Lamellophone

A lamellophone, also known as a lamellaphone or a linguaphone, is a type of musical instrument on which the sound is made by plucking thin strips of metal, cane, wood, or some other flexible material. The strips are held to a soundboard, usually made of wood or metal. Each strip is tuned to a different note, and the tune is played by plucking each strip in turn, similar to what happens when the mechanism in a music box turns. Many African instruments, such as the kalimba, karimba, and the mbira, are lamellophones, as are mouth harps. Lamellophones are ancient instruments that are still played in the twenty-first century.

Background

The word lamellophone comes from the Latin word lamella, which means "plate," and the Greek word phonos, which means "sound." The alternate name linguaphone comes from the Latin word lingua, which means "tongue." This refers to the tongues of metal or wood that are attached at one end of the soundboard. The lamellophone is not a specific instrument, but rather it is a classification for a group of instruments that each have their own name. The term lamellophone came into use in the 1970s.

There are more than one hundred different types of lamellophones in use in Africa, where the instrument type is believed to have originated. Each of these differs in construction, note layout, and sound. Until the early part of the twentieth century, they were seldom played outside the African continent, despite their centuries-old history.

The earliest known form of lamellophone is a kalimba, which is made of bamboo and found in the northwestern portion of Africa. It dates back to about 1000 Before the Common Era (BCE). A version made with metal tines was found in eastern Africa and is thought to date to about 700 BCE. The similarity between the music played on the kalimba and that played on the xylophone led experts to think that the kalimba was meant to be a sort of one-player portable xylophone. Xylophones of the time were large instruments that were played by two players facing each other, each playing different sets of tongues to sound the notes. The kalimba stacked the two sets of tongues and allowed one player to play the instrument.

Variations on these instruments, including the mbira, are estimated to be about one thousand years old, and the karimba is estimated to have first been played about five hundred years ago. Some of this history is known through archeological evidence. Other evidence is provided by reports from European explorers who visited Africa, including some Portuguese travelers who documented the kalimba in 1570. When Africans were forcibly removed from their homelands as enslaved peoples, they sometimes brought their instruments with them. However, the instruments were not adopted by other areas. A few instruments made it into European museums during the nineteenth century, but they were simply regarded as folk instruments of little value.

Englishman Hugh Tracey is generally credited with awakening the Western world to the music of the African lamellophone. While traveling in Rhodesia, Tracey was fascinated by the music of the mbria. He began recording it and spent years traveling throughout Africa, finding, recording, documenting, and learning how to play many forms of lamellophones. He founded the International Library of African Music to store the information he had gathered, and he then began making his own instruments. In the 1960s, his sons collaborated on a Broadway musical revue called Wait a Minim! that introduced many to the sounds of African lamellophones. Within a few years, others were making and playing African-style lamellophones. The instruments were even used in some rock music by bands such as Earth, Wind & Fire.

Overview

Lamellophones are part of a larger class of instruments known as idiophones. Idiophones are instruments that vibrate to produce sound when plucked, struck, shaken, or scraped but do not have strings or a stretched membrane. The classification includes not only lamellophones but also percussion instruments that do not have a membrane (drum head), such as gongs, bells, and rattles. Mouth harps, also known as Jew's harps or jaw harps, and music boxes also fall into this class.

All lamellophones have long, thin strips of wood, metal, or some other material that are attached at one end to a soundboard. The soundboard helps to amplify the sound when the strips are plucked. Each strip is tuned, usually by being cut to a different length, to help it play a specific note. The instruments can have a variety of numbers of strips, which are sometimes in a single row and sometimes in double or triple rows. Some lamellophones are enclosed in a box or gourd to further amplify the sound. Many of the African instruments are commonly referred to as thumb pianos or hand pianos, but purists see these terms as inaccurate and avoid using them.

While African lamellophones are more numerous, there are also a number of lamellophones that developed in other areas and are played in a very different way. In ancient Southeast Asia and other areas, instruments were developed that were played by holding part of them in the mouth and plucking a part that remained outside the mouth. Made of brass and other metals and sometimes of wood, these instruments were played by using the throat and mouth as part of the resonation (in place of a soundboard). Some of these were meant to play rhythmic tunes, while others were designed to replicate sounds from nature, such as croaking frogs.

The form known as a mouth harp is made of metal that is bent into a shape that fits into the mouth and has a small metal tongue that extends out to be plucked. The mouth harp has been found in many areas of the world, including Asia, Russia, Polynesia, Europe, and America. In the twenty-first century, lamellophones remained an essential part of many African cultures and traditions. They continued to be used in traditional music but also found a way into contemporary and popular music. The music of the lamellophone also continued to spread globally. Modern materials often replaced traditional ones in the contemporary manufacturer of lamellophones, altering the sounds and styles they produced. 

Bibliography

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