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The Talking Drum .Newsletter Issue No. 16 September 2001 Network for promoting Intercultural Education through Music (NETIEM) Pan-African Society of MusicalArts Education (PASMAE) Prof. E Oehrle, School of Music, University of Natal, Durban, 404 1 South Fax: +27 (3 I) 260- 1048 E-mail: [email protected] % Editor: Prof. Elizabeth Oehrle 16 Illustration for The Talking Drum: Dina Corrnick Design and production: Graphicor

Editorial The Talking Drum continues Southern African n celebration of The Talking to aim to promote educatorslmusicians form IDrum's tenth year an intercultural education most of our readership (South upgrading of this publication is through musiclda.nce. It began Africa, , , in order. Further the time is as a database and resource on Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana right to call upon publications and people in the and '). We also reach ethnomusicologists, and know. Gradually it evolved into , Kenya, Ghana, Gabon, others working in the field, a collection of resource the Gambia, Sierra Leone, who regard applied materials and ideas which are Nigeria, , , ethnomusicology as important used extensively in primary, Democratic Republic of in Southern Africa to secondary and tertiary Congo, Tanzania, Scandinavia, contribute to this and future institutions throughout South the UK and USA. issues. Thus, invitations were Africa and beyond. Our thanks to Dargie, sent to key people requesting Feedback indicates that The Dlamini and Goddard. We them to share their wealth of Talking Drum's impact is took forward to submissions relevant musical knowledge positive. From : from others who regard and materials. Submissions "...may Icompliment you on applied ethnomusicology as for TheTalking Drum were The Talking Drum. I have seen important in Southern Africa. requested. This issue features more interesting stuff in it Your contributions will help to articles by Dave Dargie, than anywhere else in the SA the gap between the professor of music at Fort education circles. We need to available, but largely Hare University, Sazi Dlainini, spread the word". From the untapped, research materials musician and graduate student of America sitting on shelves round the at the University of Patricia Shehan Campbell country and the very real Natal (UND)- Durban, and writes: "...an impressive needs voiced repeatedly for Vicky Goddard, graduate of effort". In addition librarians such materials by those in' the UND and innovative teacher in many parts of Africa field of musicldance of the musics of Africa. request copies of The Talking education. Drum, the latest being Mkoba Teachers' College in . Elizabeth Oehrle Magical Musical Bows

O Dave Dargie, University of Fort Hare

I. ORIGINS are still around.They are wonderful instruments. With some the player I. I. From Weapon to Musical produces such clear tones you can feel Instrument them pulling at your insides. Other Some of humankind's most important bows produce rich, full sounds, a inventions were first developed as mysterious collections of tones. To weapons-for example, the rocket ships realise just what one is hearing takes a with which people explore space.The lot of listening, a lot of concentration. same type of origin is indicated for one For me, from the first time I heard of Africa's most important families of recordings of bows they had a magic musical instruments. calling deep to the spirit. From then on Imagine yourself as one of the little I was compelled to go looking for people, the hunter-gatherers who musical bows. inhabited this part of the world many Of all the musical instruments made hundreds of years ago. For providing by people, musical bows may appear to yourself with food, you use a weapon be among the simplest, but they passed down to you by your ancestors: produce complex results. Look at how a small bow, which shoots small arrows A:- Rock painting, copied by G.W. Shaw, they work. tipped with poison.The poison itself is showing a Bushman using seven shooting perhaps not so dramatic- more bows as a : from The soporific than deadly. You have to Musical Instruments of the Native Races of 1.2. The Mouth as Resonator spend hours stalking some edible South Africa by P. R. Kirby. (Witwatersrand Sticking a bow firmly into the ground University Press, 1965) animal, and then when at last you get a increases the sound coming from the shot into it, it runs off at great speed. The frontispiece of Kirby's book on 4, string, when the string is tapped or You have to follow it until the poison instruments (see illustration A) is a beaten.The next step is to find a better takes effect enough to slow the prey picture copied by a British soldier over way to control that sound. Holding the down and make it sleepy.Then at last a hundred years ago, from a cave bow firmly against the side of the you are able to come up to it and give painting in Lesotho. It shows a man mouth enables the player to use the it the quietus with (probably) a large squatting on his haunches, tapping on mouth as a resonator. In this way the rock. the strings of seven hunting bows player not only amplifies the basic By now you are maybe a long way which have been fixed into the ground. sound or fundamental tone, but now from home. So you have to drag or In the background a group of people the or partial vibrations of carry your prize all the way back, and are dancing to the rhythm of his music, the string become audible. By shaping there you and your family skin it and the rhythm of musical bows. the mouth the player can select which cook it, and - at last- you can enjoy It's possible that musical bows also to amplify, just like someone your well-earned meal.And having arose from other origins. They have playing that ancient European and Asian eaten, like human beings everywhere, certainly been around for hundreds of instrument, the Jews . you can do with a bit of entertainment. years, and are found in "Bantu" languages It is interesting that the Bunun peo- When you fired off your arrow, you and KhoiSan Africa. It does seem fairly ple ofTaiwan use a mouth bow on heard your bow produce a musical certain however that at least some which a seven-note scale can be played, tone. Maybe that could be the basis of mouth-bows (see 1.2.) have a hunting as with the Jews Harp (Illustration B). . some organised music. So you try to bow ancestry. In Kavango in 1981 1 Mouth bows are made in Southern amplify the sound a bit - to make it recorded'a hunting bow used as a musical Africa, and work somewhat differently. louder and easier to use. Hold your instrument - the lipuruboro (see 3.4.). In our part of the world the bow string bow down on a hard patch of earth, When Kirby compiled his famous is short enough, and strung tightly and tap the string with an arrow, and book there were dozens, if not more enough, to make it possible as a rule there you are! The tone is much louder. than dozens, of kinds of musical bows only to obtain the first five overtones Now you have the basis of a musical used in the southern part of Africa. easily.These are all notes of the same instrument. Some have since disappeared, but many major chord. However, it's easy to a large bow with calabash resonator. In 2. Features and Structures of Xhosa umhadi means a hole. So one Musical Bows could call the uhadi the "singing hole". The strange mellow sound of the uhadi 2.1. Types of Resonators comes clearly from the hole in the So far we've noted three types of calabash. In Zulu the same instrument resonators used for musical bows: the is called ugubhu, a name apparently mouth, calabashes, and other artificial referring to the hollowness of the resonators. (These days it seems nobody calabash resonator. sticks bows into the ground to improve Kirby and others have written the sound, or uses holes in the ground about bow players who use holes in as resonator.) the ground as resonators.Apparently that does not happen any more. Five- 2.2. Braced & Unbraced Bows litre oil tins are used as resonators for The hunting bow is an arc of wood the bow type instruments called, in with a string stretched between the Lesotho, sehankule and sekotara. If two ends. This type of construction is necessary, bow makers will use used in many musical bows. However, a whatever works when calabashes further variation in structure is

