How to Make a Mosquito Drum

In January 2009 Master Drummer Frisner Augustin and Dr. Lois Wilcken traveled to Port-au-Prince to acquire a Haiti collection for the Museum of Musical Instruments, scheduled to open in Phoenix in 2010. As part of the project, Mr. Augustin constructed from memory a tanbou marengwen (in English, mosquito drum for the sound it produces, although technically a one-string harp). He gathered several young people from his neighborhood to create a second tanbou marengwen, using his first as a model. Youth in urban Haiti—note the raucous sounds of traffic competing with the delicate sound of the string—no longer know this instrument. In this video we see several phases of construction, followed by one youth's attempts to play the deceptively challenging instrument.

The tanbou marengwen will share the spotlight with a set of Rada drums and assorted Rara instruments when the Museum opens in April 2010. For more on the project, see http://www.themim.org.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Augustin
• Frisner
• drum
• tanbou
• marenwen
• mosquito
• Haiti
• Port-au-Prince
• harp

[Frisneraugustin]

Nou byen kontan gen yon moun ki renmen travay nap fe a. Nap kontinye travay. Mesi!

[Sakuntu]

Meeezaaaanmiiii!!! Bagay sa anfom anfom! Mwen renmen fe enstriman yo anpil (cha cha, tanbou, ti bwa, graj...bagay yo konsa. ) Kounyea wa banm 'on lot ide! Mwen di w mesi anpil!

[Frisneraugustin]

Not a bad idea! Why don't you let Frisner know? I think he overlooks the marengwen and doesn't realize how much interest it might generate.

[sonoflegba]

this was great !!! Thanks for posting this Dr Lois Hopefully we can do a tues night class on the Mosquito Drum