Monday, August 8, 2011

Exploring Mauritian instruments: Part 1 the Ravanne




The Ravanne is a Mauritian instrument made from goat skin, it comes under the frame drum category (which also includes tambourines, riq, daf, bodhran).
The name comes from either the word iravanum in Tamil or possibly rebana in Malay(my personal theory on the origin/etymology) which is also a frame drum.
It is quite a large drum and is hit by using the fingers around the edges.
Its origins come from the time of slavery in Mauritius. The drums it resembles the most would have to be the bendir(North Africa, Middle East), thappu (South India) and the large bodhran (from Ireland).

Here is an example of the ravanne being played:


For a comparison with one of have a look at this bendir solo: