News drum

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African news drum

A news drum , also a speaking drum , formerly a bush drum; is a percussion instrument with a semantic function. It can be used to translate spoken words into a fixed rhythmic structure and transmit them. According to the type of construction, message drums can be divided into membranophones , slit drums and friction drums (friction drums).

In Africa , New Guinea, and the American tropics, for centuries the locals used a type of drum telegraph to communicate with one another over long distances. When European expeditions came to the jungle to explore the jungle, they were surprised by the fact that their coming and intentions had been made known through the forest prior to their arrival.

The best-known news drums include drums , often hourglass drums , from West Africa . From the areas now known as Nigeria and Ghana , they spread with the slave trade via West Africa to America and the Caribbean . There their use was prohibited because the slaves used them to maintain connections over long distances in a language unknown to their owners.

In a figurative sense, rumors are said to have been spread by the bush drum.

Types

The drums are covered at both ends of the wooden body with fur, fish skin or other skins, which are fastened with a wooden band. Leather cords or cones run the length of the drum body and are knotted together. When these strings are squeezed by the drummer's arm, the tension on the eardrum increases and the instrument changes its pitch . This type of instrument, capable of modulation, is mainly used at meetings or markets for ceremonial acts such as dance , rituals , story-telling and communication.

Some versions of the news drum in the West African peoples are:

In the 20th century, news drums became part of popular music in West Africa, especially in the music genres of Jùjú (Nigeria) and Mbalax (Senegal).

Slotted drums with cavities and narrow openings that resonate when struck are all the larger wooden instruments hollowed out from a single tree trunk. Different wall thicknesses change the tones that are produced by striking with heavy wooden drumsticks .

While some drums served as simple utensils, others were made in the form of artistically highly developed, ornate plastic. Often times a drum has a small stand so that it doesn't hit the ground and that way its tone can vibrate freely.

construction

News drums were often made as slit drums from hollowed out tree trunks . The larger the trunk, the louder the sound , and the greater its range. A long slit was cut on one side of the tree trunk . First, the tree trunk was hollowed out through the slot and sound tongues (wooden strips) were left on each side of the opening. A drum could be tuned to produce a lower and a higher tone. To do this, it had to be hollowed out more under one tongue and less under the other. The tongues of the drum are struck with mallets, which create the rhythm of the high and low notes. The drums were protected from the elements in rainproof rooms.

Under favorable conditions, the sound can be heard over a distance of 8 km. Important messages were usually repeated from village to village.

Europe

While news drums are generally seen as an African phenomenon, the Txalaparta also served as a means of communication in the Spanish Basque Country . The txalaparta ( tx as in sch , with the tip of the tongue on the upper teeth) is a percussion instrument made from a set of tonewoods stretched over a tree trunk. It is beaten with 50 cm long sticks ( makilak ). Similar to the xylophone , a different tone sounds depending on the attack. With the proliferation of the telephone and other media, the Txalaparta fell out of use as a means of communication; it is used today as a musical instrument.

Use of drums for watch out signals

In the European military , the drum was used from the Renaissance until well into the 19th century. an important signaling instrument with which attack and retreat signals could be given. There are drum rolls as an announcement signal in circus music and preceded public announcements by heralds .

The drum language

Log drum from Cameroon

The traditional drumming used in Africa can be divided into three different types. For one, a rhythm can represent a thought (or a signal ). On the other hand, it can repeat the form of a spoken utterance and, thirdly, it can simply be based on musical rules.

Drum communication methods are not actually languages; they are based on actual natural languages. The sounds that are produced are based on conventions; idiomatic signals are based on speech patterns. The messages are usually fixed stereotypes and contextual. There are no possibilities for new combinations and expressions.

In Central Africa and East Africa the drum language patterns represent syllable lengths and tones of the respective African language. In tonal languages , where syllables are associated with a certain tone, some words are only distinguished by their suprasegmental profile . Hence, syllable drum languages ​​can often convey a message through the tonal phonemes alone .

In certain languages, the pitch of each syllable is specific to each adjacent syllable. In these cases, messages can be transmitted with the same beat speed as the speaking speed, since rhythm and speech melody are each to be regarded as equivalent spoken utterance.

Transmission errors can occur because of the extremely ambiguous nature of the communication. These are reduced by the context and the use of fixed phrases. In Jabo, for example, most ethnic groups speak monosyllabic. By using a proverb or an honorary title to give an animal, person or object a higher meaning, the corresponding single beat can be replaced by a rhythmic or melodic motif with the appropriate theme. In fact, not all listeners understand all fixed phrases; the drum language only serves the level of understanding in the respective immediate interest.

Some peoples, such as the Melanesians, expanded this method by freely inventing signs to form their drum signals. This is in marked contrast to the Efik of Nigeria, which use such messages that represent an exact correspondence to the tones of the respective morphemes . The situation is different with the Ewe language in Togo , where only main clauses and their combinations are translated into the drum language. Smaller units are not used; a sound image reproduces a complete thought. The situation is similar with the Tangu of New Guinea , whose signals represent idioms that consist of parts of known melodies, quasi-poetic rhythms or just personally agreed rhythms.

A drum as a speaking device is culturally defined and dependent on the linguistic / cultural boundaries. Consequently, this communication suffers from translation problems as well as literal communication. There is no international drum language.

Speaking drums were used by German colonial officials at the beginning of the 20th century in the Yaoundé station in Cameroon for administrative tasks. There was a two-story brick drum tower there.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Bush drum  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: drum language  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. M. Heepe (ed.): Jaunde texts by Karl Atangana and Paul Messi along with experimental phonetic studies on the pitches in the Jaunde and an introduction to the Jaunde language. Berlin 1919, p. 30. ( Online at openlibrary.org )
  2. ^ Photo of the Yaoundé drum tower from September 1917