(Fr. arc musical, arc sonore; Ger. Musikbogen; It. arco sonore; Sp. arco musical).
A bow-shaped chordophone consisting solely of a flexible stave, curved by the tension of a string (or strings) stretched between its ends, any associated resonator being either unattached, or detachable without destroying the sound-producing apparatus (see Khoikhoi music, fig.3 and South africa, fig.3). Hornbostel and Sachs classified both the musical bow and the ‘stick zither’ (which has a rigid stave) as types of bar zither (see Chordophone).
DAVID K. RYCROFT
The musical bow, in various forms, is widely distributed in Africa, America, Oceania, parts of Asia and formerly to a small extent in Europe (East Prussia, the Netherlands, Italy, Latvia and Lithuania). It is frequently played recreationally as a solo instrument or (with a resonator) for song accompaniment, and in some areas is important in magic or religion. In the cave Les Trois Frères in south-western France a rock painting from c15,000 bce shows musical use of a bow in a religious ceremony.
Whether the archer’s bow or the musical bow came first has long provoked conjecture and contention. Apollo was both an archer and the god of music; Homer and Euripides refer to the musical note emitted by the archer’s bowstring and the delight it gave to the ear. Legend in North India names the simple pināka musical bow as the prototype of all string instruments and ascribes its invention to the god Śiva. In Japan legend traces the origin of the koto (fretted long zither) to the god Ameno Kamato, who placed six archers’ longbows close together with their strings uppermost. A southern African Khoisan rock painting reported by G.W. Stow depicts similar use of seven shooting bows (see frontispiece in KirbyMISA).
The notion that all string instruments evolved from the musical bow was dismissed by Balfour in the late 19th century, but he firmly believed that the musical bow had evolved from the shooting bow. Montandon (1919), however, asserted that the weapon evolved from the musical bow, after the musical bow had changed from an original idiochord form (in which the string is a partially detached strip from the same piece of cane as the stave, lifted on bridges) to heterochord form (with a tied-on string). Hornbostel (1933) objected that the shooting bow was already known in the earliest cultures. He favoured Sachs’s claim that weapon and instrument originated independently but had later become similar in shape.
According to Sachs the earliest musical bow had a separate resonator (the stick being pressed against a vessel placed on the ground) and this had developed via an intermediate form (the ground zither) from the percussion beam (a pole suspended in two nooses above a pit, and struck with two sticks). Sachs (1940) held that ‘those forms of bow which we have good reason to believe are the oldest have nothing to do with a hunters’ bow’ (being generally too long for shooting, and some of them idiochords, with bridges) and that they were not associated with hunters’ beliefs and ceremonies: in many cases only women play them, and they may serve variously to induce meditation, invoke the spirits or accompany initiation.
Some peoples who play musical bows hunt without bows and arrows (as was true of the Zulu in former times), while others (such as the Dan of Côte d’Ivoire) use a different form of bow for their hunting. The Dan ascribe their musical bow to a genie who used to play it to warn animals of approaching hunters; absentmindedly he once left it on an ant heap, and a hunter appropriated it. On the other hand, there is clear evidence that the Khoisan of southern Africa have long played tunes on their hunting bows and continue this practice in modern times. In this instance at least, elaborate origin theories have seemed superfluous to some scholars: Kirby in his extensive Khoisan studies chose to adopt Balfour’s practical view that ‘the idea of adapting the shooting bow to musical purposes … might well arise in more than one centre, since it involves little more than the appreciation of the musical qualities in the twang of the bow-string, a thing which is almost forced upon the attention of the archer’ (Balfour, p.86). The only native string instrument of the Amerindians (apart from the Apache fiddle) was the ma’wo, a musical bow of the Californian tribes. This was often a hunting bow adapted as a musical instrument, though quite elaborate bows were also made specifically for music.
Musical bows are usually played singly, but a few instances of multiple use are known. The pluriarc (which is really a bow lute) resembles a series of bows with a common resonator. The terms ‘ground bow’ or ‘earth bow’ are misnomers (see Ground harp). The arched harp of Sumeria (depicted on a vase from c3000 bce) has some bow-like features and is regarded by Sachs (1940, p.80) as a descendant of the musical bow, hence the occasional use of the term ‘Bow harp’. Similar arched harps survive in many parts of Africa north of the equator (see Harp, §III).
