A tale of two mbiras
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1228Abstract
This is the tale of two kinds of mbira from Zimbabwe: mbira dzavadzimu and mbira dzaVaNdau.1 Both began as narrowly localized instruments, but they've had very divergent fates over the past one hundred years. The mbira dzavadzimu has become widely known throughout Zimbabwe, a presence in popular music, and a potentially viable economic choice for some musicians. It is played throughout the world, and has become part of the ethnomusicological canon, a literal textbook example of world music (Locke 2009; Turino 2011). During the same period, the mbira dzaVaNdau has quietly faded into near anonymity and virtual disappearance in Zimbabwe.2 In this article, I explore the reasons for this divergence and the role ethnomusicology has played in this history and I ask, what is ethnomusicology's responsibility when it becomes part of the tale it hopes to tell?References
Alves, William 2013 Music o f the Peoples o f the World. Boston, MA: Schirmer.
Azim, Erica 1999 "On Teaching Americans to Play Mbira Like Zimbabweans.” African Music 7(4): 175-80.
Bakan, Michael B 2011 World Music: Traditions and Transformations. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Berliner, Paul 1993 Boas, Franz 1920 1922a 1922b The Soul o f Mbira: Music and Traditions o f the Shona People of Zimbabwe, 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1978] Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boas, Franz 1920 "Der Seelenglaube der Vandau.” Zeitschrift fu r Ethnologie 52(1): 1-5.
1922a "Der Verwandtschaftssystem der Vandau.” Zeitschrift fu r Ethnologie 54(1): 41-51.
1922b "The Avunculate Among the Vandau.” American Anthropologist 24(1): 95-97.
Boas, Franz, and C. Kamba Simango 1922 "Tales and Proverbs of the Vandau of Portuguese South Africa.” Journal o f American Folklore 35(136): 151-204.
Brenner, Klaus-Peter 1997 Chipendani Und M bira: Musikinstrumente, Nicht-Begriffliche M athematik Und Die Evolution Der Harmonischen Progressionen in Der Musik Der Shona in Zimbabwe. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Chinyowa, Kennedy 2001 "Orality in Shona Religious Ritual.” In Orality and Cultural Identities in Zimbabwe, M.T. Vambe, ed. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 9-17.
Clements, William M. 1995 "The 'Offshoot' and the 'Root': Natalie Curtis and Black Expressive Culture in Africa and America.” Western Folklore 54(4): 277-301.
Cromwell, Adelaide M. 1986 An African Victorian Feminist: The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford 1868-1960: A Personal Chronicle of Social Change in West Africa, Incorporating Her Memoirs. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
Curtis, Natalie 1920 Songs and Tales From the Dark Continent. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. 1921 "From Kraal to College: The Story of Kamba Simango.” The Outlook 129(2): 61-63.
Fry, Peter 1976 Spirits of Protest: Spirit-Mediums and the Articulation of Consensus Among the Zezuru of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grupe, Gerd 2004 Die Kunst Des Mbira-Spiels: Harmonische Struktur Und Patternbildung in Der Lamellophonmusik Der Shona in Zimbabwe. Tutzing: H Schneider.
Harris, Rachel, and Rowan Pease, eds. 2015 Pieces of the Musical World: Sounds and Cultures. New York: Routledge.
Hast, Dorothea E., James R. Cowdery, and Stan Scott 1997 Exploring the World o f Music: An Introduction to Music From a World Music Perspectives. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Herskovits, Melville 1923 "Some Property Concepts and Marriage Customs of the Vandau.” American Anthropologist 25(3): 376-86.
Johnson, James Wheldon 1968 Black Manhattan. New York: Holiday House.
Jones, Claire 1992 Making Music: Musical Instruments in Zimbabwe Past and Present. Harare: Academic Books Zimbabwe.
