Drums in communication

A message drum, also talking drum, formerly Buschtrommel; is a percussion instrument with semantic function. With her ​​spoken words can be translated and transmitted in a fixed rhythmic structure. After the type to leave messages drums in Membranophones, divided slit drums and grater drums ( Friktionstrommeln ).

The locals used in Africa, New Guinea and the American tropics for centuries a kind Trommeltelegraphie to communicate with each other via remote distances. As European expeditions into the jungle came to explore the jungle, they were surprised by the fact that their coming and their intentions were made known through the forest before their respective arrival.

Among the best known news drums are drums, often Sanduhrtrommeln, from West Africa. Of today known as Nigeria and Ghana areas they spread to the slave trade on West Africa in the Americas and the Caribbean. There, their use was prohibited because the slaves they used to maintain connections over long distances in a language unknown to their owners.

In a figurative sense, one rumor says that they have been disseminated through the bush telegraph.

Types

The drums are covered on both ends of the timber body with skin, fish skin and other membranes, which are fixed with a wood strip. Leather cords or pin running the length of the drum body and are each tied to each other. If these cords compressed by the arm of the drummer, the tension increases the eardrum, and the instrument changes its pitch. This enabled modulation type of instrument is mainly used at meetings or markets in ceremonial activities such as dance, rituals, the history lecture, as well as in communication.

Some versions of the message drum in West African nations are:

• Tama ( Wolof, Senegal )
• Gan gan, Dun Dun (Yoruba, Nigeria )
• Odondo ( Ashanti, Central Ghana)
• Lunna ( Dagomba, Northern Ghana)
• Kalangu ( Hausa, Northern Nigeria and Niger)
• Nkúl ( Beti, Bulu, Fang in southern Cameroon Equatorial Guinea and Gabon

In the 20th century the news drums were a part of the popular music of West Africa, especially in the music genres of Juju (Nigeria ) and mbalax (Senegal).

Logdrums with cavities and narrow openings that resonate when struck, all the larger wood instruments hollowed out of a single tree trunk. Different wall thicknesses will change the sounds that are generated by the attack with heavy wooden drumsticks.

While some drums serve as a simple working devices, led to another in the form of artistically sophisticated ornate sculpture. Often, a drum has a small stand so that it does not touch the floor and the sound can vibrate freely in this way.

Construction

News drums were often made as slit gongs from hollowed-out tree trunks. The larger the base, the louder was the sound, and the greater its reach. On one side of the tree trunk a long slit was cut. First, the tree trunk was hollowed out through the slot and allowed to sound blades ( wooden strips ) on each side of the opening. A drum could be tuned so that it produced a lower and a higher tone. For this, they had to be hollowed out under the other less under the tongue one more. The tongues of the drum are struck with mallets that produce the rhythm of high and low tones. The drums were protected in rain -free conditions from the weather.

Under favorable conditions the sound over a distance of 8 km can be heard. Important messages were usually repeated from village to village, respectively.

Europe

While news reels are generally regarded as an African phenomenon that Txalaparta also served in the Spanish Basque country as a means of communication. The Txalaparta (tx how beautiful, with the tip of the tongue on the upper teeth ), is a percussion instrument from a set of stretched over a tree trunk tone woods. It is beaten with 50 cm long sticks ( makilak ). Similar to the xylophone sounds according to how a different tone. With the proliferation of the telephone and other media, the Txalaparta fell out of use as a communication tool; it is now used as a musical instrument.

The drum language

The usual traditional African drums can be divided in three different ways. Firstly, a rhythm a thought ( or a signal ) represent. Secondly, he can repeat the form of a spoken utterance and the third he can simply based on musical rules.

Communication methods by drum are not languages ​​in the strict sense; they are based on actual natural languages. The tones that are generated is based on conventions; idiomatic signals based on speech patterns. The messages are usually fixed stereotypes and context-dependent. Possibilities of new combinations and possibilities of expression are missing.

In Central Africa and East Africa are the drum language patterns syllable lengths and tones of the respective African linguistic fields In tone languages ​​where syllables are associated with a particular tone, some words are distinguished only by their suprasegmentales profile. Therefore, syllable drum languages ​​can transmit a message often solely by the tonal phonemes.

In some languages, the pitch of each syllable is specifically set to each adjacent syllable. In these cases, messages with the same impact velocity as the speech rate can be transmitted because rhythm and Sprachmelodik are to be regarded as equivalent depending spoken utterance.

To transmission errors may occur because of the very ambiguous nature of communication. This can be reduced by the particular context and the use of fixed phrases. In Jabo example, most ethnic groups speak monosyllabic. By using a proverb or a title of honor to give higher importance to an animal, person or object, the corresponding single impact can be replaced by a rhythmic or melodic motif with the appropriate topic. In fact, not all listeners understand all fixed phrases; the drum language is merely the level of understanding in each immediate interest.

Some folks like the Melanesians extended this method by inventing free to form their drum signals characters. This is in marked contrast to the Efik of Nigeria which use such messages, which are an exact match to the sounds of the respective morphemes. Different again is the case with the Ewe in Togo, where only main clauses and their combinations are translated into the drum language. Smaller units are not used; a sound image is a complete thought again respectively. The situation is similar at the Tangu of New Guinea representing the signals of phrases that consist of parts of popular melodies, quasi- poetic rhythms or purely personal agreed intervals.

A drum as a talkie is culturally defined and dependent on the linguistic / cultural boundaries. Consequently, this communication also suffers problems of translation as literal communication. There are no international drum language.

Speech drums were used by German colonial civil servants in the early 20th century in the station Yaounde in Cameroon for administrative tasks. There was a two-storey drum tower of bricks.