Segankuru

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Segankuru , also serankure, segaba and sebinjolo , is a single-stringed zither bowl that is widespread in southern Africa and is bowed with a bow . The sound box, which consists of a half-squeezed tin can, is located at the upper end of the string support rod, which the player has placed over one shoulder while accompanying his songs. The wooden stick is shaped like a bowl over almost the entire length and thus contributes to the sound amplification. The essential element of the difficult to learn playing style are circular movements with the bow over the string, while at the same time the strength of the bow string is changed, whereby individual partial tones can be filtered out.

The string instrument, which was probably developed in an unknown time as a further development of the gutter zither tshidzholo , which is related to a mouth bow , occurs in Botswana and beyond in variations and with different names in the neighboring countries of Namibia , Zimbabwe , South Africa and Lesotho . With the South African stick zither isankuni , a metal canister is attached as a resonator, which is held down while playing.

origin

The simplest stringed instruments are musical bows , the flexible and curved strings of which hold a string connected at both ends under tension. If a pretensioned string runs parallel between the ends of a rigid string support, the result is a rod zither (or musical rod). Music sticks with a flat bar, in which the string runs over the narrow side of an upright support, are differentiated from those with a (usually long) round stick, depending on the shape of the string support, which is usually wooden in Africa. The former are found predominantly in East Africa, the latter in Uganda and West Africa.

In order for the string to vibrate freely parallel to the carrier, spacers must be placed underneath on both sides. With the segankuru , on the other hand, a long tuning peg lifts the string attached to its end at an acute angle on one side from the carrier. A third possibility are the notched zithers with several strings, in which, like the Cameroonian mvet, the strings run over a centrally positioned bridge and form a flat, approximately isosceles triangle with the support.

Single or multi-string rod zithers require separate resonance reinforcement, as do board zithers such as the bangwe in Malawi, which is held in a calabash half-shell or a metal canister to reinforce the resonance. String carriers, which also function as a resonance body, consist of a tube: tubular zithers ( valiha in Madagascar ) or a shell: bowl or trough zithers, which, apart from the segankuru, occur practically only in East Africa ( inanga in Burundi). Box-shaped resonance bodies (box zithers) based on oriental or European models are not common in Africa. In addition to the zithers, the strings of which run over the opening of the bowl, bowl-shaped resonance bodies also have lyres , the strings of which lead in the ceiling level to a yoke bar protruding beyond ( beganna in Ethiopia, endongo in Uganda, obokano in Kenya). In Botswana, pluriarcs , multi-string bows that have a certain resemblance to lyres, are also in use (among the Bantu cihumba ).

The classification of segankuru as a shell or trough zither with resonator made in accordance with Hornbostel-Sachs (315.2), because the carrier rod extends over which the string is hollow trough-shaped in most cases. The fact that usually only lute instruments - in Africa the Ugandan pipe spit violin endingidi - are bowed with the bow is irrelevant in this classification based on structural features. At the beginning of the 19th century there was an attempt in Germany to introduce a box zither drawn with a bow, otherwise string zithers are only known from East Asia, where they have been documented since the Tang dynasty (618–907): the vaulted board zithers ajaeng drawn with a wooden stick in korea and yazheng in china.

With a roughened wooden stick the strings of some mouth arches are also struck in southern Africa. According to the playing style based on harmonic overtones, there is a close connection between the segankuru and mouth arches. The resonance-generating property of the bowl-shaped string carrier brings the segankuru together with the East African tubular spit violins, which were introduced by Arab traders. The same method as with the segankuru , starting from a massive string bar, which has practically no influence on the sound, to achieve additional sound amplification, can be observed with the scrap bow kalyalya , which is played around the east Angolan city of Luau . In the kalyalya (not to be confused with the three-stringed box violin of the same name in Angola), the bow stick is hollowed out in the middle area according to the principle of the slotted drum . The use of a bow connects the segankuru with single and multi-stringed African fiddles such as the zeze in Tanzania . The zeze is a skewer lute with a deep skin-covered body.

As separate resonators of music sheets and xylophone as the valimba in Malawi serve mainly gourds . According to some informants, the forerunners of the tin cans on the string zithers are said to have been resonators made of calabashes or stiff, dried animal skins. It is also said that there used to be strings made from animal tendons. Such instruments have not survived.

