DRUMS and other sound-makers

Traditional Papua New Guinean musical instruments are primitive and fall mainly into the percussion and wind categories.

The hand drum or kundu is the pillar of musical performances or "sing sings" and there are hundreds of different varieties based on a common design: a hollowed-out log fashioned into an hourglass shape, with a reptile skin stretched over one end as the resonant membrane. The reptile skin (usually goanna or crocodile) is softened in water, stretched over the mouth of the drum and glued in place with tree sap, then bound firmly at the rim with cane.

Pieces of beeswax are attached to the skin to modulate the sound: the wax pieces are moved around until the right pitch is attained.

Kundus range from lightweight 10-inch miniatures which are tapped with two fingers, up to large (and heavy) 50-inch drums which are beaten with the whole hand.

Slit gong drums known as garamuts (left) are made of hollowed logs or tree trunks slit longitudinally along one side and beaten with sticks. Very large garamuts (up to 6 feet long) are used to summon people to meetings, to pass messages to nearby villages, and to perform rituals. Medium-sized and smaller garamut drums are portable and can accompany performers to sing sings and cultural shows.

 The Sepik and Highlands peoples have also developed a variety of flutes and whistles made from wood, bamboo, pottery and coconut shells. Flutes made of bamboo and cane with a wooden stopper are decorated with hair, feathers, shells and ochre. They are played during rituals and are considered to be voices of spirits. Flutes may carry motifs or designs which represent clan totems.

Bullroarers are swung at the end of a long piece of string and emit an eerie vibrating noise as they spin on their axis: again the sound is said to be the voice of a spirit. Pottery whistles in the Highlands province of Simbu are used in traditional courting rites. Spinning tops that whistle as they spin are mainly used by children for amusement.

NB Australia and some other countries have quarantine regulations which prohibit the importation of reptile skins of the type used to make kundu drums. We understand that this is not the case for USA and Europe but buyers are advised to confirm this with the relevant authorities in their own country before ordering.

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KUNDU DRUMS

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