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SHLOMO PESTCOE שלמה פּסטקאָ
³Yummie³Musical Styles³Instruments³Features³News³Contact³Links³ ³ Banjo Roots: From Africa to the New World ³ ³ Banjo Ancestors: The Lutes of West Africa ³ ³ The Akonting: A West African Ancestor of the Banjo ³ Please note: This is not a commercial site. I do not sell or appraise instruments.
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Other String Instruments in Sub-Sahara AfricaMouth bows and other musical bows, the earliest forms of string instruments, may well have originated in Sub-Sahara Africa, the birthplace of modern humanity, evolving from the first hunting bows. Evidence suggests that the San (Bushmen) of southern Africa probably played tunes on their hunting bows in pre-historic times, much like they do today. In addition to the amazing variety of different kinds of musical bows found throughout Sub-Sahara Africa, there's also an incredible variety of harps, lyres and zither-type string instruments. However, lute family instruments are, for the most part, to be found only in West Africa. The notable exceptions to this rule are the various different kinds of spike fiddles (bowed lutes) found in East and South West Africa as well as the guitar-like ramkie of southern Africa, first documented in the 18th century, and the gabbus of Zanzibar (the East African island nation of the coast of Tanzania), which is the local version of an Arab short-neck lute known by several names: gabbūs (Oman), qabūs (Saudi Arabia), qanbūs (Yemen) and so on. The Arab oud, the forbearer of the Western European classic lute, was introduced into Zanzibar around 1870 with the arrival of takht (traditional Arab music) ensembles from Egypt. Takht subsequently inspired the creation of taarab, the Zanzibari/ East African "pop" music form, often referred to as "Swahili wedding music." The oud, the lead instrument of both takht and taarab music, is pretty much used in East Africa only in the context of that taarab orchestras and "musical clubs" that are found up and down the Swahili coast.There are two branches of the lute family which are unique and indigenous to West Africa, namely harp-lutes (now generally referred to as bridge-harps), the best known example being the kora of the Mande griots, and bow lutes (also, pluriarcs), which are basically instruments comprised of several musical bows (up to eight) emanating from a single body. Generally speaking, both harp-lutes and bow lutes are folk instruments associated primarily with hunters' societies in rural villages. Two notable exceptions are the griot kora, a large 21-string bridge-harp (also classed as a spike harp, because the big stick that serves as the instrument's neck runs through the body and out the tail end) with a huge gourd body topped with a cowhide head, and the bolon, another type of Mande griot harp-lute with a large skin-headed gourd body, distinguished by an arched neck bearing three to four strings. -- Shlomo Pestcoe Illustration Credits:
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³Yummie³Musical Styles³Instruments³Features³News³Contact³Links³ ³ Banjo Roots: From Africa to the New World ³ ³ Banjo Ancestors: The Lutes of West Africa ³ ³ The Akonting: A West African Ancestor of the Banjo ³Please s end mail to info@shlomomusic.com with questions or comments about this web site.Copyright © 2005 Shlomo Pestcoe. All rights reserved. Last modified: 01/28/08
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