Timbrh

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Timbrh , also timbili , is a lamellophone with a large box resonator that is played by the Wute in Cameroon's Center region . The lamellas of this relatively rare type are made from the hard leaf veins of raphia palms . In a typical ensemble to accompany the dance, three to four timbrh play together. A variant with a smaller box is only used as a soloist for entertainment. In an older, now obsolete version of the timbrh , the lamellae were attached to two parallel connected, half-cut raphia leaf veins .

Origin and Distribution

Board lamellophone with nine bamboo tongues from the province of Cabinda in northern Angola, before 1907.
Lamellophone with 13 bamboo tongues from Gabon.

Lamellophones are an original development of Sub-Saharan Africa and were also exported to countries outside of the continent through African cultural exports. According to the shape of the lamellar support and resonator, lamellophones are divided into five basic types: 1.Rectangular board with and without an external resonator, which almost always consists of a calabash half-shell ( mbira dza vadzimu ), 2. Clamshell-shaped lamellar support, 3. Bell-shaped lamellar support, 4. box-shaped lamellar carrier and 5. raft-shaped or irregularly shaped lamellar carrier, all with or without a separate resonator. It is also possible to classify the lamellophones according to the social and cultural context or to classify them in one of the main regions of distribution.

Lamellophones with raffia tongues are now a small minority. Since when such lamellophones have existed cannot be traced back archaeologically, because they consist of easily perishable plant material. The earliest lamellophone tongues made of iron could, if the intended purpose of the iron flakes found in Kumadzulo in southern Zambia is correct, date from the 5th to 7th centuries according to radiocarbon dates. Corresponding finds, which Brian Fagan made in the same region around Kalomo in the 1960s , are dated to the 10th and 11th centuries. The oldest written evidence of lamellophones comes from the Portuguese missionary Frei João dos Santos (1609), who visited the coast of Mozambique in 1586 . A structural detail - small lumps of black wax stuck to the underside of the lamellae - with which the timbrh and several other lamellophones are tuned, appears for the first time in the description of a trip made in Brazil from 1783 to 1792. The natural scientist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira (1756–1815), who was born in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, depicts a lamellophone made by an Angolan slave in his work, which is comparable to today's instruments in Angola. Colonial sources on lamellophones have only been available in large numbers since the 19th century.

Gerhard Kubik (1999) summarizes the presumed development history of the lamellophone. Accordingly, lamellophones with tongues made of raphia or plant cane were first used in the 1st millennium BC. Invented and used by Benue Congo speakers in central Africa. At a much later time, lamellophones reached West Africa to the Kwa speakers and to north central Africa to the Adamaua speakers . During the 1st millennium to around 200 BC In the 4th century BC, lamellophones may have spread with migration movements of Bantu speakers from their assumed region of origin, Eastern Nigeria and Western Cameroon, towards southern Africa. For the first centuries AD, lamellophones with raphia tongues are believed to have been in the Katanga province , from where they could later have reached the lower Zambezi Valley and the Rovuma . Where raphia was missing, bamboo or other plant tubes were used instead.

In any case, lamellophones with raphia tongues are likely to be much older than those with iron tongues, i.e. in their area of ​​origin before the introduction of iron processing in central Nigeria ( Nok culture ) around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Have been used. Strips cut out of the epidermis of raphia leaf stalks, due to their strength and elasticity, represent an obvious starting material for the invention of lamellophone tongues and to this day the species Raphia farinifera , which extends from southeastern Nigeria through central and southern Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to in extends the north of the Congo , Raphia is used for house building, furniture construction, to the manufacture of children's toys and musical instruments. Bernhard Ankermann (1901) lists several different types of lamellophones from the Cameroon-Gabon area, whose boards or sound boxes are made from raffia leaf stalks, including a version of the timbrh , which has now disappeared, with a board consisting of two parallel halves of raffia shafts. This degree of diversification suggests that the lamellophones made from raphia are old. In contrast, lamellophones with iron tongues were only introduced in South Cameroon and Gabon from the 19th century. Another musical instrument made from material from the raffia palm that is only found in this region is the Kerbsteg zither mvet .

According to a division of the lamellophones on the African continent into seven major regions, the timbrh belongs to Region 1 (Eastern Nigeria and Cameroon Grasslands ). Like this region, Region 2 (Gabon to the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) belongs to the raphia palm zone. The other regions extend over East Africa and southern Africa. An overlap with the geographical regions of the lamellophones brings their name assignment to four main word stems: The limba ( rimba ) word stem occurs in the south of the Congo, in Tanzania and in Angola to denote lamellophones and xylophones , the mbila - ( mbira- ) The stem also denotes both groups of instruments in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique , the sansi ( sanzi ) stem only for lamellophones overlaps with those mentioned from the Congo to Angola and the kembe stem denotes a certain lamellophone type with a box resonator, which is widely used in central Africa is common.

