Membranophones

Alison Latham in The Oxford Companion to Music (2011) defines membranophone instruments as “all instruments on which sound is produced by a vibrating membrane or skin, whether they are hummed (e.g. kazoos), struck (e.g. drums), or rubbed (e.g. friction drums).” Velez membranophones are pandereta, zambumbia and tambora.

In Vélez music there are three commonly used membranophone instruments: zambumbia, pandereta and tambora. For the purpose of this project I will not provide information about the tambora as it is not an instrument that has been used in Corazón Santandereano.

Zambumbia:

The zambumbia is a membranophone that is made of half of a gourd (calabazo or totumo) covered by a dry cow’s bladderwith a long wooden stick puntero is tied to the skin. The dry bladder is taut across the gourd and sometimes it can be decorated with a kerchief (as seen in Photo 11). The puntero (wood stick) is usually rubbed with honey wax or if not, the musician will put water in his/her fingers rubbing the fingers on the stick.

Zambumbia role

Cecilia Rivera mentions that the zambumbia plays the role of the “bass” among the percussion instruments. This instrument could be classified as secondary, however is uncommon to give it to the youngest members due to its fragility. If the wood stick (puntero) is played too hard, the instrument can be damaged.

This instrument is also known in other regions in Colombia as puerca (female pig) or marrana (female pig) as its sound resembles the sound of a pig.