{"id":655,"date":"2007-11-26T02:27:47","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T07:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=655"},"modified":"2018-08-15T21:12:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T01:12:08","slug":"the-soul-of-mbira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=655","title":{"rendered":"The Soul of Mbira"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"07-11-26<\/a>I\u2019ve just acquired Zim\u00adbabwe: Tra\u00addi\u00adtions of the Shona Peo\u00adple \u2015 The Soul of Mbi\u00adra<\/em>. Most eth\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal record\u00adings are of lim\u00adited inter\u00adest to non-spe\u00adcial\u00adists, but the sound of the African instru\u00adment known as the mbi\u00adra<\/em> or kalim\u00adba<\/em> is so delight\u00adful that a broad audi\u00adence can enjoy this album. The album con\u00adsists of record\u00adings made in Zim\u00adbabwe by eth\u00adno\u00admu\u00adsi\u00adcol\u00ado\u00adgist Paul F. Berlin\u00ader. Berlin\u00ader is the acknowl\u00adedged author\u00adity on mbi\u00adra<\/em> music, and author of The Soul of Mbi\u00adra<\/em>, pub\u00adlished in 1993 by Uni\u00adver\u00adsity of Chica\u00adgo Press. The mbi\u00adra con\u00adsists of a wood\u00aden sound\u00ading board, on which tuned iron keys are mount\u00aded. The keys are played by the thumbs. <\/span>The music of the mbi\u00adra, as it is played by the Shona peo\u00adple of Zim\u00adbabwe, is com\u00adplex and polyrhyth\u00admic, often giv\u00ading the impres\u00adsion of sev\u00aderal instru\u00adments played at once. The form of mbi\u00adra pieces, usu\u00adally accom\u00adpa\u00adnied by a drum called the hosho<\/em>, vague\u00adly resem\u00adbles the works of Philip Glass, in that com\u00adplex repeat\u00ading pat\u00adterns slow\u00adly mutate over a long time. The mbi\u00adra is doc\u00adu\u00admented in African cul\u00adture as ear\u00adly as 1589, and is prob\u00ada\u00adbly much old\u00ader. It may be close\u00adly asso\u00adci\u00adated with the tech\u00adnol\u00adogy of iron smelt\u00ading, which in turn is asso\u00adci\u00adated with the expan\u00adsion of the Ban\u00adtu-speak\u00ading peo\u00adples of Africa. There was very good qual\u00adity iron smelt\u00ading in the Muta\u00adpa Empire of the 13th to 17th centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the mbi\u00adra has not spread out of Africa in the same way that the ban\u00adjul<\/em> (ban\u00adjo) did, it has some affi\u00adciana\u00addos in the rest of the world. Earth, Wind and Fire<\/em>, the eclec\u00adtic Chica\u00adgo-based band of the 1970s, fea\u00adtured the kalim\u00adba. This is a vari\u00adant of the mbi\u00adra, tuned dia\u00adton\u00adi\u00adcally in the key of G, with the keys placed in a non-tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal man\u00adner (adja\u00adcent notes on the scale sit\u00adting on oppo\u00adsite sides). It was invent\u00aded in the 1950\u2019s and was an \u201cexport\u201d ver\u00adsion of the instru\u00adment, orig\u00adi\u00adnally mar\u00adketed by a New Jer\u00adsey firm as a toy! Earth, Wind and Fire<\/em>\u2019s band\u00adleader, Mau\u00adrice White, became quite pro\u00adfi\u00adcient on the instru\u00adment, and his per\u00adfor\u00admances helped res\u00adcue the instru\u00adment from its \u201ctoy\u201d status.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just acquired Zim\u00adbabwe: Tra\u00addi\u00adtions of the Shona Peo\u00adple \u2015 The Soul of Mbi\u00adra. Most eth\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal record\u00adings are of lim\u00adited inter\u00adest to non-spe\u00ad\u00adcial\u00adists, but the sound of the African instru\u00adment known as the mbi\u00adra or kalim\u00adba is so delight\u00adful that \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[947,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-listening","category-ct-listening-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8811,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/8811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}