All four groups of words belong to the Bantu languages, including the mbila- derived name timbila for a type of xylophone in southern Mozambique. The word timbrh in the Wute language is pronounced (incorrectly) as timbili by neighboring language groups , but is not related to timbila .

Design

Lamellophone with box resonator

Box lamellophone with six bamboo tongues from the Congo, 1850–1885.

The lamellas of the timbrh have been made of raphia since ancient times, although the Cameroon grassland is one of the areas in which iron was processed very early and the kingdom of the Bamun was known for the production of large iron single bells and double-stemmed bells (similar to the West African gankogui ) . Since the early 1920s, the Wute have been making timbrh with a large wooden box resonator . In the ceiling of the rectangular flat box there is a sound hole in the form of a segment of a circle or a square with two pointed, waisted sides halfway below the lamellas. Two isosceles triangles protrude over the upper edge in the plane of the ceiling, symbolizing arrowheads and intended to refer to the past of anger as a hunter. Another example has three circular appendages on the upper edge. Up to 20 raphia lamellas are arranged next to each other with an approximately parallel lower edge. The lamellas, which end with the upper edge, are held in position by a push rod running across them and lifted from the ceiling by a transverse web pushed underneath, which consists of a triangular raffia strip. The web protrudes slightly on the side and is fixed with a bast fiber that runs around the underside.

To tune, the slats are shifted so that the length of the end protruding freely beyond the web changes. The pitch is also affected by black wax stuck to the underside of the tip of the lamella. A special feature is a needle made of raphia, which is stuck with a lump of wax on one side of the top of the lamellas with a distance of no more than one millimeter. The distance is carefully adjusted by ear while the wax is still hot and the needle can be moved. Its free-swinging tip starts to vibrate sympathetically when the lamellae are plucked, which amplifies and lengthens the tone.

The lamellae are tuned to a tetratonic scale (four tones per octave ) in a timbrh described by Gerhard Kubik . Two adjacent slats are an octave apart and are plucked in pairs with the thumbs. The relative pitches are roughly equivalent to C – E – G – A. For this instrument with 17 lamellas, the following pitches result from left to right (Western notation only shows the relationship between the tones): For the left thumb c 1 –c – G – g – A – a – E. For the right thumb E – e – e – a – A – c – C – G – g – A – e 1 . With other lamellophones of Wute there is also a pentatonic scale of lamellae arranged in octave pairs.

A related lamellophone in the region of East Nigeria - Cameroon Grasslands is the mbø ŋgo ( mboton , also mbø ong or mbø enggo ) of the Tikar, whose 12 to 18 raphia lamellae are arranged in a V-shape and are plucked with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands. Its body consists of a hollowed-out rectangular piece of wood with a rounded bottom. The ceiling is a flat, nailed board with a triangular sound hole slightly below the center. A tikar lamellophone that is used exclusively for ritual purposes and has a bowl-shaped resonator is called mbø menjang (the name mendzan also refers to xylophones in Cameroon). Three or four mbø menjang are played together with a cylinder drum in sacrificial ceremonies for deceased chiefs.

The Bamun lukuka belongs to the same lamellophone type . In one example there are 17 lamellas made of plant cane on a rectangular wooden box. The lamellas rest on a small triangular rod at the upper end and on a higher triangular rod at their free end and are pressed against the ceiling by a thin iron rod in between. The player plucks the slats with both thumbs. The ceiling is extended over the upper edge to a decorative extension with three square holes. The arrangement of the 17 lamellas corresponds to a tubular lamellophone type found in the southwest of the Congo.

Small box lamellophone

Gerhard Kubik found a timbrh with a small rectangular resonance box in 1970. Die Wute only play it as a soloist for entertainment, for example when hiking on the long paths between the villages, and not in an ensemble. A copy of this type called mwing timbrh ("small timbrh ") measures 17.5 × 12 × 4 centimeters. The thickness of the ceiling board is 8 millimeters, the 16 slats made of raphia are on average 10 centimeters long and 6 to 7 millimeters wide. The lamellae are tuned with lumps of wax on the underside, but have no needles on their top. The lamellas are arranged in octave pairs and tuned tetratonic. This is the usual tone sequence in Wute music, which is only occasionally extended to the pentatonic scale.

Raphia lamellophone

In the older version of the timbrh , some of which were collected in museums in the 19th century, the lamellae and body are made of raphia. An instrument from central Cameroon, consisting of two connected halves of raffia shaft, which is in the Munich City Museum , has nine lamellae, the ends of which form an approximately straight line, and a small triangular sound hole under the lamellae. In some of these “raft-like” lamellophones, the soft interior of the leaf stalks has been hollowed out so that tubes emerge, two or three of which are connected next to each other by thin transverse rods. This type of xylophone, made almost entirely from raffia palm, is or was widespread in the entire Cameroon grassland as far as eastern Nigeria. The numerous types of raphia lamellophones can be assigned to a specific region thanks to the different types of attachment of the lamellae. The sound of lamellophones with a raffia body is generally quiet and fades away quickly. This has led to the invention of the needles glued to the lamellae, which are already present in the old raphia lamellophones.

