Eritrean Music
Basic information about Eritrea: The country of Eritrea is located on the coast of the Red Sea at the Horn of Africa, and is bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Its population is roughly 5 million people who encompass an area of 45,406 sq mi, roughly the size of Pennsylvania.
Traditional Eritrean instruments:
The negarit (pictured on the left) is a drum made of metal or wood with a stretched animal hide for the head of the drum. The negarit is performed for celebrations, but has also been used to communicate messages in times of war and distress.
The kebero is a large conical drum with an animal hide skin on each side of the drum. Since the heads are different sizes, they provide different pitches, and the drummer uses one hand on each head to produce alternating pitches.
The embilta (pictured on the right) is a wind instrument that is traditionally made from the Argezana tree and comes in three forms: one with only one tone hole; another which has no tone holes, but pitch is changed by altering the position of the hand over the bell; and a third performed by rhythmically blowing air into it.
Additional wind instruments include the shambuko which is made from bamboo and is similar to the flute with six or eight tone holes to adjust the pitch. The meleket is made from bamboo or iron and is performed similar to a trumpet, the lips are buzzed to produce a pitch.
Traditional Eritrean music also features stringed instruments. The begena, kirar, and chera wata are similar to the harp, guitar, and violin, respectively.
The video below, is of traditional Eritran wedding music. Many of the instruments described can be seen in this video clip:
Contemporary Eritrean music:
On Youtube, Eritrean music videos are plentiful, but Teshamo Eritrean Music provides many mp3s that can be streamed, providing both old (traditional) and new Eritrean music 2011. Below is an Eritrean music video by Tesfalem Arefaine, who performs under the name, Korchach. He sings in Tigrinya, a Semitic language spoken in Central Eritrea. This performance is of a piece entitled “Eritrea Love Song.” Korchach began his musical career after his mother’s death during the conflict with Ethiopia.
The 1960s was a high point of musical production for Eritreans, but so too was the time during the armed conflict with Ethiopia. As of recently, music conferences have been held in Eritrea to discuss the cultural significance of Eritrean music; in general, it seems that the older generation is supportive of new, local artists. It is the tendency of some of these emerging artists to gravitate towards contemporary cosmopolitan music, but some composers are reaching back to their roots and embracing traditional Eritrean music and harmonies.
Images Sources: flickr.com/photos/zelan/page57/ and sonusantiqva.org
Additional articles that I have written about Eritrean music:
Eritrean Music 2010: Eritrea’s Got Soul
TeShamo Eritrean Music
