![]() Tifa Tiwa or Tiva; Kai Islands, before 1915. | |
Percussion instrument | |
---|---|
Other names | Tiwa, Tiva |
Classification | Membranophone |
Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 211.221
211.231 211.251 |
Developed | Developed in prehistory in Indonesian Maluku Islands and in New Guinea |
The tifa, tiwa or tiva is a single-headed goblet drum used throughout the Maluku Islands of Eastern Indonesia, where it is traditionally the "dominant instrument" in Maluku province music.[1] The term tifa has been used outside of the Maluku Islands, including on the island of Java and on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's Papuan provinces.[2]
Where the Maluku-tradition tifas tend to be unadorned or plain, the Papua-tradition tifas tend to be decorated with patterns and symbols, which may be ethnic or spiritual in nature.[3]
In the summer of 2007 two members of the Holmes Museum of Anthropology at Wichita State University traveled to the Asmat region of New Guinea. They recorded the making of a tifa drum by an Asmat man named Robbie.
[translation: The tifa is a traditional Maluku musical instrument which is also known in Papua by the same name...a long drum...a percussion instrument that is played at parties as an accompaniment to dances...What distinguishes the Maluku tifa and the Papua tifa lies in the shape of the carvings. Maluku tifa is usually plain without carvings, while the Papuan tifa is full of ethnic decorations.]