Travelling Music: Portable Musical Instruments and Cultural Exchange

1 Travelling Music: Portable Musical Instruments and Cultural Exchange Presented at Interface 2015: Materiality and Movement Hosted by the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art & Culture Carleton University, Ottawa May 1-3, 2015 In Citizens Band, a 2012 video installation by Angelica Mesiti, the artist documents four immigrants, with two located in Australia and two located in France. What is remarkable about these figures that are shown in their common, day-to-day surroundings, is that they are all musicians. Two sing, one whistles, and another uses a public swimming pool as a medium for drumming. As seen at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in the summer of 2014, the installation consisted of the performers being projected on four screens that form a room around a central seating area. The installation offers an immersive experience to the viewer, so that one feels transported to the locale of each artist, at the same time that it creates an intimate space, given the closeness of the camera to its subjects.

Although far from home for reasons not immediately clear, one can assume that as with most immigrants, work or the offer of a better life brought these people to where they are. For instance, in spite of being visually impaired, Mohammed Lamourie uses his talent for singing to busk on the Paris Metro, while Asim Gorashi practices whistling learned while growing up in Sudan from inside his taxi in Brisbane. As each person humbly performs a piece of music rooted in the land of his or her birth in less familiar contexts, the songs transcend the surroundings and conditions of each performer, bringing attention to themselves and their respective cultures.

Only one of the performers in the video, Bukhchuluun (Bukhu) Ganburged, uses a portable instrument that is also an object with a distinct lineage, the horse head fiddle, also known as the

2 morin khuur, that originates from his native Mongolia. Playing on an isolated Sydney street corner at night, his aptitude with the fiddle is remarkable, as is its placement within the seemingly mundane setting. For my paper, I would like to consider similar portable musical instruments and reflect on how their original purpose has been maintained or transformed over time, distance and through cultural exchange in light of nationalism, creative expression, war, communication, or religious celebration. I would also like to explore how the objects have preserved musical traditions, or inspired new or contemporary forms. Aubert rightly suggests that in seeking to understand traditions within music, one must consider the musician’s point of view.i So, rather than try to establish relative cultural practices amongst various peoples, regions or historical periods, I will maintain the particular identity of each instrument in order to pay respect to those that make it their own through each performance.

Portable musical instruments present an interesting topic in terms of ethnomusicology. As stated by Nettl, organology, the study of musical instruments, provides ethnomusicologists with the “infrastructure that enables them to see music in society and culture” (Nettl 377). My topic presents a rich area of study and potential matters for debate as to what is an instrument and what is not. However, out of consideration for time and the extent of my knowledge, I will severely limit my investigation given the lengthy and highly interrelated study of music. Instead, I will stay focused as much as possible on how the following portable musical instruments can be examined as objects within the theme of this conference, that of cultural transference.

Given my introduction to this topic through Mesiti’s film, I would like to start with the horse head fiddle, or morin khuur. Also known as the matouqin in China, the instrument is a

3 chordophone played with a bow that can produce a wide range of sounds, although it has only two strings. For instance, while it can produce sonorous tones similar to that of a cello, it can also imitate the high-pitched whinnies of a horse. Its importance is so great to Mongolian culture that it is seen as a symbol of that nation, and was made a part of UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

The morin khuur has several possible points of origin. According to one legend, a shepherd received a winged horse so that he could meet with his beloved. However, a jealous woman had the horse’s wings cut off, and it fell to its death. The shepherd used the horse’s bones to create the instrument and play songs to commemorate the creature. Another legend tells of Sükhe, or Suho, a boy whose horse an evil prince kills. Through a dream, the horse’s spirit tells Sükhe of how to make the instrument so that they could remain together. Hence, the mythical prototype of the object invoked many aspects of the horse, including horse bones for the neck, strings from horsehair, a soundbox covered with horse skin, and a horse head carved into the scroll. In Chinese history, the matouqin developed from a group of instruments known as the xiqin in northeast China. It has also been described as early as 1105 by Chen Yang in Yue Shu, a Chinese text dealing with music, as a two-stringed lute of foreign origin.

