Chimbu Drum (Chimbu / Simbu, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea)

The kundu is one of the characteristic hand drums of the New Guinea Highlands. Among the Chimbu, or Simbu, such hourglass-shaped drums form part of the traditional musical repertoire and are used to accompany singing and dancing. Ethnomusicological documentation from Chimbu Province records the local term taua for the kundu or hourglass drum.

The present drum is a long, slender example with a single opossum hide membrane and an open, split lower end. It is designed to be held in the hand while the membrane is struck with the fingers or palm of the other hand. The form belongs to the broader highland tradition of kundu drums, which occur in numerous regional variations throughout Papua New Guinea.

In the Highlands, drum membranes are commonly made from animal skins. Possum skin is particularly well documented for highland drums, where the availability of large lizards is more limited than in the lowland regions of New Guinea.

The restrained decoration of the present example contrasts with the more extensively carved and painted kundus found in other regions of Papua New Guinea. Its elongated form and distinctive bifurcated lower end nevertheless place it within the broad morphological tradition of the New Guinea kundu. Comparable drums from the Highlands are represented in several museum collections, although precise Chimbu attribution is not always documented.

Bibliography:

Donohoe, Patricia Mary: The Music of Dirima, Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea. MMus thesis, 1987.
Friede, John (ed.): The JOLIKA Collection of New Guinea Art. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Gillespie, Kirsty: Kundu. In: Laurence Libin (ed.), The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Brown, Paula: The Chimbu: A Study of Change in the New Guinea Highlands. Originally published 1973; Routledge edition, 2013.