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….OF RHYTHM AND DRUMS

A few thousands of years ago on a dark stormy night, a tribesman knelt on the muddy banks of a river, turbulent and rough, his community drum, a tree bark with animal skin stretched over both its surfaces and fastened along the length of the bark tightly, set before him, he starts beating on the drum surface fervently, constant patterns, hopeful that someone on the other side would hear his appeal to come, rescue him from impending doom. As time passes by, his fervid beating intensifies, louder, faster, his drum screams for help voicing his desperation but in vain, he sees no one. His hopes for survival start ebbing as rapidly as his stamina, the pounding slows down, and the tribesman finally gives up in helplessness, suddenly through the raging winds can be heard, faint distant drums, faint but clear, a familiar rhythm, his call had been answered, for far away on a raft, a few men shouted and thumped on their tree-bark drums, their rhythm said, “fear not, help is here”.

Human beings have, for ages, resorted to rhythmic or semantic representations for communicative purposes. Rhythm has always been alongside man in all his activities, directed his actions, informed him, spoke for him and even entertained him. Even till this date in Africa, the Bakongo people, the Anlo-Ewe still perform dance-drumming rituals where the penalty for non-participation could amount upto the denial of a proper burial!! Drumming here is used as speech where a simple pattern played in a certain way could communicate large amounts of information. Drums in Africa are given names and even gender and instruments like the Udu and the Djembe owe their existence to the African people.In South India playing traditional drums form the essence for every ceremony. The Mridangam, Ghatam, Kanjira, Thimila, Edaka, Chenda, all have originated here. In Japan, the Kodo drummers and their powerful drumming on gigantic Taikos and Odaikos in distinct and graceful movements are as beholding to eyes as they are to the ears. The American Indians used wood and Gourd drums for music; some of which are still played these days. From the Middle –East to Latin America, every civilization has evolved as a source of a variety of rhythm instruments. But where and how did all this begin??The legend of the origin of rhythm leads us back through the centuries to the Stone Age where two cavemen, separated from their group couldn’t find their way back to the others. Lost in the wilderness they struggled to stay alive, then one fine day one of them, the male, found his companion dead. Being young and having never had seen any of his men dead, he didn’t know what to make of his partner’s stillness. On realizing that she wouldn’t wake, overcome with immense frustration and angst he started beating on her chest wildly, he knew that there was something behind her chest that thumped; he was desperate to put that beat back into her chest for he loved her, but all his efforts went in vain, she never awoke. Finally he had to leave her corpse and move on, but his act of desperation infused in him a certain inclination towards tapping, thumping in rhythm and making noise, he found a certain consolation in it. Interested in his newfound obsession, his companions too followed suit. Legend has it that, this was the first time man stumbled upon rhythm and its enchanting attributes.A drum is a membranophone, an instrument that is played by beating on a stretched membrane and they come in various sizes and interesting shapes. The largest drum in the world is a Japanese Nagado Odaiko, nearly 11feet across and weighing around 4 tons!!! Its placed on a wooden cart and played by as many as 4 drummers, 2 on either side. Now, a piece of animal skin or synthetic material and a hollowed out body is all that is needed to make a drum, and of course a stick to beat it with. It’s a mistaken piece of information that the sound of the drum is produced from its body, the sound originates from the membrane due to the vibration on its surface. Adjusting the tension on the membrane by tightening it over the body of the drum can alter the sound considerably. The earliest drums were made from tree-barks, hollow vegetables such as gourds and even metal.Drums first started appearing from excavations of the Neolithic Era. Various small drums have also been dug up from Mesopotamian ruins, as old as 3000BC; cylindrical drums have also been found in Egyptian ruins and a few caves in Peru. But the oldest known drum is from 6000BC!! Beat that!!The modern Goblet shaped Doumbek or the Darboukka and even the Tambourine were very popular instruments in the Middle East for less than a century. In the 19th century, Goblet shaped drums started appearing in Persia and a few Middle Eastern states, during this time similar drums evolved in Morocco and the playing styles and postures were the same as how one would play the frame drums i.e held under the arms and played with the fingers.The 16th century in India brought with it the Dholak and the Naqqaaraat, a frame drum. These were played in large dance ensembles and were a must for every celebration.The Tablas, less than a century old, are the principal rhythmic accompaniment to most North Indian classical music, are a two piece percussion instrument, they are strictly hand drums and are not to be struck by sticks. The Tablas are the most versatile percussion instruments and can produce an array of sounds (more than 20). The modern drum-kit did not start taking shape till the beginning of the 20th century, percussion, before that was a collective endeavor of many instruments played by many people, finally the discovery of the spring bass-drum pedal, the pedaled high hats and a few more such novel inventions gave drummers the ability and leverage to use both their hands to play a variety of other add-ons without having to bother about the Bass drum or the high hats.How serious an impact percussion and sound has had on our lives is reflected by its active usage in our terminology. It’s very common to say, Oh I shall be there with bells on, indicating that the speaker assures his arrival somewhere. To Bell the cat indicates taking initiative to execute an idea, to beat a retreat means to leave or run away, someone who marches to the beat of a different drummer has different or unconventional views and opinions and is different from others. There’s mention of drums in Shakespearian literature too, Celtic drums like the Tabor have been talked about in plays like The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest.Rhythm is ubiquitous, language, nature, life with all its splendor; all seem to pursue and function on a common universal code that rhythm is a way of life, right from the tiniest unit of life on Earth to the biggest Industrial technology, all follow a certain cyclic style of existence and operation that is so very much like what rhythm is characterized by. The very first drum in the world might have been made in order to either communicate or make music or even produce loud noise to scare wild beasts away, but in its origin lay dormant a huge prospect that kept taking shape down the years and today percussion itself can be considered a distinct genre of music with innumerable performers, drum-bands and ensembles around the globe.Few or none would have probably heard the caveman’s desperate wails to bring his love back to life that day; but little did he realize that in her death lay a birth, the birth of an all-pervading concept, a phenomena called rhythm.

Ronojoy Basu