . The shape of the stringed instrument combines several stages of development derived from a simple musical bow . It consists of the straight rod of a rod zither (musical stick), attached calabashes that function as a resonance body, and the centrally positioned bridge of a harp lute such as the kora .
In a comprehensive sense, mvet also describes the tradition of epic song singers, which is extremely rich in their thematic and stylistic diversity, in which the cosmogonic stories and historical events of the catch and related ethnic groups are depicted, as well as the singers who accompany themselves on the bridge harp, who are said to have magical abilities become. The tradition of mvet is of outstanding importance for the catch and basically contains all traditional forms of cultural expression.
distribution
In this special combination of several string instruments, the mvet is unique and has remained limited to its regional distribution area. With its own name and in different sizes, the bridge harp with a centrally attached bridge occurs in the south of Cameroon, in the north of Gabon, in Equatorial Guinea , in the northeast of the Republic of the Congo and the adjacent southwestern part of the Central African Republic . The Tikar in Central Cameroon know a nearly three- foot-long kerbstegzither called mbo loya , the five strings of which run over a bridge with a small resonance calabash tied underneath.
The catch are assigned to the Pahouin ethnic group, who probably came from Gabon to South Cameroon in the 18th century. Little is known about them before the mid-19th century, however. The Pahouin include the Beti, Bulu , Eton and Mvele , among others . Except for the catch, the name mvet is used by the Bulu and Ewondo . In the Republic of the Congo the instrument is called okiribongo or okerebongo by the Kuyu and ngombi by the Makua . Teke speakers call it baya .
The catch music style in South Cameroon is hexatonic and heptatonic , polyphonic singing predominates . Instrumental music mostly uses third parallels. Apart from the mvet , only the melody instrument mendzan , a xylophone with calabash resonators, and the log drum ngkul are traditionally in use.
Design
Musical sticks, in which in their simplest form a string runs over one or two bridges along a straight string support, can be found with a flat stick placed on edge, especially in East Africa . Long round sticks with a string traditionally made from plant fibers are common in Uganda and in large parts of West Africa. The development of mvet is based on the West African spit-lute of the ngoni type and, at the same time, on the musical arcs with calabash resonators that are widespread in large parts of Africa.
The basic principle of the spit lute consists of a stick over which one or more strings run parallel in a plane (stem lute). In order to be able to increase the number of strings in West African lute instruments , they are no longer guided over a flat bridge parallel to the truss rod, but vertically over a bridge with notches on the side (notch bridge). In contrast to the mvet , the bridge harps kora and ngoni have developed from long-necked spit lutes whose resonance body, over which the bridge is erected, consists of a half-shell covered with animal skin.
The mvet, on the other hand, adopts the principle of an approximately central string division from the musical bow, whereby one string produces two tones with a small distance . As with a musical bow, the tuning loop that divides the strings is attached to the resonator, so with the mvet there is at least one calabash to amplify the sound directly under the central bridge. A total of up to six calabashes can be attached next to each other at regular intervals under the support rod, with a slightly larger calabash always being attached in the middle. When caught, the middle calabash is considered male in contrast to the smaller female ones. Instead of pumpkin calabashes, the Fang also rarely use a clay pot to amplify the sound.
In the traditional mvet , the string holder consists of a 1.5 meter long stalk of a raffia palm . The three to four strings are separated from the outer solid layer ( epidermis ) by longitudinal incisions and stretched outwards, but remain connected at the ends. The thus formed, said strings idioglott (minsam) are at the ends by Rotangschnüre tied. As a result, the strings do not tear any further, and the cord winding can also be moved inward if the string tension is to be increased. The Makua also use four strings in the ngombi , the Ewondo five. In Cameroon there is a bridge harp with six strings that is equipped with five calabashes; instruments with eight and ten strings can only be seen in the museum. Up to four strings run over one side of the notch bridge, with more strings they can be attached to both edges of the bridge. The lowest string is called “husband” ( nnom mvet ), the others are called his wives ( beyál ). Mvet with idioglottic strings produce a somewhat muffled sound with little reverberation. Modern bridge harps are strung with (heterochord) steel strings, which provide a significantly different, clearer sound. Four strings with which eight notes can be played are common. The musician plucks the two halves of the strings with his left and right hand.
The calabashes are tied to the underside of the string holder with a string ring placed around the small opening. If a clay pot serves as a resonator, the mvet can be played resting on the floor like a corresponding musical bow. Otherwise, the seated player holds the mvet at an angle in front of his body; with a long instrument with five calabashes, the outer one rests on the floor and the middle one touches the right thigh or stomach. Instruments with three calabashes are light enough to be able to play them while standing on a string around the neck with the middle calabash in front of the chest.
