{{short description|Class of unbraced mouth-resonated musical bows}} {{Italic title}} {{Infobox instrument | name = Lesiba | image = Lesiba quill.JPG | caption = A close up of the quill portion of a lesiba | background = string | classification = Stringed-wind instrument | hornbostel_sachs = 311.121.222 | hornbostel_sachs_desc = Single-stringed heterochord musical bow | related = {{bulleted list|goura}} | musicians = Ntate Thabong Phosa }}
[[File:Lesiba skilful melody Kirby 1934, 190.png|thumb|Melody produced without grunts, notes often shaded by the harmonic series<ref name="Kirby36"/> (D{{music|flat}} is the harmonic seventh<ref name="Kirby38">Kirby (2009), p.38.</ref>) {{audio|Lesiba skilful melody Kirby 1934, 190.mid|Play approximation}}]]
The term {{Language with name/for|tn|'''lesiba'''|feather|paren=left}}) refers to a class of "unbraced mouth-resonated bow[s]"<ref name="Levine237">Levine (2005), p.237.</ref> with a flattened quill attached to a long string, stretched over a hard stick, acting as the main source of vibration. Holding both hands around the quill, positioned without touching just inside the lips, the player sharply inhales or exhales against it, creating vibration in the string.<ref name="Kirby33">Kirby (2009), p.33.</ref> This "produces a powerful buzzing sound,"<ref name="Levine237"/> usually in short notes on a small, limited scale.
Inhalation excites the harmonics of the string, while exhalation is most often accompanied by a throaty grunt, except in players with strong breath,<ref name="Kirby36">Kirby, Percival (2009). "The ''Gora'', a Stringed-wind Instrument", ''The World of South African Music: A Reader'', p.36. Lucia, Christine; ed. Cambridge. {{ISBN|1904303366}}.</ref> and may be accompanied by humming.<ref name="Levine237"/> Vocalizations create, from a single player, the effect of more than one part.<ref name="Coplan203">Coplan, David B. (1994). ''In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants'', p.203. University of Chicago. {{ISBN|9780226115740}}.</ref> The harmonics used are primarily the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and twelfth.<ref name="Kirby38"/> The lesiba's construction is unique: "no other class of stringed-wind instrument has been found anywhere else in the world."<ref name="Levine">Levine, L. (2005). ''The Drum Cafe's Traditional Music of South Africa'', p.115. Jacana Media. {{ISBN|9781770090460}}.</ref><!--quote from Levine--><ref name="Warren">{{cite web |title=South Africa, Part I: The Drum Café |website=ProjectExplorer |url=http://www.projectexplorer.org/hs/za/drumcafe.php |access-date=2009-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907220320/http://www.projectexplorer.org/hs/za/drumcafe.php |archive-date=September 7, 2008 }}</ref>{{failed verification|date=June 2015|Looking this up on the web archive doesn't bring up this quote or any mention of "lesiba", "goura", or "gora" in the years before or after this citation.}}
According to Barrow in 1806, the instrument sounds "like the faint murmurs of distant music that 'comes o'er the ear' without any distinction of notes."<ref name="Kirby32">Kirby (2009), p.32.</ref> Barnard in 1910 noted the loudness of the instrument, while Alberti in 1810 compared the sounds to the "tones of the so-called Hunting-horn," presumably a reference to the shared use of the harmonic series.<ref name="Kirby32"/> According to Kirby in 1934, "the tone is, when well produced, very pleasant, partaking of the qualities of both string and wind, reminding one of the Aeolian harp; and it can be varied in power from a faint whisper to a strong, vibrant sound, the air column of the mouth and throat acting as a resonator."<ref name="Kirby35">Kirby (2009), p.35.</ref>
Though very few people alive today play this instrument,<ref name="Warren"/> the "harsh, bird-like sounds"<ref name="Cafe">{{cite web | title = Traditional Music & Dance | website = DrumCafe | url = http://www.drumcafe.co.za/traditional-music-dance.php | access-date = 2015-06-15 }}</ref> the instrument produces are so well recognised among the Sotho that it is used on Lesotho Radio to signal the start of the news broadcast. The lesiba is the national instrument of the Basotho,<ref name="Levine237"/><ref name="Cafe"/> a southern African people, now located primarily in South Africa and Lesotho, and the Khoikhoi people of South Africa.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Goura, a Stringed-Wind Musical Instrument of the Bushmen and Hottentots|first=Henry|last=Balfour|journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=32|date=January–June 1902|pages=156–176|doi=10.2307/2842910|publisher=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 32|jstor=2842910|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1449604|doi-access=free}}</ref> The lesiba is played mostly by herdsmen and herdboys to give signals and instructions to their cattle,<ref name="Levine"/> and, almost as much, for their own entertainment.<ref name="Afọlayan">Afọlayan (2004), p.234.</ref> {{Blockquote|Whenever they [a herd] hear him [a herdsman] play [they easily recognize his mode of playing and distinguish him from other performers]<!--in Coplan-->, they exhibit their appreciation of the music by clustering and huddling around him.<ref>A. G. Mokhali, quoted in Adams (1986), p.6. Coplan (1994), p.101.</ref>}} As such, studies of the instrument may be classified as zoomusicology,<ref>Coplan (1994), p.101.</ref> and passages on the instrument are metaphorically compared to various {{Language with name/for|st|linong|vultures}}.<ref name="Coplan203"/>
One player, Ntate Thabong Phosa, plays with Sipho Mabuse and can be heard in the song "Thaba Bosiu" on Mabuse's ''Township Child'' album.<ref>{{cite web | title = Sipho Mabuse Discography | website = AfroMix | url = http://www.afromix.org/html/musique/artistes/sipho-mabuse/index.en.html | access-date = 2007-12-30 }}</ref>
==See also== *Korhaan
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Kevin-Volans-South-Africa/025M-C0740X004X18-0100V0 Recording of lesiba playing]—field recording by Kevin Volans.
{{Strings (music)}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goura (Musical Instrument)}} Category:Aerophones Category:Harmonic series (music) Category:Music of Lesotho Category:Musical bows Category:Southern African musical instruments