01
Carved to speak.
Two hollow wooden voices. Three pitch registers. One remarkable tradition of sound and communication.
20TH CENTURY DOCUMENTATION INTERPRETIVE RECONSTRUCTION
EXHIBITION CONTROLS № 001 / 054
01 PERSPECTIVE CAMERA
Overview
Detail
Section
DRAG TO ORBIT · SCROLL TO ZOOM · RIGHT-DRAG TO PAN
03 LIGHTING GALLERY
Atmosphere WARM DAYLIGHT
LOW LIGHT DAYLIGHT
04 SOUND LAB INTERACTIVE
Strike the wooden tongues, or press 1 2 3 . Synthetic educational tones.
01 KEY 1 LOW EYI–LENGA 02 KEY 2 MID EYI–LENGA 03 KEY 3 HIGH AKO–LENGA
Sound level MUTE
RHYTHM EXPERIMENTER ORIGINAL 8-STEP PATTERN · NOT TRADITIONAL REPERTOIRE
▶ PLAY
TEMPO 96 BPM RESET
FIELD NOTE / 001 ◇
The speaking pair
The Banda-Linda tradition uses two wooden slit drums of different sizes. Distinct pitches can serve both rhythmic music and tonal-language communication.
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY ↺ RESET VIEW
© INTERPRETIVE DIGITAL EXHIBIT • NOT A MUSEUM SCAN • 161630
FIELD GUIDE / 001 ✕
Inside the wooden voice.
Rotate with your pointer or touch; zoom with the wheel or pinch. Tap a drum or its hotspots to explore it. Press 1, 2, 3 to strike low, mid or high pitch; Space toggles the exploratory sequencer; R resets the camera; Esc closes this guide.
Historical basis. Simha Arom describes the lenga as a pair of hollowed wooden instruments with unequal wall thickness and a narrow top slit. His 2007 study connects the three registers to spoken Banda-Linda. The larger drum is the eyi-lenga ; the smaller the ako-lenga .
Reconstruction limits. The forms and relative sizes approximate the described construction. Wood grain, surface details, contemporary museum surroundings, cutaway and acoustic synthesis are artistic/educational interpretations, not measured scans, authentic field recordings, or drummed linguistic utterances. The sequencer is wholly original.
SOURCES: SIMHA AROM (2007), TRANS 11; SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: BANDA POLYPHONY (1976).
CONTINUE EXPLORING ↗