unintentional mistake A discussion of an unintentional mistake in the description of the Tamboo Bamboo Instruments as described by Dr Felix Blake.

"We have a glitch Huston!.."

   [Rather than going all over the place with links; because of WIN's (don't go there yet either, you'll get lost; it's anecdotal but fun), I'll present all the data here. You can chase it all up later if you are that determined.]

Lets start with musical pitch; the frequency of the note, as generally categorised, but not putting to fine a point on it:

• A high pitch is a soprano; and going down the scale
  
• the next lower pitch is a tenor
  
• the next lower an alto; till finally;
  
• the lowest pitch is the bass.

From Gideon Maximes' (52nd) Anniversary of Steelbands on the Streets article, about V.E. Day; he describes the tamboo bamboo instruments quite generally as:

[The instruments comprised]
The cutters, the smallest piece representing the soprano pitch
The fullers as the tenor
The chandles representing the alto
The bass or boom bamboo representing the bass.

The good Dr Felix Blake, in his original writings (Pg 48) has a very unhappily ordered list. I point out in my brief abstract that heads the article:

...The instrument section has been reordered by rank of pitch.

That's all fine; because Dr Blakes' reordered list matches Mr Maximes' in naming each instrument; and they both agree on the pitch allocated to each instrument.

Good, so what is the problem?

Lets look again at the first two instruments that Dr Blake describes:

• [This] group of bamboos were known as cutters and represented the soprano pitch. These were each about 25in (635 mm) long and 3-1/2 in (89 mm) in diameter with two joints intact. In playing, the cutter was held across the shoulder with one hand and struck on the side with a piece of hard wood.
• The foulé (called fullers) was 12 in (305 mm) long and 3in (76mm) in diameter with one of the joints intact. The foulé represented the tenor pitch.

It is the described size of these two instruments that is the problem.
His cutters bamboo 25in x 3-1/2in diameter is larger than his
foulé bamboo 12in x 3in diameter.

Therefore the pitch of the cutter would be lower than the foulé; which is the opposite to that described by both good gentlemen.

        The big big bamboo, bamboo, oooo oooo ooooo oooooo!

All very well and good for a laugh; but as I hope the good Dr Blake will agree, it still leaves a question as to why he cites these sizes in the first place.

The answer to this comes in two and 1/2 parts; but unfortunately, still remains unresolved, as you shall see.

Having said of Dr Blakes theses: ...The photographic support is astounding... I have been looking for an excuse to stick my neck out even further, and reproduce some of his pictures. Well here is the place to do that. The quality will be a bit doggy, but the point needs to be made.

Here is the Doctor's picture(1) of some tamboo bamboo (the return button puts you back right here). What you need to note; are the numbers he has used to notate each instrument, as they are shown in decending order of size.

The legend reads:
(1) Bass bamboo - (2) Chandlers - (3) Cutters - (4) foulé

What this all shows is that the Doctor's measurements tie up with what he has written down.

Has he then mixed up the cutters and foulé labelling?

If I said yes, the problem is solved. But instead I will say:

I don't think so! [Now there's a 1990's phrase!]

What I think he has got, is two sizes of foulé and not a cutter at all! The smaller bamboos shown seem to close in size to have engendered such different names. (thats the 1/2 answer)

Lets have a look at the next picture(2) of a Tamboo Bamboo band, the quality of which may be a bit low. In this tamboo bamboo band you should just see, in front of the man with the black hat under the sign, a man beating two bamboo sticks. They look crossed.

These are the cutters!

So a cutter would be about 14 to 18in (360 - 460mm) long and 3/4 to 1-3/4in (20 - 40mm) in diameter.

Well is it solved then? Sorry, no. I don't know what the usage of the instruments descriptive words really mean. How the instruments are described by the users. Trinidadians have this wonderful habit of calling a thing one name in one village and then calling it something else in an other village. Luckily, the tamboo bamboo tradition still survives in Trinidad. I will need to go and meet the people on the ground here, and come back to you with an answer. So until then:

[This reference is a matter of research for these pages]

JGdeB 17th December 1997

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© 1998: tobagojo@gmail.com - 19971217 - 1m20071228 - 2m20140615 Historic Update: 02 April 1998; Last Update: 23 June 2014 14:30:00 TT Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry