Tayaw

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Burmese three-string violin in the Musical Instrument Museum , Phoenix , Arizona.

Tayaw ( Burmese script တယော ), also tayàw, tayò , is the Burmese word for " string instrument ", which in the 19th century in Myanmar stood for a three-stringed bowl-neck lute with a heavy eight-shaped body and for mixed forms between this lute and the European violin . Today, tayaw refers to the violin that has replaced the Burmese strings that disappeared in the 20th century in Burmese music. Presumably from the 12th century, there were string instruments of the Chinese pike-lute type in Myanmar, about which almost nothing is known.

Origin and Distribution

Myanmar is geographically larger than Thailand , but the country's music was almost unknown until 1940 and since then has been researched to a much lesser extent than Thai music. This is mainly due to the fact that after independence in 1948, military governments isolated the country from the outside world and entry was not possible for foreigners (tourists and scientists) or only with restrictions until the 1990s. To date, not all mountain regions are freely accessible or can be reached safely. The music-ethnological literature on Myanmar therefore concentrates on the classical music of the Bamar (Burmese) in the central parts of the country, who with a good two thirds of the population form the largest population group and the titular nation , less on the remaining third of the minority peoples with mostly their own languages ​​and musical styles . The music history of Myanmar is mainly made accessible through knowledge from the neighboring large regions of India and China. It is from there that the essential external influences on the music of Myanmar can be expected, in this respect the colonial-era name “ Indochina ” for the mainland areas of Southeast Asia has its historical justification in a broader sense .

Today's center of Myanmar with the ancestors of the Mon came from the 3rd century BC. Under the influence of Buddhism spreading from India to the east , which was preserved in building remains and sculpture finds from the middle of the 1st millennium from the Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati to the Chenla and Khmer in Cambodia . The Burmese bow harp saung gauk , which appears for the first time around the middle of the 7th century on a relief of the Pyu , goes back to Indian bow harps ( vina ), which were disappearing in India around this time. In contrast, the oldest surviving musical instruments in Myanmar, bronze drums from the last centuries BC, reveal an influence from southern China.

The typologically oldest Southeast Asian stringed instruments are bamboo tube zithers (full tube zithers ), which occur from northeast India ( gintang in Assam ) via the Indonesian island of Bali ( guntang ) to the north of the Philippines ( kolitong ). In almost all of them, the strings are either plucked or struck with sticks. An extremely rare tubular bamboo zither, the two strings of which are bowed with a bow, is known by the Moken , a sea nomadic people in the Andaman Sea between Myanmar and the west coast of Thailand. The kating ga-un is the only Moken melody instrument that produces a sustained tone and is used in ritual music and popular music. In one examined specimen, the bamboo tube consisting of two internodes measured 62 centimeters, a typical length for this type of instrument.

The oldest string instruments were (1981) According to Harvey Turnbull allegedly short-necked denominated in Central Asia, such as on a wall painting from Sogdia were displayed around the 6th century painted with a friction rod. The earliest Chinese source dates from the 8th century, in which it is said that the semi- tubular zither yazheng (which consists of a bamboo tube split in half), a forerunner of the vaulted board zither guzheng , was struck with a stick. Ya means that you used a grater without hair. Half-tubular zithers are restricted to East Asia, whether they were bowed earlier or later than the lute instruments is unclear.

For India, the possible origin of the string instruments is associated with the name ravanahattha , which is lost in the mythical demon king Ravana and is probably mentioned as a string instrument since the 7th century. Whether Indian temple reliefs from the 10th century show the first string instruments is a question of interpretation, just as it is uncertain whether the saranga vina mentioned in the 11th century , from which today's string sarangi is derived, was a string instrument. Regardless of an uncertain ancient Indian origin, there were several string instruments in the Mughal period , from which some bowed short-necked or long-necked lutes with a bowl-shaped body, such as the sarinda and the kamaica, were played in folk music .

Another group of string instruments are the Chinese tubular spit violins of the erhu type standardized in the 20th century , which is best known today. The name huqin, used in ancient China for the group of two-stringed spit violins (meaning “ qin of the barbarians from the north”) refers to their North or Central Asian origins. In the middle of the 8th century, lute-shaped string instruments rubbed with a strip of bamboo began to spread in China; probably the oldest member of the huqin family was the xiqin used by peoples in the north according to their name . The oldest reference to a stringed instrument struck with a horsehair bow comes from the end of the 11th century. A few dozen tubular violins with differently shaped resonance bodies are known today in classical Chinese music and especially in the folk music of the southern Chinese minorities. According to Robert Garfias (1985), the Chinese gauntlet violins could have reached Myanmar from the 12th century, because this type of instrument was also used in other regions of Asia at that time. In the neighboring Indian state of Manipur , the pena was a simple, early developmentally processed form of a spit violin, in which the individual hair-tuft strings were still tied at the upper end without a peg at the beginning of the 20th century.

