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Name: Trumpet (elephant tusk)

Geographic Region: Africa

Country of origin: Liberia

Climatic type: Warm and humid year-round.

Classification: Aerophone

Definition: African ivory side-blown trumpet

Material:

• Ivory (elephant tusk)

Author: Angela Opell
           

Physical description | History | Technique | Context | References

Physical description

As with most ivory side-blown trumpets of Africa, this example has a tone hole in the tip and a mouthpiece hole on the concave side close to the tip. Examples with the hole in the convex side exist, as found in the culture of the Edo people of southwestern Nigeria. The trumpet's deep red color (white ivory does not discolor with age) is probably due to rubbing with red palm oil. Ivory side-blown trumpets from Africa range in size from small (six to twelve inches long) to very large (up to eight feet in length). This specimen is of medium size (approximately x inches long). Although this trumpet is not intricately carved, many examples are. A flattened ring near the tip and a series of smaller carved rings on the convex side of the trumpet could serve either as decoration or to allow for attachment of the trumpet to an individual or another implement.

History

Side-blown trumpets have probably been present in African cultures for many centuries. This example was acquired in the late nineteenth centuries by Wesleyan missionaries in West Africa, possibly Liberia. Regarding the possible origin of this type of trumpet, the mythology of the Kpelle people of Liberia includes a story in which the first turu (a horn of this type often made from ivory) was created by a chief's decree after a group of women asked him how they might preserve the song of the tuu-tuu birds they heard while fishing in a creek. (Stone 95)

Technique

Sachs and Hornbostel classify this type of trumpet as Naturtrompeten, a classification which ignores the tone hole on the tip of the trumpet. While most trumpets are played using a combination of lip-vibration and overblowing, this type of trumpet is most often played using a combination of lip-vibration and pitch alteration. The term chromatische Trompeten is more appropriate for this type of instrument since the stopping of the tone hole in the tip performs essentially the same function as the valves of a Western trumpet, that of changing the length of the sounding tube. When stopped the tone hole of this type of trumpet lowers the open pitch by approximately a small minor third.

The pitch alteration made possible by the tone hole allows players to replicate, to a degree, their spoken language. Most often reproduced are names, proverbs and signals for official and military purposes.

The Kpelle people of Liberia play the side-blown turu in ensembles of four to six horns using a hocketing technique.

Context

Ivory horns are, by nature of the material, symbols of leadership and prestige. The Kpelle of Liberia use the horns for military signaling and other official functions. Horns of this type are also used, throughout their wide area of distribution, in a wide-range of contexts including weddings, funerals, royal circumcisions, initiation rituals, court dances, etc.

References

Elephant: The Animal and Its Ivory in African Culture, ed. Doran H. Ross. Los Angeles; UCLA, 1992.

Stone, Ruth. 1982. Let the Inside be Sweet: The Interpretation of Music Event among the Kpelle of Liberia. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP.

Stone, Ruth. 2001. "Liberia" In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press; New York: Groves Dictionaries of Music.

Tarr, Edward. 1984. "Trumpet" In The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press; New York: Groves Dictionaries of Music.

Last Modified: 05-May-2005