B: A chinese mouth bow: the Bunun cannot be obtained such as jam tins or frequently used: the bow string is (Taiwanese) Rotok, played by Dr I-to Loh. even plastic containers; however, it's braced by a tie or a loop attached to, or hard to beat the calabash sound. passing around. the bow stick. alter the fundamental tone. by touching or holding the string to shorten its

length.Then a higher fundamental tone C: PLAYING UHADI: \ is obtained, and a different set of over- tones can be heard and used. The play- er can follow a melody by touching or not touching the string, and resonating the chosen overtones with the mouth. Different peoples in southern Africa may use different intervals between the bow fundamental tones, producing dif- ferent chords and scales.

1.3. Artificial Resonators It's an easy step from using one's own mouth as the resonator for an ' instrument to using an artificial mouth. One can use the mouth to resonate the overtones of a relatively small . But if one wishes to obtain a bigger sound from a bigger instrument, the human mouth is too small. All over Africa, and in too. calabashes have been found to be ideal resonators for musical instruments. Undoubtedly the use of natural materials as resonators is very old.The ancient Greeks actually built into tortoise-shells. But calabashes are very One hand holds the bow as shown-note that the thumb and first finger must both be special and useful, and they work well on the same side of the stick-When the string is held (see A). indicated by the sign "+",the upper fundamental is sounded (written as G).When the string is not held, the for musical bows. lower fundamental (F) sounds (B). The most important Xhosa musical The player holds the opening in the calabash towads the breast. instrument is the uhadi (illustration C), The brace may be placed near one 2.3. Ways of Sounding the Bow String towards the breast, and open and close end of the bow, in which case it serves Bows may be played by tapping or the calabash against the breast: a fully mainly as a method of constructing the beating the string. Use something open calabash produces its maximum bow (e.g., for attaching the calabash). suitable to the bow such as a light reed output of overtones; as the calabash is Or the brace may be placed near the or stick or a piece of thatch grass. closed so the overtones are damped, middle of the bow, so that the player Some mouth-bows are played by from highest to lowest. It takes a bit can use either open portion of the plucking the string. Some bows and of controlling, but the player manages string, and also stop the string by bow-type instruments are played by to follow melodies (or at times touching it. In this way the player uses friction. Playing bows by friction is done melodies parallel to the voice two open fundamental tones, plus one either by bowing or scraping the string, melodies) exactly. or more stopped fundamentals. or by rubbing a stick across notches It's much more difficult to follow a Therefore a calabash bow may have cut into the bow stick melody with some of the bow-type its calabash attached directly to the instruments.The player's control of the bow stick, or attached to the brace. 2.4. Ways of Amplifying and Selecting sound depends entirely on how the Bows which use other artificial Bow Overtones for Melody string is bowed and the use of hand resonators may be made in the same The way one'can use the mouth to play pressure. Some players show way, but some bow-type instruments selected overtones has been described. extraordinary skill in following the may either be built onto a five litre oil The mouth can change its size and melody (and some even manage to (or other) can as resonator, or simply shape, but not a calabash. produce rich chords as well). hang such a can on the end. The performer on a calabash bow will hold the opening in the calabash 2.5. Why not "collect" Musical Bows for yourself? D: PREPARING UMQANGl ' Hold umqangi as shown, with the bow stick pressed So when we take all these differences firmly against the cheek (pressing through the into account, it is clear that many cheek against the teeth - but not in the mouth.) different types of musical bows can be One hand holds the end of the bow so that the found. And with some bows, different. thumb-nail can easily be held against the string at people may play the same instrument in X, the other hand beats the string with a dry twig or reed at S. different ways, giving a fascinating variety of sounds and types of music. When the thumb-nail touches the string (A), indicated by the sign "+", It would be a very fine thing if stu- the string sounds the higher dents interested in music "collected" fundamental tone (written as bows. It's still possible to experience G). When the nail does not bow performances. There are still per- touch the string (B), the forming musicians around, fram the ' string sounds the lower fundamental tone (F). Ngqoko group, to Madosini with The overtones Amampondo down in the Cape, to produced by the string Brother Clement Sithole of thevryheid amplified by the mouth and Benedictines, and many others. It's pos-. are heard at M. By shaping sible to find illustrations of many types inside the mouth (moving the of bows. It's also possible to hear tongue etc) the player "forms" overtones to follow the melody. recordings of many bows. And it's also possible.to make and learn to play one's own bows. It's more than fun. The bows give musical satisfaction, and bow playing is very soothing to tired