A hsaing waing orchestra and other Burmese musical instruments. Back row from left: horizontal barrel drum pa'má , Kegeloboe teeth , drum circle hsaing waing , hanging Gong Moung , humpback Gong county kyi waing , middle row: three-stringed fiddle tayaw , clash cymbals , bamboo blow fork walet-hkok , flute palwei , Handzimbeln si , brass plate kyizi , crocodile zither mí-gyaùng , in front: bamboo xylophone pattala , bow harp saung gauk . Watercolor from 1897.

A Chinese chronicle from the Tang Dynasty (617–907) reports on a group of 35 musicians and dancers from the Pyu empire who had traveled to the court of the Chinese ruler in Chang'an at the turn of the year 801/802 . The listed musical instruments include two bow harps, two crocodile zithers ( mí-gyaùng ), a lute with a naga head, a lute with a cloud-shaped neck and five rod zithers with calabash resonators and one or more strings. Four flutes and several mouth organs are also mentioned. The form and way of playing the lutes are not described. How the disappeared Burmese mouth organ hnyin was played earlier is also not known (it only exists among some hill tribes ) and the crocodile zither, which occurs in Thailand with the name chakhe , has only been used by the Mon in Myanmar since the 1930s.

The Mon, a minority living in southern Myanmar and western Thailand, are an ancient cultural people whose contribution to the spread - they were the first to adopt the Indian bow harp - and preservation of musical instruments in the region is emphasized. They have their own musical tradition that is related to that of Thailand. In the past, the Mon played a variant of the Thai spiked fiddle, sor u , which in turn goes back to Chinese models. As with the Bamar, it is replaced by a three-string string lute, the body of which is derived from the western violin and which is played as a spiked fiddle in a vertical position. The collector of Burmese folk music Khin Zaw (* 1905) met an orchestra for light entertainment ( a-nyein ) in Mon State in 1941 , which played Mon music according to an old tradition. The only musical instruments were a three-string crocodile zither, a three-string fiddle tayaw , a bamboo flute palwei , two drums and the cymbal-rattling pair siwa, which is indispensable for the rhythm . The flute player led the group.

The explorer and employee of the British East India Company James Low (1791-1852) lists in his History of Tennasserim , published between 1835 and 1838, the instruments of a Burmese ceremonial orchestra hsaing waing , which is played outdoors, including the drum circle hsaing waing , den Buckelgongkreis kyi waing , the double reed instrument hne and the bamboo flute palwei . He also lists the instruments of a chamber music ensemble: bow harp saung gauk , crocodile zither mí-gyaùng , three-string violin tro ( thró, Khmer , also an early term for string instruments in Myanmar), bamboo flute palwei , double reed instrument hne , hand cymbals of different sizes ye gwin, small single- headed ones Beaker drum ozi and large double-headed cylinder drum segi . The head of the ensemble plays one of the first three instruments mentioned. According to the illustration at Low, in the 1830s the bowed lute tro had a distinctly waisted figure eight-shaped body with two narrow sound holes in the wooden top on both halves of the body, which were drawn in the same size, and a straight neck that ends above the vertebrae in an artfully carved tendril.

With the defeat in the First British-Burmese War 1824-1826, the colonial conquest by the British began for the country, which was legally completed in 1886 with the declaration of Myanmar to a province of British India . The cultural influence of the British in the 19th century is due, among other things, to the introduction of the European violin, piano and guitar into Burmese music.

Design

The older Burmese string instruments probably belonged to the Chinese spike violins and were similar to the Thai sor u or the Javanese rebab . However, neither descriptions nor images of Burmese petty violins have survived.

There are numerous descriptions, depictions and preserved examples of Burmese fiddles from the 19th century. On the one hand, there are bowl-neck lutes with a heavy body that is carved out of a solid piece of wood and forms a figure eight when viewed from above. The bottom is elliptically bulged along both body halves. In one example, which was presumably presented to Queen Victoria for her 50th anniversary on the throne in 1887 along with five other musical instruments, the body merges into a wide rectangular neck leading to a pegbox with lateral pegs. A realistically portrayed, gold-plated bird forms the upper end. Other gold-plated parts are the ornament around the pegbox and a wide point that protrudes as a support foot at the lower end of the body. An approximately circular sound hole is cut into the upper half of the flat top of the body. The bridge is in the middle of the ceiling of the slightly smaller lower half. The neck ends flush with the level of the top without a glued-on fingerboard. It is painted red and the body is painted black. The instrument sits at an angle in an angular frame designed as a coiled snake. The associated bow is strongly curved in the upper quarter and covered with horse hair. In another example, made around 1900, the bird figure on the neck is missing and the pegbox is crowned by a pointed gable-like ornament. The musician crouching on the floor places these fiddles vertically in front of him and wields the bow horizontally with his right hand.

