Potdrum and GathamPotdrum and Gatham
by Friday Child (edited by Wout Blommers)
The udu is side-holed African clay-pot style drum mainly used by the Hausa and the Ibo. There's lots of different ways of playing them, but the main one is to drum on the side-hole while opening and closing another hole at the top, the hand being used to modulate the air chamber and thus shape the resonances. Gives a deepish sound peppered by some nice bright more distinctively percussive ones. The Ibo word 'udu' means 'peace' as well as 'pottery'. Udu is what most Westerners call them because the word is easy to say, but it has a variety of names in its traditional area such as "abang mbre" which simply means "playing pot" or "pot for playing". Originally, apparently, when you'd finished cooking with your pot you'd then double its usefulness by playing it after dinner (although one would have thought that rather big hole in the side made it pretty all-around useless for cooking ... but then why would one want to criticize a myth with that kind of practicality, ay!!) The Ibo in particular hold that in the udu dwells the voice of the ancestors, and it's therefore prominent in a lot of their religious ceremonies. Here's what some of them look like. Some clips, too, for you to listen to.
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Clay instruments similar to these are traditionally made and played by various peoples in Nigeria. In some societies they are played exclusively by women. Some believe their haunting sounds to be voices of ancestors. One of their traditional names is "udu" (pronounced "oo-doo"). They are also known as abang and kimkim. Udus have a side hole which creates a deep reverberating note when struck with the flat palm of the hand. The clay body of the vessel produces a high pinging sound when struck with the fingers. The combination of these two techniques sometimes sounds similar to the Indian tabla or African talking drum.
These udus are made in the traditional style, built by hand from long coils of clay and then paddled and scraped into shape. They are not thrown on a potter's wheel or made from molds. The gradual process of creating an udu takes approximately a month. The instruments with original organic designs and colors have been fired in a pit filled with wood, which produces these unique effects.
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A whole world away in South India is a somewhat similar instrument called the ghatam. This is a large clay pot used as a kind of percussive accompaniment in Indian classical music. This one is more usually placed on the lap and controlled with the hands (for beating) and the stomach (for the variations and resonances). Great instrument to play when you've got a belly full of food!!
Ghatam is nothing more than a large clay pot. It is very commonly played in South Indian classical performances. There are two actions of resonance. The primary one is the ringing of the pot caused by striking. A very low resonance is also produced by the cavity. This pitch is raised or lowered by opening or closing the hole with the stomach.
On the differrent types of Ghatams:
Ghatams are basically of two types - Manamadurai and Madras. The Manamadurai ghatam has a harder surface and calls for more effort from the artiste. Its tone is very metallic and pure because of the use of brass filings that are mixed with the clay. The Madras ghatam on the other hand uses a far simpler manufacturing technique and the tone is more husky. It is preferred a lot these days because complicated "sollus" or rhythmic patterns can be executed with much less strain. The Madras ghatam is also brittle and can break if extra pressure is applied.On the use of the belly technique:
For many years audiences have been used to seeing Ghatam artistes with their shirts open playing the ghatam with the mouth of the ghatam making contact with the belly. A lot of the older generation artistes even sat on stage without a shirt to facilitate this play. The use of the belly when playing added a base sound to the tone and accentuated the beauty of the rhythm. But over time the decibel levels because of amplification have made this sound very weak and it cannot be heard except during tani avartanams. Also the Manamadurai ghatam if played on continuously with the belly technique tends to cause a lot of fatigue and even chest pain in the long run, making it far more strenuous without too much benefit. Because of this the belly technique is slowly going out of vogue. It has of late been replaced by artistes stroking the mouth of the ghatam to produce a similar "gumiki" type effect. This practice is not followed by all as it is looked down upon by more conservative puritans.On throwing the ghatam up in the air:
This was a rather exciting act that drew spontaneous applause in concerts. This happens usually at the end of the tani avartanam, when a special "korvai" is played. These korvais are usually conceived with sufficient gaps in the structure. These gaps or "kaarvais" are long enough for the ghatam to be thrown up and caught back in the interval. Modern day korvais mostly employ continous patterns without much kaarvais or gaps and this has led to a decline of this practice. (Shri N.Govindarajan)Must confess, I've never actually heard either an electric udu or an electric ghatam ... but I made the patch anyway. It's kind of evocative, to me, of what the udu and ghatam do, although it's not really much like what they sound like.
Just trying to gradually get my hand back on on creating patches, having been away from it all for a while. Man, but I've forgotten almost everything I ever knew and what all them modules are for!!! When I first joined the group I dismembered a pile of patches to help me learn some stuff, and the basis for this patch is one of those dismembered patches. I can't any longer remember whose patch I started with for this one ... but I'm pretty sure in any case that what I've ended up with is nothing like that original! Credit where credit is due though. I think it might have been around the time I dug into a few patches submitted by Ernst Norbert-Kurth but I'm not sure any more. Had a quick look at his patches in the archive and couldn't immediately spot one that looked like this. Any, tip of the old hat to him cause I got a couple of neat ideas from him. And a big thanks to whoever the real original starting point was.
