What is the function of balafon instrument?
What is the function of balafon instrument?
The balafon, as well as the kora, was used to create music in praise of the kings and for ceremonies of importance.
What is the Senegalese balafon?
Product Information: Known to play beautiful and exotic melodic tunes, the balafon, a type of wooden xylophone or percussion idiophone, usually has between 16 and 27 keys. Each balafon is unique.
How is a balafon used by griots?
The Balafon is one of the important instruments played by the Griots. It was once an instrument only played for kings. It was fixed into the ground over holes to help the sound reverberate. It is made portable now through the use of gourds (pictured) which serve as the resonators.
What instruments are used in West Africa?
Instruments Used in West African Music The djembe, tama and sabar are drums. The balafon is like a xylophone, and there are several stringed and wind instruments, such as the reed flute, thekora and the kontingo.
Is balafon tuned?
The balafon usually has 17–21 keys, tuned to a tetratonic, pentatonic or heptatonic scale, depending on the culture of the musician. The balafon is generally capable of producing 18 to 21 notes, though some are built to produce many fewer notes (16, 12, 8 or even 6 and 7).
What instrument is the balafon related to?
xylophone
The balafon is a tuned West African percussion instrument. It is the ancestor of the marimba, xylophone and vibraphone, and has been known of in the Malian Empire since the 12th century.
Where did the balafon come from?
Origins of the Balafon The Balafon is believed to have been developed in the 12th century in the Southern Africa region during the rise of the Mali Empire. It has entertained crowds throughout the history of Southern and West Africa, growing in popularity across the African continent.
Why did Soumaoro spare Sundiata Keita?
Sumanguru, ruler of the neighbouring state of Kaniaga, overran Kangaba at the beginning of the 13th century and murdered all of Sundiata’s brothers. According to tradition, Sundiata was spared because he was a sickly boy who already appeared to be near death.
What is the most important instrument in West Africa?
West Africa (specifically Mali and the Mande people) has many of these harp/lute type instruments but the most widely known and used is the Kora.
When was the balafon invented?
Believed to have been developed independently of the Southern African and South American instrument now called the marimba, oral histories of the balafon date it to at least the rise of the Mali Empire in the 12th century CE.
What does a GYIL sound like?
The Gyil (pronounced JEE-lee) is one of the grandparents of the mallet keyboard family. It is made from fourteen wooden slats that are suspended, on a frame, over calabash gourds. Its sound is like the Western marimba, yet more “earthen” in character.
What kind of percussion instrument is a balafon?
The balafon (bala, balaphone) is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone.
Who are some famous people from Balafon Music?
The balafon has seen a resurgence since the 1980s in the growth of African Roots Music and World Music. Most famous of these exponents is the Rail Band, led by Salif Keita.
When did the balafon first appear in Africa?
Records of the balafon go back to at least the 12th century CE. In 1352 CE, Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported the existence of the ngoni and balafon at the court of Malian ruler Mansa Suleyman . European visitors to West Africa described balafons in the 17th century largely identical to the modern instrument.
What kind of wood is a balafon made out of?
Construction. Balafon keys are traditionally made from béné wood, dried slowly over a low flame, and then tuned by shaving off bits of wood from the underside of the keys. Wood is taken off the middle to flatten the key or the end to sharpen it.
