Meridith Berson - Sacred Sounds

Meridith Berson - Sacred Sounds
Meridith Berson - Septemeber 19, 2010
I was doing some reading on the importance of music in the traditions of oral peoples and the reading explained how music was a show of caste, as well as that of worship, warning, gathering, and festivities. With emphasis on the drums, each culture had their own types of instruments and used them in different ways. Some instruments were seasonal and were only used on a few occasions, such as a flute after a good harvest. Drums were the most diverse and varied the most. Some used sticks to beat on the heads of the drums while others used their hands. Some drums even had ropes along the sides that allowed the musician to change the sound of the drum by how hard the squeezed it between their arm and their ribcage.
What I found most interesting in the article is how the instruments themselves symbolized things. For example, the heads of the drums were usually made out of sheepskin. The reason for that is because sheep are the most "talkative" of the animals. I thought this was really interesting how the drums which were used to replace the deficient words were in and of themselves supposed to symbolize speech.

Bibliography:
Clark, Nicole. "Music and Oral Traditions." Senegal Orientation. N.p., 08 Aug 2003. Web. 19 Sep 2010. .