The stave varies from about 50 cm to 3 metres in length with different varieties. It may be of round, semicircular or flat section, and often tapers towards the ends. The dividing line between musical bows and stick zithers (with a rigid stave) is often uncertain, especially with idiochord varieties. Bow staves are usually made from a single length of wood or cane, but a few types have two or three sections (Xhosa umrhubhe; Sotho setolotolo). ‘Scraped bows’ (Ger. Schrapbogen), found in India, central and southern Africa and South America, have serrations along one side of the stave (the instrument being sounded by scraping across these with a stick or rattle-stick). With other types of bow, the string may be set in vibration by plucking it with fingertip or plectrum, by tapping it with a small stick or grass stalk, by stroking it with a friction stick (in Colombia, South Africa, Loango and Marquesas) or with a subsidiary bow (in Patagonia), which, among the Araucano and Chaco in South America, is interlinked with the main bow.
Some Afro-Colombians and Amerindians of the Atlantic coastal region of Colombia play a type of mouth-resonated musical bow known as the marimba. The bow used by Afro-Colombians is stopped by a short wooden rod held in the left hand, thus producing two fundamentals, and the cord is struck near the mouth with a thin piece of bamboo. The Motilón and Guajiro Indians obtain several fundamentals by stopping the cord with the fingers of the left hand; a thin piece of bamboo, moistened by the mouth to create the required friction, is used somewhat like a violin bow to produce the tone. Both types of bow are now rare.
The Aeolian bow, sounded by the force of wind or breath, is exemplified by the tiny ‘whizzing bow’ swung round like a bullroarer (and thus qualifying as a ‘free aerophone’) which is found sporadically in West Africa (Liberia), China, Indonesia and eastern Brazil. It is also used, attached to large kites, in Indonesia and eastern Asia (Java: sundari; Laos: tamoo). Bows sounded with the breath are confined to the South African gora and its derivatives.
Both idiochord and heterochord musical bows may have one or more strings. The string of the heterochord bow may be made from rattan, vegetable fibre, sinew, twisted animal hairs or wire. It may either vibrate as a whole, or be divided into unequal segments (usually two) by a bridge (see Mvet) or by a ‘brace’ (also called ‘tuning noose’ or ‘tension noose’) – a loop, passing round both stave and string, which keeps the string pulled inwards, towards the stave. Some braced bows, such as the egoboli of Uganda, have an additional smaller noose near each end for making finer adjustments of the string tension. In rare cases a single bowstring may be laced more than once across the curved frame of the stave, as in the adungu of the Acholi in Uganda. The breath-sounded gora is exceptional in that a piece of quill connects the string with the stave at one end.
As far as supplementary resonance is concerned, bows may be subdivided into two broad categories: those without and those with an attached resonator. The first of these may be further divided between bows played entirely without a resonator and others played with a separate resonator. The first of these two types is rare, the North Indian pināka being a reported example (Balfour, p.54). Whizzing bows perhaps qualify but are usually considered aerophones. The bow shown in Khoikhoi music, fig.3, appears to have no resonator, but apparently that instrument was often pressed against a wooden dish, dry skin bag or some other vessel which could serve as a temporary independent resonator. Similar use of a calabash, bowl, pot, basket, tin can etc, has been widely reported in India, North America and Borneo as well as in Africa. Bows with a separate resonator also include the mouth bow, in which the player’s mouth cavity supplies resonance: this type is widespread in Africa, South America and Oceania. The stave may be held against the player’s mouth, or the string may vibrate freely between the lips.
Bows with an attached resonator usually have an open-ended gourd attached in some way to the stave on the opposite side to the string; these, known as gourd bows, are common in equatorial and southern Africa and among African Americans in South America. The bow is usually held vertically, with the opening in the gourd facing the player’s chest (see South africa, fig.3). The belembautuyan of the Chamorro people of the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, is played by a seated or reclining player, the gourd against the stomach. The Indian tuila and instruments like the nenjenje of the Meje in central Africa have similar features but, having rigid flat bars, are really stick zithers. In southern Africa two typical mono-heterochord gourd bows are the Zulu ugubhu (unbraced, with resonator near the bottom of the stave) and umakhweyana (braced, with the resonator near the centre, attached to the brace; see South africa, fig.3). The opening in the gourd resonators of the Zulu instruments is mostly between 5 and 7 cm in diameter, but in those of most other ethnic groups the hole is larger, or a hemispherical half gourd may be used. In some areas supplementary rattles, bells or jingles are attached to the stave, or used with the beater, and the kalumbu of the Valley Tonga (Zambia) may have a mirliton attached to the gourd. In the case of another smaller variety of mono-heterochord gourd bow found in East, Central and West Africa, the half-gourd resonator is placed over the player’s mouth (e.g. the ekitulenge of the Konjo in Uganda. A polyheterochord U-shaped gourd bow with five to seven strings (known as the forked harp and sometimes nicknamed the bellyharp) is used in the savanna region of West Africa.