nerves and stressed souls! So "collect" bows: get to know and learn to identify the looks and sounds of different bows, and make and play one or more for yourself. Regarding what I'm offering here: students who would like the fullest possible catalogues of musical bows and bow type instruments will find duets were something new to the "eth- Kirby invaluable. For this article, I don't nomusicologists". have space to be exhaustive. I would Singing like umrhubhe like to share with readers the bows I A remarkable technique called have personally experienced and umngqokolo is practised by Thembu recorded. In fact, my experience covers Xhosa women. It is a form of overtone the great majority of bow types, and singing which imitates the rich also bows among many different overtone chords and melodies of the peoples; but not all the bows those umrhubhe. One of its leading exponents, peoples used to have, and also not Nowayilethi Mbizweni of the Ngqoko always all types of bows presently used Group, calls her version Umngqokolo by those peoples. Some of the old ngomqangi - overtone singing in the bows may now be extinct, and sadly style of umqangi. (In the Ngqoko area others show signs of also becoming the instrument umqangi is no longer extinct. There's still need for further found. only the umrhubhe. Umqangi is research on bows. Let's hope there'll the name applied to a certain be interested students to follow this unfortunate beetle which naughty boys up, before it's too late. impale on a thorn, and then use the E: Playing the Xhosa umrhubhe, a mouth- mouth to resonate overtones from the 3. Types of Musical Bows bow played by friction. loud buzzing noise as it tries to fly 3. I. Mouth' Bows away.) The click ngq in umngqokolo also The performer on the umrhubhe indicates a KhoiSan origin for this 3.1.1. Unbraced mouth bows (illustration E) may produce truly technique. a) A bow played by percussion or amazing results. The technique used by friction: Umaanpi lumrhubhe some players is to use the bow b). Bows played by lucki ins The same small mouth bow overtones to follow the melody of the The inkinge of the Xhosa is structurally (f50-60cm) used by Xhosa and Zulu lead singer(s), and at the same time the same as the rugoma of the Kavango. people may be played in different ways. whistle the melodies of the answering Both are made of a piece of or If it is played by percussion, tapping the singers.The famous umrhubhe player reed, and played by plucking. But, these string, then in Zulu it is called Madosini Qotoyi makes umrhubhe days at least, the inkinge (which is now umqangala, and I personally have no music of unforgettable beauty.Years ago very scarce) uses a wire string like doubt this was the instrument she was recorded by David Marks of uhadi, but rugoma uses nylon fishing line documented in the past as umqangi in Third Ear Records. Recently she has (illustration F). The resultant sounds Xhosa. (Illustration D) The click produced a CD together with the are rather different. lnkinge is plucked consonant (q) indicates its KhoiSan Amampondo music group. Madosinl 1s with a piece of ox . Rugoma is origin. Similarly the guttural (5h) in its not the only one. Nogcinile Yekani of plucked with a finger. However, both other Xhosa name, umrhubhe (Zulu the Ngqoko music group has taught the * use overtones to follow thecmelody. umhubhe) also indicates KhoiSan technique to a number of other lnkinge uses the same scale as uhadi, ancestry.Tap the umqangala (= small women in the group.And created by using one stopping position umqangi) and it goes "qangi-qangi-qangi". has used the umhubhe to striking effect (upper fundamental being a whole tone But play it by friction, scraping the in many Juluka songs. above the lower). But with rugoma the string with a dried reed, and it goes To my amazement I have also been player may use several stopping "rhu-rhu-rhu" and becomes umrhubh,e. able to record irnirhubhe played in duet: positions, following melodies using the Incidentally, umrhubhelumhubhe may be back in 1983 at old Lumko, and lately different Kavango scales (see constructed in two ways, with either a very fine performances given by mem- kaworongongo, in the next section). single arc of bow, or with a small bent bers of the Ngqoko group. The bows lnkinge produces relatively soft sounds, piece of wood inserted into a straight were perfectly tuned together, and but rugoma can lead group singing with stick or reed. clearly take different parts in the song. its clear tones. Recently I recorded,women in the On one video of mine one can see the This bow is (I hope) still around, Hopsack district playing the same bow hands of the two bow players moving among thevenda, the Tsonga and maybe as urnrhubhe (by friction) and as umqangi in cross-rhythm, one based on the the Zulu and others in our region. (by percussion). However, they called apparent 10 beat pattern of the voices, Students, how about looking for both forms of the instrument simply the other playing the 8 beats (against examples? inkinge - a misnomer. 1 O!) of the clapldance rhythm. Bow resonate the overtones produced by the vibration of the string (the "string" part). It was called ugwali by the Xhosa. I tried hard to find if it was still around, but found only the name surviving as a misnomer for umrhubhe. However it still exists in Lesotho, where it is called (the feather) and is played by shepherd boys. I also could not find it in Lesotho, but its strange, attractive sound was used as a signature tune by Lesotho radio.

