Ever on the lookout for strange and unusual instruments I was excited to discover the bulbul tarang , or (misleadingly named) Indian banjo, a strange cross between an Appalachian dulcimer and a typewriter.
According to sources on the interweb, the name means waves of nightingales. The instrument was invented in Japan in 1912 by Goro Morita but on reaching the Subcontinent has become thoroughly Indianified. It consists of melody and drone strings, strummed with a plectrum by the right hand, and a set of piano or typewriter keys, played with the left, that stop the strings. No toy, some players have become virtuosic as this clip demonstrates.
They come in all shapes and sizes, acoustic and electric, and I want one!
I find the process by which instruments and their music migrate from place to place, changing as they go, endlessly fascinating.
Here's another instrument in the process of change. When the British Empire collapsed, the British Army left both highland bagpipes and marching bands behind them in India, Nepal, Pakistan and North Africa. Here's a marching band from the Punjab that sounds anything but Scottish. I wish I could be around in a hundred years to see how the tradition has evolved.
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I love it, that's how music survives isn't it?! I'll have to show my mum and dad the last video (when they get back from the UK), as Mum played the highland pipes and Dad was a side drummer and drum major in pipe bands here for years (not sure what dad would think of the drum major above, he was in an army band so big on marching discipline!). I would think some of those countries had their own versions of bagpipes as well, it's such an ancient instrument.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of new instruments, have you come across the Hang Drum? A guy I know brought one to a music weekend workshop a couple years ago and it was the most amazing looking and sounding thing. Kind of like 2 large woks welded together, and quite otherworldly sound from it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNJswfXKJ3s
Glad to have found you Andy. I've just hopped across from Coyopa's place and I see Christina is here before me - no surprise.
ReplyDeleteWhat treats you offer us. Looking forward to more :o).
I think you might be interested in this!http://www.mid-east.com/searchresult.asp
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