Origin

Since the Spanish colonized the Caribbean, it is not surprising that many Spanish musical instruments also entered the Caribbean with them. One of these was the guitar, which became very popular in the islands and gave rise to many varieties. According to conservative estimates, four Caribbean instruments originated from the requinto, bordonua, and tres, each of which has its own unique sound - due to different materials than those used in the manufacture of guitars in Spain, and also due to a different tuning of Latin American guitars compared to classical ones.

cuban tres

Tres, considered the national instrument of Cuba, has retained its popularity to this day. It is easy to distinguish from due to its slightly smaller size and higher, slightly metallic sound. In early versions, the tres had three single strings that were tuned in D minor: "D" ("re"), "F" ("fa") and "A" ("la"). The modern tres has six strings tuned in pairs in C major: "G" ("G") into an octave, "C" ("C") into unison and "E" ("E") into an octave. The tres is considered one of the key instruments of the Cuban son.

Unlike many varieties of the Latin American guitar, which have become anachronistic in our time and are used only by folklore ensembles, the tres has retained its place in modern Latin American music to this day. A key merit in this belongs to the legendary Cuban musician - Arsenio Rodriguez, who is credited, among other things, with the creation of the modern tres musical structure. It is thanks to him that tres today is part of many ensembles that perform modern Latin American music, in particular, salsa.

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Botija. Aerophone

Botija(botija), (another name for bunga) - old cuban musical instrument, is an earthenware jug or jar with two small holes. Refers to the type of aerophones. Used in son sextets as a bass instrument. In the Cuban dream genre, according to the earliest documents and references, five different bass instruments were used at different times: botizha, marimbula, serrucho, double bass and bass (bajo). Each of them produces different timbres and plays different roles in the orchestra. For example, the marimbula was used exclusively in small orchestras, as its bass was not easily distinguished by many other instruments. At the same time, bajo, on the contrary, is used in large groups. Its loud electric bass is easily recognizable in the line of many other musical instruments.

The Cuban dream originated at the end of the nineteenth century in the eastern part of Cuba. A distinctive feature of the genre is its pulsating, pumping bass. That is why, for the development of a new genre, many different instruments suitable for it arose.

Consider one of the oldest bass instruments, the predecessor of the double bass - the botizhu.

The history of the appearance of the tool botizhi

Botija is an instrument, like many of its accompanying "brothers" in son (such as maracas), initially not quite an instrument. These were ordinary jugs intended for storing liquids, in which fuels and lubricants and kerosene from Spain were transported to the island of Cuba.

Another more recent use of these jars is to hold money. Money was hidden in jugs and stacked in the basements of houses. That's what the online encyclopedia says. But, since there was much less money than the capacity of jugs, clay vessels were more used hollow to keep the heat in the house. They were laid out under the floor to prevent the passage of moisture into a dwelling built too low or on damp ground.

The jug was first used in music at the end of the 19th century. The province of Oriente was the center of the emergence of a new musical culture, in addition to the boots, here for the first time such homemade things as musical instruments were used as marimbula , clave and others. Also, the equivalent of the botije can be found in Central Africa, perhaps this is the descendant of the African musical instrument.

The defining characteristic of son music is the pulsating bass, which has given rise to many bass instruments, including the botija.

Playing the Botija instrument

Botija has two holes, one is located on top, the other on the side. The jug is filled with liquid, depending on the filling, the bass sound emitted by the instrument was regulated. The musician blows into the upper hole, and adjusts the outgoing sound from the side with his hand. You can also play the botije with the help of a reed, which is inserted into the neck, then the air enters through a thin hole in the reed. The reed was used for a more dexterous version of the instrument, as it regulated the direction of the air outlet. It is also said to be slightly easier to play with the reed in the hole, as this allows for adjustment of the distance from the player's lips to the instrument itself.