3. 1.2. Braced Mouth Bows a). Bows played by Plucking The braced mouth bow played by plucking, and which I have recorded, is called isiqomqomana in Zulu (a click word which may hint at KhoiSan origin) and tshihwana in Venda.The Zulu F: A woman playing rugoma, a plucked mouth-bow: Kavango, 1988 performer I recorded used the bow as ,a musical background to the recitation c).The Bow played by scraping notches (This bow is called xizambi in of oral poetry, softly whistling with the on the bow stick Tsonga, and is also still around in other bow when he was not declaiming. The Several times among peoples in areas and among other peoples. Any Venda performer was an elderly blind Kavango I encountered the Kavango takers for a bow expedition?) man. He not only performed traditional version of this bow, called there songs with his bow, but he also kaworongongo (illustration G), a name dl. ~irbyi"String-wind Instrument" composed religious songs with it. He which clearly seems to represent the This wonderful instrument, called gora was a devoted member of an sound made by the bow. As the by the KhoiSan;had a quill cut from a indigenous Christian Church.At times performer scrapes the bow stick, he feather attached to one end of the he would concentrate on the overtone produces a loud rongo-rongo-rongo. stick, and the string attached to the melodies while his wife sang with him, Shaping his mouth over the strip of other end of the quill and thence to and at times he would sing while still palm leaf with which the bow is the far end of the bow. he player plucking the bow. Both Zulu and Venda strung, he is able to resonate very blows on the quill (the "wind" performances were very moving. clear overtones. The hand holding the element), and uses the mouth to This braced mouth bow may be bow stick also holds a short stick constructed with a loop stretched which is touched against the palm leaf around string and bow stick, or with the string, to obtain the upper string tied to the bow stick with a single fundamental tone. strand.The bow stick itself is made by By using different intervals between shaving down the two pmgs of the bow, fundamental tones the 'Kavango players leaving a complete section in the middle produce three different four-note for holding and attaching the loop or scales. strand. These scales could be written as F- This bow is called, in southern G-C-D (whole tone interval),A-C-E-G Sotho, setolotolo. This word finds its (minor third interval), and C-E-G-B way into Xhosa (as-isitolotolo) as a name ( interval); in each case the for the Jew's harp. four-note scale uses only the root (and ) and fifth of the fundamental b). A braced mouth bow played by tone, but the singers may also add a percussion G: Kaworongongo,the notched mouth- fifth tone to make the pentatonic scale bow, played by a blind man at Rundu, Among the Khoi (Damara, Nama) of (F-G-A-C-D, for example). Kavango, 198 I. Namibia, wheg I was there with Andrew Tracey in 1 982, we found a bow strings using twisted ox tail hair Xhosa men who played uhadi at one man playing a braced mouth bow by and animal gut were documented. Back time, and I recorded one man (Mr tapping on the string with a little stick. in the 1980s Xhosa women made bow Mpharholo Manisi of Ngqoko) in I98 1. The string was nylon fishing line.The strings for uhadi, umrhubhe and other I also recorded an elderly man. Mr B. sound was very soft and gentle. instruments by heating and stretching Mpanza, near Nongoma in 1982, playing Unfortunately I was unable to record out the brass wire used for making ugubhu. Mr Mpanza was a marvelous him. As far as I remember, he was too ankle bangles. These days this wire is musician, who also performed with shy. But he sold me the bow, which I very scarce in South Africa, but easy to umakhweyane and isiqomqomana. In still have. He called the instrument obtain overseas, I have been able to addition, I have recorded not only has, which is simply the term for a supply both Nofinishi Dywili of the group singing performances with uhadi bow. Ngqoko group, and Madosini, with brass on many occasions, but in 1982 at wire from Germany. Nongoma I was also able to record Unfortunately musicologists some- Mrs N. Mhlongo leading a group singing 3.2. CALABASH BOWS times create or propagate mythology marvelous old amahubo songs with the 3.2. I. Unbraced calabash bows about bows which may prove to be ugubhu bow. There are apparently three versions of incorrect. No doubt musicologists base My experiences with uhadi and this bow still around: the Xhosa uhadi, their assertions on what they learn ugubhu were especially significant for the Zulu ugubhu, and the thomo of from the performers they encounter, me. In 1979, after some months Lesotho. I have done quite a lot of but sometimes the performers hunting for bows, I met the marvelous work with uhadi, and also had the great themselves may either be misinformed Nofinishi Dywili (illustration ~jatold good fortune to record different or have their own agenda in providing Lumko. Since then I have recorded performers on ugubhu in 198 11 1982. information. The researcher does well dozens of her songs-whirh means As mentioned, uhadi, the "singing to check everything six times or more! there are probably only several hole", sings through its calabash. Contrary to the dogmatic assertions of hundred still unrecorded. She is now . Before metal strings were available, some researchers, I have met three 82, still hale and dancing, but time for ugubhu he sang a song to use G natural. (It's no use just talking recounting the killing about these bow scales: one needs to of people by a hear the music to appreciate the freedom song resulting sounds.) In addition, Zulu probably dating back rhythms (with or without bows) tend .to the early part of to be simple but driving and powerful. the twentieth century. Xhosa women's rhythms are He sang other songs marvelously subtle, with intricacies of too, with ugubhu and cross-rhythm and additive rhythms. Mr umakhweyane. When I Manisi, with uhadi, however, used a returned later that simple rhythm, not so different from year he sang more those used by Mr Mpanza. songs with those As for the Sotho thomo, it can be bows, and also found in the mountains of Lesotho, and performed with an produces a result very close to the isiqomqomano he had Xhosa uhadi.This seems to indicate made for my visit.At Xhosa influence. that time he was already 83, and his 3.2.2. Braced Calabash Bows' wife 8 I. His bows had a).The first type concerns bows which been silent for a long are braced towards the middle of the time before my visits. bow string.The calabash is attached to People told me his the brace, which is a loop passing son had broken his around the string. Placing the bow because he looplbrace near the middle of the research is running out. In 198 1 1 had created a disturbance when people string gives the possibility of having two the good fortune to "discover" the first wanted to listen to the radio. It open fundamental tones.The Zulus, survival of Ntsikana's Song as an uhadi reminded me of the lady near old who call the bow umakhweyane, tend to song.The version I recorded then I Lumko who, in 1979, told us that she use a difference of a whole tone trace back as a freedom song version used to play uhadi, but now they had between the two string lengths, dating back to the War of Mlanjeni of the FM. so she didn't have to play any whereas theTsonga (with their version, the early 1850s. Other uhadi songs also more. called xitende) use an interval of a seem to be historically dateable. One The third ugubhu player I recorded minor third. re-enacts the casting out of a small-pox in 1982, Mrs Mhlongo, was 79. Since The braced calabash bows produce victi'm from the village, and I believe then Brother Clement told me he had a loud, relatively high tone, unless the probably dates back to the dreadful found a younger player, but I was not bow is very large. (I have recorded a epidemic of 1770. able to return to the area. How I wish two metre ~son~abow.) This means In 198 I, thanks to the invaluable some keen student would follow that that, whereas it is easy to use the lower assistance of Brother Clement Sithole, I up with Clement! overtones (up to the fifth of the first met and recorded Mrs P. Mpanza,. Another remarkable fact about resultant chord), the third of the chord near Nongoma. Like Princess Magogo, uhadilugubhu is the differences is not so powerful. So the