Kaemmer, John 1998 Music of the Shona of Zimbabwe. In The Garland Encyclopedia o f World Music: Africa, Ruth Stone, ed. New York: Garland Publishing.
Kauffman, Robert 1971 "Multi-Part Relationships in the Shona Music of Rhodesia.” PhD dissertation, Music, University of California, Los Angeles.
King, Kenneth J. 1970 "African Students in Negro American Colleges: Notes on the Good African.” Phylon 31(1): 16-30.
Koskoff, Ellen 1999 "What Do We Want to Teach When We Teach Music? One Apology, Two Short Trips, Three Ethical Dilemmas, and Eighty-Two Questions.” In Rethinking Music, Nicholas Cooke and Mark Everist, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kubik, Gerhard "Generic Names for the Mbira.” African Music 3(3): 25-36. "Nsenga/Shona Harmonic Patterns and the San Heritage in Southern Africa.” Ethnomusicology 32(2): 39-76.
Lan, David 1985 Guns and Rain: Guerillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe. London: James Currey.
Locke David 2009 "Africa/Ewe, Mande, Dagbamba, Shona, BaAka.” In Worlds o f Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, Jeff Todd Titon, ed. Belmont, CA: Schirmer Cengage Learning, 71-1443.
Matiure, Sheasby 2008 "Performing Zimbabwean Music in the United States: An Ethnography of Mbira and Marimba Performance Practice in the United States.” PhD dissertation, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
May, Elizabeth, ed. 1980 Musics of Many Cultures: An Introduction. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Nettl, Bruno 2010 Nettl's Elephant. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Nettl, Bruno and Philip V. Bohlman, eds.
1991 Comparative Musicology and the Anthropology o f Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nettl, Bruno, Timothy Rommen, Charles Capwell, Isabel K.F. Wong, Thomas Turino, Philip V. Bohlman, and Byron Dueck 2011 Excursions in World Music. New York: Routledge.
Perman, Tony n.d. "Brevity, Ambiguity, and Expressivity in M bira Dzavandau Performance.” In Proceedings of the "Symposium III.4: Mbira Music/ Musics. Structures and Processes” o f the 15th International Conference o f the Gesellschaft fu r Musikforschung, "Music /Musics. Structures and Processes”, Gottingen, 4 -8 September 2012. Klaus-Peter Brenner, ed. Gottingen Studies in Musicology/Gottinger Studien zur Musikwissenschaft. Hildesheim: Olms.
Rennie, John Keith 1973 "Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935.” PhD dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Richards, Paul 1987 "Africa in the Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor” Africa 57(4): 566-71.
Scherzinger, Martin 2013 "Fractal Harmonies of Southern Africa.” Analytical Approaches to World Music 3(1): 62-90.
Shelemay, Kay Kaufman 1997 "The Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition.” In Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives fo r Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Gregory F. Barz, and Timothy J. Cooley, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 189-204. 2006 Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Simango, Columbus Kamba 1917 "The African and Civilization.” The Southern Workman 46: 552-555. 1919 "A South African's Story.” The Southern Workman 48: 268-70.
Spencer, Leon P. 2013 Toward an African Church in Mozambique: Kam ba Simango and the Protestant Community in M anica and Sofala, 1892-1945. Luwinga, Malawi: Mzuni Press.
Titon, Jeff Todd, ed. 2009 Worlds o f Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. Belmont, CA: Schirmer Cengage Learning.
Tracey, Andrew 1961 "Mbira Music of Jege a. Tapera.” African Music 2(4): 44-63.
1970a How to Play the Mbira Dza Vadzimu. Roodepoort, South Africa: International Library of African Music.
1970b "The Matepe Mbira Music of Zimbabwe.” African Music 4(4): 37-100.
1972 "The Original African Mbira?” African Music 5(2): 85-104.
1973 "The Family of the Mbira: The Evidence of the Tuning Plans.” Zambezia 3(1): 1-10.
