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Grenadines Encyclopedia
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Big Drum
It is a kind of Caribbean music, associated closely with the music of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Carriacou in the country Grenada and in the music of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
The Big Drum music of Carriacou carries a huge freight of tradition, history and social meaning, but even such a simple aspect as being unable to see the dances that the music is played for constitutes a major barrier to one?s understanding of the processes and systems involved.
The dancer ?conducts the cut drummer?s statements with her danced rhythms and dictates the end of the song by touching the head of the cut drum with the hem of her skirt.
The singers are some of the first proponents of Big Drum music to perform in the United States, thanks to Lomax and the American Museum of Natural History in 1975.
The younger singers were then Lucien Duncan and Canute Caliste.
Caliste was a painter as well and his painting of a Saraca is on the cover of the CD.
The music is exciting, the stories interesting, the singing heartfelt. This is not music for entertainment particularly and it's certainly not background music.
It's music for understanding and would be a valuable addition to any collection that aims for a consistent historical context.
The spectators usually form a circle around the drummers, singers and dancers. The dance begins with what is called the Opening of the Ring at which the host family performs the ritual of ?Wetting of the Ground? to the Big Drum beat.
The musicians are usually 3 or more drummers (head or cut drum, and 2 bulla drums) and 6 or more singers most of whom are women. Most of the songs are sung in an African dialect but a few are sung in English, as well as French Patois. The drumbeats, rhythms are dances are representative of various African Nations.
The Dances
The following are some of the different dances in our culture:The Callender This is a slow dance with a lot of flare or gambash, as we say locally, that is performed only by strong males. It is originated from the Congo Tribe. It is a sort of courtship dance.
The Cud This is the most popular of the dances and is performed by both men and women. Its origin is from the Ebo Tribe.
The Cut The dance is usually for the less skilful and one is usually replaced in the ring by another dancer that feels that he/she has something better to offer.
The Temnair This is a very skillful dance that is performed mainly by women. This is also from the Ebo Tribe.
The Chicky Mellow This is a very joyful and happy dance that originated from the Swahali Tribe.
The Stick Dance This is a very skilful and dangerous dance that is performed only by men and its origin is from the Zulu Tribe. This dance is typically performed on Cambulay Night, which is the Sunday night of Carriacou Carnival. This event is usually held at a location known as ?Thief?. Ashanti and Cramanti are also tribal dances that are performed at Big Drum dances. The songs that sung at a Big Drum are usually selected to suit the occasion. For example there are songs for Weddings, Prayer Nights, Maroons, Parents Plate and Thanksgivings. While I am on this topic I would like to acknowledge some of our legendary drummers Sugar Adams, Pofellar Corion, Hence Gay, Daniel Akins and Prince Lawrence and dancers May Adams, Seeday McGilvary Sae Gold and Lucian Duncan to name a few. These people have made substantial contributions in keeping the culture alive in Carriacou.
African Drum Types The methods, shapes and size of drums varies a lot. These are just a few examples of drums from Africa as they are also used in the Big Drum ceremony on the Caribbean islands.
Talking Drum
(known as a Dun Dun, or Dondo in Ghana and Nigeria)
This type of drum originates from Yoruba, Nigeria and was used to spread announcements as well as to praise a king or tribal leader.
Also used in Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal, these drums sent messages of happiness, sorrow, war etc.
Evidently, the original "Dun Dun" makes sounds that closely correspond to many tonal peculiarities of the Yoruba language.
Hence, the name "Talking Drum".
The drum is actually hand-carved from a single piece of wood.
Heads are then added to each end, and are tensioning together using strings that run the entire length of the drum.
To play the drum, you place it under your armpits and strike one end with a bent stick (or your hand) while squeezing the tensioning strings.
Since the middle of the shell is narrower than the ends, it is easy to do this.
You can also get quite a range of tonal changes as you play.
Also, pebbles are placed within the drum to provide a quiet rattle effect (when you know how to move it).
Multiple size versions of the Talking Drum exist that provide for a wide range of tones. The longer the drum is, the deeper its pitch.
Kalimba (also called Mbira, and thumb piano)
It is used commonly as an accompaniment to song, but is also used by itself. In Zimbabwe, the kalimba is played during ceremonies.
When played in these situations, its use is intense, joyful, and spiritual.
It can produce complex rhythms and beautiful melodies (if you know how to play it - and I'm not so good right now).
The kalimba is made up of a set of metal (or sometimes bamboo) tongues of varied length.
They are mounted to a board - or gourd resonator. The varied length of each tongue defines a basic pitch.
To produce sound, the ends of each tongue are twanged downwards by one's thumbs and/or fingers.
With metal-tongued versions, adjusting tongue length on the fastening bar, allows some degree of pitch adjustment (somewhat like tuning a guitar string).
Bowl Drum
In this case it has a 19.5-inch wide head, and both the head and shell are tanned black.
It is constructed very well and sounds beautiful.
Wound twine handles on each side of the shell top allow it to be held while it is played. However, since there are two handles, it would appear that one person is the holder, while the other is the player?
Shakers
The rattles are made up of nutshells attached by vine string to the end of a wooden handle.
The sound ranges from a very loud tone when shaken strongly, to a quiet rattle when you barley turn the handle.
2). Cachos Rattle Constructed similarly to the above instrument, but large seed pods are attached to a bamboo stick with a fabric binding instead.
When played this instrument is a little softer then the Juju Seed Rattle.
Chekere
It produces many types of swishing and "maraca-like" sounds.
When tapped or shaken hard it will produce a loud, "rattley" sound that can be heard over many drums.
Kpoko Kpoko
An unusual rattle which is made up of two "wooden bells".
Within each rod independent wood rods (like multiple bell ringers).
To play it, you grab the center region of the instrument in your hand, and twist your wrist back and forth.
This produces a unique wood-clanging sound. It's hard to describe!
Its origins come from the Ebo Tribe of south-central Nigeria.
Udu (also called "side hole pot drum")
Ancient potters evidently made a second opening on the side of this water pot and some "drummer" probably discovered the beautiful sounds that could be produced.
The "side hole" pot drum produces deep tones that many Africans believe are the "voices of the ancestors."
Initially, they were only used in religious and cultural ceremonies.
Udu Drums are beautiful works of art as well as beautiful tone producers. Their extremely deep bass tones can be varied somewhat in pitch too - similar to a talking drum.
This makes the Udu well-suited for both melodic and rhythmic articulation.
The basic playing technique involves striking the top or side hole with one hand while opening and closing the opposing hole to varying degrees with the other.
By varying the type of stroke and the way in which you release your hand, you can coax many different deep, haunting tones from the instrument.
The top hole of an Udu is sometimes struck with a special mallet (that has soft padding on one side and a harder leather covering on the other).
To change the basic tone (i.e., to tune them), water is added.
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