fundamentals she was a princess as she was one of between how these instruments are and fifths are available from the open the daughters of Zulu King Solomon. played.The Xhosas use a whole-tone sections of the string.These tones may With ugubhu she sang a song mourning interval between the fundamental be written as F-G-C-D for people killed in war against the whites - tones, producing a six-note scale (which umokhweyane, and (say) D-F-A-C for a freedom song maybe more than a may be written F-G-A-B-C-D) based on xitende.The bow is held with the hundred years old. In 1982, while I was two major chords.This scale and its shorter section of the string down, so again recording her, her husband, Mr B. chords are relatively well-known from that the player can then obtain one or Mpanza, came in, and he could not wait the famous "Click Song", and from , more further fundamentals by touching to be given a chance to play ugubhu Ntsikana's Song.The Zulu players, on fingers of the hand holding the stick to (illustration I). Some people tried to the other hand, use a interval, the string. In this way with chase him out, saying he was a producing a strange scale which may be umokhweyane it,is easy to use the note nuisance, but fortunately I was able to written E-F-A-B-C.The bow produces . A, and thereby the pentatonic scale F- prevent that. He was magnificent.With also the tone G sharp, but singers tend G-A-C-D. Similarly, with xitende, it is easy to touch the string at the note G; Chuma from up north beyondTzaneen. player hooks the little finger around the which again produces the same I hope he's still around and singing! loop to hold the bow, and holds a coin pentatonic scale F-G-A-C-D. Once (originally a stone) against the string to again, it's not much use just talking b). Calabash Bows braced near the end obtain the raised fundamental tone. In about this bow theory.The student of the String many cases today in Brazilian popular should get hold of a bow, practise Maybe the most famous bow of this music it seems berimboo is used as a tuning it to the whole-tone and minor type is the Brazilian berimbao. The rhythm instrument with bands, playing third positions, and then find out how berimbao is a bow taken to South only two tones: the tonic (raised the fundamentals and scales are America by African slaves long ago. fundamental, up a semitone) and the obtained. It's very interesting and great Berimboos are on sale in shops in leading tone. Recordings I have heard fun. In addition, some bow players play Europe. Some years ago I saw a seem to show no sensitivity towards rapid scale passages by touching two or performance with three of them by the sound of overtones. However it's I three fingers to the bow string to young men from in the quite different with okamburumbumbwa. obtain further tones. Note that when Marienplatz in Munich. All the bows The one Andrew Tracey and I recorded I the longer section of string is struck, were played simultaneously, and the in Ovamboland in 1982 was quite small, and a finger touched to the shorter group of young men acted out a stick- and had a nylon fishing line as string. section at the right place, the resultant fight dance, as is done in Angola. In The player held it across his breast, tones reinforce the chord produced. 1982, working in Namibia with Andrew holding it by his little finger in the Sometimes 1 try to make my own Tracey, I had the chance to record an bracing loop, and held the string to "rules" of musical development. This original form of this bow, called by the obtain a raised fundamental a whole rule, for example: the louder lovely name okamburumbumbwo by the tone up, as with the Xhosa uhodi.The instrument tends to put the softer out 0vambos.The name is again apparently overtones were soft but heart-rendirrgly of business-When the umakhweyane imitative of the bow sound. clear.The player was Mr Emanuel found its way among the Zulus, coming These days berimboo is a large bow Namuro, a blind man who earned his 8 from the peoples to the north, it using a steel string.The calabash is on a living playing his bow in the market tended to put the ugubhu out of loop near one end of the bow; the place in Ombalantu (illustration K), business. Similarly, the guitar tends to . do likewise to the umakhweyane. Now amplifiers are blowing us all away, to the grave detriment and impoverishment of our music. Brother Clement Sithole composes church music with his umakhweyane, with lpvely settings of the psalms. He recorded one for me in English. Among the Tsonga, in 1988 elderly Mr Piet Mabasa (illustration J),a devout member of an indigenous church, recorded some of his church compositions for me, with his two metre xitende bow. As a resonator he used a cut-off plastic container, and successfully performed church and traditional songs with a group of singers and dancers, plus drumming group and kudu horn. Wonderful stuff! Yet another performer on this bow (called in Siswati makhoyane) is a Swazi Servite nun, Mother Adelia Dlamini. In the 1980s she was producing some fine church songs with a giant (more than two metre) makhoyone: the Ave Maria, psalms and so on. A particularly fine J: Mr Piet Mabasa leads group singing and drumming with his giant xitende, a braced performer on xitende was Mr Peter bow he made with a plastic resonator. At our workshop he composed played in this way are also found further some touching songs for the north in Africa. What is quite certain is Mass, either singing or at times that both the method of playing, and the whistling softly with the bow. musical result, are very different from the method and result of playing the . 3.3. BowType Instruments This instrument is still quite played by "bowing" widespread in southern Africa. I have . Sehankule and sekatam are two recorded it as serankure (illustration L) forms of a bow type instrument or segankuru (or as apparently which use usually a 5-litre tin as incorrectly sekgapa or segapa) in resonator.They are played by Botswana, as tsorwani among the bowing the string with a small Northern Sotho, and as gorito, played by bow strung with animal hair or an elderly Damara man in Gobabis, Namibia. in 1981.The Damara man's singing was a type of yodelling. He was 3.3.1. Sehankule (as the the dearest of men, already quite old instrument is calledin and weak. He had to rest after every is made usually a long piece few phrases of his song. Sadly he passed of wood, hollowed out in the away not long after'l recorded him. He shape an elongated licked his small bow every now and string is attached to the back then to give it a grip on,the string. It end of the then to a was always men.whom I recorded tuning peg stuck into the front playingthis instrumenr ilabash end of the "boat". The Among- the Zulu the instrument is boland, instrument is held over the called isicelekeshe. I heard of a man who shoulder, and a five litre or . ,l laved, it. and I was fortunate to obtain a similartin is hung Onto the back carving depicting it. Unfortunately, I did end of the as not see or hear it in the Zulu area. The player uses a small bow to sound the string by friction, as 3.3.2. Sekatara is a form of the same does a violin player. However, instrument made by inserting a bow there the similarity with the into the five-litre tin, and attaching the violln ends.This instrument also string from the end of the bow to a works by using overtones of the corner of the tin.The tin is held by one string.The only control the arm, with the thumb free to touch the player has with regard to string to obtain the raised amplifying the overtone is by fundamental(s).The small bow is applied the pressure and direction by the other hand. Sekatara is what the applied to the small bow, and by instrument is called in Lesotho. Xhosa using the thumb of the hand boys also play it. In Xhosa it becomes holding the instrument. The isikatari. The name isigonkuri has also thumb is free to touch the been foundhamongthe Xhosa. The string in order to obtain the name inkinge is also sometimes used for raised fundamental tone. this instrument, but of course inkinge is Despite the difficulty, some really the plucked mouth bow. players achieve extraordinary The ikatari (and presumably also control, following melodies sekatara) is a herd-boy's instrument. I've exactly and with clear seen a lad standing on an anthill, overtones. watching his goats, playing away on . * Some musicologists feel that ikatari. Some of the most amusing