Tracey, Hugh 1961 "A Case for the Name Mbira.” African Music 2(4): 17-25. 1969 "The Mbira Class of Instruments in Rhodesia (1932).” African Music 4(3): 78-95.
Turino, Thomas 1998 "The Mbira, Worldbeat, and the International Imagination.” The World of Music 40(2): 85-106.
2000 Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2011 "Music of Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Excursions in World Music. New York: Routledge.
Azim, Erica 1999 "On Teaching Americans to Play Mbira Like Zimbabweans.” African Music 7(4): 175-80.
Bakan, Michael B 2011 World Music: Traditions and Transformations. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Berliner, Paul 1993 Boas, Franz 1920 1922a 1922b The Soul o f Mbira: Music and Traditions o f the Shona People of Zimbabwe, 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1978] Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boas, Franz 1920 "Der Seelenglaube der Vandau.” Zeitschrift fu r Ethnologie 52(1): 1-5.
1922a "Der Verwandtschaftssystem der Vandau.” Zeitschrift fu r Ethnologie 54(1): 41-51.
1922b "The Avunculate Among the Vandau.” American Anthropologist 24(1): 95-97.
Boas, Franz, and C. Kamba Simango 1922 "Tales and Proverbs of the Vandau of Portuguese South Africa.” Journal o f American Folklore 35(136): 151-204.
Brenner, Klaus-Peter 1997 Chipendani Und M bira: Musikinstrumente, Nicht-Begriffliche M athematik Und Die Evolution Der Harmonischen Progressionen in Der Musik Der Shona in Zimbabwe. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Chinyowa, Kennedy 2001 "Orality in Shona Religious Ritual.” In Orality and Cultural Identities in Zimbabwe, M.T. Vambe, ed. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 9-17.
Clements, William M. 1995 "The 'Offshoot' and the 'Root': Natalie Curtis and Black Expressive Culture in Africa and America.” Western Folklore 54(4): 277-301.
Cromwell, Adelaide M. 1986 An African Victorian Feminist: The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford 1868-1960: A Personal Chronicle of Social Change in West Africa, Incorporating Her Memoirs. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
Curtis, Natalie 1920 Songs and Tales From the Dark Continent. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. 1921 "From Kraal to College: The Story of Kamba Simango.” The Outlook 129(2): 61-63.
Fry, Peter 1976 Spirits of Protest: Spirit-Mediums and the Articulation of Consensus Among the Zezuru of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grupe, Gerd 2004 Die Kunst Des Mbira-Spiels: Harmonische Struktur Und Patternbildung in Der Lamellophonmusik Der Shona in Zimbabwe. Tutzing: H Schneider.
Harris, Rachel, and Rowan Pease, eds. 2015 Pieces of the Musical World: Sounds and Cultures. New York: Routledge.
Hast, Dorothea E., James R. Cowdery, and Stan Scott 1997 Exploring the World o f Music: An Introduction to Music From a World Music Perspectives. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Herskovits, Melville 1923 "Some Property Concepts and Marriage Customs of the Vandau.” American Anthropologist 25(3): 376-86.
Johnson, James Wheldon 1968 Black Manhattan. New York: Holiday House.
Jones, Claire 1992 Making Music: Musical Instruments in Zimbabwe Past and Present. Harare: Academic Books Zimbabwe.
Kaemmer, John 1998 Music of the Shona of Zimbabwe. In The Garland Encyclopedia o f World Music: Africa, Ruth Stone, ed. New York: Garland Publishing.
Kauffman, Robert 1971 "Multi-Part Relationships in the Shona Music of Rhodesia.” PhD dissertation, Music, University of California, Los Angeles.
King, Kenneth J. 1970 "African Students in Negro American Colleges: Notes on the Good African.” Phylon 31(1): 16-30.
