DescriptionTechnical description: Wooden bow, length over curve 833; 3 strings from a single length of nylon.
General usage: Musical bow traditionally played by women of the Acholi people of Uganda. Made of a flexible stave, or wooden stick, curved by the tension of attached strings stretched between the ends. A single bowstring may also be laced more than once across the frame of the stave. It can be played alone or attached to a resonator made from an inverted half-calabash (bottle gourd) or cooking tin. Also known as an adingili to the Alur people (of Uganda and DRC).
Performance technique: Primarily played recreationally as a solo instrument or with a resonator to accompany the performer’s song. The fundamental pitch can be varied by the performer. To change the pitch, the performer can stop the string at various points with their chin, a finger, thimble, small stick, or the edge of a coin. Although they are commonly played singly, since the 1970s, the adungu has been used as an ensemble instrument, often as guitars to create triadic harmonies to accompany songs and hymns. It is now made in three or four different sizes and can be up to two meters long.
Historical sources and dispersal: There are a variety of musical bows like the adungu, widely distributed in Africa, America, Oceania, parts of Asia, and Europe. It is thought that the hunting bow was invented in Palaeolothic times and historians have suggested that the musical bow was invented simultaneously. This link continues today in parts of Angola and Namibia, where people transform their hunting bows into musical bows by attaching a tuning noose and using the mouth or shell of a fruit as a resonator. Popular legends have also paired the hunting and musical bow: the Greek god Apollo was both an archer and god of music; according to Japanese legend, the god Ameno Kamato was said to originate the koto by placing six archers’ longbows close together with their strings at the top. |