this instrument was develo~ed Xhosa boys' sonns" are heard with this I.: The over-the-shoulder bow type instrument, by people who observed instrument. played by bowing with a small bow: here the player is Mr M. S. Matlapeng,who called .the instrument playing violiWThat The same difficulties of performance semnkure; near Gaborone, 1989. may be so, but instruments are found in playing this bow type. By bowing in a circle one can influence Dargie D. Xhosa which overtones are heard, but it's not Music, David Philip. easy. In the 1980s. in Ngqoko, the noted Cape Town, 1988. marimba player Mlamli Dlangamandla Dargie D. "Musical recorded for me with ikatari. He played Bows in southern with wonderful accuracy - not only the Africa", in Africa melody, but rich chords as well. Insight (Pretoria), vol. 16, no. I, 1986. 3.4. A Rhythm-only Bow: Lipuruboro Of all the bows I have had the joy of Articles in African hearing and recording, only lipurubom Music (Publ. ILAM). was a purely rhythmic, non-melodic Davidson M. "Some instrument (illustration M). music for the In 198 1 in Sambiu, in Kavango kalumbu (musical people were composing songs in bow)"; AM vo1.3 traditional style for use in church.A no.4, 1982. man brought in a great hunting bow. Djenda M. "L'arc en One man held the bow onto a reed Terre", AM vo1.4 mat placed on top of a cooking pot, no.2, 1968. holding a tin mug containing mielie Johnston T. "Xizambi seeds ready in his free hand.A second frictiqn-bow music man then drummed on the string (of of the Shangana- leather) with two small sticks, and the Tsonga", AM vOL ' bow holder applied the mug of mielies no. 4, 1970. mug of mielies to it to emphasize the rhythm; Kavango, 198 1. to the string to add to the rhythm.The Johnston T. name lipurubom gives a good idea of the "Children's Music of the Shangana- Symposium I I, 1993 (ILAM '1 995). sounds that were produced. Tsonga", AM vol. 6 no. 4, 1987. Dontsa L. "The IncredibleVoices of Joseph R. "Zulu Women's Music", AM igongqo", Symposium 14, 1 996 (ILAM vol. 5 no. 3. 1983. 1997). 4. Conclusion Kirby P.R. "Physical Phenomena which Rycroft D. "The Musical Bow in Those are some of the instruments that appear to have determined the Bases Southern Africa", Symposium 2, 198 1 have given me a lot of pleasure-in my and Development of an harmonic (ILAM 1982). encounters with African music. I wish Sense among Bushmen, Hottentots all my readers to share in that and Bantu", AM vol. 2 no. 4, 196 1. Booklet and Recording Collections for pleasure-by hearing musical bows, Kubik G. "Musical Bows in south-west- use by Students, produced by and studying them, and (let's hope) playing ern Angola", AM vol. 5 no. 4, 197516. obtainable from D. Dargie, include: them. I have based this article on the Malamusi M.A. "Stringed Instrument Sing an African Song (Song book with bows I have experienced.The same Tradition in southern Malawi", AM recordings); bows may still be found among other vol. 7 no. 3, 1996. Nguwe lo! (Collection of Xhosa peoples under different names. I Mugglestone E. "The Gora and the traditional music); certainly hope that there are plenty of 'Grand' Gom-gom: Khoikhoi musical Umngqokolo (Xhosa overtone singing); musical bows still around, including all BOWS", AM VO~.6 no. 2, I982. Make and Play your own Musical Bow. kinds of bows which I didn't come Rycroft D. "The Zulu Bow Songs of across. Happy bow hunting and Princess Magogo", AM vol. 5 no. 4, Sources of Recordings: collecting, and happy music making to 197516. The ILAM (Sound ofAfrica Series plus); you all! Lumko and other music collections rec. Papers presented at Ethnomusicology Dave Dargie;Third Ear and 5. Short Bibliography Symposia (Published ILAM). MELT productions have both produced recordings of Madosini. Kirby P.R. The Musical Instruments of the Dargie D. "Some recent Discoveries Native Races of South Africa; Johannes- and Recordings in Xhosa Music", Address of Prof. Dave Dargie: burg,Witwatersrand University Press, Symposium 5, 1984 (ILAM 1985). PO Box 4, Fort Hare, second edition 1968. Davies N, "From Bows to.BandsW, 5704 South Africa 'Nikabheni9: Tin-guitars, juvenile performers and popular music in KwaZulu-Natal

