Marimbula: The Giant Thumb Piano
7/1/2016
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Acknowledgement: - A large part of the information, and some of the text below, is from a fantastic page at www.cloudninemusical.com showing an Essay on The Marimbula by Michael Sisson, Ph.D.
The other night I was watching a recorded TV program, "Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys" S02 E04 "Slow Train to Guantanamo Bay". (Trailer here.)
In a bar/club sequence near the end, at Guantanamo (site of US detention centre and inspiration for the song "Guantanamera"), I noticed the instrument pictured at left which intrigued me. I resolved to look it up after the program as it looked like a giant thumb piano. I found out it basically is, but more than that, it is an instrument indigenous to that very area, having been first observed in Eastern Cuba in the mid-nineteenth century. Created by African slaves and their descendants, it is called mar’mbula (pronounced mah-REAM-boo-lah) by the Cubans, and most of the other Caribbean countries have adopted this name or some variant of it: marimba, malimba, manimba, marimbol. Technically, it is classed by Musicologists as a "large-box lamellaphone." The word lamellaphone comes from the Latin root lamella, or lamina, meaning "a thin plate or layer" (as in the English word "laminate"), and the Greek phone, meaning "sound." The lamellaphones are a family of musical instruments that produce sound when the player presses and releases the free ends of its lamellae, its "tongues" or keys. The classic lamellaphones are indigenous to Africa, where they take a variety of forms, known by such names as sanza, kisanji, likembe, mbira, mbila, marimba, malimba, and kalimba. In general these instruments are small enough to be held in the hands and played with the thumbs, hence their colloquial name, "thumb-piano." The African lamellaphones are centuries old, older even than the first written record of 1586. Amazingly, it is thought they descend from instruments brought to Africa from South-East Asia, where the Javanese and Balinese have similar instruments in the gamelan orchestras I recall seeing myself in Bali. I even managed to visit a small workshop where the brass keys of the xylophones were cast and crafted. The Marimbula differs from earlier African types in that it is very large, and also is used only to play simple bass lines, rather than the complex melodic and polyphonic music Africans make with the smaller versions. (See the Postscript for a modern example of this.) |
Changüí
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The instrument is not confined to the Caribbean islands, at left is an example from Mexico.
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Changüí Miscellany
A playlist with a variety of Changüí from the Guantanamo area; some longer sections making up a full documentary: "Cinco Changüiseros", which is about the group in the video above; and some tutorials which are useful in getting to grips with the structure of the music and its rhythms.
Wikipedia says: -"Many people confuse changüi with other styles, but academically you are playing changüí once the ensemble consists of these 4 musical instruments: marímbula, bongo, tres, güiro (or guayo) and a singer(s). So it isn't really the patterns syncopation, but rather the ensemble style."
The Tres is the lead instrument, it is like half a 12-string guitar, in that it has three courses (groups) of two strings each for a total of six strings.
The Güiro is an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. Often played by the singer.
Note the first sequence begins with the musician heating his drum over a fire to adjust the diaphragm tension.
Wikipedia says: -"Many people confuse changüi with other styles, but academically you are playing changüí once the ensemble consists of these 4 musical instruments: marímbula, bongo, tres, güiro (or guayo) and a singer(s). So it isn't really the patterns syncopation, but rather the ensemble style."
The Tres is the lead instrument, it is like half a 12-string guitar, in that it has three courses (groups) of two strings each for a total of six strings.
The Güiro is an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. Often played by the singer.
Note the first sequence begins with the musician heating his drum over a fire to adjust the diaphragm tension.
Postscript: - A modern example of African thumb-piano playing
A modern Congolese band called Konono No.1
They are playing the more complex melodic and polyphonic music mentioned above on one of the types of thumb piano mentioned above, the likembe.
The instrument is fed through a modern amplifier and distorted deliberately, much as we do with fuzz guitar.
They are playing the more complex melodic and polyphonic music mentioned above on one of the types of thumb piano mentioned above, the likembe.
The instrument is fed through a modern amplifier and distorted deliberately, much as we do with fuzz guitar.