As with the legends of its making, the morin khuur has two strings that are made from horse’s hair, and the scroll is carved in the shape of a horse’s head. The strings are different in size, with the larger or “male” string consisting of 130 stallion’s tale hairs, and the “female” string consisting of 105 tail hairs from a mare. The bow is also strung with horsehair and coated in resin from larch or cedar trees. The instrument is held almost upright when played, with the

4 wooden sound box resting in the musician’s lap or between the legs. Traditionally, the sound box would consist of a frame covered in camel, goat or sheepskin. However, modern morin khuur’s tend to resemble European stringed instruments with a square or octagonal wooden sound box, including the incision of f-shaped sound holes.

Regional differences can be seen in the form of the morin khuur. For instance, central Mongolian versions have larger bodies than those from Inner Mongolia, and hence tend to be louder. Morin khuurs built in China as matouqin tend to be less skillfully constructed than in the north, and in Tuva, a southern republic of Siberia, the instrument can stand in for the igil.

The bagpipe is another portable instrument that is also known for its distinctive although often maligned sound. Regardless, it is widely used, with versions adopted regionally from Western Europe to the Caucasus, and between North Africa to India. These include the musette from France, the uilleann pipes from Ireland and zampogna from Italy. However, perhaps for reasons of nationalism, the version with the most volume can be found in Scotland. The instrument produces sound by directing wind from a bag made of sheep or goatskin to pipes fitted with reeds. The player must keep the bag inflated by blowing air into it or by using bellows. Bagpipes typically have at least two pipes, one with holes that allows melodies to be played, known as the ‘chanter’, while the other keeps a single note, known as a ‘drone’.

Bagpipes can be traced back to Sumeria and the silver pipes of Ur, circa 2800 BCE. Musicians playing such an instrument could likely have developed the method for circular breathing, keeping air in the cheeks while inhaling through the nose, prior to the incorporation of the bag.

5 Played at weddings, funerals, marches and other less formal events, the appeal of the somewhat unusual instrument may be its versatility. I personally find the fullness of the combined melody and drone soothing.

Looking to the influence of the Industrial Revolution, the washboard was not primarily thought of as a musical instrument, but the prominence of mechanized washing machines in the twentieth century may have made it so. A U.S. patent for a “fluted” metal washboard in 1833 points to its initial development. Since that time, washboards have been made from zinc, galvanized steel, glass and, although it is more expensive, brass. Typically, the washboard’s metal surface is surrounded by a wooden frame, which can feature additional flourishes of creative expression such as wood blocks, cowbells and small cymbals.

Washboards are used as percussion instruments, featured in jazz, Cajun, skiffle, and jug bands. It can be played by tapping, but also by scraping while wearing thimbles. The frottoir, also known as the Cajun rub-board or Zydeco rub-board, is very similar to a washboard, except that it lacks the frame and can be played with bottle openers to create more volume. It was designed specifically for Zydeco music in the mid-twentieth century by Clifton “King of Zydeco” Chenier, and produced between Texas and Louisiana. While the washboard can replace the drums in a band, the frottoir is played more by strumming than tapping, providing counter-rhythms similar to Latin percussion instruments.

Sometimes used in bands with the washboard, the washtub bass could be an improvised creation of American musicians. The typical washtub bass uses the washtub as a resonator, to which a

6 single string is attached. Moving a staff that is attached to the edge of the washtub by a hinge changes the tension of the string and, hence, the pitch of the instrument. The washtub bass is also known as a “gutbucket”, a name derived from the buckets used to carry the internal organs of animals for making chitterlings, as well as to describe a “low-down style of music” (Smith 11). In spite of its humble origins, variations can be found around the world, the main difference being the type of resonator used. For instance, the gastank bass, barrel bass and box bass hail from Trinidad, Australia has the bush bass, South Africa the babotni, while the tingotalango can be found in Cuba, the tulòn in Italy, and the laundrophone is anyone’s guess.

