Mbira music

In Zimbabwean music, mbira music is music played on an mbira, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

To many people Mbira music appears extremely repetitive, or cyclical. However, in most Mbira music, there are minute variations, suggestive of the minimalist movement in western music (for example Philip Glass et al.).

As usual in African music, rhythm plays an important part. The rhythms are often quite intricate and to some extent dictate the form of the melody.

Shona mbira music

Generally, each mbira piece can be divided into four sections of twelve pulses each, although there are songs that divide into nine or eight pulses as well. Andrew Tracey refers to each cycle as a chara^[1], which translates as "version", but literally means "fingering" or "thumb".

Traditional Shona Mbira music is typically composed to two different parts, the Kushaura (meaning "to lead" or "to start") and the Kutsinhira (meaning "to follow"^[2]). Each part is played on two different mbiras, with the kushaura often being the more simple part, and the kutsinhira more complicated.

Shona mbira songs

Kariga Mombe

• Means "taking the bull by the horns" or "undefeatable" and is a good first piece to learn because of its relative simplicity.
• With its simultaneous plucking of both the upper and middle registers in a steady beat, it becomes easy to play, but challenging to properly count: it gives the feel of a two pulse (six counts of two pulses), but is traditionally played as three (four counts of three pulses) causing the beat to fall in between the notes every other time.
• A derivative of the older song Nyamaropa.
• For North American students of the mbira, this song is often widely considered to be the first song taught to beginners because of its simplicity; in Zimbabwe, however, Chemutengure, a song anonymously composed in 19th century, which means "imitating the sound of wheels", is used to teach beginners especially on the mbira nyunga nyunga.

Mahororo

• Named after a small river in Zimbabwe, used to welcome hunters home after long hunts (according to Stella Chiweshe).
• Word means "Baboons' voices" or "Freedom following victorious struggle" (according to Forward Kwenda).
• Also a derivative of the older song Nyamaropa.

Nyamaropa

• Literally means "meat and blood."
• It is considered among the oldest of mbira music. According to Berliner it was the first piece composed for the instrument.
• Although it may have originally been a song to prepare for battle, it is now considered a hunting song.

Nhemamusasa

• Translates as "temporary shelter." A musasa is a shelter hunters would build while away from their homes.^[2]
• Like Nyamaropa this song was also once associated with war, but is now used as a hunting song.
• The tonal center of this song is a fourth above the lowest note on the mbira.

Kuzanga

• According to B. Michael Williams^[3], a Shona man named Chartwell Dutiro explains that the title means "to thread beads," and states it is a "song about an old woman who stays in the forest alone, making beads for her ancestors. For the old woman, making beads for the ancestors is living happily and free from fear."
• Although the tonal center and harmonic structure are similar to dande, kuzanga only has nine pulses per section, instead of the twelve.

Taireva

• The title of this song can be translated a number of ways: "we used to tell you," "we shall speak out," "I have said it," "we were talking," "I once said it," and "don't say I didn't warn you."
• It is reported to express the importance of what is on your mind, and listening to your elders.
• Also a derivation of Nyamaropa
• The harmonic progression of this song, shifted to a minor key, provides the basis for the Chimurenga song Nyoka Musango by Thomas Mapfumo.

Vadzimu

• This is a version of Nyamaropa (whose name means "spirits") played by the contemporary Shona musician Fabio Chivhanda. Also known more generically as "Nyamaropa yaChivhanda" which literally means "Chivhanda's Nyamaropa."

Bangidza or Bangiza

• The title can be taken to mean "show," or "spiritual vibes," and is understood to be a very ancient spiritual song.
• Erica Azim reports this song as dating back to the 14th-16th century, during the time of Mwena Mutapa (or Great Zimbabwe).

Marenje

• A song typically played on the gandanga (mavembe) tuning of the mbira (as is Ngozi ye Muroora).

References

1. ^ Tracey, Andrew. (1970). How to play the mbira (dza vadzimu). Roodepoort, Transvaal, South Africa: International Library of African Music.
2. ^ ^{a b} Berliner, Paul. (1978). The Soul of Mbira: music and traditions of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Berkeley : University of California Press.
3. ^ Williams, B. Michael. (2001) Learning Mbira: A Beginning. Everett, PA: HoneyRock. ISBN 0-9634060-4-3