Mabu is a traditional woodwind musical instrument of the inhabitants of the Solomon Islands . It is a wooden pipe with a bell hollowed out of a segment of a tree trunk. Large specimens could reach up to a meter in length with a bell width of about 15 cm and a wall thickness of about 6 mm . Before the metal appeared on the islands, the instrument was hollowed out with fire and a solid wooden spear , later iron spears were used. A half of a coconut was attached to the upper end, in which a game hole was made.
Used during initiation ceremonies, at the funeral. Usually the game was a roll call of two instruments with different tones.
Literature
- Baines, Anthony. Brass Instruments: Their History and Development . NY: Courier Dover Publications, 1993 (p. 41).
- Blackwood, Beatrice. Both Sides of the Buka Passage . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935.
- Sadie, Stanley. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . London: Macmillan, 1984. Vol. 2, p. 586.