Marímbula: Dominica Republic musical instrument

The Marímbula is a plucked box musical instrument of the Caribbean island. The musical instrument should not be confused with the marimba.

source: keymusic.com

The Marímbula is made up of a wooden box that has a sound hole cut in the center of it. Across the hole on the instrument, there are a number of metal strips that are attached at one extreme to the resonating box. These metal strips are tuned to distinct pitches and can be plucked to manufacture a bass line for the music. The Marímbula is often classified as a part of the lamellophone family of musical instruments. The musical instrument is primarily used in the Mexican son jarocho music that is known as the marimbol, Cuban changüí and the Dominican merengue tipico.

Having its roots in the African musical instruments, the V originated in the region of oriente, Cuba in the 19^th century. Suddenly, the musical instrument spread through the Caribbean, the Americas and the Africa, from the Liberia to the Congo. By the 1930s, the Marímbula has made its way to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands, Mexico and as far away as New York City. The people of Cuba called the musical instrument Marímbula, and many other countries have adopted this name or some variant of the name; marimba, malimba, manimba, marimbol. The musical instrument has a number of other names like the marimbola as called by the Puerto Ricans, bass box, calimba, rhumba box and box lamellophone.

African slaves of the Caribbean produced musical instruments from any material that they could lay their hands on. Early versions of the Marímbula  were produced from discarded wooden packing crates with the keys produced of springy wood, bamboo, all kinds of discarded springs, etc. the musician sits on the top of the box reaching down to pluck the keys of the instrument while slapping the sides of the box like a drum. The evolution and the playing patterns of the musical instrument are analogous to the cajon box drum.

This musical instrument was an important factor in the development of the Afro-Cuban music as it was one of the basic musical instruments that were performed by changüí musicians. Both changüí and son genres developed as a result of the mixture of African and Spanish musical styles and instrumentation. As such changüí musicians still perform a pair of tack-head bongos, Marímbula, a pair of maracas, guiro and tres to accompany the chorus and the voice of the vocalist. This was one of the many musical instrument that was imported from Americas to Africa that continue to be performed to this present day, in many styles and forms, especially in the countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Ghana.

Designs of the musical instrument differ greatly in terms of the material used for the resonator, the number of keys and arrangements, the overall arrangement and size of the musical instrument and the way it is being played. Unlike the African lamellophones that are used to manufacture complex polyphony and polyrhythms, the musical instrument mainly performs the role of a bass guitar to give the rhythmic and harmonic support for a band, even when it can produce a simple melody also.

The Marímbula became a popular musical instrument in Jamaica, together with the guitars, the drums, the maracas and the vocals in the churches, where it was referred to as the church and clap, in night clubs where it is referred to as jazz jim and among the different hotel performers that played mento music.

It is fairly easy to learn how to perform the Marímbula, specifically for those who have little knowledge of some other musical instrument, since no difficult technique is involved.

Currently, the musical instrument is regaining popularity among hip-hop artists, and players of mbira.