Pungi

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Snake charmers in Delhi. The thick cheeks are an indication of the constant blowing pressure during circular breathing .

The pungi ( Hindi , spelling variants pugi, ponga, pongi ), also bin, mahudi , Tamil : magudi ; is a traditional single reed instrument in India . It is best known as an aid to snake charmers . It is occasionally used as a drone instrument in Indian folk music .

Design and style of play

The 30 to 60 centimeter long wind instrument consists of two parts of roughly the same length. A dried bottle gourd or, more rarely, a coconut shell form a wind capsule . Through a hole in the slim end of the calabash , the breathing air is evenly released onto two thin bamboo or reed tubes ( jivala ), which are pushed into the calabash through another hole at the opposite bulbous end. The game tubes are first cut into shape, then boiled in water with rice, rubbed with coconut oil and finally dried in the sun. The two cylindrical pipe tubes, glued or bound together at the sides, are now attached to the wind capsule with beeswax and sealed.

The sound is produced by a tongue that has been exposed lengthways through the upper end of the sound tube through a semi-oval cut from the tube wall. This creates an integrated, idioglottic reed. With some instruments, the tongues are located on tubes with a smaller diameter that are inserted into the upper ends of the sound tubes and are therefore not integrated. The reeds are hidden inside the wind capsule.

Instead of a long calabash neck, a turned wooden mouthpiece can also be attached. A coconut wind capsule always needs a wooden mouthpiece.

Short pungi with seven finger holes and a coconut as a wind capsule

As a valve, the tongue only regulates the air flow, the pitch is determined by the length of the pipe. The designation as " flute " is incorrect due to the different sound generation of the two types of instruments. In the right tube of the pungi there are usually six, more rarely up to nine holes drilled or burned in; the left tube has only one (or two) wax-clogged holes at the bottom. The player operates the finger holes with his right hand and produces the melody, while the left whistle delivers a constant deep drone . If the hole in the drone whistle is left open, the fundamental tone is one second higher.

Pungis are generally tuned to the main tones ( svaras ) of the south Indian raga Punnagavarali, a modification of the raga Hanumatodi, which dates from the 8th century and is one of the basic ragas of the south Indian classification in melas . As with the Indian oboe shehnai and other reed instruments, circular breathing is practiced. Only even, powerful blowing creates the typical nasal and sharp sound, which cannot be influenced and which alone leaves the deaf snakes unimpressed.

Origin and Distribution

Double clarinets with a similar tongue were found in Egyptian tombs of the 1st century BC. Found. The ancient Egyptian clarinet as-it lacks the artificial wind capsule, as does its successors, the double-reed wind instruments arghul , zummara and mashura , which are common in North Africa and the Middle East . In terms of construction, these are among the simplest clarinets, but the most difficult to play, as the wind capsule has to be formed by the oral cavity. A comparable slim bamboo clarinet with double reed in Bengal is called murali (Hindi and Sanskrit: murali or murli denotes "flute" in general). The pungi represents a further development compared to these instruments.

The wind capsule amplifies the sound, it stores and does not regulate the air flow, which has to happen in the oral cavity. With the desire to maintain the blowing pressure more evenly, the wind capsule made of solid material was consistently replaced by a flexible leather bag. This bagpipe has its origins in the ancient Mediterranean. The South Indian variant shruti upanga made of a kidskin sack, a short blowing pipe and a pipe with a single reed and side holes gives only one drone, while the North Indian bag pipe mashak or mashq (Sanskrit: nagabaddha ) is a melody instrument, but like the Southeast Asian variants, it has become extremely rare. The Indian bagpipe was called pungi by the British colonial rulers in the 19th century to distinguish it from the bagpipes brought into the country . It was blown at weddings and similar happy occasions. A variant of the Scottish bagpipes is called mashak baja ( baja generally means musical instrument, especially harmonium ) and is played in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand for entertainment on festive occasions together with the large barrel drum dhol and the small kettle drum damau .

Because of the wind capsules, pungis can be mistaken for a pre-form of simple Asian mouth organs like the khaen played in Laos . Primitive calabash mouth organs in northeast India with six pipes in two groups are called khung or rusem . The functional principle of the tongues of these calabash instruments, i.e. the sound generation and consequently the way of playing are completely different. The rasem oral organ consisting of a bottle gourd with a blowing pipe and seven chanter is known from the northeast Indian state of Tripura .

Variants in India

Snake charmers in Jaipur

This type of instrument is used in South Asia not only by snake charmers, but also in traditional dance music and in processions as a melody and drone instrument ( shruti ), in the latter case with only one playing tube. The name pungi or pangra is derived from Hindi ponga ("hollow", hence "tube" or "pipe") and is common in northern India, in Panjabi also the term binjogi (" bin of the magician"). Nagbin means "serpent bin ". The snake charmers themselves are also called pungi . In Sanskrit , an earlier instrument was called tiktiri . The word bin is derived from Sanskrit vina , an old collective name for string instruments, sometimes for musical instruments in general. The North Indian names tumba, tumbi and tomra mean "calabash". Tumbi is the usual name in Uttar Pradesh for the gourd plucking drum ektara . The name sapurer basi ("snake charmer pipe ") appears in Bengal .

