Rol-mo
Rol-mo ( Tibetan ), also rölmo , are horizontally struck pair cymbals in Tibetan ritual music that are held with both hands . In the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, the large, hunched brass plates mark the rhythm of the recitation aimed at the gods, provide rhythmic patterns for chants or accompany ritual Cham dances . The notated and strictly formalized music has a high emotional content, against which musical-aesthetic qualities take a back seat.
In a broader sense, rol-mo stands for the "sound of music", i.e. for music in general. Rol-mo byed pa means " making music", rol-mohi mkhan is the musician and sil-mkhan is the player of the silnyen ( sil snyan ), which are vertically played, flat pair cymbals.
Design
The diameter of a rol-mo is 20 to 50 centimeters and an average of 30 centimeters. The deep hump usually takes about half the diameter and, like a hump gong, ensures a certain pitch. Basins with a large hump are called sbug-chol or sbug-chal (also bùb-chèl ), where sbug, "hollow", "cavity" and chol , means "to be beaten up". The hump itself is called phobrang ("palace"). In the Hor-sbug ("Basin from Mongolia ") the diameter of the hump is about 40 percent of the entire basin. A typical basin from central Tibet has an 8.7 centimeter high hump with a diameter of 33 centimeters.
All rol-mo are slightly arched at the edge and have a leather or fabric loop in the middle to hold them on. They consist of a brass alloy ( left ) that contains a certain amount of gold and silver, which is supposed to soften the deep sound. There are three different levels of quality: Li-ser are simple brass basins, li-mar are made of bronze and li-kar contain a high proportion of gold and silver. The cymbals belonging to a pair produce almost the same, relatively deep and long-lasting tone, with small deviations causing certain frequency overlaps (beats). The player holds the lower pelvis with the left hand as loosely as possible, while he strikes the lower pelvis with the other pelvis in the right hand from above, but only with brief contact so as not to dampen the sound. The upper, somewhat lower-sounding pelvis ( thab , "method") embodies the male aspect in Vajrayana and the lower pelvis ( shè , "wisdom") embodies the female aspect. Another symbolic attribution for the two basins is mother and son.
Shang-sbug are valuable pools that only high-ranking monks have. The name goes back to Shang shang , a mythical bird creature similar to the Indian Garuda , who embodies beauty and wisdom. His footprints are engraved on the edge.
The rol-mo from the border region between the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet are very popular and rare . They are called Dra-sbug , after the Dra-yül region there. They do not come in pairs, as they are not beaten but worn on the head at certain regional festivals.
Simple cymbals are called Gya-sbug ("Chinese cymbals"). They are thinner than -sbug Hor and show dents by working with the driving hammer
Jöl-sbug come from Tibet. Their edge is rough and their hump slightly smaller than other pools. The Bèl-sbug ("Nepalese basin") from Nepal are thicker, but otherwise the same . The particularly massive drug-sbug ("Bhutanese basin") come from Bhutan , with a wall thickness of over one centimeter.
Rol-mo belong to the group of percussion instruments ( brdung ba ) like the flatter, vertically held pair cymbals silnyen and the double-headed stem drum rnga ( nga ). They are distinguished from the group of curved instruments that the player holds in one hand ( khrol ba ): the hand bell ( dril bu ) and the damaru ( gcod-dar ) hourglass drum with clappers . In the ritual orchestra they are supplemented by a number of wind instruments played in pairs ( 'bud pa ), while string instruments ( rgyud can ) as the fourth group are not allowed to be used here.
Style of play
The rhythmic structure of the music is given by the musical director ( dbu mdzad ) on the flat pair basin silnyen or a rol-mo , in some monasteries also with the stem drum rnga . Several hundred notated compositions have been preserved, many of which are still performed in monasteries to this day. In order to meet the demands of the ritual ( mchod pa ) as a sacrifice to the deities, the music must be performed according to strict rules ( mkhas pa ) and pleasing to the ear ( snyan pa ). In this case, the ear refers to the hearing organ of the deities addressed, the Buddhas , Bodhisattvas , tantric deities ( yi dam ) and guardian figures.