The calabashes are open at the bottom. As with stick zithers of the East African zeze type , musical bows with resonators or some lamellophones , a sound effect can be achieved by periodically changing the distance between the gourd opening and the body of the musician, which leads to fine rhythmic overtone modulations. The African-influenced Yemeni stem drum ḥaḥfa produces a similar effect . Outside of Africa, such a sound design is unusual today. It occurs in the Indian cultural area with the rare stick zithers with calabash half-shell tuila in central India, kse diev in Cambodia and phin phia in northern Thailand. Occasionally, at mvet, small rectangular openings are cut into the sides of the calabashes and covered with a membrane made from a spider's cocoon . This Mirliton produces a rasping sound. Such a cocoon can also be placed over the holes in the skin of the five-string bow harp Ganzavar in northern Cameroon, or over openings in the calabashes hung below in the case of frame xylophones such as the valimba in Malawi. This noise is even more audible when small rattle plates attached to the string support , with iron rings drawn through their perforated edges, vibrate when the strings are struck.
Initiation and performance practice
According to their degree of familiarity with the cultic tradition, the mvet players ( mbomomvet, Pl. Bebomomvet ) are divided into three groups, which in practice correspond to three levels of training in the course of an initiation . Women can also be initiated.
In the first stage, called mvet bibon ("mvet of the lover"), the student learns to build his own instrument, to tune it and to learn the basic rules of composition for lyrical songs and some melodies that he takes from his teacher. After he has completed the initiation rules of this degree, he is allowed to recite the corresponding love songs, which often contain a satirical undertone. The musicians of this level mostly use an instrument with steel strings, some professional musicians accompany the same songs with a guitar .
The second degree of maturity is only reached after a much more strenuous and costly initiation. The student accompanies his master for several months as an assistant and chorus singer. He receives a talisman from him in the form of a little bird or rodent stuffed with magical medicine. The musician who is now practicing mvet engubi has a broader repertoire of historical stories from the colonial era, annotated genealogies, biblical narratives and cosmogonic myths.
The pieces (biban) last several hours, often all night. Many of them are only allowed to be performed at night due to a taboo and can therefore not be heard on the radio or on recordings. The mvet engubi stories also include mythical characters such as Mesi me Kot 'Endong, the chimpanzee king, or Ojana Ngazo'o, who fought against evil spirits in order to win back his late companion.
The great epics, called mvet ekang , about the origin of the immortal Ekang people from the land of Engong, consisting of iron, and their struggle with the mortal people living in Okü are reserved for the master of the highest level of initiation. In order to reach this degree, the initiate has to make some heavy personal sacrifices and, while living in seclusion for a while, symbolically die, and then return to life from another world. At the end of the procedure he has acquired magical abilities, he knows about defense against witchcraft and can come into contact with the dead. In the 1960s, 50 to 60 mvet masters were counted in the south of Cameroon , and there may have been a similar number in the north of Gabun. The reasons for the declining numbers since then are considered to be the loss of culture due to the increased Christian missionary work. At the same time, movements to cultivate traditional culture are gaining influence.
There are classic initiation schools, most of which bear the name of their founder and embody their own styles. The most famous school is called Angono Mana (also Angon 'Emana ) after a beautiful girl from the Ntumu people who is said to have been sacrificed 100 years ago for her brother's initiation. Okot Esila, a blind woman, brought this style to southern Cameroon, where it spread in the early 20th century and reached Gabon. The original language of the texts is therefore an ancient Ntumu dialect of the Fang , but today mostly only the local language is used and the tradition is reminded with a slight accent.
The pieces of the mvet ekang are about the Ekang and their leader Akoma Mba. This is a hero striving for power, who possesses eternal life and who wants to subjugate all people and animals down to the insects. The mythical people and their imaginary habitat are depicted realistically and in great detail. Dramatically told battles take place in the usual fields of honor or in heaven. In the end, all opponents are deservedly brought down.
When performing, the mvet master wears a headdress made of bird feathers and a skin coat. Every object has a symbolic meaning. At the beginning of a performance, the master briefly describes where he comes from and how he was physically initiated. What follows are some introductions to the mvet stories in general before he begins to tell the adventures of Akombo Mba. Intermediate vocal interludes include popular mvet bibon songs. The people in the audience take an active part, they call and ask in between, sing along and finally comment on the event.
Rattles and bells on his fingers and ankles dramatize his scenic dance interludes, during which he temporarily hands over his musical instrument to someone from his group. The accompanying choir is accompanied by rhythm instruments, including counter- striking idiophones , bells and a rolled up antelope skin that is beaten with two wooden sticks. The music of mvet bibon hardly differs from other popular singing styles, whereas mvet engubi and mvet ekong embody a performance practice whose content is conveyed less through singing and more through theatrical forms and spoken text.
