Musical Instruments arsauth Andrew Tracey

he greatest of all musical instru­ cal bows came from the Khoi people, the ments on the African continent is original inhabitants of . Tthe voice. This is especially true in A is a South Africa, which has strong choral made of a long wooden stick, with one traditions but, compared with most string, usually of metal, stretched from African countries, relatively few indige­ end to end. To play some bows, a player nous instruments. We have many kinds strikes the string with a piece of grass or of musical bows, several drums, some a small stick. In other traditions, the reedpipes, and one xylophone. How is player rubs or "bows" it with a straight this selection to be explained? stick or with another small bow made of The answer can be found in cultural hair from a cow or horse tail. In still history and ecology. The majority of other places, one plays with one's fin­ South Africans are descendants of cattle­ gers, or with a small pick made of a keeping Nguni and Sotho peoples. These thorn or a piece of wood. Sometimes one semi-nomadic pastoralists traditionally makes the instrument sound by scrap­ lived on open, grassy plains and orga­ ing the notches cut in the bow with a nized themselves in large-scale societies rattle-stick. One bow is even blown with with powerful chiefs. Their principal the mouth - the , an original forms of public musical performance Khoi instrument that is still played were singing and dancing in large groups. among the . In other parts of Africa also, cattle keep­ Although there are differences ers prefer singing to instrument-playing. between the many kinds of bows, all African farmers, on the other hand, A musician plays the pan at a flea market in have a resonator and at least two funda­ play more instruments. In South Africa . Photo courtesy SA TOUR mental notes. The resonator is a hollow these farmers are the northern peoples, gourd or tin that amplifies the sound of the Venda, the Tsonga, and the Pedi. to produce their sound. All four are rep­ the bow's vibrating string. If the player The kinds of plants that grow in a par­ resented in South Africa: chordophones holds the bow against his or her mouth, ticular ecology also determine the (in which strings vibrate), membra­ the mouth itself becomes the resonator. instruments that are played, because nophones (in which a skin or other Fundamental notes are the deepest notes people usually make instruments out of membrane vibrates), (in which the string gives, as against the local materials. People who live in or which a column of air vibrates), and higher notes, the harmonics, which you near forests use large trees to make (in which the body of the can hear coming from the resonator. drums and xylophones; people who live instrument itself vibrates). There are at least two fundamental in bushveld, the grassy plains in most of Although musical bows (chordophones) notes, although some bows give three or South Africa, make smaller instruments are played by few people these days, they more. The Zulu umakhweyana and the that use sticks, reeds, and gourds. once had a big part in music here; the Tsonga xitende give three. The Venda To grasp the variety of musical instru­ scales used in most traditional South tshihwana gives four. ments, scholars classify them into four African songs come from bow-playing. One note comes from the string when families, according to how they vibrate Historians believe that many of our musi- it is open - that is, when the player SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL 1999 63 does not finger it or shorten it. Xhosa Once boys who herded livestock played Suggested eading call this note VU, from the word vuliwe reed , but only rarely now. These Blacking, John. 1965. Venda Children's (open). The other, higher note comes instruments have finger holes like a penny Songs. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand from the string when a player fingers or whistle, but are blown on the side, not at University Press. shortens it in some way. Xhosa call this the end. The Zulu umtshingo -like the Coplan, David. 1985. In Township Tonight! BA, from banjiwe (held). The interval Xhosa ixilongo and the Sotho lekolilo- is South Africa's Black City Music and between VU and BA is often a whole made of reed or pawpaw leaf and is blown Theatre. Johannesburg: Longman. tone, but in Zulu tradition it is a semi­ at the end. The bottom end is the only fin­ Dargie, David. 1988. Xhosa Music: Its tone and in Tsonga, a minor third. ger hole, and it creates harmonics, like the Techniques and Instruments, with a Drums () are musical bows. During dances, northern Collection of Songs. Cape Town: important instruments among the peoples sometimes blow on single kudu David Philip Publishers. northern peoples of South Africa. Venda (sable antelope) horns - called pha­ Kirby, P.R. 1968. The Musical Instruments call them murumba and ngoma; among laphala in Venda, phalafala in Pedi, and of the Native Races of South Africa. Tsonga they are ngoma; and among Pedi, xipalapala in Tsonga. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand they are meropa. Drums are royal instru­ The northern peoples are traditionally University Press. ments among Venda; they are symbols of the only ones in South Africa who play Malan, J.P., ed. 1982. "Indigenous music?' royal authority. Traditional drums are the or thumb (an idio­ In South African Music Encyclopedia. made of wood with a skin on one or phone ), a small instrument with a Vol. 2, pp. 265- 508. Cape Town: both ends. Each drummer in a group wooden body and 10 to 22 or more Oxford University Press. plays a different but related rhythm to tuned iron keys fixed to it. A player Rycroft, David.1981. "The Musical Bow in create polyrhythmic music. plucks the keys with the thumbs or fin­ Southern Africa?' 2nd Symposium on Zulus and Swazis also play many gers. These are played unaccom­ Ethnomusicology, pp. 70- 76. drums these days. They first borrowed panied for the player's enjoyment or to Wells, Robin. 1994. An Introduction to the their design in the late 1800s from the accompany topical and personal songs. Music of the Basotho. Morija, drums of British army bands. These There was only one traditional xylo­ Lesotho: Morija Museum and modern instruments, as well as those phone in South Africa, the Venda mbila Archives. used by Zionist Christian churches, are mutondo, a beautiful, large instrument usually made of metal oil drums with a with carved wooden keys and gourd res­ Suggested Listening skin laced on at both ends. Even when onators underneath, played with rubber­ African Music Society Awards 2. Music of there are many, they are all played tipped sticks. Unfortunately, it is no Africa 15. together in the same powerful unison longer played. The modern Afro- marim­ African Music Society Awards 3. Music of rhythm. ba from , made in four differ­ Africa 16. Reedpipes (aerophones) are often ent sizes and played in groups, has Dances of the Witwatersrand Gold Mines. played by large groups of people on become very popular in the cities since 12, 13. important social occasions. Each reed­ 1980, especially among Xhosa speakers. Songs from the Roadside - South Africa. pipe is a simple instrument made of a Music of Africa 18. single river reed cut to the right length Andrew Tracey is director of the International Songs from the Roadside - Zimbabwe. to sound a particular note on the scale. Library ofAfrican Music at Rhodes Univer­ Music of Africa 19. But reedpipes are played together coop­ sity, Grahamstown, the archive and institute The Zulu Songs of Princess Magogo. Music eratively in a very complex way. Each for the study of traditional African music of Africa 37. man inserts his one note into the music founded by his father, , in 1954. at exactly the right time, while dancing Hugh spent his life documenting African simultaneously to rhythms provided by music; Andrew has spent his studying instru­ a women's drum ensemble that performs mental playing in Zimbabwe, , at the center of a circle of dancing men. and elsewhere, which now forms part of the Best known are the reedpipes of the degree course for prospective ethnomusicologi­ northern peoples, the Venda tshikona cal researchers offered at Rhodes University. (which is also the Venda national dance) He has lectured widely, appeared on televi­ and the Pedi dinaka, as well as the sion, and has perhaps been even better known Tswana/Bamalete letlhaka in Botswana. over the last 30 years for his steel band. 64 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL 1999