The Uganda Musical Instruments .

All you need to know about different Type of Traditional Musical Instruments in Uganda

Are you looking for information about Uganda's Musical instruments? Every tribe in Uganda has a variety of music tools and other ways of entertainment instruments. On this page we bring you all music tool from every tribe and culture in Uganda.

Uganda instruments contribute to the social, psychological, therapeutically and educational existence of the people.These constitute a large portion of people’s cultural heritage and history. In day-to-day activities of people, they feature in one way or another.

Musical instruments of Uganda bear different features, belong to different classes and serve different functions. They differ in tone, quality, timbre and resonance from one community to another depending on the value attached to the instrument.

Some are similar from community to community for historical reasons. They may have had the same origin or lived together for some time. This relationship is a lot noted in the instruments of the neighboring countries.

An internationally accepted classification method has been used in listing these musical instruments.

MEMBRANOPHONES

Uganda music instruments is composed of drums of varying sizes and shapes. Drums are made by fixing, tying or fastening animal skins on wooden frames. The skins may be thin, light or thick.The frames also differ in shape.

These two factors combine to produce the required quality of sound.

With the modernization of technology some plastic and metallic materials have been introduced to serve as frames.Rubber is also being used in place of skins. This is not wide spread though. The traditional standards are still dominant.

Drums of Uganda

Drums are perhaps the most popular instruments in Uganda. Only small portions of Karamoja and Sebei do not use drums at all. Because of the continental predominance of drums, it is hard to trace the origins of each type of drum.The commonest method of making drums is to make a cavity in a tree-trunk after it has been cut to the size required by the drum-maker.

The wood is selected from materials which are not susceptible to boring insects or easy rotting. The wood is seasoned by keeping it in a place offering good conditions for a length of time to avoid it wrapping. When it is ready, some preservatives are applied to the wood and the skin.

Some repellant herb is enclosed inside the frame in order to repel insects which could damage the skin and the wooden frame. Light and thin skin from crocodiles, monitor lizards (African varanidae or alligator are used to make cylindrical long drums of a delicate type played exclusively by hand.

These types of drums are covered only on the end. Pegs are used to fasten the delicate skin onto the large shaped end of he hollowed out frame.

The relatively heavy skins of cows, goats and other animals are used to make small, medium size and big drums which are played using wooden sticks or hands. These drums are usually covered on both ends. Straps hold the membrane to the required pitch.

These drums are used for a variety of purposes

DRUMS FOR COMMUNICATION.

Drums offer a very effective system of communication. Different patterns of sounding a drum could summon members of a particular society to convene for hunting.

The messages transmitted indicated the place of assembly, the type of hunting implements to bring and the type of animals to be hunted.

However, in the modern era, not many people can discern coded messages sounded on the drums or on wind instruments. Drums were also used to warn people of danger, to declare war and to summon people to assemble.

Drums are still used in some areas to get people together for communal work. The work activities range from road construction or repair t group cultivation of crops. Communal cultivation is common where a lot of un-cultivated land is available.

Drums for rituals

Drums are used in ceremonies of installing kings, or chiefs; traditional worship, therapeutic treatment, exorcism and twin ceremonies.In the areas of Buganda, Ankole, Bunyoro and Toro which has monarchies, the drums acquired a special status associated with royalty.

Special drums were played at the birth of a royal child, at the installation of a new king and at a burial. Each occurrence and occasion had its own style of and pattern of sounding drums. These drums also acquired special names which distinguished them from ordinary types, e.g. Mujaguzo, in Buganda, bagyendanwa in Ankole kingdom and mirembe in Toro and Bunyoro.

Traditionally, drums and other special musical instruments for palaces were made by special people. These were experts and their offices were hereditary. They were honored to choose someone from among themselves to stay in the palace to look after the drums for the king. This was the practice in all kingdoms as well as in some chiefdoms.

In some cases, only certain members of a particular clan were qualified to play the royal drums for different occasion. Otherwise, court-musicians were chosen on merit. They were required to declare their allegiance to the king.Royal drums were beautifully decorated with colored beads and cowrie shells of different sizes and shapes. Their royalty could be seen in the style of decoration.

