Membranophones (Stretched Membrane Percussion)

Obscure drum, presumably of African origin, of the Babasué (Babassuê) syncretic sect of Belem, Pará, Brazil. It might be related to the atabaque. The body is slightly conical and the single head is secured by a hoop that is laced to four iron hooks that jut from the body below the upper rim. ...

Small double-headed cylindro-conical drum of the Buda and Mangbetu peoples of the northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The head is made of antelope skin and beaten with the hand. It was used in (forbidden) mambela rites. The abiba deni is a drum of the Lengola people of the DRC....

Bowl-shaped drum of the Angba people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is about 50 to 75 cm tall. The single antelope-skin head is laced to the body. It is beaten with one hand and one stick. The abowa mokindja of the Lengola people is similar.

Cylindro-conical or barrel-shaped open drum of the Akan people of Ghana. The single head is secured with cords to pegs driven diagonally into the body. The base opening is narrowed by inserting a flat circular board with a hole in the centre. The drum is beaten with two curved sticks, and is played in pairs (‘male’ and ‘female’) in the same manner as atumpan talking drums, the drummer varying the point at which his sticks strike the head in order to change the tone. The drum is used with others by warrior associations in state drumming. Its sounds are said to imitate the cry of the bird of the same name....

Double-headed hourglass drum of the Reddi people of Andhra Pradesh, southeastern India. It is 75 to 90 cm long. Each head, less than 30 cm in diameter, is tensioned separately with cords and wedges through a rope ring around the nearer end of the long cylindrical waist. It is suspended across the body by a neck-strap and beaten with the hands, one hand on each head....

Dutch manufacturer of percussion instruments. Adams Musical Instruments was established at the end of the 1960s by André Adams at Thorn in the Netherlands. Adams has become one of the leading percussion manufacturers in the world. Its list of products range from lightweight, low-priced pedal timpani designed for schools and bands, through to top of the range professional timpani and concert marimbas. A great deal of thought is given to the adaptability and portability of the instruments, as well as to their quality. For example, playing height of their keyboard instruments is adjustable, and their tubular bells may be adjusted both for height and range. In the contemporary world of percussion these refinements are invaluable for the player. Adams now manufactures timpani, xylophones, marimbas, tubular bells, bell plates, concert bass drums, temple blocks and a range of sticks....

Frame drum of the Saningbakar area of West Sumatra. The steeply tapering frame, up to 20 cm deep, is made of wood or coconut shell. The head, made of tiger skin laced with rattan cord, can be up to 40 cm in diameter and is struck by hand or with a stick to produce a deeply resonant sound. The ...

[pandeiro, quadrado]

Hand-beaten frame drum, of Muslim origin, played in Iberia, Latin America, and North Africa. Typically, a wooden frame about 30 to 45 cm square and 6 to 9 cm deep is covered with sheep or goat skin on one or both sides. Triangular and hexagonal shapes are occasionally found nowadays. The heads are normally tacked on and the tacks covered by ribbon, or in Morocco a single skin can be stitched over the frame. Rattling elements are sometimes enclosed. In Spain and Portugal it is played primarily by women (see illustration) often to accompany their singing. In Portugal it is prominently used with other instruments to accompany the charamba, a circle-dance performed by couples, and various Christian processions. In Guatemala string ensembles (zarabandas) incorporate adufe that have an interior rattle or bell. In Brazil it is called pandero or quadrado and is played (often in pairs) for the May ...

Frame drum of Alaska, reported at the end of the 19th century. One from Point Barrow (in US.W.si) had a shallow hoop shaped as an oval, 56 by 48 cm, with a handle attached at the side, and a seal peritonium as the head. Apparently the name denoted the typical frame drum encountered from Alaska to Greenland and Siberia....

Double-headed drum of Cuba. It is 30 to 50 cm long and 15 to 25 cm in diameter at its ends, slightly wider in the middle. Initially constructed from a single piece of wood, it was sometimes made of staves, with its heads nailed on. For private religious rituals of the Yoruba-associated Egguado people, its function was to call and greet the female deity Obbá. The calls on the ...

Single-headed cylindrical drum of Suriname. It is played with the tumao and apinti drums and is the lowest sounding of the three. It is made from a hollow log commonly 2 to 3 metres long and about 15 to 20 cm in diameter, though drums vary in size. The head is fastened by cords with tuning wedges. The drum is laid on the ground, the performer kneeling beside it and playing with one stick and one hand. A steady beat is played against which the other two drums improvise. Two tones are achieved by striking either the centre or edge of the head. The ...

Water drum of the Cherokee people of the southern USA. The body is normally made of wood (preferably red cedar) about 28 cm tall and 20 cm in diameter, with walls 3 or 4 cm thick, but an earthenware crock can also be used. It is filled with about 5 cm of water before the head is stretched across the opening. The head is made of woodchuck skin, tanned deerskin, or a rubber tire inner-tube, and is attached by a wooden or metal hoop. The drum is played with a single stick made of hickory wood about 30 cm long with a carved knob on the end. The drummer alters the sound by shaking the drum or turning it upside down, thereby moistening the head. Male song leaders play water drums to accompany certain communal dances performed at ceremonial grounds. Water drums also accompany ceremonial dances of the Delaware, Muscogee (Creek), Shawnee, and Yuchi (Euchee), and were used in the past by the Chickasaw and Choctaw. Each tribe has its own name for the water drum, for example Creek, ...

An hourglass-shaped, single-headed drum from the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. The body was made from breadfruit tree wood (Artocarpus altilis) or from the local tree topwuk (Premna gaudichaudii), and the head from shark or ray skin, or ray, or possibly a fish bladder. Drums were formerly of great cultural significance on the island; they were given proper names, associated with paramount chiefs, and played and cared for by men assigned the honorary title kiroun aip (keeper-of-the-drum). Men beat the drums by hand or using a stick fashioned from hibiscus, during feasts, contexts of warfare, and occasions involving paramount chiefs. The last detailed documentation of the aip on the island dates from 1910. A few historical examples exist in museums. Pohnpeians reconstructed one drum in 1976 that had been the only example on the island, but in 2011 the islanders undertook a new reconstruction project. During the early 20th century, drums similar to the ...

[adja, adscha, āži]

Single-headed Hourglass drum of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia. Most descriptions indicate that it was introduced from Melanesia, possibly through Pohnpei, where the Aip resembles it in structure. The long-waisted body (about 65 cm tall, diameter at the ends 20 cm) is crafted from breadfruit wood. The head, made from the inner lining of the stomach or bladder of a shark, is tied over one end by a cord of fibrous plant material. The drum is held on the lap or under the left arm. Finger and hand strokes, and playing positions (centre or rim), are differentiated. One, two, or three aje were played, almost exclusively by women, to accompany chanting or singing, sometimes with dance or pantomime. The aje was also beaten by women as a signal, to encourage men during battle, and to keep canoes together during nighttime voyages. Christian missionary intervention threatened the aje with extinction after the early 20th century, when no extant examples were known in the Marshalls....

Kettledrum of the Idoma people of Nigeria. It is approximately 60 cm tall and 35 cm in diameter, and has a head affixed by wedge bracing (i.e. tension is obtained by inserting wooden wedges between the securing ring and the body). The ajigo is played with the hands. Believed to be sacred, it is used solely by members of the ...