Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Drum.
The drum is the musical instrument par
excellence among the negroes. At the Congo
there is no assembly, no ceremony, no func-
tion whatever vvnich is not accompanied with
the drum. It is this instrument which plays
the most important part in war and peace,
in birth and death, in rejoicing or mourning,
in dance or burial. When it is played in a cer-
tain way it serves for telegraphic communi-
cation, and renders it possible in difficult
times to transmit messages for a long dis-
tance.
This instrument is to be found in the
most diverse forms. There are some which
are quite small; others which exceed a
man's height.
The frame is made of
pieces of wood fastened together, or of the
hollowed trunk of a tree. The skin of a wild
animal or cow, or thin board, does duty as a
resonant surface. Some drums are fashioned
into shapes which are really artistic. That
which is in use in the basin of the Kassai has
the form of an enormous bottle, and the skin
is fixed by means of thin strips of leather, or
a trunk which has been hollowed by fire.
The drum often possesses an astounding
sonority. M. Woerner in 1886 heard the
Manufacturers
of Fine
sound of the military drums of the Aruwimi
at a distance of more than two miles. "Day
and night," he writes, "the sound of drums
is heard, which showed that the tribe was at
war."
When the traveler in Africa hears drums
during the night he can always tell whether
he may expect war on the next day. When
the instrument is struck in a plaintive manner
and with fioriture there is nothing to
fear; the natives are only having a dance.
But if the sound of the drum is slow, sonor-
ous, and the accent well marked, it is a sign
that preparations are being made for war on
the morrow.
When Stanley went down the Congo for
the first time he was often annoyed by the
horrible drum, the sound of which accompan-
ied him for whole weeks as the Lady Alice
descended the river. The war drum of the
tribes of the Stanley Falls and the Aruwimi is
put down near the chief's hut, and is only
beaten at his command. It is also used as a
means of communication. It is beaten in
different places according to the nature of the
news or the signal which it is desired to
give, "and thus," says the celebrated travel-
er, "the drum speaks to the initiated a lan-
guage as intelligible as the human voice."
33
In this manner all the islands learn, hour by
hour, what is going on elsewhere.
The use of the drum is also one of the
most usual ways by which sorcerers impose
on their credulous spectators. One day at
Bangala Coquilhat was attracted by a sudden
tumult. He ran up to the hut of a young
man who was dying and whom they were try-
ing to save by singing dance tunes and by a
deafening beating of the drums.
In Belgium they put down straw to deaden
the sound; in Africa they do just the con.
trary. . . . The funniest thing about it was
that the young man got better!
The drum is also employed in exorcisms,
and it plays an important part in obtaining
from the spirits success in war.
On evenings when the moon shone bright-
ly, or when it is fine the native youths organ-
ize dances. The instrumental music con-
sists of the beating of drums with a well-
marked accent, sometimes slowly, at others
quickly; now slackening only to start off
again with a sudden outburst.
The dan-
cers accompany with songs. One side of the
drum is beaten with a little stick, the other
they tap with the palm of the hand.
At the
exciting portions of the dances the drums are
struck in a frenzied manner, with jerks in-
creasing in rapidity, and at the final galop
there reigns a fearful ill-sounding noise of
voices, little bells, gongs and howls, while the
drums always provide the accompaniment.
Stultz & Bauer.
PIANOS.
Factory, 511 West 40th Street,
NEW YORK.
ESTABLISHED IN 1849.
At the Stultz & Bauer factory on Friday,
the business report was very satisfactory in-
deed. Mr. Golden is still on the road, doing
well. Mr. Bauer has just returned from a
brief trip and expresses himself as well satis-
fied with results.
This year promises to be a red-letter one in
the record of Stultz & Bauer.
In Town.
FINEST TONE,
BEST WORK AND
MATERIAL.
It I
U I
I
I
PRICES MODERATE AND 7 0 0 0 0 M A D E
TERMS REASONABLE.
A Pin
Among the members of the trade in town
this week were Frank A. Lee, of the John
Church Co., Cincinnati, O. ; Geo. W. Arm-
strong, Jr., of I). H. Baldwin Co., Cincin-
nati, O. ; Geo. P. Bent, Chicago; Melbourne
A. Marks, Boston; Frank W. Thomas of
Albany, N. Y.; C. R. Stevens of the Stevens
Organ Co., Marietta, O. ; E. VV. Furbush,
Vose & Sons Piano Co. Boston.
IN USE
EVERY
INSTRUMENT
FULLY WARRANTED.
Thieves who are probably amateurs en-
tered Ruckstuhl's piano store, Main avenue,
Passaic, N. J., last Tuesday night and se-
cured $4 in cash, twenty-five harmonicas
and several dozen mandolin, guitar and violin
strings.
ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE FREE.
PIANO KEYS AND CASES
EMERSON PIANO CO.
The New York Piano Key Co. is not only maintaining
its reputation of making the best Piano ana Pipe Organ
Keys in this country, but have added to their plant a first-
class Piano Case nakinjf Department, and guarantee to
furnish the very best of casework at the lowest price
possible.
Office and factory for both departments at Peterboro, N. H.
BOSTON.
NEW YORK.
CHICAGO.
Mason&lamlm
Highest Grade Pianofortes
(WRE5T-PIN AND STRINGER SYSTEMS.)
LISZT, CHURCH, CHAPEL and PARLOR
ORGANS.