Ground bow
The ground-bow or a earth-bow is a single-string bow-shaped folk musical instrument, classified as a chordophone. It is known in cultures of equatorial [1] and south[2] Africa, and in other cultures with African roots. It consists of a flexible stick planted into the ground (possibly a stripped sapling or a branch[3]), with a string from its free end to a resonator of some kind based on a pit in the ground.[4] It looks like a game trap or a child toy, therefore its distribution over Africa used to be overlooked. Hornbostel (1933) classified is in the category of harps, although is has combined characteristics of a harp and a musical bow.[3]
The resonator may be a pit covered by a board, with string attached to it.[4] Kruges describes several other constructions by Venda, e.g., the other end of a string is tied to a stone dropped into the pit, with string passing through the board covering the pit, etc.[3]
Other names include "ground harp" (Sachs, 1940, History of Musical Instruments) and ground-bass. It is called kalinga or galinga by Venda people. In their language "galinga" means simply a hole in the ground, while the origins of "kalinga" are uncertain.[3] It is known as gayumba in Haiti,[5] Dominican Republic,[6] and tumbandera in Haitian traditions of Cuba.[5][7] Baka people call it angbindi.[8]
It is also known in Cuba under the onomatopoeic name tingo-talango (tingotalango).[9][10] Julio Cueva's song Tingo Talango dedicated to this musical instrument describes its construction thusly:
- Si quieren que les describa
- cómo es el tingo talango
- tráiganme un gajo de güira
- o si no uno de mango.
- Se abre un hueco en el suelo,
- encima una hoja de lata,
- en el centro un agujero
- donde un alambre se ata.
Tingo Talango is also the song by Ñico Lora.
The instrument is reportedly nearly-extinct in the native cultures.[3][5]
Playing techniques
Kalinga may be struck by a stick or plucked in various ways. The bow stick may be bent to change the tension of the string, and hence the tone. It can be played in a glissando manner: the stick is bent, struck, and released, producing a peculiar sound. The produced pitches are not always stable.[3]
Kalinga is usually is played as a to provide repetitive accompaniment to the choral song.[3]
References
- ↑ "Ground Bow", Encyclopedia Britannica
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Jaco Kruger, "Rediscovering the Venda Ground-Bow", Ethnomusicology, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 391-404
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Arco de tierra", referring to François-René Tranchefort, Los instrumentos musicales en el mundo, ISBN 8420685208, 1985, and later editions
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Encyclopedic History , vol.2, p.210
- ↑ Fradique Lizardo, Instrumentos musicales indígenas dominicanos, 1975,Section "Gayumba", p.64
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ "CUBANISM: WHAT IS The “Tíngo Talángo” ?"
- ↑ "TINGO TALANGO, son, Auteur : Julio CUEVA
