Kora: Burkina faso musical instrument

The kora is a 21 string bridge-harp that is used extensively in West Africa. A kora is a harp that is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with the skin of a cow to make a resonator with a long hardwood neck. The skin is stabilized by two handles that pass under it and it stabilizes a notched double free-standing bridge. This musical instrument does not fit into any genre of musical instrument, although they are categorized under the “double-bridge-harp-lute”. The string of the instrument run in divided stages thereby, making the instrument a double harp. The strings do not end in the soundboard, rather they are held in notches on a bridge and this is what makes it a bridge harp. And finally, they came from a string arm or neck and cross a bridge directly helped by a resonating chamber and this is what makes it a lute.

source: alles.or.jp

The sound of a kora is similar to that of the harp, although when played in the traditional pattern, it has closer similarities to the flamenco and delta blues guitar style. The players of this musical instrument use only the thumb of their hand and the index finger of the both hands to pluck the strings in a polyrhythmic way. ‘Kubengo’ and improvised ‘Birimintingo’ are played at the same time by a skilled player of the instrument. The players of the instrument are believed to have traditionally come from ‘Griot’ families that are traditional historians and storytellers who pass their talents and skills on their descendants. The kora is played widely in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso as well as Gambia. Traditional kora has about 21 strings of which eleven is played by the left hand and the other ten played by the right hand. Modern kora that is produced in the Casamance region of the southern Senegal sometime add bass strings of about four to increase the normal 21. The string of this musical instrument is traditionally produced from thin strips of hide like the skin of an antelope. Today, most strings are made from harp strings or nylon fishing line or plaited together to make a thicker string. By just moving leather tuning rings up and down the neck of the kora, the player of the instrument can re-tune the instrument into one of four seven note scales and these scales are close in tuning to western Major modes, Minor modes and Lydian modes.

The earliest European comment on the kora in the Western literature is the ‘Travels in Interior District of Africa’ by the Scottish traveller Mungo Park in 1799. The most similar scenario found on Mandika oral tradition opined that the origin of the kora may ultimately be associated with Jali Mady Fouling Cissoko sometime after the discovery of Kaabu in the 16^th century. The kora is also mentioned in the Senegalese national anthem, "Pincez Tous vos Koras, Frappez les Balafons".

Today, the kora, increasingly are made with guitar machine heads instead of the traditional leather rings. The merit is that they are easier to tune and the de-merit is that this design limits the pitch of the musical instrument because the length of the strings are more fixed and they are lighter strings needed to raise it as much more than a tone. Learning to tune this musical instrument is deniably as difficult as learning to play it and many people fascinated by the sound while in Africa buy the instrument and then see it to be hard to keep it at tune once they get home, demoting it to the status of decoration. The kora can be changed to replace the leather rings with machine heads. Wooden pegs and harps can also be used but both can still cause the tuning problems of the instrument in damper climates unless made with great skill.

In the later part of the 20^th century, a 25-string model of the kora was built, although it has been adopted by only a few players of the instrument in the region of Casamance in the southern part of Senegal. Some kora players like Seckou Keita use double necked kora and this permits them to switch from one tuning to another within seconds as they are playing, giving them increased flexibility on the instrument.

The French Benedictine Monks of the Keur Moussa Abbey possibly wrere the first to introduce guitar machine heads rather than of leather rings in the later part of the 70s, conceived a style based on the scores to teach the kora. Brother Dominique Catta, Choirmaster of the Keur Moussa Abbey was the first composer from the west to write for the musical instrument.

‘Gravikord’, an electric instrument that is modelled on the kora was invented in the late 20^th century by instrument producer and musician called Robert Grawi. This instrument has 24 strings but is tuned and played in a different way than the kora. This same man later invented another 21 string electro-acoustic instrument called ‘Gravi-kora’ for kora players who needed a modern instrument. The playing and tuning of the instrument is the same as the normal traditional kora. And it was adopted by many kora players.

The kora music is a part of the oral tradition and does not have it music written down until the 20^th century. The ethnomusicologists were the people to write down dome traditional airs in the normal grand staff with the use of “G clef and the F clef”. Today, the kora music are written on a single G clef following the Keur Moussa notation which was created for the kora in the 1970s by Brother Dominique. The seven low notes that should be written on the F clef are now being replaced by Arabic numeral and sometimes Roman numeral and written on the G clef. As griots still arrange in the traditional way, some musicians started to write partitures for the musical instrument and assumed the Keur Moussa notation system at the early part of 1980s.