O Sazi Dlamini, University of Natal

from KwaZulu-Natal. In this regard guitar as a solo instrument within the several names are worth mentioning: American big band swing movement. the late Cyril Magubane, Sandile Shange, (I langa IaseNatali, Oct- Dec. 195 I, Allen , Almon Memela, Elias Jan. 1952; Edwards 1997: 1 19). Ngidi. Bhabha Mokoena,Vusi Thusi, Whatever the reasons were for the Bheki Khoza, Enoch Mthalane. Johnny popularity of the guitar in KwaZulu- Chonco, Sipho Gumede, Natal and elsewhere, one result of this Themba Mokoena, was the intepretation of diverse Mshaks Gasa, James indigenous musical sensibilities and Mbambo, Joshua neo-traditional musical developments Sithole, Spirit, Duze on an instrument, that had come to Mahlobo and the late Robert symbolise the essential musicality of "Doc" Mthalane-Theseand many Africans caught up in the flux of other unrecorded guitarists past urbanisation and industrialisation.The and present, all started playing celebrated mid-20th century urban music on tin-guitars.The music and dance styles such as kwela, predominance of the guitar in tsaba-tsaba, phatha-phatha, , . performance and composition in the mgqashiyo, simanje-manje and neo- region's neo-traditional repertoire traditional maskandi guitar styles were has yet to be fully explained. Both popular cultural products of itinerant oral and documented evidence point and unsettled post-colonial African - to early influences of the ramkie-type cultural development. However, it is tin-guitar on neo-traditional these styles' direct relationship to performance as a widespread sustained accessibility of the guitar to 'nikabheni' - pidgin English (nika- v.'to phenomenon among African children in large sections of the African community give' in Zulu and -bheni m'penny') both urban and rural environments. that is of significance to this paper. Some of the postulations advanced by This paper pays attention to the leading scholarship in the field include: The "Nikabheni" musical social popularity of home-made tin-guitars, a possibility, as a result of the port's performance practice their production technology, tuning situation on the principal route of the Older African guitarists both amateur system and harmonic approach pre- 17th century Asian-European and professional, especially those commonly utilised by black children in mercantile trade, of the guitar's residing within the greater Durban KwaZulu-Natal. introduction by Portuguese seamen metropolitan region, invariably attribute The popularity of the guitar in to the coastal Natives (Clegg 198 1 :3) their formative performance KwaZulu-Natal has earned the region a a pervasive influence of the three- experiences to the nikabheni street considerable reputation for producing stringed ramkie, said to have been musical performance practice of the the finest exponents on the instrument brought to the Cape by Malay slaves early 1950s. By way of a brief in Southern Africa.There are no official from the Malabar coast of , and explanation, nikabheni comprised a set records to support this widely-held subsquently adopted by Africans, of social musical performance practices belief but, alongside an unsurpassed (Coplan 1 980:439) of the urban proletariat in the city's neo-tradition of maskandi guitar a legacy of widespread colonial, late sprawling shanty lands. A juvenile musicianship, it is worth noting that the 19th century industrial and post interpretation of this practice in country's leading jazz-guitar exponents WWll nationwide advertising media Mkhumbane (Cato Manor) settlement since well before the 1960s into the campaigns, the latter largely on Durban's periphery included present era, have consistently emerged capitalising on the prominence of the formations of 'gangs' of performing hole (b) is cut out to obtain more volume and also to allow the artisan to insert the top block to support the lower end of the inside the soundbox. Small holes are then punched along the lower rim of the tin resonator. The strings, made of cat-gut or thin wire material are threaded through the small holes and passed over the ibhiliji bridge (c) and under the ikamu (e), (often confusingly referred to as a 'bridge').The izisetho youngsters.Tin-guitars provided the of making ramkie-type guitars from tuning pegs (g) on the ikhanda head (f) main instrumental musical background discarded materials: are used to tighten or loosen the for such itinerant youthful '...when Iwas about six years old. Imade strings when tuning. In brder to obtain performances, whose members went my awn tin-guitar. We used a kind of wire a desired pitch for singing, some players for strings. I wouldn 't know the name, but around the city and shantytown use an ibhiliji capostato (h) carved out that wire used to came in a trght entertaining passersby in return for of wood to tie the izintambo strings (i) bundle... and we used to undo it each coins. Reminiscing about his childhood bundle yielding six or flve single strings down at a higher position. in the 1950s Cato Manor, neo- which we teased apart ' (Kunene M. traditional guitarist Madala Kunene interviewed by Dlarnini 1998:66) Tuning a three-stringed tin- related in an interview: My brothers learned to make and guitar: a rudimentary triadic 'Nikabheni'was when we got together, a play tin-guitars from a cousin who harmony gang of young boys all growing up fashioned excellent six-string tin-guitars. together. One of us would play guitar.,. a This was around 1964 when my family There are a great variety of tunings, three-string guitar, another one would had a home at a Christian mission intervallic relationships that are dance as money was thrown for us to station a little way up the Umkomaas possible, utilising the three strings. the ground by spectators... I played on a Indeed, individual self-teaching guitarists tin-guitar. If you performed 'nikobheni', it river on the KwaZulu-Natal south was on that kind of guitar, and a coast. My cousin had experimented develop their tunings to suit particular tambourine made out of discarded with various tunings which enabled him compositions, and their own bottle-tops ...then there would be to formulate original chord voicings and interpretations of popular songs.There dancers... (Dlamini 1998:65) fingerings. My brothers, however, exists no one particular fingering of normally tuned their tin-guitars-in even the same chord voicing, as this The tin-guitar intervals corresponding to the standard will depend on the individual guitarist's The tin-guitar or ramkie as it is Western tuning of E A d g b e. choice of the basic open-string commonly referred to by scholars of intervals. Being fretless, a tin-guitar is South African black performance The three-string tin-guitar played chiefly in the open and first culture is perhaps emblematic of positions. Further positions up the Fig. I African childrens' introduction to neo- a - igogogo tin resonator fingerboard present problems with traditional instrumental musical (soundbox) intonation. If for example, the three practice.The use of tin-guitars by black b - imbobo sound-hole strings are tuned at intervals urban, mission and rural children has c - ibhiliji bridge corresponding to D, G, b of the been amply documented (Kubik 1974; d - umphini fingerboard standard guitar tuning system, it is Rycroft 1977; Coplan 1 980, 1985; e - ikamu nut possible to voice the three primary Dargie 1988). f - ikhanda head triads in the key of C major using the 'mmkie' - A small, three or four-stringed g - izisetho wooden tuning-pegs following inversions: plucked guita r....( Coplan 1980:439). h - ibhiliji capostato The principal chord (CEG) in its ...two other stringed instruments have 6een i - izintambo strings first inversion: I6 (EGC); recorded by me in the Lumko district One The igogogo tin resonator (a) is The subdominant chord (FAC) in root is called "igitali", from the English "guitar", often an empty five-litre oil-can. position: IV (F AC) and is a three-stringed "ramkie" type, used Sometimes a floorpolish tin is used, The dominant chord (GBD) in its to strum chord accompaniments to songs using the local version of the (Afro- producing a smaller, banjo-type second inversion:V6/4 (D GB) Western) diatonic scale, (Darg~e1988:49) instrument that may or may not have a (The fingerings for the chords Kunene related a similar experience sound-hole cut out. An imbobo sound- above are shown in Fig.2 overleaf): Figure 2 (b) a deep, and perhaps subconscious I6 (EGC); IV (FAC); V614 (DGB) (See fig.2 for the fingerstrings of these chords) assimilation of an idiom that has become emblematic of abroad South African neo-traditional musical expressivity. An earlier tangible outcome of this assimilation was kwela, a music whose emergence might well have been left hand: 0 open string impossible were it not for the 2 second finger widespread availability to the slum and I first finger 3 third finger youth, of the tin-guitar technology. ~~uallyidportant for the A tin-guitar harmonisation of a evolution of this most popular urban popular 'type' melody African music style was the accessibility of marabi. to interpretation by African children on their tin-guitars.