Although the washtub bass might seem to be a product of improvisation, its origins can be traced to the ‘ground harp’, where the resonator consists of a pit with a piece of bark or animal skin stretched across it. The Baka people of the Congo have their own version in the angbindi, and its name has been altered slightly to inbindi to represent similar instruments. The washtub bass first gained popularity with jug bands, comprised of African-Americans in early twentieth century New Orleans. Although the popularity of such musical forms peaked between 1925-1935, the instrument and its affiliated musical forms developed into folk music, which has maintained its popularity in America and abroad throughout the late twentieth century.

Drums could be amongst the most common portable instruments, given their varying size and adaptability to various situations. I would like to consider two drums, just to highlight some of their differences and similarities. The Lambeg drum is used for parades in Northern Ireland by Unionists, the Orange Order and within a more nationalist context, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. It is a large drum beaten with Malacca canes, often accompanied by the fife. While

7 the origin of the object can be tied to European military instruments of the 17th century, it grew in size through competition amongst players. The drum is named for the village of Lambeg, County Antrim, close to Belfast and Lisburn, where it was supposedly first played with canes. Reaching up to 120 dB, it is one of the loudest acoustic instruments in the world, along with the bagpipe.

As mentioned, the drum is quite large, at three feet in diameter and two feet deep, weighing 3540 pounds. The drum shell is often made of oak, while the drum head is made of goat skin. A drummer typically carries it while marching by using a neck harness. However, the versions carried for most parades may actually be smaller replicas, while the original versions may appear on floats.

In Japan, the word taiko can be translated as “drum”. Similar to the Lambeg drum, its origins can be traced to a military past during Japan’s Warring States Period, although these drums were likely based on Chinese and Korean Janggu drums. The large size of the drums also produced incredible volumes, which could be used to frighten opposing troops, or allow a general to command an army. Such drums could be carved from a single log with holes drilled into its sides to increase sound levels. Taiko drums were also used in Gagaku, a Japanese style of court music.

Taiko drums are typically struck with a stick or bachi, and feature a head on both sides of the body. The heads are kept at a high tension, which might counteract the humidity and rainfall of the Japanese summer season. However, the tension prevents the drums from being tuned. There are two types of construction for Taiko, the Byou-uchi daiko, which have heads nailed to the

8 body of the drum, and Tsukushime-daiko, where drum heads are sewn onto metal rings that are connected to each other around the drum body. Byou-uchi daiko are usually made from a single piece of hollowed wood, so the size of the drum is determined by the size of the tree used. Perhaps most widely known, but less portable are the ôdaiku, which can be so large that they are sometimes permanently housed in shrines or temples.

Aside from the battlefield, Taiko drums also have established relationships with religion through Shinto and Buddhism, and for the more pragmatic reason of communication within a village. In spite of their revered status, Taiko drums have also been made from available materials, such as wooden barrels. Modern ensembles of Taiko drummers have achieved international acclaim, and can be traced to the conflation of religious ceremonies with jazz stylings by renowned drummer Oguchi Daihachi in the mid-twentieth century.

Returning to the melody section, the tin whistle, also known as a whistle, penny whistle, Irish whistle, or flageolet is a simple woodwind instrument with six holes. In Irish, it may be called the feadóg or feadóg stain. While formative instances of the instrument can be dated to the 12th century, records may indicate its use in Ireland as early as the third century. Due to the instrument’s popularity amongst the poor, it became known as the penny whistle by the 16th century. Mass production of the tin whistle began in England in the 19th century.

Although the instrument’s construction is seemingly simple, traditional Irish music may be creatively embellished by techniques such as cuts, strikes, rolls, cranns, slides, tonguing, and vibrato. The most common music played with the tin whistle includes traditional music from

9 Ireland and Scotland. However, kwela music, emerging from South Africa in the 1950s as rural Africans were drawn to urban centres, also features the tin whistle as a prominent lead instrument. Given the instrument’s affordability, it was adopted widely amongst the townships of the Apartheid era, leading to tin whistle sales in excess of one million.