Now the botija as a tool is practically not used. In 1920, it was replaced by a double bass. The double bass, due to its greater volume, range, versatility and its chic ability to provide harmonious accompaniment to more complex music, has eclipsed older types of bass instruments. However, along with a number of advantages, other difficulties arose. Due to the size of the instrument, its transportation became more complicated, it is difficult to carry the double bass by hand.
As for the use of the botija, there are still bands playing the changu, in which one can still find the old bass jug. There is also a group in Santiago de Cuba (the cultural capital of Cuba) dedicated to the restoration of endangered types of instruments under the same name "Botija".

This chapter is devoted to Afro-Cuban musical instruments. The following aspects of the study of instruments and instrumental music are sequentially disclosed:

• revealing the role of rhythm in the system of expressive means of Afro-Cuban music;
• assessment of the historical and cultural status of Afro-Cuban musical instruments, the study of their role in the system of traditional culture of Cuba;
• instrumental characteristics of the Bata and Conga drums used in the Tambor and Bembe ceremonies (drum construction, sound production principles, playing techniques, tone tuning, notation problems).

Section 1. Rhythm in Afro-Cuban Traditional Culture

The task of the section is to reveal the importance of rhythm as the organizing principle of various processes of human life and as one of the leading means of achieving a magical result. The role of rhythm is considered in the process of analyzing primitive forms of sound expression on the example of facts from the book "Afro-Cuban Folk Music" 1 The problem of the origin of the drum as the first musical instrument is posed.

The problem of the ratio of rhythm and melody in Afro-Cuban music

There is an opinion that African music is only rhythm, while the melody of the chants is not of great importance. As Cuban researcher Eduardo Sanches de Fuentes wrote, African music has only rhythm and is to a large extent "noise only" rather than music. Afro-Cuban music, in his opinion, "in its melodic aspect comes from the music of the white population" 2 . Fuentes wrote that Afro-Cuban music "has a rhythm that was brought to Cuba during colonization, and a melody that was formed in Cuba due to the influence of our [European] environment" [Ibid.]. Fernando Ortiz, a leading student of Cuban folklore in the mid-twentieth century, shares this view: Afro-Cuban music "acquired most of its melodic richness from the music of the white population" [Ibid.]. However, Ortiz makes the following remark: evidence that Africans in Cuba have not forgotten the melodies of their ancestral home is that they still sound in this country as part of ritual practice addressed to African gods; in addition, "many of the African rhythms are today an integral part of popular folk dance music" [Ibid.].

Rhythm in the system of expressive means of Afro-Cuban folklore

Many researchers are inclined to believe that “rhythm is the predominant element of African music style”. All language systems - the word, singing, instrumental music and dance - are permeated with the strongest accumulative meaning of rhythms. And first of all, rhythm as a means of expression characterizes the sphere of Afro-Cuban instrumental music.

When the rhythms resulting from the playing of musical instruments are associated with singing, the effect of their greater effectiveness is achieved. Rhythm allows you to merge together all the means of artistic expression.

“This is a kind of alignment of individual and collective capabilities towards a joint, and therefore more powerful effort. This is the accumulation of internal energy to enhance the sacred impact and ensure the effectiveness of a magical or cult ceremony.

Speaking of short phrases, abundantly repeated in African chants and

"to communicate to his listeners (contemplative by nature) this state of intoxication, this is a kind of "secondary state of mind" that they are looking for in music" .

“Another proof that African music has its own charm and that it delivers a specific spiritual pleasure is that many Europeans who, upon arrival in Africa, considered this music “disordered”, later, having got used to it and having undergone a kind of “initiation” (necessary in this area as well as in everything), began to appreciate it, especially in those cases when they listened to this music in the accompanying original environment. Such is the spell of rhythm<…>which, tiring attention, lulls it and takes possession of individuality” [Ibid.].

Rhythm as an organizing principle of various forms of human activity

“Africans bring their sense of rhythm to all the vicissitudes of their lives, especially in collective<формы деятельности>. Rhythms are for them an impulse, a stimulus. Rhythms move them, but they also curb them. It is especially important that the rhythms collectivize the activities of the Negroes, making their life socialized, subject to tribal foundations and the principles of joint activity. Camping, work, ceremony, religious cult, school, hunting, war, government, justice, history, and especially the emotional life of a person - everything is translated into the language of rhythms. Wonderful is the Negro's propensity for rhythm and the ease with which they assimilate it and bring it into the various forms of their collective life.

