Table Of ContentMbira’s Restless Dance
Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology
A series edited by Philip V. Bohlman, Ronald Radano, and Timothy Rommen
Editorial Board
Margaret J. Kartomi
Bruno Nettl
Anthony Seeger
Kay Kaufman Shelemay
Martin H. Stokes
Bonnie C. Wade
Mbira’s
Restless Dance
An Archive of Improvisation
Paul F. Berliner
and Cosmas Magaya
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Th e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Th e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2020 by Th e University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without writt en permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical
articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2020
Printed in the United States of America
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 62627- 7 (set)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 67875- 7 (vol. 1)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-67889-4 (vol. 2)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 62630- 7 (e- book)
DOI: htt ps:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago/ 9780226626307 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berliner, Paul, author. | Magaya, Cosmas, author.
Title: Mbira’s restless dance : an archive of improvisation / Paul F. Berliner and Cosmas
Magaya.
Other titles: Chicago studies in ethnomusicology.
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2020. | Series: Chicago studies in
ethnomusicology | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2019018165 | ISBN 9780226626277 (set : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226678757 (volume 1 : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226678894 (volume 2 : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9780226626307 (ebook for vols. 1–2)
Subjects: LCSH: Mbira music—Analysis, appreciation. | Mbira—Instruction and study. |
Improvisation (Music) | Magaya, Cosmas.
Classifi cation: LCC ML1015.M25 B472 2019 | DDC 786.8/5—dc23
LC record available at htt ps:// lccn .loc .gov /2019018165
♾ Th is paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Volume I Introduction 1
Guide to Mbira Notation 18
1 Bangiza (1) 33
2 Bangiza (2) 66
3 Bangiza (3) 74
4 Bangiza (4) 100
5 Bangiza (5) 113
6 Bayawabaya 138
7 Chakwi 161
8 Chaminuka ndiMambo 177
9 Chaminuka, We 191
10 Chandasarira 197
11 Chipembere 220
12 Chipindura 242
13 Dande 262
14 Dangurangu 282
15 Gorekore 288
16 Karigamombe 293
17 Kuzanga 324
18 Mahororo 346
19 Mandarindari 385
20 Mukatiende 401
v
Volume II 21 Mutamba 1 40 A Comparative View
of Artists’ Composition
22 Muzoriwa 9
Treatments 390
23 Nhemamusasa 42
Bangiza (1) 392
24 Nhemamusasa yekutanga 112
Bangiza (2) 394
25 Nhemamusasa yepasi 127 Bangiza (3) 396
26 Nhimutimu (1) 144 Bangiza (4) 399
27 Nhimutimu (2) 171 Bangiza (5) 400
Chipindura 402
28 Nyamamusango 178
Karigamombe 402
29 Nyamaropa 201
Mahororo 402
30 Nyamaropa Chipembere 236
Mukatiende 403
31 Nyamaropa yepasi 252 Muzoriwa 403
32 Nyuchi 271 Nhemamusasa 403
Nhemamusasa
33 Shumba 279
yekutanga 409
34 Shumba yaNgwasha 300
Nhemamusasa yepasi 410
35 Taireva (1) 312
Nhimutimu (1) 413
36 Taireva (2) 349 Nyamaropa 413
37 Taireva (3) 357 Nyamaropa Chipembere 414
Nyuchi 415
38 Taireva (4) 373
Shumba 415
39 Tondobayana 380
Acknowledgments 451
vi
Introduction
From the perspective of music communities in which the written note is central
to learning, performing, and composing, it can be something of a mystery how
musicians manage comparable activities in aural improvisation- based art forms.
Where, and what precisely, is “the music” they must learn in order to perform
their roles? How, over a lifetime, do they keep track of it all, let alone produce
expansive music programs, absent conductors and scores?
Growing out of my collaborative research with Zimbabwean musicians since
the early 1970s, Mbira’s Restless Dance documents one such tradition associated
with a family of keyboard instruments known generally as mbira (sing. & pl.).
The book features the repertory and practices of my principal mentor Cosmas
Magaya and his associates who perform the version of the instrument known
variously as mbira dzavadzimu (mbira of the ancestors), mbira huru (mbira with
large/wide keys) or, for short, simply mbira.