Koskoff, Ellen 1999 "What Do We Want to Teach When We Teach Music? One Apology, Two Short Trips, Three Ethical Dilemmas, and Eighty-Two Questions.” In Rethinking Music, Nicholas Cooke and Mark Everist, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kubik, Gerhard "Generic Names for the Mbira.” African Music 3(3): 25-36. "Nsenga/Shona Harmonic Patterns and the San Heritage in Southern Africa.” Ethnomusicology 32(2): 39-76.
Lan, David 1985 Guns and Rain: Guerillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe. London: James Currey.
Locke David 2009 "Africa/Ewe, Mande, Dagbamba, Shona, BaAka.” In Worlds o f Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, Jeff Todd Titon, ed. Belmont, CA: Schirmer Cengage Learning, 71-1443.
Matiure, Sheasby 2008 "Performing Zimbabwean Music in the United States: An Ethnography of Mbira and Marimba Performance Practice in the United States.” PhD dissertation, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
May, Elizabeth, ed. 1980 Musics of Many Cultures: An Introduction. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Nettl, Bruno 2010 Nettl's Elephant. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Nettl, Bruno and Philip V. Bohlman, eds.
1991 Comparative Musicology and the Anthropology o f Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nettl, Bruno, Timothy Rommen, Charles Capwell, Isabel K.F. Wong, Thomas Turino, Philip V. Bohlman, and Byron Dueck 2011 Excursions in World Music. New York: Routledge.
Perman, Tony n.d. "Brevity, Ambiguity, and Expressivity in M bira Dzavandau Performance.” In Proceedings of the "Symposium III.4: Mbira Music/ Musics. Structures and Processes” o f the 15th International Conference o f the Gesellschaft fu r Musikforschung, "Music /Musics. Structures and Processes”, Gottingen, 4 -8 September 2012. Klaus-Peter Brenner, ed. Gottingen Studies in Musicology/Gottinger Studien zur Musikwissenschaft. Hildesheim: Olms.
Rennie, John Keith 1973 "Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935.” PhD dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Richards, Paul 1987 "Africa in the Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor” Africa 57(4): 566-71.
Scherzinger, Martin 2013 "Fractal Harmonies of Southern Africa.” Analytical Approaches to World Music 3(1): 62-90.
Shelemay, Kay Kaufman 1997 "The Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition.” In Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives fo r Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Gregory F. Barz, and Timothy J. Cooley, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 189-204. 2006 Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Simango, Columbus Kamba 1917 "The African and Civilization.” The Southern Workman 46: 552-555. 1919 "A South African's Story.” The Southern Workman 48: 268-70.
Spencer, Leon P. 2013 Toward an African Church in Mozambique: Kam ba Simango and the Protestant Community in M anica and Sofala, 1892-1945. Luwinga, Malawi: Mzuni Press.
Titon, Jeff Todd, ed. 2009 Worlds o f Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. Belmont, CA: Schirmer Cengage Learning.
Tracey, Andrew 1961 "Mbira Music of Jege a. Tapera.” African Music 2(4): 44-63.
1970a How to Play the Mbira Dza Vadzimu. Roodepoort, South Africa: International Library of African Music.
1970b "The Matepe Mbira Music of Zimbabwe.” African Music 4(4): 37-100.
1972 "The Original African Mbira?” African Music 5(2): 85-104.
1973 "The Family of the Mbira: The Evidence of the Tuning Plans.” Zambezia 3(1): 1-10.
Tracey, Hugh 1961 "A Case for the Name Mbira.” African Music 2(4): 17-25. 1969 "The Mbira Class of Instruments in Rhodesia (1932).” African Music 4(3): 78-95.
Turino, Thomas 1998 "The Mbira, Worldbeat, and the International Imagination.” The World of Music 40(2): 85-106.
2000 Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2011 "Music of Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Excursions in World Music. New York: Routledge.
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Published
2015-11-01
How to Cite
Perman, Tony. 2015. “A Tale of Two Mbiras”. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 10 (1):102-25. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1228.
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