Percussive Instrument In Tribal Music

Jaques Attali (1985) says, ‘music is more than an object of study: it is a way of perceiving the world. A tool of understanding.’ For Marx, music is the ‘mirror of reality’; for Nietzsche, ‘the expression of truth’; and for Freud, a ‘text to decipher’ (ibid. 1985: 4-6). Listening to the sounds of Mizo culture can well begin with a journey into the lengkhawm genre and the traditional drum instrument called khuang in Mizo history. I would like to point out, at the outset, that at various points in the chapter the lengkhawm genre may include the khawhar genre, but only when lyrical composition is irrelevant. As far as the phrasing technique or general musicality of songs is concerned, these two genres are identical. The difference in the two lies only in terms of presentation (musical instruments) and the designated mood of the environment.

The role of a percussive instrument in folk and tribal music is paramount. It is the first thing we hear when we say 'African music' or 'Native American music'. The reason for the proclivity of this instrument is the nature-sound-language alignment

The drum’s ubiquity may be attributed to the simplicity of its physical design and the ease of its construction. Moreover, the created sound is not an unheard sound but a sound freely heard in nature – in the rhythms of a woodpecker building its home, the river thrashing a rather headstrong boulder or even the thud of a fallen prey. In modern times and in modern music, the drum, as a musical instrument, has continually gained much respect as a melody maker – especially in the fields of Progressive Rock and Jazz. The basic usage of the drum in Mizo music does not reach the technicality of aforementioned genres and its role is limited to that of a tempo keeper in accord with its surroundings – as a manifestation of the ambiguous sounds representative of untainted