There are special names for the different striking techniques. The student will find all instructions in song books ( dbyangs-yig ) and in the manuals with the rules of the order of the respective teaching tradition. In the usual pèl-pung style, the left hand remains in the resting position. The basins are not hit exactly parallel to one another in order not to cause a build-up of air, but rather in a circular movement at an angle at an edge. The impact energy ( shugs ) used determines the volume and length of the aftertaste. Impacts ( brdung ) can be damped or undamped, plus circular movements that are guided around the edges of the panels. When striking mtshams rgyag ("touching edges") the player separates the two plates immediately after the first contact, while with kha rgyag ("touching mouths") he waits until the overall sound of both plates has developed a little further. Both belong to the interrupted strokes (partial strokes), which are executed as a transition at the end of the row with full strokes. They do not appear within the pieces.
Strike sequences are a counted sequence of single strikes ( grangs ) with at least one strike ( gcig-brdung ). Two beats ( gnyis-brdung ) are distinguished from three beats ( gsum-brdung ) and nine ( dgu-brdung ). Often there are sequences of strokes with three or four strokes plus a shorter and softer prop and tail ( dzag ).
The Tibetan notation is clear because the numbers of the beats are indicated with numbers. A series of three beats reads: 1 2 3 (in Tibetan numerals). A lengthened aftertaste is indicated by decreasing lines, so that there is a sequence of numbers with attached lines of different lengths, which point diagonally upwards and diagonally downwards during the lookups. Even if the beat sequences are symmetrical, the individual beats differ considerably in length. Main strikes are about four seconds long, introductory strikes and follow-ups usually last twice as long.
In addition to the percussion instruments, the following wind instruments can take part in an invocation ritual: two long natural trumpets ( dung ) made of metal dung chen , two snail horns dung kar and two double reed instruments rGya gling ( gyaling , "Chinese wind instrument"). The number of cymbals and drums used is often measured by what is available in the monastery. In addition, when the stem drums rnga are used, they follow the rhythm of the rol-mo .
Rol-mo and similar pair basins are used in Buddhist rituals in Bhutan , China and Japan as well as in Tibet , but not in India. The large pair of cymbals bartal, which is played in Hindu ceremonial dances and chants in the northeast Indian state of Assam , very likely comes from Tibet.
literature
- Ter Ellingson: The Mathematics of Tibetan Rol Mo. In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 23, No. 2 . May 1979, pp. 225-243
- Mireille Helffer: Rol-mo. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 3. Grove's Dictionaries of Music, New York 1984, pp. 256f
- Daniel A. Scheidegger: Tibetan Ritual Music. A General Survey with Special Reference to the Mindroling Tradition. ( Opuscula Tibetana . Works from the Tibet Institute) Rikon-Zurich 1988, pp. 59–72
Web links
- Cymbals (Rol Mo), Tibet, ca.1700 . Beede Gallery, University of South Dakota
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helffer, p. 256
- ↑ Alex Smejkal: Cult and Everyday Life in Tibet. Lower Saxony State Museum, Hanover 1990, p. 61
- ↑ Scheidegger, p. 60
- ↑ Helffer, p. 256
- ↑ Scheidegger, pp. 59–62
- ↑ Tibet . In: Hans Oesch: Extra-European Music, Part 1. (Carl Dahlhaus (Ed.): New Handbook of Musicology. Volume 8) Laaber, Laaber 1984, p. 319
- ↑ Musical Notation for Various Pujas in the Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Language Institute (example of Tibetan notation)
- ↑ Ellingson, pp. 225-228, 234
- ↑ Dilip Ranjan Barthakur: The Music and Musical Instruments of North Eastern India . Mittal Publications, New Delhi 2003, p. 105