On the other hand, the tayaw was a box- neck lute in the 19th century: a simplified or varied replica of the European violin with a relatively thick-walled body and three strings. In a copy that was probably made before 1872, the sound holes are narrow slits on both sides of the bridge. The top is slightly arched and the fretless fingerboard made of lighter wood rises up to the top, where its fine ornament forms the counter-motif to the geometric ornaments on the tailpiece . This is attached to a turned extension that protrudes from the underside of the body so that this violin-like type can also be played standing upright. The pegbox, which is manufactured separately and fixed to the neck, ends in ornamental tips like the figure eight-shaped lute.

Curt Sachs (1917) describes a violin from Mandalay that is in the collection of the Museum Fünf Kontektiven in Munich. The arched bottom and ceiling protrude beyond the frames to which they are nailed. The two sound holes in the ceiling are curved into a sickle shape. The pegbox has an ornamental carving depicting a bird. The three hemp strings are held at the bottom by a loop of cord covered with velvet. The total length is 79 centimeters with a body length of 40 centimeters and a body width of 20 centimeters. The fiddle belonged to a blind beggar.

In a particularly elaborate example from the 19th century, a powerful neck is attached to the violin-like body, which merges into the fully plastic figure of an artistically carved Burmese dancer above the pegbox. The flat body made of hard wood is painted black. Instead of a tailpiece, the three strings are attached with a thick red cord to the protruding extension made of turned wood. The total length is 92.5 centimeters.

Under the name hun tayaw , the Burmese took over the straw violin invented by Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh around 1900 , the body of which has been replaced by a metal funnel as a resonance amplifier . The straw violin is strung like a violin with four strings tuned a fifth apart . From around 1950 straw violins were imported from Germany. Today the hun tayaw in Myanmar are made with a brass funnel or, in a cheaper version, with an aluminum funnel.

Style of play

Musicians at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon. On the left a tayaw played vertically , in the middle trough xylophone pattala with bamboo striking plates , on the right two bamboo flutes, both blown as a double flute, palwei . Photo by the German photographer Philip Adolphe Klier (around 1845–1911) from 1895.

The division of Central Burmese music into the ceremonial ensemble hsaing waing for outdoor performances and a court chamber music ensemble for entertainment, which performs indoors and also accompanies dances, probably developed during the heyday of the capital Bagan from the 11th century. This fundamental distinction in Burmese court music continues to this day. While the bow harp saung gauk and the xylophone pattala are the most popular instruments in chamber music and are recognized as a legacy from the time of the Burmese kings, all traditional string instruments disappeared: In addition to the Burmese fiddle, with its different shapes over time, the crocodile zither (replaced by the guitar) and the (presumed) dulcimer sandaya (the name was transferred to the introduced piano). For the saung gauk and pattala , which used to be used individually to accompany singing, modern forms of interaction have emerged. The old chamber music ensemble game only exists today in the style of playing that has changed from the tayaw to the violin or in the use of the flute palwei as an additional melodic instrument - in addition to saung gauk or pattala - when accompanying the singing voice. According to Robert Garfias (1975), Saung gauk and violin only play together as an exception. The preserved tradition also includes the use of siwa as the rhythmic basis, consisting of the hand cymbals si and the bamboo or wooden rattle wa , which are operated by a musician.

Traditional concerts of classical music only are rare, as light music is usually a part of dance performances, drama (generally pwe ), including puppet theater yoke thé, and comedies. Tourist performances form a young part of the live music. Furthermore, state-organized music competitions, the aim of which is to emphasize the national unity of the ethnic groups, have a firm place in musical life. The western instruments, violin and piano, adapted in mood and playing style, are represented in classical music competitions, as are traditional Burmese musical instruments. Violin and piano, like the other instruments, mainly play the courtly song repertoire Mahagita ( Pali , "great song", Burmese thachin gyi ), from the 19th century, the most important composer of which is Myawaddy Mingyi U Sa (1766-1853).

