Ferrinho
Encyclopedia
The ferrinho is a musical instrument, more precisely a scraped idiophone
. It is made up by a metal bar (generally of iron) that is scrapped by another metal object. The player holds the bar vertically, with its lower end in the palm of one hand and the upper end leaning against the shoulder. With the other hand, the player uses a metallic object, held horizontally, to scrape the bar with up-and-down movements. A custom-made ferrinho is usually 90 centimeters long, with a straight-angle section to ease handling.
The ferrinho is used to mark the rhythm in funaná
, a musical genre in Cape Verde
.
It is believed that the name “ferrinho” is an adaptation of “ferrinhos”, that is the name by which the triangle
is known in popular music in Portugal. In spite of the name, the ferrinho is more similar to instruments like the güiro
(scraped idiophone) than the triangle (directly struck idiophone).
Idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument's vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification...
. It is made up by a metal bar (generally of iron) that is scrapped by another metal object. The player holds the bar vertically, with its lower end in the palm of one hand and the upper end leaning against the shoulder. With the other hand, the player uses a metallic object, held horizontally, to scrape the bar with up-and-down movements. A custom-made ferrinho is usually 90 centimeters long, with a straight-angle section to ease handling.
The ferrinho is used to mark the rhythm in funaná
Funana
The Funaná is a music and dance genre from Cape Verde. Funaná is an accordion-based music. It is perhaps the most upbeat form of Cape Verdean music...
, a musical genre in Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
.
It is believed that the name “ferrinho” is an adaptation of “ferrinhos”, that is the name by which the triangle
Triangle (instrument)
The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
is known in popular music in Portugal. In spite of the name, the ferrinho is more similar to instruments like the güiro
Güiro
The güiro is a Latin-American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. The güiro is commonly used in Latin-American music, and plays a key role...
(scraped idiophone) than the triangle (directly struck idiophone).
Further reading
- Os Instrumentos Musicais em Cabo Verde (Brito, Margarida; Centro Cultural Português: Praia – Mindelo, 1998)
- Relatório Diagnóstico (Direcção Geral de Animação Cultural: Praia, 1988) Survey about musicians and musical instruments existing in Cape Verde
- Kab Verd Band (Gonçalves, Carlos Filipe; Instituto do Arquivo Histórico Nacional: Praia, 2006)
External links
- Listening example of Funaná music featuring a ferrinho and an accordion (From: Cabo Verde Projekt, a report in German about a project to document capverdian rhythms)