Penny whistle

Image: the Whistle and Drum

In my memory, the penny whistle  is associated with the wave of Irish music that hit North America in the sixties. Here's The Mason's Apron, a reel played on the tin whistle.

It was played by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem to accompany their immensely popular Irish traditional songs.

Tin whistles, as they are also called, can be found in South Africa too, and other parts of the world as well.

Harmonica

Image: Encyclopedia of Appalachia

Bob Dylan used to wear one of these on a rack around his neck so he could blow on it between the stanzas of his lonesome ballads and protest songs.

I had one too -- a Hohner like the one in the picture, but I never mastered playing anything but the most rudimentary melodies on it.

Kalimba or Thumb piano

This image of a San style Thumb piano comes from Toronto Dowsers

The kalimba, with its Bantu name, is the descendant of an ancient African instrument called an mbira, which may date back to the civilization of Great Zimbabwe.

Thumb pianos are held in both hands and played with the thumbs. The hand position resembles the hold and operation used by the young with smart phones.

The first time I heard this instrument played was in the early seventies in Central Africa Imports on West Fourth Avenue. I lived only a couple of blocks away, and used to come to Tom and Alvina's shop to look at the Makonde sculptures and colorful clothing and also to smell the exotic oils of patchouli, frangipani and sandalwood.

Tom used to work for the National Museum of Tanzania. I loved listening to his stories and enjoyed hearing him play various thumb pianos he had brought back with him.

His wife Alvina used to take orders for daishikis and loose shirts made from wonderful cloth she had acquired while living abroad: Dutch Java prints and striped Indian cottons. To defray the cost of a top-of-the-line Bernina sewing machine I'd just bought, I offered to do some of the sewing.

Over time, Alvina and I formed a strong bond of friendship that lasted through Tom's death shortly after they retired to Salt Spring Island to her own passing when she was in her eighties. By then I knew her very well.

Every time I hear a thumb piano, I remember Tom, and the many hours I spent in the shop. These small and simple instruments are amazingly versatile. Here is a delightful kalimba solo by SaReGaMa.

Bongo drums

Image from get-tuned

Bongo drums date back to nineteenth century Cuba, and before that to Africa. They consist of a pair of drums joined at the hip, if a drum can be said to have a hip.

As in humans or animals, the relative sizes of the "sexes" differ. The female drum or hembra is larger and the male or macho is smaller.

To maintain a good sound, the hembra tuned to a lower pitch than the macho. Leather drum heads need to be maintained; when they get dry, a small amount of lanolin or almond oil can be rubbed in. Nowadays some drums have synthetic heads, but purists still consider that while animal skin heads require more careful maintenance, they make better sounds.

To hear a virtuoso play bongos, go here.

Annual CAA Literary Awards

Two Solitudes, by Hugh Maclennan, was the 1945 winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards. It originally sold a remarkable 47,000 copies (John Meier, McMaster U) and has been re-issued many times since.

As part of the annual Canadian Authors' Association conference, the Literary Awards were announced on Saturday night in Orillia, Ontario, the hometown of Stephen Leacock, who was a professor of mathematics at McGill University as well as Canada's most beloved writer of comedy. Leacock was also a founding member of the CAA.

Last night, the Fiction Award went to Christopher Meades. His novel, The Last Hiccup (ECW Press) beat out the work of fellow-nominees Tricia Dower, Stoney River (Penguin), and Vincent Lam's latest, The Headmaster's Wager, reviewed here in Quill and Quire.

The poetry prize went to Newfoundlander Don McKay for Paradoxides (McClelland and Stewart). Fellow contenders were Julie Bruck (Monkey Ranch) and Emily McGiffin (Between Dusk and Night).

Two young writers, Jay Bahadur and Claire Battershill, share the 2013 prize for emerging writers. Battershill recently won a CBC prize for her short story "Circus", and the young journalist Bahadur wrote a book called The Pirates of Somalia (Random House).

Congratulations to all.

Charangos and pan pipes

Charango and pan pipe photos from cityfolk.org

Which traditional Andean instrument is descended from the Quechua people's ancestors -- the Inca?

The answer is the pan pipes, not the charango, which is a small ukelele-like instrument made with an armadillo shell.

Originating in Peru, these instruments are now used in nearby countries. Often accompanied by drums and flutes, they create the typical Andean sounds.

Saz

Image from uludag sozluk

The Anatolian saz is a long-necked Turkish lute that traces its ancestry back to Sumeria and Babylonia. It is most likely descended from the Kopuz, an earlier instrument that had a leather body and strings of hair.

In the 15th century, metal strings were added to the ancestral instrument; however, the added stress caused by this innovation implied another change: the soft leather body now had to be replaced by a wooden one.

Earlier forms of the saz were brought into battle for protection and carried by dervishes. The instrument is related to the Greek bouzouki and the Arabic oud, of which the ancestors date back to the Uruk period of ancient Mesopotamia or even earlier.

Turkish musician Salman Kilicaslan sings and accompanies himself on the saz in this video.