Zvembira

Last year, in my article  A view on innovation and preservation  I have written about the tension between musical innovation and preservation of music. Today, I want to take up that topic again, but from a slightly more abstract and philosophical angle of view. These considerations might be applied to Mbira music, but also to other musical traditions elsewhere. In my article  Gaps of Writing  I wrote: In the human mind, knowledge is part of an active, creative process that can apply, adapt and modify it. The knowledge is always incomplete but it is extensible. The core of knowledge we have at any time may be thought of as surrounded by a more fluid “atmosphere” of dynamically changing thoughts and processes of experimentation constantly modifying the knowledge core. What can be written down, on the other hand, is always only a snapshot of some part of the incomplete knowledge. What is being lost in writing is the creativity and the wisdom. This thought can also be applied to music. If we record music or we write in down in a musical notation, we only record ore note down one version from a whole “swarm” of versions. A musician might learn a tune by listening to examples and by playing them. In his mind, a core model of that song takes shape but in performances, he might improvise on it and modify it. During improvisation, when you listen to what you are playing, there might always be an element of surprise. And when several musicians play together, the dialog between them will make that core of musical knowledge in each of them resonate and create new variants. No notations or recording can capture all the possible variations and interactions. Even if we invented something like a grammar of music, a notation that might capture several possible versions as once just like a grammar describes large sets of possible sentences by describing how elements may be put together, such a notation would not capture all possibilities since the creative musician can always modify the structure. And for the same reason, anything that can be written about music would be incomplete since the creative musician is able to invent new music not covered by the description. This situation is, of course, one of the nice aspects of music, but it poses a problem if we want to preserve music that we have received in a tradition. We can make recordings and we can prepare scores. But in doing so, we must know that recordings and scores only capture a subset of the whole. If we start teaching the music in a music school or conservatory, there is the danger that the tradition will freeze and become sterile. Teachers might no longer teach the tune as a creative structure but just certain fixed embodiments of if that have been recorded or written down. This has happened to several musical and artistic traditions. There was a lot of criticism when some conservatories started to teach jazz because people feared that if you can study and get a degree in jazz, the music, once mainly an improvised art form, would become formalized and sterile in the process. Preventing this is the challenge that the musicians who teach and learn in such institutions are facing. If the alternative is the total loss of the music or art we want to preserve, making recordings and scores or preserving fixed ways of performance is certainly better than nothing, and I think it should be done. Likewise, if a language is at the brink of extinction, preparing a grammar and a dictionary of it and writing down some texts is better than nothing. But this does not really preserve the language. An element of life is getting lost here. It is a little bit like collecting butterflies. You stick them to a board with a needle and preserve the beauty of the colors, to be viewed through the glass pane of the glass cabinet, but actually, you are not collecting butterflies, you are collecting carcasses of butterflies. The butterflies are not flying between the trees of a forest, drinking nectar. They are hanging on the walls of a natural history museum instead. To keep the music truly alive, the  art  must be transmitted from a master to a student., not just the tunes. On one hand, during learning, the student will learn the usual interpretations of tunes. He or she will listen to performances and perhaps recordings and might learn a notation and study written scores. The student might learn to reproduce tunes very exactly. But this is only part of the teaching; it is the part that can be gained from books or online tutorials. But there are parts of the teaching process that require the direct interaction of teacher and student, for example when the teacher gives feedback to the performance of the student. And after mastering all of this, the student must be able to step out of the model and dissolve it. The musician who becomes a master will start to be able to blow the life of creativity into the model he has been taught, to turn that model into a cloud of variants with no fixed border. From this, new interpretations and also entirely new music can spring up. The apprentice must learn the rules, but the master will know when to break them. Creativity is the ability to step out of any formal system, so after learning the formal system, you must break out of it. At the same time, you should make an effort to preserve it and to pass it on, perhaps with additions. While the codification of music contains the danger of traditions becoming sterile and fixed, in a living tradition the risk is that the beautiful tunes of the past will dissolve and be lost completely. This is the dilemma the master musician has to face: to preserve and at the same time to remain creative. I say “dilemma” her not in the sense of something impossible but in the sense of a balance that is difficult to maintain. Recordings and scores are important and should be made, but it is just as important to preserve the living art. This is something that requires a teacher-student relationship. When traditional structures are under threat from the modern world, it might be necessary to institutionalize this teacher-student relationship. Some kind of school has to be formed, but the challenge should be recognized that in institutionalizing the teaching and learning process, musicians and artists must be careful not to take the life out of the music. (The picture is from  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exotic_butterflies_at_the_Horniman_Museum.jpg?uselang=de ) http://zvembira.com/2014/02/04/creativity-and-tradition/ more

