Batá drums
Encyclopedia
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
shaped like an hourglass with one cone larger than the other. The percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
is used primarily for the use of religious or semi-religious purposes for the native culture from the land of Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
, located in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, as well as by worshippers of Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Puerto Rico, and in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
History
Several different types of drums have existed throughout the world. Occasionally, natives from cultures which the drums originate, as in the case of the Yorùbá, used the drums for religious ceremonies and, since their introduction in Cuba in the 1820s, have come to be an understood and important part of the perceived culture of the southwestern Nigerian people.The drum dates back roughly 500 years, and is believed to have been introduced by a Yoruba king named Shangó el rey del tambor. Despite the previous long history, awareness of the instrument didn't spread until the 1800s slave-trade in which close to 300,000 Africans were brought to Cuba. The religion and beliefs the Yorùbá brought with them eventually became the basis for what is known as Lukumí (or Santería in Cuba). This religion spawned the creation of the first 'sacred' Batá in Cuba around 1830 by a Yorùbá named Añabi.
The Batá slowly became inducted into the Cuban culture after a time, and began to take on more secular uses: they were first publicly performed in 1935 in a broadcast over Cuban radio for purposes of folklore music. Uses such as this have grown as knowledge of the instrument has spread; more and more musicians not currently practicing Lukumí have used versions of the drums in recordings or performances. These 'non-sacred' Batá drums are called aberínkula--profane Batá (see Sacred-profane dichotomy
Sacred-profane dichotomy
French sociologist Émile Durkheim considered the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane to be the central characteristic of religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden." In Durkheim's theory, the...
). Batá drums and rhythms have started to be used in other genres, most notably in Cuban timba
Timba
Timba is a Cuban genre of music sometimes referred as salsa cubana . However, the historical development of timba has been quite independent of the development of salsa in the United States and Puerto Rico and the music has its own trademark aspects due to the Cuban embargo and strong Afro-Cuban...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. In the 1970s, for instance, a mixture of Batá drums and Big Band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
called Son-Batá or Batá Rock became popular, a genre highly influenced by Los Irakere.
Skilled secular musicians made appearances in the United States throughout the twentieth century; the likes of Julito Collazo
Julito Collazo
Julio "Julito" Collazo was a master percussionist.Collazo was born in Havana, Cuba. He began playing the ritual music of Santería on the batá drums at the age of fifteen. He moved to United States in the fifties to join in a world tour with the Afroamerican dancer Katherine Dunham and her Dance...
and helped the spreading of such mainstream uses in the context of Latin music.
The Lukumí and the Batá
The Lukumí (or commonly called santeríaSantería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
) religion and Batá drums are closely associated.
The drums are played simultaneously (often with a rattle or "atchere") to create polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
ic compositions, or "toques" during santería ceremonies. A ceremony with batá drums is generally known as a "toque," "tambor de santo," or "bembé," but ceremonies can also be accompanied by shaken gourd-rattle "chékere" (in English "shekere") ensembles (usually with tumbadora, also called conga drums). There are estimated to be at least 140 different toques for the spirits (saints, or santos) and their different manifestations. There are two important "rhythm suites" that use the sacred batá drums. The first is called "Oru del Igbodu", (a liturgical set of rhythms) alternatively called "Oru Seco" (lit. "Dry Oru" or a sequence of rhythms without vocals) which is usually played at the beginning of a "tambor de santo" that includes 23 standard rhythms for all the orishas. The selections of the second suite include within them the vocal part to be performed by a vocalist/chanter (akpwon) who engages those attending the ceremony in a call-and-response (African) style musical experience in which a ritual is acted out wherein an "initiate" (one who through the great spirit Añá is granted the ability to perfectly play the Batá drums) plays the new Batá set, and thereafter is introduced to the old Batá set. This is said to 'transfer' (through the initiate) the spirit or Añá of the drums from the old set into the new set.
Certain long-standing rules and rituals govern the construction, handling, playing, and care of the sacred batá: traditionally only non-castrated male deer or goat hide was used—female goats along with bulls, cows, and sheep were considered unsuitable; also only an initiate was considered worthy to touch or play the batá as only they have undergone the full ritual of 'receiving Añá' granting them the forces deemed necessary to play the drums. Also, before a ceremony, the drummers would wash themselves in omiero, a cleansing water, pray, and for some time abstain from sex.
Also traditionally in Cuba, in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
the batá are rarely played after sundown, while in Matanzas
Matanzas
Matanzas is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. It is famed for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore.It is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas , east of the capital Havana and west of the resort town of Varadero.Matanzas is called the...
toque ceremonies often begin at night. This apparent contradiction is not the only one reaching both adherents of Lukumí and others interested in African music, religion and culture. The Cuban style of playing the drums is similar, but in some musical contexts different rhythms may be used.
In the last few decades, the popularity of the batá drums has increased worldwide so significantly that they have begun to be produced in greater numbers both by large western drum companies and individual artisans in Africa using a variety of "non-traditional" materials even including fiberglass drums, some instrument builders preferring cow skins or even synthetic membranes, while some traditionalists may express disdain for this trend and insist upon strict orthodoxy (as others and newcomers embrace the unique tonal ranges of the drums purely for their abstract musical possibilities without observance of traditional rules and rituals). These seemingly conflicting points of view remain paradoxical within the musical "landscape," as has been the global evolution of the Indian Tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
, both families of percussion instruments finding application in often surprisingly diverse musical settings far from their roots, although batá perhaps having a closer religious affinity with Lukumí than tabla with Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
.
Those who practice Lukumí believe that certain sacred rhythms performed on the batá contain the levels of spiritual forces required to allow such impassioned ritual music to summon Orishas, who in turn inhabit or possess (more in the sense of angelic rather than demonic possession) one or more of the followers gathered for worship and/or participating in the ritual. Followers of Lukumí believe that Orishas are responsible for control of all natural and life-related forces, however the most-frequently stated primary purpose of the batá is simply for glorification of the deified Changó
Chango
Chango may refer to:People*José de Jesús Méndez Vargas , nickname El Chango, alleged Mexican drug cartel leader*Chango Spasiuk , Argentine chamamé musician and accordion player...
, also known as "The Great Spirit" or less ceremoniously as thunder and lightning. Hence such ceremonies and rituals are often performed for blessing important life transitions and events like weddings, relocations, passage to the afterlife, or other events and festivities.
Parts of the Batá
In Cuba, the batá consists of a set of three tapered cylinders of various sizes. Iyá, the largest, is referred to as 'mother drum'. Itótele, the middle one, and Okónkolo, the smallest, are called 'father' and 'baby', respectively. In Nigeria, there are five sizes of batá, which can be played either by hand, or using a leather play strap. In Matanzas, the older Batá lineages play with one hand and the sole of a shoe or other improvised strap. In Cuba, it is common to see the drums decorated with small bells and chimes, which are called Saworoide or "Saworo" in YorubalandYoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
and Chaworoide or "Chaworo" in Cuba; such bells are attached to one or two "igbaju" leather straps for mounting on the Iya. The larger drum head is called the "enu," while the smaller is the "chacha."