T'bol
T'bol , Arabic طبول, also ṭbol, ṭbel, t'bal, tobol , plural tbola and spelling variants, denotes two types of drums in the countries of the Maghreb . On the one hand, in large parts of the region from Tunisia to Morocco, double-celled wooden cylinder drums are so called, which are usually played while standing to the accompaniment of wind instruments.
The other design are kettle drums , which are mainly played by the Sahrawis , who live in the Western Sahara and in the south-west of Algeria , and by the Bidhan in Mauritania while sitting on the ground.
Designs and ways of playing
The dialectal forms of the name are derived from the Arabic name ṭabl (Pl. Ṭubūl ) for "drums", corresponding to the Indian tabla . The folk musical styles of Arabic music in which these drums are used are very different. Both types of instruments are mainly played outdoors.
Cylinder drums
The cylinder-shaped t'bol are medium-sized with a diameter of 40 to 50 centimeters, some have a diameter of up to 60 centimeters and are covered with two animal skins, which are tied together with a cord. They are played standing, often by dancers in action. The drums are worn on a ribbon around the neck or attached to the waist with a belt. On the upper side, the lower main beats are struck with a crooked mallet, on the underside with a straight whip, the higher-sounding intermediate rhythms are struck on the edge. The skins can be painted with henna , some drums show defensive motifs such as the hand of Fatima .
The instruments are played outdoors for dance performances at weddings or circumcision celebrations, as well as for processions and pilgrimages by Sufi brotherhoods ( tariqas ), mostly together with double reed instruments such as the widespread ghaita . Descendants of black African slaves who came to the Maghreb from the Sudan region call the cylinder drum ganga (Pl. Gāngatān ) in southern Algeria it is also called dendoun . The Algerian Tuareg call a ganga or amenini a short cylindrical drum, the frame of which is made from a palm trunk and is covered on both sides with goat skin. Tuareg women, descendants of black slaves, play this instrument in the mountain region of Tassili n'Ajjer to accompany the Sebiba - male dance.
The Gnawa in Morocco hold public acrobatic performances with trance games, to which the dancers beat large cylinder drums called t'bal or tabl gnawa . They are accompanied by the gimbri . Groups of two to three Gnawa move from house to house with drums and donate blessings with their singing by conjuring up an Islamic saint favorable to the addressee.
In Algeria the double reed instrument is called as-gaita ( ghaita ), in the north (in Kabylia ) and east also zurna (both belong to the surnai ). You play in an ensemble with the t'bel or the gellal, a narrow beaker drum. T'bel and as-gaita , for example, accompany the Berber fertility dance Abdaoui in eastern Algeria .
Typical for a traditional wedding orchestra in Meknes , Morocco are two ghaitas, two long Arabic trumpets' ( nafir ) and two t'bel. In Tunisia there is the large double-skin cylinder drum t'bol. From here further to the east, the cylinder drums played in conjunction with wind instruments are generally called tabl, like the Egyptian tabl baladi, which accompanies the dance of the same name .
Boiler drums
For the Tuareg, musical instruments used to be strictly divided into sexes. The common women played the mortar drum tendé , the noble women were reserved for the strings imzad . The men's war drum was called in Tamascheq tobol or ettebel, it was the symbol of the power of the elder ( amenokal ), the head of several Tuareg families. Ettebel can be translated as "Lord of the Country" and at the same time describes the largest political organizational unit of the Tuareg. The tobol (ettebel) is similar in shape to the less sacred tazawat , but is played with different rhythms. Both are large wooden kettle drums that are covered with goat or cow skin. In the past, the tobol served as a news drum with which the meetings of the amenokal were called; it was played alternately by two men with sticks.
The kettle drums of Sahrawi haul music are not symbols of power, they are beaten with their hands by women, while men play the plucked tidinit . In Mauritania it is mostly women who belong to the professional Iggāwen musicians who accompany their singing with a drum or the bow harp ardin and occasionally the calabash rattle daghumma .
The body of a Mauritanian t'bol consists of a cup-shaped hollowed out wooden trunk, the opening of which is covered with a fur. The diameter of the thick-walled hemispherical shape is about 50 centimeters. The light brown wood is usually the aromatic-smelling wood of balsamodedron africanum, other name commiphora africana, in Hassania the three to four meter high tree is called adreṣ.
The skin used is degreased but untanned , soaked in water and pulled up when wet. After drying, the skin shrinks, becomes firm, very hard and hugs the edges. Only large, deep and dull sounding drums are sometimes covered with tanned leather, which cannot be pulled as tightly as rawhide . The braided tension cords are also made of rawhide.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Viviane Lièvre: The Dances of the Maghreb. Morocco - Algeria - Tunisia. (Translated by Renate Behrens. French original edition: Éditions Karthala, Paris 1987) Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 183, ISBN 978-3-87476-563-3
- ^ Jürgen Elsner : North Africa. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Sachteil 7, 1997, col. 237
- ^ Thomas K. Seligman: An Introduction to the Tuareg. In: Ders., Christine Loughran (Ed.): Art of Being Tuareg - Sahara Nomads in a Modern World. Fowler Museum and Cantor Arts Center, Stanford 2006, pp. 128f
- ^ Wolfgang Creyaufmüller: Nomad culture in the Western Sahara. The material culture of the Moors, their handicraft techniques and basic ornamental structures. Burgfried-Verlag, Hallein (Austria) 1983, pp. 128, 365, 389