Rhythm plays a special role in the design of various labor processes. We know the forms of female labor activity that are carried out in a certain rhythm. This happens, for example, when grinding coffee. The stupa in the hands of a woman rises and falls in a certain rhythm, while the woman makes certain body movements (oscillations), organizing a kind of dance (according to the author's materials).

Ortiz emphasizes that the "rhythm" of Africans

“corresponds to their emotional spirit and a strong degree of socialization, the collective nature of their culture. Rhythm not only facilitates the expression of emotions, but also encourages others to participate in them. The Negro, for all the mediocrity of his being, feels the rhythm as an opportunity for social association with his own kind. All collective activity in Africa tends to be rhythmic in concert, expressed in singing, dancing and drumming.

The human body as the first musical instrument

One cannot but agree with the statement of F. Ortiz about the close relationship between singing and gesticulation:

“Often primitive man loses the ability to sing if he is forced to stand with calm hands - so close is the connection between singing and hand movements. Thus, the ancient Egyptians represented the word "singing" graphically with the hieroglyph "to play with the hand". Singing was looking for an instrument.”

The first musical instruments were undoubtedly of "natural origin" - it was the human body itself.

“Man is born with his own anatomical musical instruments” [Ibid.].

In addition to the fact that people used their natural vocal apparatus - the vocal cords, the resonator of the vocal device and the cranium (the best of all musical instruments) - they spontaneously used other possibilities of their body when necessary to "amplify" their own voice.

“They kicked the ground with their feet, because this is a natural movement of a person in case of impulsive temper, manifestation of will; clapped their hands, as children do in a moment of joyful joy. They also struck their thighs, chest, and lips of their open mouth with their hands in order to pronounce in rhythm any sounds accompanying spells ”[Ibid.].

The researcher Frederick Kaigh tells about a kind of bodily musical instrument in his book on African witchcraft, where he mentions the ritual dance of elderly black women in bantu settlements. During the movement, women at a fast pace shake their bare breasts in one direction and in the other, resulting in a series of deaf blows. F. Ortiz believes that this noise of breasts personifies the magical rite of motherhood [Ibid.].

The Magical Functions of Musical Instruments

The sounds of ancient musical instruments (rattles, drums, flutes) have a sacred magic (sacromagica) meaning, they are subject to various functions and intentions. Among the latter:

• summoning supernatural beings;
• reproduction of the presence of spirits;
• "strengthening" the meaning of chants and incantations;
• increasing the power of the song sound stream.

F. Ortiz argues that the emergence of musical instruments is associated with their "original function sing rhythmic beats <курсив мой — Д. Л.>, fill them with greater power" - on the basis of this, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"the actual magical power of the instruments themselves" was formed. F. Ortiz substantiates this by the fact that

"The emotional, spiritual excitement of the human essence sometimes requires that the sound expression be even stronger, therefore the sound of ordinary speech is combined with rhythm, with the word and singing" .

The researcher, emphasizing the task of strengthening the rhythmic characteristics of a linguistic expression, states that the first musical instrument is a percussion instrument, a drum. In his opinion, the percussion instrument is a direct consequence of the fact that rhythm is the basis of movement, which in turn is the basis of life.

"Anatomical musical instruments" are not enough to provide the power to achieve a magical result. They are complemented by "artificial" means, created on the basis of combining the sounds of various noise objects. Thus, instrumental music arises from the combination of human physiology (natural) and artificial, created by the human hand.

“In order to enhance the expressiveness of the text, when singing, such means as intonation, sound dynamics are used; these means, which are not always pleasant in their expression from an aesthetic point of view, have a communicative function - a magical system of influence on the other world" [Ibid.].