Design

The types of wood used in construction are usually relatively light. Be used Cussonia spicata ( Cussonia species such Mosetse ) Ozoroa paniculosa (family Sumac , monokane ), Melia azedarach ( Melia azedarach L., mosalaosi ), Node fruit tree ( Maerua schinzii Pax, moomane or moratletla ) and less often the heavier wood of Mopane ( Colophospermum mopane ). The straight piece of wood is freed from twigs and dried in the sun for at least two weeks or placed in an open fire to burn off the bark. The tray is provided with a Dechsel ( petlwana peeled) to form a canoe. The string carrier of the segankuru is between 90 and 110 centimeters long with a diameter of five to seven centimeters. John Brearley describes a typical specimen with a rod 86 centimeters long and six centimeters in diameter, in which a hollow is carved out over almost the entire length. Here the free length of the string is 74 centimeters.

In contrast to the usual position above with a vertical stringed instrument, the tuning peg is at the lower end. The round wooden dowel is put through a hole in the string support a few centimeters from its end and protrudes at least a hand's breadth on both sides. To tune it must be gripped tightly with your whole hand. A wire string runs diagonally from the outer end of the vertebra to the top of the beam. In some instruments, the string leads over a kind of saddle made of any material that is pushed underneath and is positioned just below the resonator. The resonator ( Setswana phomphokgo ) is an overlaid five-liter oil can, the lid of which has been cut off and which is pressed to fit the width of the support rod on the side and nailed down if necessary. Some sound holes may be cut in the bottom of the can. Like many African musical instruments, the segankuru can be equipped with rattles, in this case with wire rings that are fastened in drill holes on the lower edge of the tin can.

The bow of the bow consists of a strongly curved branch, which is usually covered with bovine tail hair, the length of which is 20 to 35 centimeters. Hair that is as strong as possible is preferred, with the arch inevitably being so small because of the cattle's short tail hair. The resin (Setswana borekhu ) of a tree of the genus Commiphora (family of the balsam tree plants ) called moroka in Botswana is used as rosin . A lump of resin usually sticks to the lower end of the instrument behind the vertebra in a specially created recess.

For the South African province of Eastern Cape , David Rycroft mentions a differently constructed string zither called isigankuri , which, according to Percival Robson Kirby , was called isankuni in the Pondoland in the early 1930s, in addition to several mouth bows with a wooden stick and musical bows equipped with resonance bodies for the South African province of Eastern Cape . According to Kirby, the isankuni had been introduced from the north a little earlier. The isankuni ( isigankuri ) with a free string length of about 75 centimeters is an upside down version of the segankuru , with a metal canister at the lower end. It has no tuning pegs and is possibly due to the arch of the mouth umqunge , which only occurs in the Pondo. The isangkuni is even more simply constructed than the segankuru . The string carrier is inserted at an angle into an open metal canister and the string runs from its end to the lower corner of the canister. The tonal variation possibilities are less than with an oral arch because the volume of the resonator canister cannot be changed while playing.

distribution

It is not known when the segankuru was introduced. One of the first mentions is from 1928 of Dorothy Bleek, who heard the Nharo youth play the instrument, a group of San gatherers and hunters in the central Kalahari . It was strung with a string and already had a tin can as a resonator. The musicians moistened the bow hair with their lips before the game. In 1932 Kirby described the segankuru a little more closely , which, to the best of his knowledge, was found in large parts of southern Africa. The Bantu- speaking Venda played the instrument they called tshidzholo ( tsijolo ) in the older tradition according to the principle of the arch of the mouth with the mouth instead of the tin can. Related to the tsijolo is the word of the Batswana , sefinjolo , which is obviously derived from Afrikaans viool for " violin ", with se- , a prefix for Batswana nouns. The Bantu - speaking Batswana used them for a game of hide -and-seek called sebatlo .

The name segankuru is the most common in Botswana overall; According to John Brearley (1996), segaba ("something carved") is more common in the north-eastern Central District , while segankuru is common among the Batswana . Jürgen Schöpf (2008) describes the string zither in the South-West District as a serankure in his monograph . The origin of the word segankuru is unknown. In the almost extinct Khoisan language Korana, kuru means "make", the word component gan could be derived from Afrikaan can or English can , "can". This split word origin would suit the instrument, whose arrangement of the strings, which comes from the African tradition, is bowed with a bow that is probably influenced by European musical culture. On the other hand, there was probably a match before the Europeans.

