Drums used in ritual events
Ceremonial drums are membranophones and idiophonic slit drums, which are played in a ritual context cult, religious or ceremonial social occasions by indigenous peoples around the world, often accompanied by singing or chanting.
Some ceremonial drums were specially made for their purpose and are accordingly elaborately designed. This includes drums, which are considered sacred objects and may only be used by a certain group of people. The drums can be played solo or in a small ensemble to accompany singing in ritual rituals, or can belong to a larger orchestra for courtly ceremonies and plays. Ceremonial drums can include tubular drums standing upright on the floor, large kettle drums, hand-held frame drums, and wooden slit drums.
Distribution.
Africa.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, certain drums are only used in secret-society ceremonies or initiations. The Ewe in the south of Ghana use a ceremonial drum orchestra that performs at funerals or to worship deities of traditional religion. The gankogui double-stemmed bell sets the pace. Almost each of the orishas revered in the Yoruba religion has its own drum orchestra, which is of central importance for the cult of the respective deity. Drum music also represents the medium through which the ritual participant in ecstasy get in touch with the gods. The drums played at religious ceremonies of the Yoruba are tubular drums that are open at the bottom and are covered with fur on one side. In the case of the Yoruba's "ìgbìn" drum, its wooden body stands on carved feet. According to tradition, these drums were once human beings before the Orishas brought them to earth.
The palace music played by traditional African rulers at court ceremonies includes drums and wind instruments; in northern Nigeria, for example, the cylinder drum "gangan", the long trumpet "kakaki" and the cone oboe "algaita". Kettle drums used in ceremonial court music in northern Africa can be traced back in individual cases to Arab influence and the naqqara kettle-drum pair, played in Islamic military bands and palace orchestras. This influence also applies to the long African metal trumpets, which are derived from the Arabic nafīr or the karnay. Ceremonial drums are often an indispensable part of the insignia of the ruler, without whose possession and ritual use he cannot be introduced into his office. According to a 1930 era description about the inauguration of the local "May" (ruler) of "Fika, Nigeria", the superordinate Hausa "Madaiki" (leader) takes the small "successor drum" into the palace and carries it hidden under his cloak into his house. On the evening after the funeral, the Madaiki brings the snare drum and a large ceremonial drum into the palace, appoints the successor and installs him immediately in his office. When May beats the metal kettle drum three times and the Madaiki once, the inauguration ceremony is over and May is the deceased's legal successor.
Middle East and India.
The "naqqara" was part of the courtly ceremonial music "naubat" from the Middle East to India . The ceremonial orchestra was only allowed to act on the instructions of the ruler. A sign of her special power was that Nur Jahan (1577–1645), wife of the Indian mogul Jahangir, was allowed to play the ceremonial drum even in the presence of her husband.
Far North.
In the circumpolar regions the drums have been classified by traits such as the knob, frame design, size, membrane motifs, ornaments, etc. There are therefore two main groups of drums: those with internal and those with external knobs.
Drums with internal knobs are found amongst the Tjuktjer in Asia and among North American Inuit.
Drums with external knobs are more widespread and are divided into four types:
The shaman's drums used in cults in northern regions are mostly circular single-headed frame drums.
The historical Saami drum, sometimes termed rune drum, belonged to the South Siberian kind, Sajano-Yeniseic subtype. (Those are, however, very similar to the Sjoric subtypes.) The Sami word for drum is 'goavddis', 'goabdes ' or 'gievrie' and the Altaic term is 'komus'. The Sami drum-stick term is 'bállin'; the Altaic term is 'orba'.
Some North American Indians instead use rattle drums, kettle drums, and occasionally water drums for shamanic and other magical practices.
The drums of the North American Indians are typically large, double-sided frame drums or cylinder drums. In the past, they were generally considered sacred and were not allowed to be played by everyone. The particularly revered "hanging" drum, a frame drum set up horizontally with four bars attached to the side, was kept by a "drum guard" among the Shoshone. Today, at the Powwow, a social gathering lasting several days, large cylinder drums are used in addition to flat drums, which are placed directly on the floor and beaten by several men sitting on chairs in the vicinity to accompany the singing. An example of a ceremony at the Potlatch Festival is the necromancy dance (Coast Salish Winter Dance ) of the coastal Salish on the Northwest American Pacific coast, in which male participants usually accompany drumming and singing at a fireplace at night, one after the other, made-up and costumed dancers.
Southeast Asia.
Slit drums in New Guinea appear in the form of a reclining human on the Sepik and on the Admiralty Islands, with a handle at one end representing the head and a handle at the opposite end representing the legs. In other regions, anthropomorphic slit drums are set up like statues. At the initiation on Sepik, the boys have to crawl into a woven tubular basket that is supposed to represent a crocodile, which devours the boys in a symbolic, dramatic action. In this conical tube they are carried around the ceremonial drums.
References.
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