So instrumental music, according to Fernando Ortiz, is "richer, stronger voice" <курсив мой — Д. Л.>

The Cuban researcher gives a number of examples that describe the experiences of adding instrumental sound to the song pronunciation of a ritual text, which is aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the latter. So, for example, in Cuba in the rituals abakuá, priest (famba) during the ceremony, recites a spell, and from time to time (after each completed thought of the narration) beats the drum empego, which he holds in his hands (the drum is endowed with a magical meaning and marked with ritual graphics). At the same time, another participant in the ceremony strikes a metal self-sounding instrument ekon. The singing of the choir completes this composition. Such a combination of two means of musical expression (song and instrumental) has a certain purpose in the ritual action. So, the sounding drum acts as a means of communication: according to the ideas of believers, it personifies the voice of a creature from another world; the magical effect lies in the fact that the deity, receiving its sound expression, is invisibly present among the participants in the rite.

Noise instruments, according to F. Ortiz, can be used to: symbolize with their mysterious noise the presence of some negative creature from another world; exorcise "spirits", on which the "rumbling" effect has a repulsive aesthetic effect. Rumble enhances the power of spells and ritual actions - noise acts as an additional imperative, emphasizing the energy effect of speech forms of behavior.

So, it is the drum that is an intermediary between a person and deities, "spirits", ancestors, it is a means of communication between them. The language of drums develops from a monotonous rattling or tempo-rhythmically free accompaniment of chants in a ritual to a kind of communication tool that has speech means of expression, with the help of which it can convey information to an object that reads it.

Onomatopoeia on drums

Musical instruments have some abilities that are not inherent in human nature: they can imitate sounds such as the sound of a hurricane, a sharp roar, thunder, trilling birds, the growling of predatory animals, etc. This imitation of the voices of nature with the help of percussion instruments depends not only on the timbre of the tuned membranes of the drums, but also on the mode of expression based on the embodiment of special rhythms corresponding to these voices. One of the typical rhythms of folk music reproduces the voice of an insect common in Cuba, singing at night in tropical fields. One of the rhythms of beautiful Cuban dances is based on the effect of onomatopoeia.

The drum as a self-significant musical instrument

It is impossible to limit the functions of musical instruments only to the task of acoustic amplification of the human voice. Among primitive peoples, certain musical instruments performed a symbolic function in rituals performed without singing. In Cuba, F. Ortiz observed various rituals that had only instrumental accompaniment, as a result of which a definition was born for these musical instruments: they are called drums that “sing”. Due to their functional use, drums have gained a new, higher status in the system of traditional culture.

The Functions of Drums in Cuba's Modern Traditional Culture

In Cuban cultural tradition, the music played on the drums is considered to be the music of African gods. The drum is considered a sacred musical instrument, through the sounds of which deities can communicate with people and transmit information. The sound of drums is resorted to in moments of crisis: in addition to ceremonies, they are also played at the bedside of the sick, at funerals and for the spirits of the dead.

The specificity of African rhythms

The predominance of percussion instruments over other types of traditional musical instruments characterizes all African music, which is directly related to the huge role of musical rhythms in this culture. The American researcher Hombostel offers an interesting point of view. He believes that each movement of percussion is double: the muscles first contract and then dissolve, the hand first rises and then falls. Only the second phase is noted acoustically, but the first, which we don't hear, has a "driving stress" that occurs as a result of muscle contraction. This is the difference between the "European" understanding of rhythm and the African understanding of rhythm.

“We do not proceed from the driving phase, but from the auditory; we start the metrical unit with a voiced phase (or with a thesis), while the Africans start with a movement (arsis) or "time in the air", which is also the beginning of a rhythmic figure 3 . For classical musicology, this moment in African drumming is not taken into account, since it is not possible to assess their acoustic aspect.

Therefore, as Hombostel argues, in order to understand African rhythms properly, it is necessary to completely change the approach to them.

The opinion of the researcher is developed by Mario de Andrade, considering the interaction of dance and musical rhythm. In his analysis, Mario de Andrade takes into account the so-called "unvoiced time" in the dance (for example, the raised leg before starting to hit the ground), which is synchronously correlated with the control of the musician's hand movement when playing the drum.