Gángan
/ˈɡɑːŋɡɑːŋ/noun
A Yoruba hourglass-shaped talking drum whose pitch can be altered by squeezing its tension cords.
Did you know?Yoruba master drummers use the gángan’s changing pitch to reproduce tonal speech, allowing rhythms to echo words, praise names, and proverbs.
Etymological Timeline
Precolonial period
Yoruba
gángan
“A tension-drum name used within Yoruba musical culture”
19th Century
Yoruba
gángan
“A talking drum used in ensembles, ceremonies, praise performance, and communication”
19th–20th Century
English
gangan
“A Yoruba drum name recorded and described by English-speaking observers”
20th Century
English
gangan
“A recognized term in ethnomusicology for a Yoruba talking drum”
Modern English
English
gángan
“A Yoruba hourglass-shaped talking drum”