Our duties as djembists and balafonists took us to the Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville, Ohio on Saturday. For someone who only occasionally eats pumpkin pies, this was a revelatory experience. There were thousands of gourds of every shape, size, configuration and color. So what is a gourd anyway?
Apart from the scientific definition which you can find on the internet, a gourd is a cello, a flute, a drum, a banjo, a whole orchestra, really, judging from the amazing ingenuity with which these instruments were constructed. It is a table lamp, a bowl, a spoon, a water fountain... in fact, it can be almost anything that time and talent can make it.
Part of the musical entertainment tied in with this theme at the annual Gourd Show was an Indian musical group whose featured instrument was a sitar. The leader pointed out that the resonating chamber of a sitar starts out as a gourd, and in fact many sitars have a second gourd at the top. The spiritual aspect of the sitar's gourds was explained by a charming story of the rescue of the god of music from drowning in a river when a higher god tossed him a gourd.
What I think makes the gourd so fascinating is that it is as individual as we are. All shapes and sizes, all thicknesses and weights, and all different color shades and hues populate the world of gourds. In the hands of someone who respects the gourd, a gourd can take on a beauty or radiate a sense of humor that reflect the crafts-person's own.
And as a balafon player, I can testify that the graduated gourds that resonate under the bars of the balafon make it possible to be heard even when the drummers are in full flight.
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