Cultural meaning
The musical instrument is an in-house development of the Fang and related ethnic groups and has an identity-creating effect in the field of culture. Between 1907 and 1909, the German explorer Günther Tessmann was the first to document the mvet tradition. On his expedition in South Cameroon, Tessmann brought a phonograph and a camera with him, so he was able to collect sound recordings on phonograph cylinders and publish the earliest image of an mvet in his 1913 expedition report . In 1970 a small part of the epics appeared for the first time in literary processing, a more extensive second volume followed in 1975. The author Tsira Ndong Ndoutoume (1928 - August 2005) from the northern Gabonese city of Oyem was the best-known mvet master in this region. The epic tradition of catching is considered to be one of the most original forms of traditional knowledge in all of Africa.
An mvet narrator is part of the program at most funeral ceremonies, at the end of the mourning period for important deceased, at weddings and other family celebrations . With his appearance he establishes the relationship between family members and their ancestors by describing how the ancestors got over the adversities in the course of time and have asserted themselves to this day. The West African bard griot has a similar function as a living collective historical memory , with the difference that this personal award-winning song is presented to its sponsor without the participation of the selected audience. While the griot is permanently employed and comes from a certain musical class, the mbomomvet works independently and does not need a specific social background. The Nyanga Mwindo epic cycle in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also being performed with great audience participation.
Only the mvet player is able to establish a relationship with Engong, the mythical land of the ancestors. Without falling into a trance , he is completely immersed in the past world in a kind of journey to the ancestors. The audience knows the songs, sings and dances along, making the event a collective event. Through their cooperation, all those involved transform the presented mythical figures into tangible symbols of their own cultural, social and moral principles. The characters are not re-enacted, but translated into the present day.
The traditional place for mvet performances is the men's meeting house ( aba, pl. Meba ), to which women are not allowed. In the village the building consists of a rectangular pavilion open on all sides from the parapet height, the roof of which is covered with straw or corrugated iron. What is happening in the aba cannot be seen from the outside, the men inside have an overview of the central village square. Important arriving guests are welcomed in the aba with an mvet show.
literature
- Pierre Alexandre: Introduction to a Fang Oral Art Genre: Gabon and Cameroon Mvet. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , 37, 1974, pp. 1-7. (Online at: cameroon.clarencemcmillan.com )
- Elie Ekogamve: La Litterature Orale des Fang / The Oral Literature of the Fang. In: African Arts , Vol. 2, No. 4, Sommer 1969, pp. 14-19, 77f
- Gerhard Kubik : Mvet. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. 17. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, p. 567
- Gerhard Kubik: Cameroon. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 4. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, pp. 872f
- Mbala D. Nkanga: Mvett Performance: Retention, Reinvention, and Exaggeration in Remembering the Past. In: Rhona Justice Malloy (Ed.): Theater History Studies 2010. Vol. 30. African and African American Theater Past and Present. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa 2010, pp. 83-101
- Ulrich Wegner: African string instruments. Volume 2. (New Part 41. Department of Ethnic Music V.) Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin 1984, pp. 34–38
Discography
- Mvet ai Mendzang. The music of the Beti in Cameroon. Edited by Lars-Christian Koch, accompanying text Artur Simon and Alber Noah Messomo. Museum Collection Berlin / Wergo, 2005 (SM 1711 2)
Web links
- La naissance du mvett. maximehenry2.skyrock.com (French, illustration of a mvet with a calabash)
- Le mvet, an instrument de musique légendaire. Bana Mboka, February 19, 2013 (with pictures)
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Kubik: West Africa. Music history in pictures. Volume 1: Ethnic Music. Delivery 11. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1989, p. 56
- ^ Kubik, Cameroon , p. 872
- ^ Gerhard Kubik : The Khoisan legacy in the south of Angola. Forms of movement, bow harmonics and tonal order in the music of the ' Kung ' and neighboring Bantu populations. In: Erich Stockmann (Ed.): Music cultures in Africa. Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin 1987, p. 120
- ^ Kubik, Cameroon , p. 876
- ↑ Alexandre, pp. 1-3, 5
- ↑ Alexandre, p. 3
- ↑ Alexandre, pp. 5f
- ↑ Wegner, p. 37
- ↑ Tsira Ndong Ndoutoume: Le Mvett, épopée fang. Présence Africaine, Paris 1970 (1983). The Africanist Grégoire Biyogo published a monograph about him: Adieu à Tsira Ndong Ndoutoume. L'Harmattan, Paris 2006
- ^ Martin Skrydstrup: Some Field Notes on Traditional Knowledge as Intellectual Property. (PDF; 142 kB) Paper presented for the conference “Can Oral History make Objects Speak?” Nafplio, 18. – 21. October 2005, p. 2, accessed on May 2, 2019.
- ^ Christiane Seydou: The African Epic: A Means for Defining the Genre. Folklore Forum, Vol. 16 (1–2), 1983, pp. 47–68, here p. 51. (also published by: Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University, 1983)
- ↑ Mbala D. Nkanga, pp. 85, 88, 99