Segaba can also refer to a mouth bow, the string of which consists of a palm leaf fiber , over which the Xhosa is stroked with a wooden stick, as with the mouth bow umrhubhe . In the western Ghanzi District is the instrument for the Nharo Poman and at another San Group bajene . Both names do not seem to come from Khoisan languages . In the north-west of the country and in neighboring areas of Namibia , Nicholas England found the name do n! Ao ("tin can bow") with the Khoisan group Zu / wasi in the 1950s . Isiceleceshe is a Zulu word in South Africa, gorito one of the Damara in Namibia. Other regional names of the string zither that were learned in the 1980s are dinudi, siwumba and setinkane and among the Xhosa ikatari . The Bakgatla, a subgroup of the Batswana, call the string zither sebinjolo ( sebinjola ).

Style of play

The seated musician holds the segankuru straight over one shoulder and at an angle of about 45 degrees forwards on the vertebra with the left hand, with the tin can at head level. With the bow in his right hand, he strokes across the string, in circular or elliptical movements along the string. With the help of the thumb on the outside of the bow hair he can increase or decrease the tension during the game. The thickness of the covering has a significant influence on the pitch of the sound. If, according to the observations of John Brearley (1996), the player comes with the bow to a point on the string at which certain overtones arise, he tenses the bow hairs in order to bring out these tones more clearly. In contrast, according to a more recent explanatory model by Jürgen Schöpf (2011), the painting location is irrelevant. Accordingly, the bow and string form a coupled oscillation system in which the player sets the bow into a certain natural oscillation through the selected bow tension, which the bow transfers to the string during the bowing movement. At the same time, the player can touch the string with a finger of the left hand in one or two places and, as with a musical bow, create two or three fundamental tones. Depending on the playing style, up to six (or eight) partial tones are added to each fundamental tone, which are isolated by the above-mentioned bow technique - i.e. by stretching and relaxing the bow hair. In a special way of playing, the player plucks the string with the tip of the bow, which reinforces the rhythmic structure.

The bow is moved continuously over the string until after a few minutes the gliding effect subsides and the bow hairs have to be rubbed with resin or moistened with saliva. This ensures regular interruptions and, if several musicians play together, an opportunity for entertainment. Then everyone continues their game at will.

For the sebinjolo , which is identical to the segankuru , a different playing position is common. The musician fixes the resonator in the crook of his right arm while holding the string carrier across his knees. With the extended index finger and occasionally the thumb of his left hand, he shortens the string at the desired point, with the remaining fingers gripping the wooden stick. Most musicians draw the bow by pressing against the bow hair from below with their thumbs. In the sebinjolo, the bow is struck across the string a few centimeters from the resonator. The harmonic overtones are not important here, only the tones that result from shortening the string. This connects the sebinjolo with the shell skewer fiddle in Tanzania.

The most common way of playing is with two basic tones: In addition to the open string, a large second is tapped with the finger or, with the Khoisan, a small piece of music . A major third, which can only be heard in the Central District, is rather unusual. All of this applies equally to the traditional way of playing the mouth bow. However, if the segankuru occurs in jazz styles such as kwela , mbaqanga or marabi, which originated around the middle of the 20th century, four basic tones with a major third, a fourth and a fifth can be fingered at a distance from the open string. In any case, playing on the segankuru is difficult to learn.

The segankuru is traditionally an instrument used by the cattle herders to accompany songs on the pasture. The music is supposed to pass the shepherd's time and calm the animals so that they don't move out of earshot if possible. Other instruments that were previously played by cattle herders are the lamellophone setinkane (with the Nharo dongu or dengu ), the mouth bow segorogoro , flutes and ocarinas , to which guitars and banjos were added. In the segorogoro , the notched bow stick is rubbed with a straight wooden stick that is also notched in order to create a scraping sound along with the melody. The combination of string melody and rattle rhythm is the special characteristic of the Tsonga scraper xizambi .