The social groups of the snake charmers are generally called Garudi , in northern India also Sapera . The regional name for the snake charmer instrument in Gujarat is mahudi . In rural areas of Gujarat and the people of the Warli in Maharashtra is a similar instrument with a bell tarpu ( tarpo ) or ghonga . Hundreds of tarpu players perform there in the evening at celebrations for the rice harvest in the company of the dancing village population. Other names, depending on the size of the instruments, are khongada and dobru . In Rajasthan , folk dances are performed which are accompanied by the cast of Kalbelia and Jogi with singing and on a pungi and percussion instruments such as the dhol or a thali (metal dinner plate ). Kalbelia women in colorful costumes depicting snakes imitate their movements in their dances. The musicians of the Dhoad group have also become known in Europe through concerts.

Snake charmers have their big appearance at the annual Hindu festival Naga Panchami , which is celebrated almost all over the country on the occasion of Krishna's victory over the snake Kaliya. Snakes are a symbol of life energy and growth. In the temples, milk and rice are offered in front of images of the cosmic serpent Vasuki ; the snake charmers wandering around with their cobras in woven baskets beg for alms and clothing.

Members of the Hindu sect of the Kanphate roam as beggars. They are Shiva followers, as followers of the Nath cult they are called Nanpathi and because of their ears pierced with a metal ring Kanphate ("slit ears"). Some beg and hold monkeys or snakes. They play pungi and don't eat until they 've blown the pungi .

The south Indian magudi is slightly smaller than the north Indian instrument. From the 17th century onwards, the Yakshagana folk dance theater in Karnataka had a musical accompaniment consisting of two drums ( maddale and chande ), a pungi as a drone instrument and a singer. In the north of this state, other tales of the gods, mostly from the Mahabharata, are performed as a puppet theater and accompanied by mridangam , hand cymbals (manjira), otta ( drone instrument, a nadaswaram without finger holes), harmonium and pungi with the barrel drum . The South Indian nadaswaram , also nagaswaram from the mythological snake Naga , has only the name ; as a double-reed instrument , like the North Indian shehnai , it is not related to the snake- conjuring pungi . In Tamil Nadu , the double clarinet is known as makuti or pambatti kuzhal .

literature

  • Alison Arnold (Ed.): South Asia. The Indian Subcontinent. Garland, New York 2000, ( The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Vol. 5), p. 345.
  • Charles Russell Day: The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan. London / New York 1891, pp. 104, 145, color plate XIV ( Archive.org ).
  • B. Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments. National Book Trust India, New Delhi 1977, pp. 63-65.
  • Alastair Dick: Pungi. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. 20. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, p. 600

Discography

  • Dhoad Gypsies: The Dhoad Gypsies from Rajasthan. ARC CD 2005
  • Jodha: Sapera Snake Charmers of North India. Canyon, CD 2000
  • Iqbal Jogi and Party: Authentic Music of the Snake Charmers of India. Legacy International, CD 1994

Web links

Commons : Pungi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Emmert et al. a. (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, p. 189
  2. ↑ Punnagavarali . ( Memento from January 26, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) archive.is from indiamusicinfo; likewise with C. R. Day
  3. ^ Curt Sachs : The musical instruments of India and Indonesia. Georg Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1915, p. 157.
  4. ^ Frank J. Timoney: The Concise History of the Bagpipe. Rome and the Ancient World.
  5. ^ Curt Sachs: The musical instruments of India and Indonesia. Georg Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1915, p. 159.
  6. ^ John H. Harriot: To the Secretary of the Literary Society in at Benares. In: The Quarterly Oriental Magazine, Review and Register. 6, nos. 11 and 12, Calcutta, December 1826, p. 25.
  7. ^ Tripura, Musical Instruments of. In: Late Pandit Nikhil Ghosh (Ed.): The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India. Saṅgīt Mahābhāratī. Vol. 3 (P – Z) Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2011, p. 1091
  8. ^ Tarpu, Wind Instrument. Indian Net Zone
  9. ↑ Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Sachteil 4, 1996, Col. 750 f.
  10. ^ Dhoad - Gypsies of Rajasthan. (Rajasthan / India) on Klangkosmos in NRW
  11. ↑ Manohar Laxman Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Loka Ranga. Panorama of Indian Folk Theater. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 1992, p. 142
  12. ^ Reginald Massey: India's Kathak Dance. Past, Present and Future. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 2004, p. 80.
  13. ^ Alastair Dick, p. 600