Rasem

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rasem , also Geshem , is a reed wind instrument from a calabash as windcap and seven bamboo pipes, which in traditional Indian music of the northeastern Indian state of Tripura is played. The wind instrument popular with the Kukis under these two names belongs to a group of regional pumpkin mouth organs with rushem ( rusem ), ejuk tapung and khung in Assam and Manipur .

Design

The wind capsule of the rasem consists of a dried bottle gourd , the neck of which is extended with a bamboo tube as a mouthpiece. From the middle of the capsule protrude seven 30 to 50 centimeter long chanter of a thin type of bamboo , which are arranged in two groups of three and four pipes. Both bundles of pipes are held together in the middle by a vegetable fiber winding and connected to the calabash with wax and airtight. If the playing position is tilted slightly downwards, the pipes are pointed straight up.

As with the khaen oral organ , which is widespread in Laos and the Isan region (northeastern Thailand) , every pipe has a finger hole close to the transition to the capsule. It can be covered with your fingers while both hands hold the wind capsule. Air blown through the mouthpiece flows to each pipe with the same pressure, but only pipes with closed openings will sound. When the hole is open, the air escapes from the side, which prevents the tongues set in motion in the wind chamber from generating resonance vibrations in the tube. The tongue consists of an idioglotten (made of the same material) thin oval leaf, which has been cut off halfway through an oblique incision at the end of the tube. The principle of sound generation differs from simple reed instruments such as the externally similar pungi , which is known as the instrument of the snake charmer.

Origin and Distribution

The origin of the mouth organs is likely to be in East Asia , in any case in a region where bamboo thrives. The distribution area of ​​bamboo mouth organs extends from China and Japan to Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, i.e. along the Mekong , in the south to the Dayak on Borneo and in the west to the states in northeast India. In the more sophisticated instruments, such as the Lao khaen and the Chinese sheng , the wind capsule is made of wood and the tongue is made of metal. Older, simpler forms such as the Chinese hulusi still exist outside of northeast India in the far north of Thailand and in Sabah on Borneo ( sompoton ). At the end of the 18th century, Asian mouth organs like the sheng came to Europe, where they promoted the development of hand-drawn instruments .

In India, wind instruments with bamboo wind capsules as single-reed instruments are common in several rural regions. In addition to the pungi, these include the tarpu , which is played in the West Indies and composed of two calabashes, and the similar pawari . The bagpipes developed from this , the wind capsule of which consists of a flexible leather sack, are called mashak in northern India , titti or sruti upanga in the south and are rarely used any more.

The ethnic groups Rangkhol and Beite (Biate) in Assam, belonging to the Kukis, call their mouth organ rushem . The ejuk tapung of the Mishing in Assam with four to seven chanter corresponds roughly to the rasem . Further regional variants are called tumbo tapung, pumsu tapung and derki tapung .

Another type of wind instrument that occurs in India only in the northeast is the Assamese horn pipe pepo with a single reed.

Style of play

The rasem produces fine and soft sounding tones. Their range is limited because the chanter cannot be overblown. Frequently, chords of two or more notes are played. The Kukis often play the mouth organ together with the double-headed barrel drum dhol , especially to accompany dances such as Jongchalam and Malkanglam at festive events. Sagolpheikhal is a dance of the victorious warriors or hunters who have returned from battle - the hunt.

In the complex cosmogony of the Kukis, the supreme god Pathen created the heaven, the earth and other divine and also devilish beings, which were layered in five spheres. One of the numerous malevolent figures is a group of seven brothers, called Nelhao, who prowl in the mountains and inflict suffering on people there. According to the legend, the seven pipes of the rasem refer to these seven evil spirits, which is why the instrument should not be played outside in nature in order not to attract their calamities. A nelhao is also feared because it appears as a storm wind and destroys the crops in the fields, including the houses.

Other musical instruments of the Kukis are the bamboo flute , the natural trumpet pengkul , a large ( daphi ) and small gong ( dah cha ), cymbals and the small drum khuongcha . The plucked chongpreng , which is played in Tripura, is also made of bamboo , and there is also a deep-bellied form of the string sarinda .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deva, p. 68
  2. ↑ Sompoton. Fascinating Malaysia ( Memento of the original dated May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fascinatingmalaysia.com
  3. ↑ Laurence ER Picken : Making of the Khaen: The Free-Reed Mouth Organ of North-East Thailand. Musica Asiatica Vol. 4, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1984, p. 149, ISBN 978-0521278379
  4. ↑ Oxford Encyclopaedia, p. 1090; ibid. Keyword Rushem , p. 905
  5. ↑ Keyword Ejuk Tāpung . In: Oxford Encyclopaedia , p. 310
  6. ↑ Ngulminthang Lhanghal: The Kuki Mythologies. ngulminthang.blogspot.de, February 12, 2012 (at archive.is)
  7. ↑ Khomdon Singh Lisam: Encyclopaedia of Manipur . Kalpaz Publications, Delhi 2011, Vol. 2, p. 560
  8. ^ Musical Instruments of Tripura. Indian Net Zone