In Buganda, some of the royal drums were played using decorated bones of dead people in place of wooden sticks. The bones were decorated with beads. They were especially used to announce the death of a king. The style of playing drums on anniversaries or installation of kings varied.

Another important set of drums connected with Buganda royalty is the entega drums. These drums are believed to have been adopted by king Mulondo in about the 16th century and ordered by the king to be brought and played in the palace because of the beauty of the music these drums produce. A ruling was made then to have them played whenever the kabaka was at home, early in the morning and late in the evening. These drums ceased to be made and played elsewhere except in the palace by people from Lugave clan.Click here for detailed information about the Baganda culture in Uganda

Drums for traditional worship and healing rituals

Drums are used in traditional worship to evoke evil spirits to bring about results. In traditional worship and healing,these musical instruments were accompanied with special songs and dances.Both drums and the music they played were classified as sacred and could not be played elsewhere or for any other purpose. These sets of drums are: Enswezi and amayebe drums of Busoga, etida of Teso, bul jok of Lango and Acholi, Lubaale of Buganda.

The dances were named after those drums. They are danced to by the healers and the clients. Many of the dancers are said to get possessed by the spirits educed by the drums. Other musical instruments associated with worship and healing were gourds; rattle (ensais in a number of Bantu languages). Although both drums and rattles are now used in other ways their sacred role is still respected especially when used for therapeutically purposes.

Drums for traditional twin ceremonies

As soon as twins are born, they are greeted with special ululations to announce their arrival. There follows the sounding of a particular drum to confirm the news carried by the ululation.This drum called engalabi and engaabe in Luganda and Lusoga respectively, and emiidiri in Ateso is long and cylindrical. Techniques of playing drums at twin ceremonies are distinctively different form those of ordinary dances. They vary from one ethnic group to another. The styles of dancing range from being close to familiar dances to completely unfamiliar styles at a stranger to the tradition would classify as to obscenity.

Most parts of western Uganda do not honour the birth of twins. Thus there is no apparent musical instruments activity associated with twins. The tradition regards the birth of twins as a curse; therefore it does not deserve any celebration.

Drums for dance

With the exception of a small portion of Karamoja, most kinds of dance music in Uganda would be incomplete without the use of drums. Drums are responsible for differences in the dance styles Some dances like Bakisimba and Amagunju of Buganda, Tamenha Ibuga of Busoga, Amakondere of Bunyoro and Ekizino of Ankole acquired royal status in those areas, while Bwala of Acholi and Ajos of Teso were popularized for the installation of chiefs.

In Acholi almost every home had at least one small drum for each Bwola dancer. Bwola dancers are co-coordinated by a big drum, bul during the dance.

IDIOPHONES

This class of Musical instruments is percussive. It includes those which are struck, slapped, hit, punched, knocked, rubbed, smitten or shaken, i.e. drums, logs, xylophones, maracas or shakers (ensasi). This class constitutes perhaps the largest collection of Ugandan musical instruments. Activities like striking parts of the body, metal, wood to stamping on their ground produce percussive effects. This testifies to the spontaneity and freedom Ugandans owe to rhythm and musical sound. As may be seen, some of these temporary musical instruments are discarded after use.

AEROPHONES

These are the musical instruments which are blown in order to produce sound by the air vibrating. An interesting instrument in this category is human hands. Hands can be clapped in many ways to form musical instruments. Air is blown across to produce inconceivable musical soundsUgandans have numerous musical instruments in this class, some of which are improvised and used for an occasion and then discarded. There are a variety of wind instruments which can be categorized into two: the hard- blown and the soft -blown.

Hard-blown instruments

Hard-blown musical instruments are so categorized because to get sound from them requires spending a lot of energy. The arupepe of Teso and Karamoja made of long cow horn with only one mouth hole is used for communicating messages. The amkondere of Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro, agwara of West Nile and amagwala of Busoga are long trumpets/horns made of wooden hollowed out frames which are larger at one end and have a hole to blow through. These instruments are played in sets. They are covered with cow skin to give a beautiful finish of different colors. All these sets are royal instruments. In Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro they were used in Palaces at ceremonies like crowning and marriages of Kings, anniversaries and burials.