The songs accompanied by the segankuru are often long, they deal with historical topics, personal things or are love songs in a language rich in images. Usually only a few notes in descending chords are needed as accompaniment. The tones of the instrument do not have to form a harmonic accompaniment to the singing voice. The vocal melody moves at any distance above or in unison with the instrumental accompaniment. Following a general trend in traditional musical instruments, attempts are made to imitate a guitar style with them. Around the 1940s, the ramkie , a four-string self-made guitar with a tin canister, became the most popular instrument for song accompaniment. Today guitars based on the western model dominate.

literature

  • John Brearley: A musical tour of Botswana, 1982. In: Botswana Notes and Records, Vol. 16, 1984, pp. 45-57
  • John Brearley: Music and Musicians of the Kalahari . In: Botswana Notes and Records , Vol. 20, 1989, pp. 77-90
  • John Brearley: The Segankuru - a "Bush Fiddle" or a Bowed Bow? Some of its Exponents and their Songs. In: Botswana Notes and Records , Vol. 28, 1996, pp. 121-144
  • Mothusi Phuthego: Segaba, an African zither and its potential for music education. In: Botswana Notes and Records, Volume 31, 2009. pp. 118–128
  • David Rycroft: Friction Chordophones in South-Eastern Africa. In: The Galpin Society Journal , Vol. 19, April 1966, pp. 84-100
  • Andrew Tracey: Segankuru. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, pp. 458f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Wegner: African string instruments. Volume 2. (New series 41. Department of Ethnic Music V.) Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin 1984, p. 34f
  2. ^ 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. 90
  3. ↑ Laurence Picken : Early Chinese Friction-Chordophones . In: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 18, March 1965, pp. 82-89, here pp. 82, 88
  4. ^ 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, p. 118
  5. ^ John Brearley, 1996, p. 131
  6. ^ John Brearley, 1996, p. 124
  7. ↑ Mothusi Phuthego: The segaba: an indigenous form of music education. In: Minette Mans (Ed.): Centering on African Practice in Musical Arts Education. Pan-African Society of Musical Arts Education, African Minds, 2006, p. 187
  8. ↑ Mothusi Phuthego, p 121
  9. ^ John Brearley, 1996, p. 122
  10. ^ John Brearley, 1982, p. 52
  11. ↑ Mothusi Phuthego, 2009, pp. 120f
  12. ↑ Luvuyo Dontsa: The tonalities of the "Isankuni". In: The Galpin Society Journal , Vol. 60, April 2007, pp. 161-166
  13. ↑ David Rycroft, 1966, pp. 94f
  14. ^ Dorothy F. Bleek: The Naron. A Bushmen Tribe of the Central Kalahari . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1928, p. 21
  15. ^ Percival Robson Kirby: The recognition and practical use of the harmonics of stretched strings by the Bantu of South Africa . In: Bantu Studies , Vol. 6, No. 1, University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1932
  16. ^ David Rycroft, 1966, p. 97
  17. ^ John Brearley, 1984, p. 52
  18. ↑ Jürgen scoop: The Serankure and Music in Tlokweng, Botswana . (Intercultural Music Studies, Volume 13) VWB Verlag for Science and Education, Berlin 2008
  19. ^ David Rycroft, 1966, pp. 97f
  20. ↑ John Brearley, 1996, pp. 121f
  21. ↑ Mothusi Phuthego, 2009, p. 121
  22. ↑ Elizabeth Nelbach Wood: A Study of the Traditional Music of Mochudi . In: Botswana Notes and Records , Vol. 8, 1976, pp. 189–221, here p. 196
  23. ↑ Jürgen Schöpf: Filtering partials with a bow - the unusual playing technique of the Serankure in southern Africa . In: German Society for Acoustics (Ed.): Advances in Acoustics , 37th German Annual Conference for Acoustics, DAGA 2011, p. 563f
  24. ^ John Brearley, 1996, p. 125
  25. ↑ John Brearley, 1996, pp. 125, 128, 130
  26. ^ John Brearley, 1996, p. 131
  27. ↑ Mothusi Phuthego, 2009, p. 123
  28. ↑ Boenyana Mashabalewa. Segorogoro mouthbow song. Mmmanana (Mother of the Child). British Library Sounds. John Brearley Botswana Collection
  29. ↑ Mothusi Phuthego, 2009, p. 126
  30. ^ John Brearley, 1989, p. 89