The Buhai

A short but quite informative English text on what "buhai" means in Romanian (its most popular sense- that of a friction drum- that is; a second usage is also mentioned in the text, ie. buhai as traditional word for 'ox'). Now, given that my surname is 'Buhai' I guess I ought to be interested in this.

A fragment from the text:

The focus of this lesson is one ancient instrument in the drum family, a friction drum called the buhai.

The buhai (an old Romanian word for “ox”) is made from a wooden bucket or tub that functions as a drum body or resonator. The drumhead, made from goat or sheepskin, is soaked in water for several hours, stretched over the end of the bucket, and fastened there with rope. Some horsehair passes through a hole in the middle of the skin, and with the drum held by someone else the performer wets his or her hands and pulls along the length of the hair with one hand then the other, thus producing a noise resembling the bellow of an ox. The performer can raise the pitch of the drum by pressing into the drumhead with the free hand as the horsehair is being pulled.

Rhythms: While the rhythms of Romania include the standard four and six beats, and even five beats and seven beats, the buhai is intended to have the rhythm of an animal sound.

PS1. Except for its main theme, where the article does a good job, there is a series of mistakes in the rest of the content. For instance, "In 1990 Romania held national elections and a non-Communist party took control" is 100% flawed. But I guess the only important message of the article is about the 'buhai': skip the rest...

PS2. If you can get the accompanying CD, you can actually listen to the sounds of the 'buhai'. I don't think you lose too much if you don't do that.