Sahfa
Sahfa ( DMG ṣaḥfa ) is a einfellige stem drum that the reason of their design frame drums or kettle drums can be counted and only in the Tihama , the coastal region on the eastern shore of the Red Sea , there particularly in northern Yemen occurs. It is played in rural light music as a soloist, to accompany singing or in a small drum ensemble.
Design
Of the large number of different Yemeni drum types, many are only known in certain areas, some are assigned to particular population groups. The most widespread among the traditional Yemeni drums are double-headed cylinder drums, which are commonly called ṭabl and differentiated by an addition to a name or regional designations. Another group are tall or flat kettle drums with a semicircular, closed body and the relatively large frame drums that are open at the bottom (generally duff without rattles , or with rattles on the inside ṭār ). The ṭār with a wooden frame approximately ten centimeters high and a diameter of a little over 40 centimeters occurs in many places in the highlands, but not in the Tihama.
The similarly large ṣaḥfa of the Tihama has a frame made of baked clay ( turāb ), which is covered with a depilated and air-dried cowhide . In contrast to the frame drums, the membrane is not attached to the body, but pulled over the lower edge and tied to a large iron wire ring, so that only a circular opening 10 to 15 centimeters in diameter remains on the underside. The outer shape thus corresponds to the bowl-shaped flat kettle drums, as they occur further south in the Hadramaut under the name ṭāsa . In Yemen, the large, deep-bellied kettle drums, which as mirfʿ (sg.) In the Tihama represent the leading instrument in the drum ensembles, also have a body made of clay . Antipodal protrude in ṣaḥfa on both sides of short wooden sticks out of the frame, both of which are inside not interconnected.
Style of play
Just like the design, the style of play is unique for Yemen. The musician sticks a handle into the wide belt of his robe, with which the traditionally dressed Yemeni man attaches the obligatory curved dagger ( ǧambiya ) in front of his stomach. He grips the upper stem of the drum with his left wrist, the membrane pointing outwards. The drum is beaten with both hands. The right hand, with the ball of the ball on the edge, beats the lower-sounding basic rhythm with the front phalanges towards the middle of the head, while the left hand with the middle finger adds the higher intermediate beats close to the edge. The frame drums are played in the same way. The main beats are called naqarāt after the word for the widespread Arabic kettle drums , and the complementary and decorative beats of the left hand are daqqāt .
Another rhythmic and tonal element is added when the player periodically presses the drum against his body with his left hand. This closes the lower opening temporarily, reducing the sound space. The result is overtone modulations that change the timbre and howling pitches. Such effects can be produced in Africa with the Cameroonian kerbsteg zither mvet , the musical bow nǁkau played by the ǃKung in southern Africa with a calabash resonator and some lamellophones .
distribution
Arabic ṣaḥfa refers to flat clay bowls or, like gadaḥ (in Western Arabic dialects, gdaḥ ) wooden bowls. According to al-Ghazālī in the 11th century , ṣaḥfa , in Persian ķaṣaʿ, is a large, flat wooden bowl from which seven to ten people can eat their meal together, following the example of the prophet . Furthermore, ṣaḥfa was earlier a Maghrebian measure of capacity. Gabriele Braune mentions a "snare drum" in the Tihama with the spelling ṣaḥfah and probably means the same instrument.
Black African cultural influences can be seen in the population of the Tihama through migration and trade relations. One of the peculiarities of Tihama music is a drum ensemble, which is played by the socially low class of the population of African origin ( Akhām ) in the governorate of al-Hudaida in religious processions. The instruments accompanying her folk dances include the cylinder drum ṭabl , various kettle drums played with mallets mirfaʿ, ṭāsa and miškal, and the ṣaḥfa . Such a drum ensemble of the Akhām is particularly needed for the tsar- possession cult of women. In Saudi Arabia the ṣaḥfa (there also zalafa ), a cylinder drum made of clay ( tubul ) and other drums accompany singers and folk dances. Another musical instrument in the Tihama associated with Africa is the lyre simsimiyya , which reached from Nubia to Egypt and from Yemen to Zanzibar .
In a traditional Yemeni ensemble, several drum types are used together with only one melody instrument that accompanies the singing voice. Longitudinal flutes played individually are called madrūf (short, with four finger holes), šabāba, nāy and qaṣaba, a single- reed instrument with two connected short playing tubes is the mizmār . The drum group can for example consist of a ṭabl, one or two small kettle drums and a ṣaḥfa , elsewhere ṭabl and the metal plate ṣaḥn nuhāsī are (were) combined. The groups mostly perform at weddings and other family celebrations.
Since the second half of the 20th century, the urban music scene has preferred drums such as the darbuka goblet drum or the riq frame drum with bells , analogous to the cosmopolitan tendency for lutes: the Yemeni qanbūs gave way to the Arabic ʿūd .
literature
- Jürgen Elsner: Drumming and drumming in Yemen. In: Rüdiger Schumacher (ed.): From the diversity of musical culture. Festschrift for Josef Kuckertz . Ursula Müller-Speiser, Anif / Salzburg 1992, pp. 183-205
Individual evidence
- ^ According to Elsner, p. 189. But he mentions Anderson Bakewell: Music. In: Francine Stone (ed.): Studies on the Tihāmah: the report of the Tihāmah expedition 1982 and related papers. Longman, London 1985, p. 106, describing a continuous stick. Such a construction would make the construction considerably more plausible.
- ↑ Elsner, pp. 186, 189
- ↑ Elsner, p. 192f
- ↑ Gerhard Kubik : To understand African music. Lit Verlag, Vienna 2004, 97
- ↑ Hans Kindermann: About good morals when eating and drinking: This is the 11th book of al-Ghazzālī's main work. Translation and editing as a contribution to the history of our table manners. EJ Brill, Leiden 1964, p. 90 (note 60), p. 115 (note 87)
- ↑ Walter Hinz: Islamic Measures and Weights. Converted into the metric system. In: Bertold Spuler (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Orientalistik. First division: The Near and Middle East. Supplementary volume 1. Issue 1. EJ Brill, Leiden / Cologne 1970, p. 51
- ^ Gabriele Braune: Yemen. In Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): Music in the past and present . Sachteil 4, 1996, col. 1444
- ^ Bakewell, p. 105
- ↑ Elsner, p. 193