Introduction
Kora is a musical instrument that was used in the ancient times by rulers of West African Countries, and it is still utilized by the Mandinka people of West African countries. It compositions comprise of a large calabash that is half covered with a skin of a cow and consists of a long hardwood neck. The cow skin is strengthened by two handles that run under it and makes a double freestanding bridge. The composition of Kora Mamadou Kouyate makes it a diverse music instrument that does not fit into any category of music instruments but rather to many and is classified as a double bridge harp. The strings of a double bridge harp are divided into two ranks. They do not end in notches. The instrument is a lute due to the line running across the bridge directing making it a lute.
Body
The sound from the Kora is similar to that one produced by a harp when it is played. The player of the music instrument has to make use of both hands and index figures to produce a rhythm. The rest of the figures of the hand are used for holding the instrument when it is being played. The Flamenco and Delta blue are similar to the Kora and a player who is versed with the two can play the Kora comfortably (Kora, 2007 p. 109).
The Kora Mamadou Kouyate is a musical instrument associated with the Mandinka nationalities of West Africa countries. They are the custodians of the instruments mainly and who preserve the tradition about of the instruments. They pass the art of playing an instrument to their generation. In addition to that, the history of making the music instrument also passed to the generations. Jali is the name given to the person who plays the instrument by the Mandinka people.
Kora comprises of 21 strings that are played by different hands. The left hand plays eleven of the lines while the right hand plays the rest of the strings. Modernization of West African countries has lead to the production of modern Koras that feature additional cords. Mainly the lines that are added are bass strings. The cords of a traditional Kora are made up from strips of hide while the modern Koras strings are made from nylon. The tuning of the kora is achieved by moving the adjustment cords up and down the neck (Schneider, 2011 p. 168).
The West Africa people mainly the Mandinka people are related to the art. The nationalities that the instrument is played are primarily the Gambia, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Senegal. Its history draws from the first president of Senegal known as Leopold Senghor. Leopold Senghor designed and created music instrument. Djimo Kouyate made the bridge for instrument. Playing of the Kora tool is accompanied by epic narratives of Jeliw of people of western and central Sudan. A hereditary position occurs for those who are the custodian of the instrument. It severs as living repositories of chronicles that are passed down through time. The custodians are always called upon in times of dispute that occur, and they are relied in solving the disputes.
Musicians who are talented in playing the music help in recalling extensive amount of information that is entrusted to them. They use the music in passing out accurate information that affect their daily today functioning (Cherry, 2000 p. 73). The composition of Kora of harp and lute is an example of an instrument that is played during recitations. Due to the colonization of West African communities, most of the communities adopted a French system of living. They also changed the term Jali to griot, which is a French word.
The question that most historians and research’s ask about the instrument is the reason it is the way it is and has not changed amid much pressure from modernization. The chief reason it is a preserve to Mandinka people it causes acts as a tradition. People are still accustomed to traditional, and they do not wish to fathom to any changes. It reminds them of their rich tradition, and they do not want it to be eliminated. Most rituals performed by communities living in West Africa and rituals performed prefer to have music played by the traditional instrument in the rituals. It is a way of them uniting them with the ancestors, and it brings the tone for unification (Mazal, Carver, Shukman and Sundaram, 2010 p. 189).
The Kora music is falls under the category of traditional music. Most Western African countries have practiced the music for centuries. It was until 20th century that people started to write about it. Musicians and scholars of music who are tasked with the job of writing are ethnomusicologists and were only few, and they wrote about it using some traditional airs and methods know as F clef and G clef. In the modern times, the Kora scores are written on a single Glef that is from the following of Keur notation system that is always in place. The notation system is the creation the creation of Kora in the late 1970s made a brother Dominique Catta. He was a monk of the Keur Moussa of the Senegal people. It consists of several little notes that can be written using the F clef system, but it was written using the Gclef system.
Western influence in the music could not go unnoticed, and western musicians began writing about the kora music. They made use of the notation system that has be adopted by Keur Moussa notation system in the begging of the 1980s (Stone, 1998 p. 68). Western musicians have written more than 300 scores from the western instruments. They are two notable music composers that have written most of the scores, and they include Jacques Burtin and Dominique Catta. They have contributed a lot in marketing the music and made it have international recognition. It causes of the publications of these musicians most of the instruments are in museums of western countries.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Kora musical instrument teaches us a lot concerning the history of the Mandinka people and the ancient music. It shows us the apparatuses used in the old times and how presently they have to be used (Stone, 1998 p. 82). It shows how modern culture has evolved and tried to influence the modernization of the musical instrument, but the community has remained defined in modernization and little modifications have been made to the original music instrument. The Kora comprises of 21 strings, and it is played using both hands where the left hand is highly made of use than the right hand. It is mainly played in western Africa countries. Several musicians have written a lot about the music instruments.
Reference list
Charry. S Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of The Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa (2000) University of Chicago Press
Kora (Musical group : N.Z.). (2007). Kora. Wellington, N.Z.: Kora Ltd
Mazal, R., Carver, J., Shukman, H., & Sundaram Tagore Gallery. (2010). Kora. New York, N.Y: Sundadram Tagore Gallery.
Schneider, R. . (January 01, 2011). Kora. Jahrbuch Der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien / Kunsthistorische Sammlungen Des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses <wien>, 135-143.
Stone. R The Garland Handbook of African Music (1998)Taylor & Francis