In chamber music, the singing voice takes on the melodic leading role. In addition, the violin has become a preferred melody instrument because, according to the cone oboe hne in the hsaing-waing orchestra, it is usually the only instrument that can produce a sustained tone. Adapted to the hne , the violin always produces only one melody line and no chords. The fretless fingerboard makes it easier for the violinist to smoothly blend individual notes - as required for the mahagita genre - which comes close to the European technique of portamento . A good hne player can blend the notes into one another as elegantly as a violinist, says a saying. The violin usually follows the singing part closely or occasionally doubles it.

literature

  • Robert Garfias: The Development of the Modern Burmese Hsaing Ensemble. In: Asian Music , Vol. 16, No. 1, 1985, pp. 1-28
  • Laurence Libin, John Okell: Tayàw . In: Grove Music Online , May 28, 2015
  • Ward Keeler: Burma . In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music . Routledge, New York 2008, pp. 199-221

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Khin Zaw: Burmese Music (A Preliminary Inquiry) . In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1940, pp. 717-754, here p. 717
  2. ^ Ward Keeler, 2008, p. 84
  3. ↑ Gretel Schwörer-Kohl: Myanmar. 3. History of musical instruments . In: MGG Online , 2016 ( Music in the past and present , 1997)
  4. ↑ Christian Koehn: A Bowed Bamboo tube zither from South East Asia . In: International Symposium on Musical Acoustics (ISMA) , Le Mans 2014, pp. 499–502
  5. ↑ Harvey Turnbull: A Sogdian friction chordophone. In: DR Widdess, RF Wolpert (Ed.): Music and Tradition. Essays on Asian and other musics presented to Laurence Picken . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1981, pp. 197-206
  6. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments. National Book Trust, New Delhi 1977, pp. 101, 103
  7. ^ Joep Bor: The Voice of the Sarangi. An illustrated history of bowing in India . In: National Center for the Performing Arts, Quarterly Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, 4 and Vol. 16, No. 1, September – December 1986, March 1987, p. 53
  8. ↑ Alan R. Thrasher, Jonathan PJ Stock: Huqin . In: Grove Music Online , 2001
  9. ^ Robert Garfias, 1985, p. 3
  10. ^ Curt Sachs : The musical instruments of Burma and Assams in the K. Ethnographic Museum in Munich . In: Meeting reports of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-philological and historical class, 2nd treatise. Munich 1917, p. 24
  11. ^ Ward Keeler: Burma. In: Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams (Eds.): The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music . Routledge, New York 2008, pp. 199-221, here pp. 202f
  12. ↑ Gretel Schwörer-Kohl: Myanmar. 3. History of musical instruments. In: MGG Online , 2016 ( Music in the past and present , 1997)
  13. ^ A b Robert Garfias: A Musical Visit to Burma. In: The World of Music , Vol. 17, No. 1, 1975, pp. 3-13, here p. 4
  14. ^ Ward Keeler, 2008, p. 200
  15. ^ Khin Zaw: A Folk-Song Collector's Letter from the Mon Country in Lower Burma (1941). In: Artibus Asiae. Supplementum , Vol. 23 ( Essays Offered to GH Luce by His Colleagues and Friends in Honor of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. Volume 1: Papers on Asian History, Religion, Languages, Literature, Music Folklore, and Anthropology. ) 1966, pp. 164–166, here p. 166
  16. ↑ Captain James Low: History of Tennasserim. (Continued from Vol. III., Page 336). In: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1837, pp. 42–67, 69–108, here p. 48
  17. ^ Robert Garfias, Judith Becker, Muriel C. Williamson: Myanmar. II. Music and dance of the plains peoples. (iii) History of the instruments. In: Grove Music Online , 2001
  18. ^ Robert Garfias, 1985, p. 3
  19. ↑ string instrument (tayaw) nineteenth century. Royal Collection Trust (image)
  20. ↑ Tayaw (bowl fiddle) - Unknown maker - Circa 1900. St Cecilia's Hall. Concert Room & Music Museum, The University of Edinburgh (image)
  21. ↑ Tayaw (Box fiddle) - Unknown maker - Probably before 1872. St Cecilia's Hall. Concert Room & Music Museum, The University of Edinburgh (image)
  22. ↑ Curt Sachs, 1917, p. 28
  23. ^ Tro (Spike Fiddle), Burma (Myanmar), 19th Century. Beede Gallery, National Music Museum, The University of South Dakota
  24. ↑ Horn violin (hùn-tayàw) . Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica (Figure)
  25. ↑ Laurence Libin, John Okell: Tayàw. In: Grove Music Online, May 28, 2015
  26. ^ Robert Garfias, 1985, p. 4
  27. ^ Gavin Douglas: Myanmar's Nation-Building Cultural Policy: Traditional Music and Political Legitimacy. (Dissertation) University of Washington, 2001, p. 9
  28. ^ Gavin Douglas, 2001, pp. 90, 94
  29. ↑ Gavin Douglas: The Sokayeti Performing Arts Competition of Burma / Myanmar: Performing the Nation. In: The World of Music , Vol. 45, No. 1 ( Contesting Tradition: Cross-Cultural Studies of Musical Competition ) 2003, pp. 35–54, here p. 49
  30. ↑ Hsin-chun Tasaw Lu: The Burmese Classical Music Tradition: An Introduction. In: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 56, No. 3, July – September 2009, pp. 254–271, here p. 262