Until recently, traditional music of West Africa was not well known outside the African continent. And yet the rich musical legacy of this region has left an indelible mark on the popular music of both North and South America. How is this possible? Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Mandinka people, along with numerous other African ethnic groups, were kidnapped, sold and transported to the Americas as slaves. They brought with them the West African music destine to merge with Western music and form the basis of blues, jazz, rock, ragtime, gospel, rhythm and blues, Motown, salsa, bossa nova and many other New World styles.
Warrior and Attendants | 16th century West African bronze plaque from the royal palace in Benin City. | Metropolitan Museum of Art
We will explore a pivotal African musical genre, the kora music of West Africa.
What is a Kora?
The kora is a lute shaped chordophone played like a harp. Current designs typically have twenty-one strings albeit some examples may have fewer. It is native to West Africa, originating with the Mandinka, and developed in the late sixteenth century. The kora has been known in the West since the late eighteenth century, with references to the kora by writers such as Mungo Park (1799).
Koras are made from a large calabash cut in half and covered with leather, forming a resonator, and fitted with a long hardwood neck and bridge. Kora strings are arranged in two sets like a double harp, but terminate on a bridge similar to a bridge harp. Like a guitar or lute, kora strings are attached to a neck and transverse a bridge supported by a resonating chamber. This hybrid lute-harp design puts the kora in a dual classification as a double-bridge-harp-lute.
Strings
Kora strings were originally made from leather and tuned by tightening leather rings or straps. Most modern performers now use harp strings or fluorocarbon fishing line tuned with geared guitar tuning heads for increased tuning ease.
Nyenyemo
A nyenyemo is clamped to the bridge of traditional kora. The nyenyemo is a plate of tin or brass with wire loops threaded around the edge. When the instrument is played, the nyenyemo vibrates, producing sympathetic sounds that enhance the timbre and volume of the instrument. Some modern kora have done away with the nyenyemo and use a pickup system to plug into a sound system.
Sound
The kora’s sound is similar to a harp or an ukulele plucked sul tasto: soft, delicate and an abundance of over-ringing tones.
When played in the traditional style, the twenty-one strings are plucked by bare fingertips, eleven played by the left hand and ten by the right. The resulting texture is full with melodic lines and accompaniment played simultaneously.
Ballake Sissoko | The kora is played with the soundboard and strings facing the player. | Tatiana Gorilovksy, photo | Black Lives in Music
Performers
In West Africa—Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Gambia—kora players come from Mandinka families of bards. Mandinka bards are known as Jali in West Africa. Jali are musician poets, story tellers, historians and genealogists, serving as propagators of news before the popularization of print and electronic media. Until recently, kora music existed as an oral tradition, passed down among members of Jali families.
The kora piece, Jula Jekele, is a traditional Jali kora piece. The lyrics tell the story of Jula Jekele. Jekele was a celebrated nineteenth century businessman of great wealth and power, and the owner of many slaves. He was also a devout Muslim and was known to sacrifice hundreds of animals during Ramadan. According to legend, the song of Jali saved one hundred slaves from being sacrificed.
It begins with simple melody played in a free and non-metrical rhythm.
About one minute in, an ostinato bass appears, thickening the texture and rhythmic interest.
Two minutes in, the kora player, Foday Musa Suso, begins to sing of the deeds of Mr. Jekele while accompanying himself with the kora and improvising responses to his vocal motives.
About three minutes in there is extensive improvisation.
At about 4:30 the vocals return and drift into vocal improvisation on nonsense syllables and humming.
Finally, at 5:30 Mr. Suso lets rip a final improvisation and returns to short melodic phrases to end the piece.
Jula Jekere | Foday Musa Suso, kora | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (6:06)
International Fame
Kora repertoire was relatively unknown until the twentieth century when Christian missionaries and ethnomusicologists began notating and recording this music. Eventually international audiences and players were attracted to the kora, spreading its delicate tones far beyond West Africa and Jali musicians.
Notation
Outsiders have not connections nor time to learn the kora in the traditional manner—as part of a Jali family—so Western methods of instruction were applied to the kora. The French Benedictine monks of the Keur Moussa Abbey in Senegal learned how to write kora music in staff notation and eventually authored a kora teaching method. The choir director of the Keur Moussa Abbey, Dominique Catta, was the first Western composer to write for the kora, authoring solos as well as ensembles with Western instruments.
Most kora scores are written on a single G clef, according to the Keur Moussa Abbey method. The low notes that could be written on the bass clef are symbolized by numbers written below the G clef.
Kora sheet music | Jacques Burtin's One Thousand Sources | Wikimedia Commons
Most Jali still compose and play kora music in the traditional manner, passing down repertoire and technique from musician to musician as an oral tradition. However, since the 1980s, Western musicians have been playing and writing for the kora using the Keur Moussa Abbey notation system. Hundreds of works for the kora have appeared worldwide. The most notable kora composer is Dominique Catta, also one of the authors of the first kora method.
Codetta
Since the 1990s, interest in World Beat has sparked curiosity in West African music, attracting a growing list of international kora composers. American musician Philip Glass is the most famous composer to write for the kora and collaborate with Foday Musa Suso, a renowned kora performer. Suso has also collaborated with jazz, classical and popular musicians, including Hebbie Hancock and Jack DeJohnette, bringing kora music to the world. Although the kora boasts a following of international players and composers, the its core of musicians and creativity remains quintessentially West African.
Foday Musa Suso and Leo Heiblum | Suso on kora and Heiblum on Jarana (tiny guitar like instrument) improvising over a chord progression. (5:28)
Vocabulary
kora, Jali, Mandinka, nyenyemo, Keur Moussa Abbey notation system
What is a Kora?
Construction
Sound
International Fame
sm.jpg "Kora sheet music | Jacques Burtin's One Thousand Sources | Wikimedia Commons")
Codetta