Pasichigare: Mystic Mbira Music of Zimbabwe  is a new double CD offering from world renowned musician Chartwell Dutiro in a collaboration with renowned mbira maker and player Sebastian Pott and Elmar Pohl as the  Chipindura Mbira Trio . The album  is particularly special to Chartwell as it was recorded using the tuning that Chartwell grew up playing at ritual ceremonies in Zimbabwe. Talking about the experience of recording in this tuning for the first time Chartwell said; “During the recording I found myself totally uplifted! I had a feeling that the spirits of ancestors were in the recording room”. The Shona lyrics are translated into German and English. The album will be available for purchase on Amazon on the 31st of January. Expect a review from Zvembira on the 30th. For more information visit:  http://www.chartwelldutiro.com Email: Chartwell@mbira-academy.org.uk http://www.mbira-academy.org.uk more

Well folks, we are back from a great weekend at the Zimbabwe in Devon Mbira Camp. We  had a great laugh about the things that people who are not familiar to mbira say about the music and instrument. These ranged from the funny to the downright annoying!  We’ve complied a top five list from some of the things that people shared with us. Here we go… 1. Is It Made Out of Spoons? Probably the most common question that a lot of mbira players have been asked! It seems this one has ruffled many feathers.   Verdict:  Annoying but sweet! 2. Did you make it yourself?  People have also been asked many times if they made the instruments themselves. Have you had similar experiences? We were just wondering whether this question is asked because the instrument usually looks definitely handmade hence the assumption that everyone can knock one up for themselves.  Verdict:  Flattering but annoying 3. Can you play “normal” songs on it?  This we found extremely funny (and a bit annoying)!  People want to know if you can play a pop song on the mbira. It is a very interesting question in that someone is essentially asking about the versatility of the instrument. What we found annoying about this question is the use of the word “normal”.   Anyway maybe this is what they were asking about… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaDA4qHGvKc Verdict:  Annoying but understandable 4.   I can hear a strange buzzing. I think one of your strings is a bit loose.  Believe it or not, someone had the courage to say this! Buzzing seems to be something that always troubles people when they listen to mbira.  People at the camp spoke a lot about how people always say “It would sound really lovely without those rattling bottle tops” or “it will sound really lovely when you fix the loose bits”. It seems some people are inclined to a ‘clean’ sound. Is it that there is too much buzzing or what? We’ll never know!  We’ve written about buzzing  here  before. Verdict:  People are entitled to their preferences 5. I’ve got one of those but it’s smaller. My mum brought it back from Africa.  Well, don’t they all just look the same? We had a laugh about it because we imagined someone from “Africa”   with a violin saying to someone in Europe who has a cello, “oh, I’ve got one of those but it’s smaller. My mum brought it back from Europe”. Check out the blog on ‘Mbira Identity’  here  . Verdict:  Very innocent silly thing to say! Have you heard any funny things out there? We would like to hear from you! http://zvembira.com/2013/07/01/five-things/ more

  The UK is rich with mbira players. Just as an introduction we have compiled a short list of videos to introduce you to some of these great names. Chartwell Dutiro Chartwell teaches Mbira, dance, percussion and singing in community and school settings nationally and internationally. He is the founder of the long running mbira gatherings, which occur throughout the year such as Zimbabwe in Devon, Clan Mbira Scotland and Mbira Mubako in Seuilly, France. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AZlfsm5yrJk   http://chartwelldutiro.com/about/   Anna Mudeka Based in Norfolk for more than 10 years, Anna has been playing music rooted in African traditions for a long time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AsvNG5SJnb0   http://www.annamudeka.com/ Linos Wengara Magaya Linos is based in Brighton and he leads the band Zimbaramabwe. Zimbaramabwe performs, practices and teaches Zimbabwean arts particularly Mbira based music, both traditional and modern. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sVTcA31JGpE   http://www.zimbaremabwe.org/ more