The fundamental pitch of a musical bow is often varied by the performer. In bows with a bridge or brace the two unequal segments of the string yield different pitches. Additional pitches may be produced on braced and unbraced bows by stopping the string at one or more points with a finger, thimble, small stick or (as on the Brazilian Berimbau) the edge of a coin; harmonics are also often played. On some varieties with an unattached resonator harmonics are produced by touching the string at a nodal point with a finger or with the chin. With many other types the resonance frequency of the resonator is continually altered while playing to amplify one or other of the higher harmonics. The fundamental then serves only as a drone (or provides a simple ground bass if its pitch is varied) while selectively resonated upper partials are used for the melody. With mouth bows the volume of the player’s mouth cavity is varied, as in the case of the jew’s harp, to produce music as in ex.1.
Pitch on mono-heterochord gourd bows is varied by finger-stopping (as with the unbraced Zulu ugubhu), and also, in the case of braced bows like the umakhweyana, through striking alternate segments of the string. Harmonic partials above each fundamental may be selectively amplified through covering the opening of the gourd to a varying extent, thereby altering its resonance frequency, as inex.2. This is achieved by moving it closer to, or further from, the chest while playing. The musical purpose of such movements was misunderstood by earlier investigators, including Kirby (p.198) and Sachs (1940, p.57). A few instances have been reported of players expanding and contracting their stomach muscles instead of moving the instrument. A !Kung Bushman was observed by England doing this with a tin can (in lieu of a gourd) held against his shooting bow to serve as an unattached resonator; it seems likely, however, that he was imitating the gourd-bow technique of some neighbouring peoples. Gourd bows are generally used for self-accompaniment while singing and, certainly among the Nguni, the instrumental ostinato serves as a substitute chorus part, against which the performer takes the antiphonal role of the leading singer.
The classical Nguni instruments are the Zulu ugubhu (see South africa, fig.3), Swazi ligubhu and Xhosa uhadi. These are large musical bows, about 1·5 metres long, with a gourd-resonator attached near the lower end, and a single undivided string struck with a piece of thatching grass. The instrument is held vertically in front of the player, so that the circular hole in the gourd faces his left breast or shoulder and can be moved closer or farther away for the selective resonation of harmonics, usually 2nd to 5th partials. Besides the fundamental note yielded by the open string, a second note is obtained by pinching the string near its lower end between the left thumbnail and forefinger, the remaining three fingers gripping the stave. The interval between the open and stopped notes produced by Xhosa players is usually roughly a whole tone; the outstanding Zulu musician, Princess Constance Magogo kaDinuzulu, uses a semitone varying from 90 to 150 cents on different occasions; both sizes of interval have been noted among Swazi players. Selectively resonated harmonics from the two fundamentals, though relatively faint, are used melodically as a vocal accompaniment (seeex.2). The resultant hexatonic scales obtained from whole-tone and semitone stopping are shown inex.3; though the open-string fundamental is shown as C, the tuning is often as much as a 5th lower, and the entire series is transposed accordingly.
A second type of gourd bow, the Zulu umakhweyana and the Swazi makhweyane, reputedly borrowed from the Tsonga people of Mozambique early in the 19th century, largely displaced the Zulu ugubhu and the Swazi ligubhu but was not adopted by the Xhosa. This instrument, shown in South africa, fig.3b, differs from the earlier type in that the gourd-resonator is slightly smaller and mounted near the centre of the stave instead of at the bottom. In addition the string is tied back by a wire loop or brace attached to the resonator, so that two open notes are obtainable, one from each segment of the string. These notes are tuned anything from a whole tone to a minor 3rd apart, and a third fundamental, usually a semitone higher, can be produced by stopping with a knuckle the lower segment of the string below the restraining loop. This stopped note has a duller sound however and is not always used. Selectively resonated harmonics are used melodically in the same way as on unbraced gourd bows. The notes available from the braced gourd bow, when the two segments of the string are tuned a whole tone apart, are shown inex.4. Some players may transpose the entire series as much as a minor 3rd higher.
The largest collection of recordings of African musical bows is housed at the International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
SachsH
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