The tende (in northern areas, tindi) is a drum made out of a
mortar, and the music associated with it, among the
Tuareg people
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
. It is constructed using a mortar (the kind typically used to crush grain) with a
drumhead
A drumhead or drum skin is a membrane stretched over one or both of the open ends of a drum. The drumhead is struck with sticks, mallets, or hands, so that it vibrates and the sound resonates through the drum.
Additionally outside of percu ...
made from
goatskin stretched over it, with tension applied to the drumhead by way of two long wooden pestles (ca. 1.25 meters long). On either end the skin is rolled around the two pestles, and then stretched over the mortar and fastened with a rope. Frequently the pestles are kept in place; they can serve to tighten the skin and thus tune the instrument. The skin needs to be moistened periodically; sometimes water is simply applied during the performance, but another method is to keep water in the mortar and moisten the skin from the inside by tilting the instrument.
Imzad
The imzad (alternately amzad) is a single-string bowed instrument used by the Tuareg people in Africa.
Its body is made out of a calabash
Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, bir ...
music is held in higher esteem, but tende is played more frequently - during camel festivals, ceremonies, and certain types of dance. Its music is for ordinary people and requires no great skill or specialization to master, and is highly communal, involving singing, dancing, and clapping.
History
Tende as a musical instrument might be relatively new, dating to the beginning of the twentieth century;
Francis Rodd described one in 1926, in the
Aïr area.
Laura Boulton likely recorded one in 1934 in Timbuktu.
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References
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African drums
Tuareg culture