Ground bow

File:Dyulu-tama ground bow.jpg

The ground-bow, also known as an earth-bow or ground harp,{{Cite encyclopedia |first=David K.|last= Rycroft|date=2002 |entry=Ground harp (Fr. arc-en-terre; Ger. Erdbogen)|encyclopedia=Grove Music Online|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.11841}}{{subscription}} is a single-string bow-shaped folk musical instrument, classified as a chordophone. It is known in cultures of equatorial [http://www.britannica.com/art/ground-bow "Ground Bow"], Encyclopædia Britannica and south{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfCzP-SB8d4C&pg=PA168 | title=Africa and the Blues | isbn=978-1-60473-728-8 | last1=Kubik | first1=Gerhard | date=23 September 2009 | publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi }} Africa, and in other cultures with African roots. It consists of a flexible stick planted into the ground (possibly a stripped sapling or a branch), with a string from its free end to a resonator of some kind based on a pit in the ground.[http://www.aatespanol.cl/taa/tesauro/default.asp?a=338&Element_ID=12274 "Arco de tierra"], referring to François-René Tranchefort, Los instrumentos musicales en el mundo, {{ISBN|8420685208}}, 1985, and later editions It looks like a game trap or a child toy, therefore its distribution over Africa used to be overlooked. Hornbostel (1933) classified is in the category of harps, although it has combined characteristics of a harp and a musical bow.Jaco Kruger, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/851766 "Rediscovering the Venda Ground-Bow"], Ethnomusicology,

Vol. 33, No. 3 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 391-404

The resonator may be a pit covered by a board, with string attached to it. Kruges describes several other constructions by Venda, e.g., the other end of a string is tied to a stone dropped into the pit, with string passing through the board covering the pit, etc.

Other names include kalinga or galinga by Venda people. In their language "galinga" means simply a hole in the ground, while the origins of "kalinga" are uncertain. It is known as gayumba in Haiti, Dominican Republic,Fradique Lizardo, Instrumentos musicales indígenas dominicanos, 1975,[https://books.google.com/books?id=IPvZAAAAMAAJ&q=gayumba Section "Gayumba", p.64]

and tumbandera in Haitian traditions of Cuba.Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Encyclopedic History , vol.2, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uspTNzJ_NoYC&pg=PA210 p.210]{{Cite web |url=http://www.montunocubano.com/Tumbao/instruments/tumbandera.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-07-22 |archive-date=2017-03-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302120254/http://www.montunocubano.com/Tumbao/instruments/tumbandera.htm |url-status=dead }} Baka people call it angbindi.{{cite web | url=http://www.baka.co.uk/baka/instr.htm | title=Baka Music & Magic - the Technology of Enchantment - full documentary }}

It is also known in Cuba under the onomatopoeic name tingo-talango (tingotalango).[http://www.thecubanhistory.com/2015/05/cubanism-what-is-the-tingo-talango-cubanismos-que-es-el-tingo-talango/ "CUBANISM: WHAT IS The “Tíngo Talángo” ?"][http://www.ritmacuba.com/tingo-talango.html "TINGO TALANGO, son, Auteur : Julio CUEVA] Julio Cueva's song Tingo Talango dedicated to this musical instrument describes its construction thus:

{{Verse translation|

1=Si quieren que les describa

cómo es el tingo talango

tráiganme un gajo de güira

o si no uno de mango.

Se abre un hueco en el suelo,

encima una hoja de lata,

en el centro un agujero

donde un alambre se ata.|

2=If you want me to describe

how is the tingo talango

bring me a slice of güira

or if not, one of mango.

A hole opens in the ground

a tin sheet on top,

in the center a hole

where a wire is tied.

}}

Tingo Talango is also the song by Ñico Lora.

The instrument is reportedly nearly-extinct in the native cultures.