|
  Trinidad Torregrosa.
Set of Cuban Batá. From left: Okonkolo,
Itotele, Iyá.
 Gumbe (Kingston, jamaica,
1960). Wood and skin. Size: 12 x 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.
 Bokú (Cuba, Size: 35 x 12 x 37 in. approx.)
 Chekeré, Rhumba
instrument.
 Assotor (Haiti). Related to the Dahomeyan drumming tradition, the Haitian Assotor is the largest African-derived drum in the Americas, sometimes reaching over seven
feet in height. Some are painted and others are carved. This specimen is two
inches short of six feet.
 La Clave
 Two Apintis
(height: 22"), and a Loango Dra (height: 33"), from Paramaribo, Surinam.
 Set of Steel Drums (Trinidad, diameter: 23")
  La Caja.
Wood and Varnish (Havana, Cuba, 1958). Size: 8 1/2 x 9 1/4 x 14 7/8 in. (Trinidad, diameter: 23 in.)
 Rada cult drums from Haiti, 1960. Left: Maman
(height: 39 in.). Seconde (high: 31 in.).
 Two Fotomfroms
(height: 55"), and two Atumpans (height: 33
in.), from Ghana.
 Ghana's barrel-like sogo
(height: 28"), Kidi (height: 23 3/4 in.), and Kaganu (height: 22 in.).
 Kinfuiti (Cuba, height: 21")
 Bongos, Rhumba
instrument.
 Macumba cult drums from Brazil. From left: Lé
(height: 31 1/4"), Rum (height: 30 7/8"), Rumpi
(height: 31").
 Set of Nigerian Batá.
From left: Okonkolo, Itotele,
Iyá.
 Set of Nigerian Batá.
From left: Okonkolo, Itotele,
Iyá.
Curbeta from Venezuela (height: 18
3/4")
   Pandereta
(Rio de Janeiro, Brasil). Metal and Skin. Height: 2 3/8"
X diameter: 6"
 Los Timbales (Cuba). Steel and Skin. Approx:
31"x25"x12 1/2"
 Batá, Rhumba
instrument.
 Shango cult drums from Trinidad, From left: Congo, Bembo,
and Amalie. This set was purchased by Dr. Howard
from a Shango priestess in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, 1960. (height:
14").
 
|
Ritmos de Identidad
Fernando Ortiz's Legacy
and the Howard Family Collection
of Percussion Instruments.
Arts and Industries Building
Smithsonian Institution
February 28 - August 1, 2000
Elegguá: Music that opens the roads
In the popular Afro-Cuban religion Santería or Regla de Ocha, Elegguá is the god of the crossroads. Living in a place
of constant movement and interaction, he is the messenger for all the
spirits. His power to transform things means that he is the alaché-the owner of sacred power. His childish qualities
make him a trickster who creates misunderstandings and conflicts. He is
sometimes dressed half in red, half in black to sow confusion. Praising him
lessens the chances that he will disrupt a ritual. Music like this, which
invokes and praises him, opens all ceremonies in the religion because Elegguá "opens the roads," making communication
between humans and spirits possible.
Orishas: African Gods in the Americas
From 1780 through 1850, more than 500,000 Yoruba speakers from present-day Nigeria and Benin were taken to Cuba as slaves to provide labor for a
sugar boom. They brought their language, customs, beliefs, and a large
pantheon of deities called orishas. They adapted
their culture to meet new social pressures. Santería
is one of the results. The heart of the religion is an intimate relationship
between people and the orishas. People make
offerings to win the favor of the gods, who in turn bestow gifts and
blessings. These include health, luck, strength, peace and spiritual
evolution. Each orisha governs a different aspect
of human life and the natural world, and each has a personality, foibles,
virtues, and preferences for colors and foods.
Ochún: River of Riches
In Africa, Ochún
was the patron goddess of the city of Oshogbo and its river. In Cuba, she became an omnipresent deity
who "lives" in all rivers. She "owns" honey and the
sweetness of love and children. She delights in copper, brass and gold, and
provides her followers with wealth. She is considered sensual, cultured,
vain, and powerful. In Cuba, Ochún
is associated with Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre.
In 1607, two mestizos and a black slave discovered
a wooden image of the Virgin Mary with the inscription "I am the Virgin
of Charity." A chapel was erected for the image in the slave settlement
near the copper mines in the town of El Cobre. In 1915, the Pope declared Our
Lady of Charity the patron saint of Cuba. Since Ochún
reigns over copper and wealth, Cubans have associated her with the Virgin of
Charity of El Cobre.
