History and Distribution
The systematic (not occasional) use of drones originated in instrumental music of ancient Southwest Asia, including that of Australian Indigenous peoples, and spread north and west to Europe, east to India, and south to Africa (van der Merwe 1989, p.11). It is used in Indian music and is played with the tanpura (or tambura) and other Indian drone instruments like the ottu, the ektar, the dotara (or dotar; dutar in Persian Central Asia), the surpeti, the surmandal (or swarmandal) and the shank (conch shell). In the West, they are found since the 1960s in modern drone music.
In vocal music drone is particularly widespread in traditional musical cultures, particularly in Europe, Polynesia and Melanesia. It is also present in some isolated regions of Asia (like among Pearl-divers in Persian Gulf, some national minorities of South-West China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Afghanistan); Drone (both instrumental and vocal) can be placed in different ranges of the polyphonic texture: in the lowest part, in the highest part, or in the middle.
Read more about this topic: Drone (music)
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