ANALYSIS OF SUITABLE MATERIALS IN BÀTÁ DRUM CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

Different materials of different properties and textures come to play in the making of traditional instrument, especially such among the Yoruba people of west-Africa where there is array of traditional instruments to serve different cultural purposes. The role which materials take in the making of musical instrument is sacrosanct and indispensable. It is worthy of note that the property/quality of materials used in the construction of musical instrument affects strongly the overall acoustics of such instrument. However, the technological making of musical instrument lies in the hand of the maker with the thoughts of type of acoustic quality aims at getting and the approach towards achieving the desired acoustic taste on the instrument. Observably, it is possible for a traditional drum not to speak well after the whole construction process. The result of which could be linked to the action of ineffective materials coalesced together under the construction process. Bata drum being one of the indigenous drums of the Yoruba people has been picked as the study example for this research paper due to observation of lack of traditional knowledge of quality materials often times used by traditional drum makers in the society. The paper’s focus is to discuss/analyze the properties of materials used in the making of bàtá drum. The data gathering method used for this study was based on experimental method to test materials in order to ascertain authenticity. Findings confirmed that among wood typologies, àpá/ọ̀mọ̀ wood is best suited for the making of bàtá drum due to its hardness, resonance and durability and that it doesn’t break easily when fallen on ground. This study concludes that for bata drum to remain durable and effective at all times, the materials discussed under this study should be considered in its making in addition with consistent maintenance technology.