Yemayá: Goddess of the Sea
Yemayá was a river deity among the Yorubas but in Cuba she became the goddess of the sea
and protector of all mothers. She loves molasses. Like the sea, she wears
different shades of blue and white, and can become suddenly turbulent. A
powerful dark-skinned mother, she gave birth to many
other orishas, including Elegguá,
Ogún, and Ochún. Her
following is strong in the town of Regla, across the bay from Havana. There she was associated with the
black Madonna, Our Lady of Regla, whose image has
guarded the shore since 1687. Like Yemayá, Our Lady
of Regla is the mother of God and sits by the sea.
In the mid-nineteenth century, enslaved Africans and their descendants
created an elaborate festival that included attending mass in the Regla church, sacrifices on the high seas, and a
procession to the sound of the bata, the sacred drums of Santería.
Sacred Drums of the Yoruba
Yoruba communities in Nigeria and Benin shared a language, a history, and
a religion. Drumming is an essential way of communicating with the divine in
this tradition. Double-headed batá drums are
critical in the rituals connecting humans and orishas.
These drums are relatively small and are usually bound together in groups of
three, four, or five. A male drummer plays all the drum heads to produce the
tonal language of specific ritual poems. A town or region customarily
worships a single orisha. Drummers invoke that orisha in rituals meant to encourage the deity to
manifest itself through possession.
Sacred Drums of Santería
In Cuba, the form and meaning of Orisha religion and batá
drumming were altered. Fernando Ortiz called this "transculturation."
By that he meant the mutually enriching process of cultural exchange. In Cuba, many deities are worshipped in
any given ceremony. Despite generations of repression, Santería
has blossomed in recent years and spread throughout the United States and other countries. In a Santería ceremony, three male drummers play a set of
three consecrated batá drums. Like a family, the
largest drum is the Iyá or "mother" and
the Okónkolo, the smallest, is the
"baby." The Iyá opens the call. The
middle drum, Itótele, responds to the Iyá's rhythmic and tonal conversation while the Okónkolo, holds a steady rhythm. The drummers thus
represent and communicate with specific orishas. Through
these sounds, the bat‡ drumming ceremony "brings down" a variety of
deities for the well-being of the community.
Encounters
In 1960, Dr. Joseph Howard traveled to Cuba. He was interested in acquiring a
set of Cuban batá drums made by master drum maker
Trinidad Torregrosa of Havana. Torregrosa
was well acquainted with Fernando Ortiz. Years earlier, Ortiz had asked Torregrosa to play the batá
drums for his project to express batá rhythms in
musical notation. Ortiz had thoroughly investigated the Afro-Cuban musical
tradition in a series of studies culminating in Los instrumentos
de la música afrocubana
(1952-1955). According to Ortiz, the batá arrived
in Cuba in the 1800's, when a Yoruba master arrived on the island in bondage.
The tradition of drumming became well established thereafter, and knowledge
was handed down from generation to generation. Making a batá
set is complicated because exacting standards must be met. Torregrosa was among the few masters with the know-how to
make a set of the sacred drums. The Pursuit of Identity Joseph H. Howard
(1912-1994) was born in Venezuela of African, European and East Indian
ancestry, and grew up in Chicago. As a child, he was fascinated by
rhythm and drumming. He attended Fisk University and earned a doctorate in dental
surgery at the University of Illinois. In 1946 he married Tommye Berry. They had two children, Brock and
Victoria. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1952, where Howard was exposed
to the rich drumming tradition in the Latino community. As a man of mixed
descent living in the United States, Howard felt compelled to
understand his multi-ethnic self. He would describe himself and his family as
"the fruit of the cross of cultures." Victoria describes her father's quest as
"the pursuit of identity through the eye of the drum." Dr. Howard
arranged his professional life so that he could dedicate a part of the year
to his collecting, while Mrs. Howard pursued her interest in African art. He
researched his collection thoroughly and published several books and articles
about it. Collecting, studying and playing drums was
his passion. He understood drums as sources of cultural history and embraced
them as symbols of pride.
An ongoing act of creation
As a drummer, Dr. Howard could participate in an ongoing act of creation.
