Photo 1: Women playing daf
During public daf performances the female ensemble consists of four-ten players. They are divided into three groups, each playing different rhythmic formulae (usuls) on different sizes of dafs, and thus creating a polyrhythmic pattern.(2) Apart from this, women use the daf for accompanying the songs sung in a domestic setting, using the same usuls. During weddings dafs are played by a group of women to announce the arrival of the groom at the house of the bride (daf-i shâdi, daf of joy) accompanied by specific songs.(3) When a performance takes place to announce the death of a member of the community it is called 'daf of sorrow' (daf-i gham).
Women normally play the daf in a standing position, holding it upright with the left hand, in front of the face, and the resonator (skin) turned to their right. The rhythm is beaten only with only the right hand, using the palm and the fingers. This does not mean other playing positions cannot be adopted, especially in the case of distinguished virtuoso female players, who often lead a group and use various playing techniques with both hands. See Photograph 1; note that the woman at the far left side is left-handed. Women may also, rarely, play like men (see below).
Daf played by men
The way men play the daf varies considerably in the different cultures and areas of Central Asia. This is equally true of the technical and rhythmic complexity of patterns. In Uzbek and Tajik professional and classical music, the frame drum is mostly played in a standing position, and the players use both hands to play complex, long rhythmic patterns and virtuoso solos. Mnemonics are used to learn and memorize these patterns, often starting at a very young age (Beliaev and Slobin 1975:209; Spector 1967:455).
In contrast to this, the daf in the villages of the Pamirs is used to outline basic rhythmic units in recurrent, repetitious patterns. Unlike the women, the men invariably play in unison. Generally the daf is played when sitting, mostly cross-legged, with the daf in an upright position in front of the player and resting on the floor or on the left upper leg. The drum is held by the left arm and hand, resting on the top of the frame; the left thumb is held inward for support while the fingers play at the periphery of the skin near the frame and producing treble pitches. The right hand is the main playing hand; it is kept in the 'three o'clock' position from the player's view. The right thumb is used as a pivot for the fingers; it produces treble pitches near the frame as well as bass sounds on the centre of the skin (see Photograph 2).
In some areas of Badaxshân this way of playing is called 'to play the daf in the same manner as the dâyera' (bo daff dorya zadân).(4) During a recording session of a folk music ensemble in Faizabad in Afghan Badaxshân (1996), a male performer played a frame drum provided with jingles in the same way as the women: in an upright position and moving the drum energetically from left to right, obviously to obtain acoustic effects. During various public performances, Pamir men generally play the daf drum as accompaniment to instrumental music, songs, dances, and theatre, in court music as well as in a more rural setting. However, there are some genres in which songs are accompanied exclusively by dafs. During (1992:284) describes a performance of songs by men only in the northern part of Badaxshân, which is accompanied by dafs and called 'drums for entertainment' (bazmî dâyira). The term bazm stands for an evening with refreshments, singers, musicians and dancers in springtime; which are also held in Afghan Badaxshân.
In this article I shall deal with a specific performance genre called dafsâz, recorded during research trips in 1992 and 1993 in central and south Badaxshân in Tajikistan, in collaboration with Gabrielle van den Berg, a specialist in Tajik languages and poetry (Berg 1997).