double-headed drum, enyà, sala, galo

Double-headed drum system used by the Nupe people of Nigeria, described in Blench (2010). The instrument itself (enyà in Nupe generally; sala for larger drums and galo for a smaller snareless variant) is a cylindrical wooden membrane drum with two drumheads, one of which is typically snared (Blench 2010:18). The instrument varies in dimension from 20 x 20 cm to 70 x 50 cm. It is held vertically by a shoulder strap and beaten with a curved stick.The language is tonal, with L, M, and H register tones, as well phonemic falling and rising contours (4).Writing generally about Nupe surrogate language, Blench says: “instrumental performance is characterised as a type of speech since instruments can imitate speech tones and thus ‘say’ things” (8). About the enyà: “a master-drummer can beat a proverb on a two-headed drum, using the upper and lower skins and pressing the skin to produce a third contrastive timbre” (18). In Blench’s transcription of an example proverb, the “upper” and “lower” drumheads correspond to H and L tone respectively, with the “pressed” or “dead” tone corresponding to M tone (18).

Blench, R. (2010). Oral literature genres of the Nupe of Central Nigeria. rogerblench.info