Rakatak

Rakatak is the generic term for certain rattle -like percussion instruments, the name of a percussion group Pankow Pankow and the annual drum festival.

Instruments

It can be distinguished from such instruments, two different variants:

• " Rakatak ": an open African maracas in the form of a split bamboo tube with box, movable clapper strikes by alternating back and forth because of the instrument to the bamboo tube. Depending on the diameter of the bamboo tube arise from that lighter or deeper tones.
• " Rakatak Sennpo " means a gourd rattle, consisting of a forked stick with loose reared, ornate pumpkin slices, which generate when shaking a dry, bright sound. This species is a precursor of the Spanish castanets.

Percussion group

The Pankow percussion group Rakatak took the name by the instrument.

Development

Built since 1993 under the initial direction of Andreas Bunckenburg, music teachers, and Gabriele Kostas, solo percussionist, from a Pankower school band of Ossietzky -Gymnasium, they meet regularly, mostly with samba rhythms, to outdoor events, so for example at the annual drummer festival in the Schoenholzer Heath.

Stations in the development of the group were:

• Four weeks of drumming, dancing and singing workshop in the summer of 1996 at Kasapa Center in Ghana,
• Street Theatre Festival in Avignon ( France) in 1998,
• Annual appearances at the Bremen Samba Carnival.

Award

2002 Rakatak received the German Folk Award.

Publication

The CD "Just 'S Drum " was released on 12 June 2000 by Musikverlag " grapevine " and can be obtained both in the commercial as well as in " Amazon".