Hello! For my final blog I decided to research about the country of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a country rich with Christian ancient culture. One landmark is Ethiopia is called Lalibela, this place was named after King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty. Lalibela tried to create a new Jerusalem in his own kingdom(Ethiopia) after the old one was taken over by Muslims in 1187. To do this he decided to build 11 churches into one block of stone to recreate the city of Jerusalem. This landmark is classified as a Monolithic Church which means that the church is made from one single block of stone. They choose to use a single standing stone because the size of the rock signifies their spirituality and humility. The churches are very intricate and poise even though they were built out of only basic tools like hammers and chisels.
Okay, Okay. Now onto music. Again Ethiopia is rich with culture in the arts too. Their goal is to represent patriotism, victory, and love through music. They use "wonderful melodys and poetic lyrics" in order to show these emotions. Ethiopians feel as though they can express their spirituality through their music.
Traditional intruments that they use include: masinko, the krar, the washint, the begena, the kebero, and the tom-tom.
The masinko is one of the most popular traditional musical instruments used through out the country. Even though the masinko is a single stringed instrument it has the ability's to create a lot of different melodies; it is made out of a piece of hide and, get this, a horse tail. It is played by rubbing a bow made of string against the fiddle. Ethiopians in the highland areas, and particularly in the north, begin learning to play this instrument early on. In concerts musicians would play instruments and create the lyrics but many times the musicians would take lyric suggestions from the audience and repeat it. During their concerts the musicians do a lot of call-and-response. The differencer between things that they record and what is played in concerts is very different. Getamessay Abebe is a very famous musician in Ethiopia, below is him playing in and not on a concert.
The Kebero is an Ethiopian drum that is used to enrich the songs. The Kebero is a double headed drum made out of a piece of animal hide and is stretched over each end of the instrument, forming a membranophone. The drum is strapped over the musicians shoulder and is usually played on one side of their body, it is usually played at rituals or celebrations.
A wind instrument that they have in Ethiopia is the Washint or the flute. Typically played by shepherds in Ethiopia while herding cattle. They can be made out of bamboo and usually have around 4-6 holes, and they begin to learn how to play this at a young age. Usually while musicians are playing this they will have a couple people playing at the same time so that the flutes can compliment once another. The pitch depends on the size of the flute, if it has a smaller body then it will be a higher pitch then one while a larger body.
Hello, I hope you're doing well! I really enjoyed reading your blog. Honestly, I wasn't sure where Ethiopia was located but later I figured it out. Moving on one of the things that I found interesting is the Washint. The video reminded me of a movie but I can't pinpoint it. Overall, It was very intriguing to see the history of Ethiopia
Hello, I hope you're doing well! I really enjoyed reading your blog. Honestly, I wasn't sure where Ethiopia was located but later I figured it out. Moving on one of the things that I found interesting is the Washint. The video reminded me of a movie but I can't pinpoint it. Overall, It was very intriguing to see the history of Ethiopia
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