Layering and weaving different rhythmic patterns with his drums, he could
create what in music is called polyrhythm: the simultaneous use of strikingly
contrasted rhythms in the musical fabric. Polyrhythm was his key metaphor for
family, community and identity: this he created using the contrasted
experiences and traditions of his ancestors. This is why drums expressed his
feelings about family. Many of the drums in his collection and in this
exhibit belong in families: they are related and make sense together.
In Search of Cuban-ness
Fernando Ortiz was
born in Havana in 1881 and died there in 1969. He grew up in Menorca, Spain, and received a doctorate of law
from the University of Madrid in 1901. When Cuba became independent the following
year, Ortiz embraced Cuban citizenship and served as a consular officer at
Corunna, Genoa, and Marseilles. In 1906, he returned to Havana and was appointed a prosecutor.
His early studies of Afro-Cuban culture reflected the racial prejudices of
the time. However, as Ortiz observed and studied African culture in Cuba, he became convinced that its
complexity, vitality and beauty were central to Cuban identity: "Cuba is Cuba because it is African." Of
course, he did not forget that Cuba's national identity was a river
fed by many sources. He loved Spain and founded the influential
Hispano-Cuban Cultural Society. He condemned racism and argued that cultural
exchange enriched people. Ortiz became an influential advocate for the
understanding of Cuba's African heritage. He wrote 30
books and countless other publications on Cuban anthropology, history,
musicology, ethnography and folklore. A tireless public intellectual, he was
his country's preeminent social critic
Ajiaco and Counterpoint
Fernando Ortiz's best known work is Cuban Counterpoint: Sugar and Tobacco
(1940). It explains how the interplay between Cuba's contrasting primary crops,
tobacco and sugar, shaped the island's history. Counterpoint, a musical term,
is a technique based on the opposition and contrast of notes. Ortiz's
metaphor is particularly appropriate for a country that has produced such
intricate and complex music. Ortiz also introduced the word "transculturation" to describe the process of
reciprocal cultural exchange. He chose Cuba's national dish, ajiaco, as an apt symbol for the Caribbean. Ajiaco
is a broth rich in native tubers and ingredients from many cultures and
traditions: "The Cuban ajiaco stewed, boiling
or simmering away, clean or dirty, varied according to the human ingredients
that went into the pot.... A thick stew of civilization bubbling hot on the Caribbean hearth."
Lydia CabreraLydia Cabrera
Lydia Cabrera (1900-1991) shares with Fernando Ortiz a key position in the
emergence of Afro-Cuban studies. She published no fewer than 23 books and
virtually everything she wrote is in print today. Her interest began in her
childhood when her nanny's tales opened her eyes to black Cuba. Those early experiences paved the
way to her pioneering book, Contes negres de Cuba (1936). Her best known work is El Monte (1954). Cabrera reports that
Ortiz, who happened to be her brother-in-law, was deeply moved by the book:
"Ortiz did not know what I was doing, and when I presented him a copy,
tears came to his eyes. She dedicated her life to recording and researching
Afro-Cuban oral traditions and Cuban culture and history. Lydia Cabrera died
in exile in Miami.
The House in Havana
Fernando Ortiz's residence in Havana was built at the time of his
marriage to Esther Cabrera, his first wife. They had a daughter, Isis.
Esther's sister was Lydia Cabrera, who was a major scholar. At the peak of Ortiz's influence, the spacious
neo-classic villa near the University of Havana was a veritable meeting place for
Cuban and international intellectuals. Ortiz, his second wife, María Herrera, and their daughter, María
Fernanda, welcomed to their home a stream of
informants, family friends, and the many who sought the scholar's counsel. Ortiz, worked in a study packed with books and notes
advancing several projects simultaneously. María Fernanda Ortiz shares her memories....
The House in Los Angeles
Victoria Howard remembers her father proudly showing his collections and
jamming with friends in the family room, which doubled as an exhibit area. A
huge Chinese drum presided from a corner, surrounded by djembes,
congas, bombos and sundry percussive instruments.
The Howard home was special. It was a place for family, music making,
collecting, and research. It was exciting and challenging. As the Howard
holdings grew, the collection became a major feature of their domestic
landscape and a point of reference in the lives of family members. From time
to time, Victoria would be photographed next to the
Haitian assotor, a vivid record of her growth.
Clave: Key to Rhythm
The clave, which literally means key, is both a musical instrument and a
rhythmic pattern of Afro-Cuban music. As a musical instrument, the clave is a
pair of hardwood sticks that are struck together. One stick called the macho
(male) hits another stick called the hembra
(female). A distinctive characteristic of clave rhythms is syncopation, or
the deliberate disturbance of the normal pulse, meter or accent. Clave
patterns are the underlying rhythmic skeleton of most forms of Afro-Cuban
music, from rumba to son. Fernando Ortiz argued that clave is of Cuban
origin, concretely from Havana.
The
clave is a hybrid instrument,
like all of Cuba's creole music,
which was born of the friction of two people enjoying each other
in a delicious frenzy of the senses,
so that miseries may be banished.
-Fernando Ortiz
The Rhythms of the Clave
The clave exemplifies the mixing of many different musical and cultural
influences from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The two forms of clave most
frequently used are the rumba or three-two clave and the son or two-three
clave. Additionally, there is a six-eight clave pattern played on
bells.
Los
ritmos de la clave
La clave ejemplifica la fusión de muchas influencias musicales y culturales
de Africa, Europa y las Américas.
Las dos formas de clave usadas con mas frecuencia son la clave de rumba o de
tres-dos y la clave de son o de dos-tres. Además, existe un patrón de
seis-ocho que se toca con las campanas.
Families of Drums
Big drums and little drums; drums made of wood and drums made of steel; drums
played with the hands and drums played with sticks,
and even friction drums. Dr. Howard collected them all, and his lifetime
passion is made manifest here. Families of drums from three regions - Africa, the Caribbean, and South America - let us experience continuities
and discontinuities in drum making traditions. Here we appreciate
construction and aesthetics and, if we look carefully, we will also see
Ortiz's idea of transculturation at work. Drums
from Jamaica, Trinidad, Brazil, Panama, Honduras, Ghana, Liberia, and other countries give us an
opportunity to understand it. Some of these drums are sacred like the atabaques from Brazil. Others are meant for carnival,
like the steel drums from Trinidad. All together they suggest that searching for identity
trough the eye of the drum is truly a never-ending quest.
Ogún: the Warrior
Ogún is a fiery warrior who lives hidden in the
wild and fights with a machete. For generations, he has inspired his
followers to break the chains of oppression and create new communities.
Beginning in the 18th century, enslaved Africans created societies called cabildos to honor their deities. The cabildos
took the names of Catholic saints and provided a place for people to continue
playing their traditional drums and speaking their languages. During the 19th
century, most major slave rebellions included cabildo
members. Therefore, they were ultimately outlawed. Altars like this one for Ogún are created for drumming rituals in Santería. The branches speak of Ogún's
wild abode. The machete is his weapon. Called thrones, these altars echo the
seat of royal power in Havana, where the colonial
Captains-General sat on an actual throne to receive the cabildo
leaders each year on the Day of the Kings.
Orishas in Trinidad
Trinidad received a relatively small Yoruba
slave population. There, the worship of the orishas
mixed freely with other traditions. Trinidadian Orisha
shrines honor Yoruba deities, Hindu gods, and Christian saints. Every year,
the faithful hold a week-long ceremony called an ebo.
At night, worshipers drum, sing, and dance, inviting the gods to possess
their followers. Once present at the feast, the gods dance, counsel the
faithful and heal the sick. Among the deities that appear is Ogun, the fighter. Like Elegguá
in Cuban Santería, he is the mediator between the
people and the gods. He is associated with Saint Michael and dresses in red
and white. Every shrine includes an altar or "stool" for him, for
everyone needs his strength, direction, and independence.
Drums of Freedom
Slave rebellions and maroon or runaway slave communities in the Americas are as old as slavery itself.
"Maroon" is derived from the Spanish cimarrón,
a term used for animals escaped to the wild. Maroons demonstrated that
freedom is born out of resistance. The tradition or marronage
accounts for Haiti's independence struggle. In 1804, Haiti, the first black republic in the Americas, was the first to abolish slavery.
Africans clung to the drums through the long night of slavery. Drums
communicated with the gods but they could also carry a message of defiance,
and perhaps of rebellion. They could be so unnerving to the masters that
authorities often outlawed them.
Vodou's Faith
Vodou was once a repressed religion. Its faith has
been kept alive because of the drumbeats that announced its forbidden
ceremonies. Vodou is a comprehensive system of
knowledge that gives meaning to the human experience in relation to the
natural and supernatural forces of the universe. It teaches how to overcome
hard times. In its rituals, worshippers invoke the spirits (lwa) by drumming and dancing. The lwa
take possession of the dancers, enabling them to counsel and heal. A specific
drum rhythm and dance posture is associated with each lwa.
The are two major groups of lwa.
The Rada lwa, of African
origin, are sweet and benevolent. Those of the Petwo
cult, born in slavery and oppression, are bitter and fierce. Ogou the warrior embodies characteristics of both.
Rhumba
Rhumba is the quintessential genre of Cuban secular
music and dance. In Cuba, African and Spanish musical
elements were transformed and woven together. Rhumba
emerged in the late 1800's and has components derived from the Congolese or
Bantu people of Africa brought to Cuba as slaves. The barrel-shaped drums
used in rhumba are commonly referred to as congas
because of this Congolese association. There are three kinds of rhumba rhythms: guaguancó, columbia and yambú.
Of these, the guaguancó is the most popular and
influential. In a rhumba ensemble, the claves start
playing a three-two rhythm, followed by one or two low pitched congas playing
a recurrent pattern. The higher pitched conga, or quinto,
improvises over the lower pitched ones creating intricate polyrhythms.
Other instruments of rhumba are maracas, shekeres, guiros, cajones, and
bells, like the ones you see in this ensemble.
Caribbean Music and its Influence
Caribbean and Latin music have been
influential in the United States for over a hundred years. Virtuoso
percussionists from Cuba, Puerto Rico and other countries migrated to
the United States, creating opportunities for
collaborations between musicians from different areas of the world. The early
marriage of Afro-Caribbean percussion and jazz created a distinct sound which
is referred to as Latin jazz. Other distinct styles followed such as mambo, boogaloo, and salsa. Rhythms such as rhumba,
bomba, son, and plena
became popular in many urban areas. They took root in American music,
influencing rock and roll, swing, blues, and other genres. The impact was
more than musical, it was also aesthetic. The combination of colorful,
joyful, and intricate costumes and rhythms became a trademark of Caribbean music performances. Caribbean music promotes new forms of
creativity in the ever-changing counterpoint between tradition and
innovation.
The "New" Percussion
Instruments of Caribbean Music
Throughout this exhibition, we have encountered traditional drums from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. Companies such as Latin
Percussion, Remo, and Toca
represent a new era in the development of Latin sounds for global
consumption. Here you see drums made with new materials using technological
innovations to construct a new generation of drums modeled after many of the
traditional ones. These drums are used by professional and amateur
percussionists playing music as traditional as rhumba
and as contemporary as rap. Made with fiberglass, polyester, leather, wood,
and metal, these drums show that Caribbean music is alive and kicking.
Livin' the Latin Rhythm
Imagine it is Saturday night at the Palladium night club in New York City. The year is 1950. The sounds,
sights, and smells of Latin music and dance envelop you. "Machito and his Afrocubans"
are playing a hot Latin jazz number, and as far as the eye can see, there are
couples dancing. With wondrously colorful and eye-catching costumes, they
dance the night away. The music is electrifying, the virtuoso performances
explosive. This is the beginning of the Latin and mambo craze. From here on,
Latin music will become a permanent fixture in North America and the world. Many of the objects
shown here bear the names of important figures in Latin music from the 1940s
until the present. The posters, photographs, advertisements, and record
covers illustrate the vitality of the moment and suggest that Latin music will
continue for centuries to come.
|
Bongos, a rumba
instrument.
Signal drum (Jamaica, height: 8").Made from tin
can, the signal box retains a commercial label, a reminder of its previous
life as an object.
Loango Dra, from Paramaribo, Surinam
El Coco de Edik Obuton
(havana, Cuba, 1960). Size: 5x5x13 in. approx.
Guagua (Cuba, lenght:
24")
Catá with stand (Cuba, length: 19")
Blafon (Ghana, length: 82")
Tango, a rumba instrument
Quinto (Cuba, height: 26")
Bata Moderno
(Panam, 1958). Wood, Skin, Metal and Varnish. Size:
22 in. high x 9 3/4 in. head x 11 in. base.
Bula (Haiti, height: 27")
Prototype from Cuban
ensemble, the Nigerian batá can be grouped in sets
of three, four or five instruments. From left: Iyá,
Okónkolo, Itótele.
Chekeré (Nigeria)
Curbeta (Venezuela. height:18 3/4")
Garifuna religious drums from Belize. From left: Tuba (height: 19
3/4"), Primero (heigth:
17 1/4"), Segundo (height: 19 3/8")
Marinbula (Jamaica, 24 x 16")
     
|