In addition to Irish folk and kwela music, the use of the tin whistle has spread to praise music, bluegrass, folk metal, world music and punk rock, and has been featured in film soundtracks. Despite its humble origins, published scores make the instrument that much more accessible to the masses.

In closing, portable musical instruments may be one of the most easily transferred objects across cultures, and perhaps for reasons that are not so mysterious. The human body itself functions as a readily available source of sound, and music is often cited as the universal language. Polak considers the international movement of the jenbe drum from northern Guinea and southern Mali due to regional urbanization and the exoticism of the object in the West.ii At the same time, he also ponders whether the appeal of the object may come from the experience of playing it with one’s bare hands.iii

Regardless, the prevalence of both music and the instruments on which it is played should not be trivialized, and the subtlety, speed, and ingenuity by which these objects are both engineered and employed through cultural exchange may be their greatest strength. Considering the nature of the few instruments that I have discussed in light of nationalism, battle, communication, religious celebration, or creative freedom, it is important not to underestimate the value of these objects or

10 the ideas and emotions that they can invoke. However, as Fischlin points out, the music played on a portable instrument is shaped to a large extent by context, and that context gives shape to the music.iv As with Mesiti’s video installation, one common quality that portable musical instruments might instill to both those who play and those who listen is dignity.

11 Sources Aubert, Laurent. The Music of the Other: New Challenges for Ethnomusicology in a Global Age. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007. Baines, Anthony. The Oxford Companion To Musical Instruments. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Collinson, Francis. The Bagpipe: The History of A Musical Instrument. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. Encyclopaedic Dictionary of World Musical Instruments, Vol. 2. Ed. P. S. Ganguly. Daryaganji: Global Vision Publishing House, 2008. Fischlin, Daniel. “Take One/Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making”. Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making. Eds. Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble. Montréal: Black Rose Books, 2003. Jarrett, Michael. Sound Tracks: A Musical ABC, Volumes 1-3. Philadelphia; Temple University Press, 1998. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Angelica Mesiti, 2014. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-one Issues and Concepts. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Polak, Rainer. “A musical instrument travels around the world: Jenbe Playing in Bamako, West Africa, and Beyond”. Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader. Ed. Jennifer C. Post. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2006. Smith, Willie and George Hoefer. Music On My Mind: The Memoirs of An American Pianist. New York: Da Capo Press, 1975. UNESCO Culture Sector Intangible Heritage 2003 Convention. ‘Traditional music of the Morin Khuur’, 2003. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. Vimeo. ‘Citizens Band’ by Angelica Mesiti, 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. Yuan, Haiwang. Princess Peacock: Tales from the Other Peoples of China. Westport: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.                                                                                                                 i  Laurent  Aubert.  The  Music  of  the  Other:  New  Challenges  for  Ethnomusicology  in  a  Global  Age,  (Burlington:   Ashgate  Publishing  Company,  2007),  19.   ii  Rainer  Polak,  “A  musical  instrument  travels  around  the  world:  Jenbe  Playing  in  Bamako,  West  Africa,  and  

Beyond”  (Ethnomusicology:  A  Contemporary  Reader,  Ed.  Jennifer  C.  Post.  New  York:  Routledge  Taylor  &   Francis  Group,  2006),  169.  

12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     iii  Ibid.,  169.  

iv  Daniel  Fischlin,  “Take  One/Rebel  Musics:  Human  Rights,  Resistant  Sounds,  and  the  Politics  of  Music  Making”  

(Rebel  Musics:  Human  Rights,  Resistant  Sounds,  and  the  Politics  of  Music  Making,  Eds.  Daniel  Fischlin  and   Ajay  Heble.  Montréal:  Black  Rose  Books,  2003),  11.