This tradition was carried to Busoga by Bunyoro. In west Nile the set was used for installation of their chiefs and for big occasions.While the cow horns are played singly, the sets of the royal trumpets are played t a melodic song. They can be accompanied with a set of drums or played singly.

Soft-blown instruments

This category of musical instruments is so named because of the ease with which the sound is produced. Unlike hard-blown instruments, these require relatively effortless techniques. The wind is blown into the mouth hole to cause the sound to come from the instrument itself with almost no need to lip vibrations. Soft-blown instruments range from hand cavity clay types, goat horns to small horns from game animals. They all belong to the flute division of musical instruments. The Omukuri of Ankole and Kigezi, endere of Buganda, akalere of Busoga and alamaru of Teso have similar makes and uses.

The instrument is blown at the slightly v-shaped slit end of the instrument usually with four finger side holes. In Ankole, the instrument is also played and at times accompanied by drums. When not played for dancing it provides good melodies for grazing cattle and for love songs.

In Buganda it can be played solo, in two’s/three’s or small ensembles. An ensemble consists of the largest flute (kiwuwa), second largest (Enkoloozi; third largest (Entengezi); and the smallest (Entengo). In Busoga it is a dominant instrument played in combination with other instrument with percussion and wind sections. The Teso flute is solo or accompanies an akogo set. The soft-blown instruments tend to be highly localized. Some are used as children’s toys. They are used and then discarded.

CHORDOPHONES

“Chord” literally means a string. It can be made from spinning or twisting sisal, skin-strips or fiber-tissues.Musical Instruments which have these strings fastened in different ways to different shapes of frames are picked, plucked, strummed, hit or struck. Uganda has many different instruments falling in this category. Some of them are so temporary that they are not mentioned in the list. A typical example of these is a string held on one end by biting with the teeth and pulled on the other by the left hand while the right hand plucks it or gives finger strokes to it. Different notes are arrived at by releasing and tensing the string accordingly.

When the player is satisfied, the string is thrown away and forgotten.String instruments can be categorized in two sections: the single string and the multiple strings. String instruments are as widespread in Uganda as the drums. There are incomparably more drum players than are string instrument players

Single –string instruments.

The tube fiddle is variously called endingire, akadingidi, endingidi, esiriri or shilili in a number of Bantu languages and arigirigi, rigirigi by non-Bantu speakers.

It takes its name from browing action and the kind of sound the instrument produces. It is interesting how all sections took the imitation of the sound of the instrument to be the name of the instrument. In all languages, this instrument is played to enunciate words and phrases as if to parrot human language. It is essentially a solo instrument with voice but can also be played as a duet, a trio or together with other instruments. There are also less popular one-string musical instruments like sekutukege or aunene (ground bow) in Buganda and Teso respectively.

Multiple-string instruments

These musical instruments are different in shape. The eight-stringed ennanga of Buganda and the six-stringed adeudeu of Teso (bow-harp) are similar in shape with the eight or more stringed adungu of West Nile.It is so named because it consists of a curved stick that is attached to a trough which is covered with a skin. The lower end of the stick is fixed to the end of the trough. Strings attached to this part of the stick are passed through the skin and are tied to pegs driven into holes drilled at almost equal interval in the upper part of the stick

In the class of lyres comes the famous entongoli of Buganda sometimes called endongo when played to lead a wedding dance, embaga.In eastern Uganda a similar instrument called litungu of Bagishu provides music for the shoulder dance commonly called kamabega. In the class of zithers comes the nnanga of Kigezi and Acholi.String instruments emphasize the narrative and story-telling traditions of the people of Uganda.

Love songs, songs of praise, epics, dirges, and joyous messages are some of the typical styles covered by musicians engaged in playing string instruments.

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