Kora (musical instrument)
Kora is a West African bridge harp plucked with both hands , which is also classified as a harp lute .
Design
Outwardly, the instrument has a distant resemblance to an ancient Egyptian bow harp, the successors of which are common in Uganda and Central Africa, and an angle harp, the shape of which still lives on in the ardin played in Mauritania . In fact, the kora is an independent development from the West African inland spit sounds of the ngoni type . With the ardin , the neck protrudes vertically from the calabash bowl; In contrast, the long neck of the kora runs parallel to the soundboard inside the calabash . The mvet from Cameroon has a similar notched bridge, but no lute body. Next to the kora is related to the Soron the Malinke in Guinea .
The kora consists of a cowhide-covered calabash body on which a bridge is set up vertically. The 21 strings run from a ring on the underside of the body through notches on either side of the bridge to their attachment points along the neck. The neck made of hardwood keno acts as a fastening and not as a fingerboard , whereby the strings are of different lengths and can be tuned ( diatonic ). In contrast to lute instruments , the strings are attached perpendicular to the body and not parallel.
Today the strings of the kora are made of nylon , originally they were twisted from the skin of a female antelope .
Style of play
The kora is tuned heptatonic with three to four common tunings, the intervals of which differ more or less from the tempered major keys. The note values grasped by the left and right hand alternately face each other. The pitches of the left string level for the root note F are as starting point: F1 – C1 – D1 – E1 – G2 – B ♭ 2 – D2 – F2 – A3 – C3 – E3, the right side: F2 – A2 – C2 – E2 – G3– B ♭ 3-D3-F4-G4-A4. The most common tunings are called silaba and hardino , others are tomora (similar to the Doric mode ) and sauta (similar to the Lydian mode ). A root between E ♭ and G occurs most frequently.
The kora is played with two thumbs and index fingers. The thumbs often play the bass lines, the index fingers rather the melody lines. A kora player either sings himself or is accompanied by a singer.
Some well-known kora players are Toumani Diabaté , Malamini Jobarteh , Tata Dindin , Ballaké Sissoko , Foday Musa Suso , Amadou Bansang Jobarteh , Solo Cissokho , Soriba Kouyaté , Moussa Cissokho and Sekou Kouyate . Soriba Kouyaté introduced a European approach to playing. Sona Jobarteh is the first female kora player to be internationally known. ,
origin
The kora possibly comes from the former Mandinka kingdom of Kaabu , which extended to the area of today's Gambia, southern Senegal and Guinea-Bissau until the 19th century. Its origin can be assumed to be in the 16th or 17th century.
See also
- Gravikord , the bridge harp modeled on kora with an electric pickup
literature
- Roderic C. Knight: Kora. In: Grove Music Online , 2001
- Foday Musa Suso : Jali Kunda: Memories in: Jali Kunda: The Griots of West Africa and the Rest of the World (1996). Book and CD set. Ellipsis Arts.
- Ulrich Wegner: African string instruments. (with music cassette), Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1984, pp. 175–184, ISBN 3-88609-117-1
Web links
- Kora Music (German, English, French, Dutch)
- The kora. Staying in Tune: Chordophones, Virtual Museum of Canada.
Individual evidence
- ^ Roderic Knight: Towards a Notation and Tablature for the Kora and Its Application to Other Instruments. In: African Music , Vol. 5, No. 1, 1971, pp. 23-36