Style of play

Usually two to four timbrh of different sizes are played simultaneously in an ensemble together with a raft rattle kara (similar to the East African kayamba ) to accompany the dance. The dance music ensembles emerged in the 1950s under the influence of urban pop music styles. The then popular merengue and other imported dance styles were also adopted by mendzan xylophone ensembles in South Cameroon and processed in the timbrh ensembles to such an extent that they are barely recognizable. The interplay creates overlapping rhythmic patterns that Gerhard Kubik calls inherent patterns . For the listener, the simultaneous succession of rapid sound impulses creates the subjective auditory impression of coherent rhythmic patterns in different pitches. Kubik first recognized the phenomenon of illusory rhythm patterns in the compositions of court music in Buganda (Uganda) for the spar xylophone amadinda and the bow harp ennanga . Such a compositional technique is also characteristic of the playing of the timbrh and other lamellophones in central Cameroon and is also used with some lamellophones in southern Africa ( mbira, sansi and malimba ) and with the board zither bangwe in Malawi.

The compositions for timbrh , which are produced by both thumbs with interlocking tone sequences, usually consist of a cycle of 12 or 24 beats. The rattle complements a constant basic beat that is adopted by the dancers. Strong offbeat emphasis reminds Kubik of jazz forms such as boogie-woogie and swing .

It is unclear where, when comparing timbrh music in Cameroon and amadinda music in Uganda, the structural parallels come from, which apparently have remained stable over a long period of time. Kubik links the musical traditions of the Bantu-speaking area, whose common features include equidistant tone series, octave pairs, the entanglement of two tone sequences and rhythm patterns, with the spread of the Bantu languages ​​from Cameroon via East Africa to Angola. Although musicians of the Wute declared their timbrh playing "modern" in surveys in 1964 and 1970 , Kubik believes it is possible that this is based on a very old tradition. It creates a broad connection to the ideograms in Angola called tusona (singular kasona ) , which are drawn with their fingers in the sandy soil by older men of the Ngangela ( vakuluntu ) who speak Luchazi. These labyrinthine structures consist of a pattern of dots at constant intervals, surrounded by curved lines. They have legible content because they are used to express mythical ideas about animals and rituals.

literature

  • Jos Gansemans, Barbara Schmidt-Wrenger: Central Africa. Music history in pictures . Volume 1: Ethnic Music . Delivery to the 9th German Publishing House for Music, Leipzig 1986
  • Gerhard Kubik : Timbrh. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 5. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 6
  • Gerhard Kubik: Cameroon, Republic of. 2. Main musical style areas. (iii) Cameroon grasslands. In: Grove Music Online, 2001
  • Gerhard Kubik: African and African American Lamellophones: History, Typology, Nomenclature, Performers, and Intracultural Concepts. In: Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (Ed.): Turn up the Volume. A Celebration of African Music. UCLA, Los Angeles 1999, pp. 20-57
  • Gerhard Kubik: West Africa. Music history in pictures. Volume 1: Ethnic Music, Delivery 11. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1989
  • Gerhard Kubik: Musique camerounaise: Les timbili des vute . In: Abbia , No. 14-15, Yaounde, July-December 1966, pp. 153-164

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jos Gansemans, Barbara Schmidt-Wrenger, 1986, p. 12
  2. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, p. 32
  3. ^ Bernhard Ankermann : The African musical instruments . (Inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig) Haack, Berlin 1901, pp. 31–34 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, p. 34
  5. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, pp. 24-26
  6. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Generic Names for the Mbira. In: African Music , Volume 3, No. 3, 1964, pp. 25-36, here p. 29
  7. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, pp. 40f
  8. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 2014, p. 6
  9. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 2001
  10. ↑ Jos Gansemans, Barbara Schmidt-Wrenger, 1986, p. 146
  11. ^ Gerhard Kubik, 1989, p. 52
  12. ↑ Gerhard Kubik, 1999, p. 38f
  13. ^ Gerhard Kubik, 1989, p. 50
  14. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Theory of African Music . Volume 1. University of Chicago Press, London 1994, pp. 108, 110, 113
  15. ^ Gerhard Kubik: Africa and the Blues . University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2008, p. 77
  16. ↑ See Paulus Gerdes: On Mathematical Elements in the Tchokwe “Sona” tradition . (PDF) In: For the Learning of Mathematics , Volume 10, No. 1, February 1990, pp. 31-34
  17. ^ Gerhard Kubik: African Space / Time Concepts and the Tusona Ideographs in Luchazi Culture. In: Journal of International Library of African Music , Volume 6, No. 4, 1987, pp. 53-89, here pp. 57, 86