Bibliography

GUITAR Ballantine, C. 1993. Marabi Nights - Early Black jazz andvaudeville in South Africa. : Ravan Press. The basic harmonic framework of SABC's 'inhouse' productions, the tune's Clegg, j. I98 1. "The Music of Zulu marabi, kwela; mbaqanga and other melody became widely recognised in Migrant Workers in Johannesburg", in related sub styles utilises tonic - most parts of the country, with various Papers Presented at the Symposium on subdominant - dominant progressions. lyrics being composed to it. The cyclic. Ethnomusicology, Music Department, In Fig.3 is used a popular marabi repetitive nature of marabi invited this Rhode University on 10th and IIth melody broadly identified with kind of meta-improvisdtion from the October 1980. ed. Carol Muller. recordings of mbaqanga (African jazz) wider public. I first heard a pennywhistle Grahamstown: International Library of the 1950s bands.The marabi basis of version of the "Engine Fire" melody of African Music - Institute of Social these progressions and melodies has when I was no more than knee-high in and Economic Research. led Ballantine to comment on their the middle 1960s, and to which the Coplan. D. 1980. The Urbanization of widespread popularity. older boys sang the following lyric: African Performing Arts in South Afrca. The melodies superimposed on these Hello Spoki Mashiyon, PhD, Indiana University. endlessly repeating potterns sometimes Hello Spoki Mashiyon become 1egendary;sometrmes lyrics were An earlier melody to the same Dargie, D. 1988. Xhosa music: its techniques and instruments. Cape invented os well, and in some instances the harmonic chord progression, as lyrics contoined political commentary or Town &Johannesburg: David Philip. remembered by my mother (born protest (Bollontine 1993:26). Dlaniini. S. 1998. Township Music 1930) was 'sung to' using with the Three-string tin-guitar Performance and Compositional words: accompaniment employing the basic Dansa Mgumuli Approaches of Three Neotraditional strumming technique of ukuvamba, Dansel'uleyo Musicians in Durban. MMus, enabled juveniles to imitate popular (Dance Mgumuli University of Natal: Durban. music styles heard on gramophone Dance for Leah) Edwards, I.E. 1992. Mkhumbane our records, and radio after 1945. The In Fig.3 is superimposed the two home:Africon shantytown society in above melody derives from a 1950s melodies over a 'marabi' type chord Coto Manor Form, 1946 -1 960 tune entitled "Engine Fire", which progression.The result bears a striking [microfiche]. Durban: E.G. Malherbe appeared on the B-side of a 78-rpm similarity to the tunes in the same style Library. recording by the Radio Bantu Orchestra as "Engine Fire", that is, their melodies (His Master'sVoice JP 647). Its are interchangeable.The above composition was jointly credited to E. observations serve to highlight- [This paper is dedicated to the memory of Themba -then leader of the band (a) the possibility of a grassroot my cousin Fando "Aron" Khuzwayo, who called Harlem ~win~st'ers,and recording interpretation of a popular musical was born in 1 94 7 at Dududu Mission studio talent-scouts M.Vilakazi, and stylistic sensibility such as marabi, Station, KwaZulu-Natal, and who passed R.Bopape. Being as it was one of the and thereby away in April 2001 .] VUMA!

O Vicky Goddard, St. Mary's Diocesan School for Girls

This percussion piece was workshopped by Vicky Goddard and = Cowbell (struck with a stick) I her students of the African Music Ensemble at St Mary's Diocesan School for Girls, Kloof.The group meets weekly to explore rhythms and dances = Cowbell (scrap-ed with a stick) from various African countries and create their own pieces.This is one such piece, the Zulu title meaning "to = Shakers (shaking) agree", "to be in strong agreement". As the girls state it is also a word that evokes much energy and as such the piece is aptly titled.This piece is one = Shakers (shake on beat) that was entered for performance in the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. Wales, where the African Music Ensemble, Choir and Orchestra toured = Log Drum as part of their Music Tour 200 I. The key to the rhythm transcription is as follows: =

= Djembe

= Shouted or spoken

= Quaver note values

The transcription reads across following each alphabetical letter. Bracketed sections are where there are multiple instruments playing. Repeats are indicated as: } x2 or } x4 For example: follow the direction of the arrows

It should be noted that more than one Djembe or Log drum may be used. Drummers should experiment with all types of drums and find a suitable tone balance. Vuma! PASME now PASMAE!

The Pan-African Society for Music Education (PASME), first mooted at the 1998 ISME (International Society for Music Education) Conference in Pretoria, South Africa, recently acquired a new letter in its acronym: PASMAE. This in no way implies a move away from ISME (International Society for Music Education) and its links with the IMC (International Music Council) and UNESCO. It signifies a recognition of the fact that, for Africans, music encompasses more than simply a Western view of "music". Hence our name now embraces "Musical Arts Education". At the first conference in Harare, Zimbabwe (August 2000) a PASME executive committee was elected: Caroline van Niekerk (South Africa) - President James Flolu (Ghana) - Secretary General Mitchel Strumpf (Zimbabwe) -Treasurer. At the second recently concluded PASMAE conference in Lusaka, Zambia (21 -25 August 200 I), a new executive committee was elected: Meki Nzewi (Nigeria) - President Caroline van Niekerk (South Africa) - Secretary General Plaxedes Vimbai Chemugarira (Zimbabwe) -Treasurer. This executive will function until the next PASMAE conference in 2003. From now on, PASMAE conferences will be scheduled in the years in between ISME conferences. The next ISME conference is due to be held in Bergen, Norway, in August 2002. It is a pleasure to announce that the next PASMAE conference will be in Kenya in 2003. We are most grateful to Dr Hellen Agak, Head of the Music Department at Maseno University, who extended the offer to host the 2003 conference, assisted by her colleague, Christo Caleb Okumu.

Grateful thanks is due to Joseph Ngandu, the conference chairman for last month's Zambian conference, and his organising committee. PASMAE is making plans for its future - watch this space!

Caroline van Niekerk Secretary General