Generic term for a set of drums tuned to a musical scale. In Africa, where drum ensembles are common, a line cannot easily be drawn between true drum-chimes (often tuned and arranged scalewise to cover one or more octaves) and sets of drums also carefully tuned to discrete pitches within the particular tonal system, and used for accompanying songs and dances with a variety of melodic and rhythmic patterns.
Drum-chimes occur in South and South-east Asia and in Africa. In north-central Sumatra a set called taganing plays a central role in the ritual orchestras of the Batak Toba peoples, being accompanied by another drum, gongs and an oboe. Multi-octave sets placed in circular frames are used in traditional Thai and Burmese ensembles; in Myanmar (Burma) the chime is called hsaìng-waìng or patwaìng. A set of tablā tuned scalewise and known as tablatarang is sometimes featured in concerts of Hindustani music to the accompaniment of ordinary tablā and the tambūrā (classical drone lute).
In East Africa drum-chimes are known at Aksum (Ethiopia), in three places in Uganda (one being the former kingdom of Buganda where the entenga chime was one of the instruments of the former royal court), and among the Sena and Mang’anja peoples of Mozambique, where the drum-chime is called likhuba. The entenga (see illustration) is a good example of a true drum-chime in that all but the largest three drums are used for playing a repertory of vocally derived melodies (the three largest provide a rhythmic accompaniment). The entenga’s limited distribution and certain features (by no means common to all sets) have led scholars to speculate on links between African sets and those of Asia. Such features include the use of long curved beaters and an association with xylophone-playing traditions.
Drum-chimes continue to be reported from other parts of Africa. Both Nzewi (1977) and Uzoigwe (1981) have described sets played among Igbo communities in Nigeria. The ese ensemble consists of four small single-headed mortar-shaped drums tuned to discrete pitches and one cylindrical drum of more diffuse pitch. The ukom, which is played simultaneously by two musicians, is a row of ten tuned drums. A third set, called mgba, has nine drums but is played by three musicians.
K.P. Wachsmann: ‘Some Speculations Concerning a Drum-chime in Buganda’, MAn, lxv (1965), 1–8
L.A. Anderson: ‘The Entenga Tuned-drum Ensemble’, Essays for a Humanist: an Offering to Klaus Wachsmann (New York, 1977), 1–57
M.E. Nzewi: Master Musicians and the Music of ‘ese’, ‘ukom’ and ‘mgba’ Emsembles of Ngwa, Igbo Society (diss., Queen’s U., Belfast, 1977)
J. Uzoigwe: The Compositional Techniques of Ukom Music of Southeastern Nigeria (diss., Queen’s U., Belfast, 1981)
ERNST HEINS, PETER COOKE