From the intimacy of solo performances interlaced with soulful vocals to the
intensity of throbbing ensembles driven by the hosho shakers, mbira music com-
mands a wide expressive range. (Hosho generally refers to a pair of handle gourds
filled with seeds.) With roots in the country’s history, culture, and politics, it con-
stantly adapts to new circumstances, assuming different social roles. At all- night
Shona religious ceremonies, mbira ensembles inspire worshippers’ percussion,
song, and dance, calling ancestral spirits to possess their mediums so they may
advise the living. Implicated in the country’s 1970s nationalist movement and its
chimurenga (struggle) songs, the mbira has increasingly provided frameworks for
imaginative fusions with popular music in postcolonial Zimbabwe and beyond.
The repertory that is this book’s subject remains the bedrock of spiritual and
secular music production alike.
1
Cosmas and I hope that the book will delight musi- In deciding how to present our archive’s material, I
cians, mbira students, aficionados, teachers, and schol- have heeded the cries of those readers of my last book
ars who dig into its archive, exploring its treasure trove (Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation)
of mbira compositions and variations. Mbira’s Restless who found its print size and stiff- backed binding a bit
Dance illustrates the body of musical ideas associated daunting and resorted to photocopying and enlarging
with thirty- nine pieces, and for the majority, it reveals transcriptions for use in the practice room. To enable
Cosmas’s construction of complete renditions from his readers to use the current book to its fullest, we present
repertory’s components. Emphasizing his perspective, our mbira archive in a larger print size and in separate
the book illuminates the thought and the labor that un- volumes with spiral bindings that sit easily on a desk or
derlies mbira players’ skills and performance strategies. music stand.
It also comprises a mbira method and tool for teach- Chapters 1– 39 are organized alphabetically by
ing others about the music’s intricacies. From these composition title. Multiple versions of some composi-
standpoints, the book is perhaps best described as a tions are identified by numbers; for example, Bangiza
distillation of master classes with a world- class mbira (1), Bangiza (2), and Bangiza (3). Although numbers
player over four and a half decades. While Mbira’s Rest- do not generally figure in Cosmas’s aural classificatory
less Dance foregrounds Cosmas’s voice as a teacher and system or that of the larger mbira community, we found
performer, its companion, The Art of Mbira, emphasizes them useful for distinguishing the versions in our study.
my perspective on the mbira music system as an ethno- Readers can explore composition chapters in any or-
musicologist and directs readers to the wider scholarly der; each is self- contained. At the same time, Cosmas
literature about the subject. It elaborates the methods recommends a sequence for mbira students navigating
through which Cosmas and I collected the repertory the larger repertory.
and analyzes the music’s features, forms, and practices. Chapter 40 (“A Comparative View of Artists’ Com-
This introduction describes our archive’s organiza- position Treatments”) compares Cosmas’s practices to
tion and gives an overview of the music’s basic prin- those of other mbira players with whom I studied in
ciples. In any tradition in which pieces are re- created Zimbabwe for shorter intervals, deepening my appre-
in the moment, a basic grasp of the music’s language, ciation of the larger mbira system. Interpreting his col-
forms, and processes is crucial for handling the reper- leagues’ material in light of his own patterns and trans-
tory, as it is for understanding pieces’ wide- ranging ren- formational procedures, he gives insight into the mbira
ditions. Although the book assumes that readers have community’s common repertory and performance
a basic working knowledge of music (terminology, no- conventions, as well as individuals’ personalization of
tation, and practice in one tradition or another), they them.
can learn the fundamentals of our method as they go
along. In my experience as a teacher, the mbira is an ac-
Representing Mbira Compositions:
cessible instrument with the capacity to open the wider
Mbira Notation, Central Concepts, and
world of music to nonspecialists, including those who
Interpretive Models
may never have played an instrument. Our multimedia
illustrations— representing the music in text, nota- The “Guide to Mbira Notation” that follows this in-
tion, and audiovisuals—a ddress the needs of readers troduction illustrates my tablature notation system
with different proclivities and backgrounds. We cross- for representing mbira music. The book’s notated pat-
reference many of our music transcriptions with sound terns are abstractions intended to facilitate learning
recordings of mbira demonstrations and performances the music with any mbira huru/mbira dzavadzimu,
on the book’s companion website (http:// www .mbira regardless of its tuning. In brief, learning the notation
platform. org). Its video recordings illuminate Cosmas’s involves two basic steps. First, memorizing the num-
mbira-p laying technique. In Zimbabwe, learning by bers and positions of mbira keys on the instrument’s
watching an expert’s finger patterns is a common sup- three manuals— each assigned a different note head.
plementary method. Second, associating the sounds of keys with their note
2 Introduction
heads’ vertical positions on the lines and spaces of a reinforced at times by the simplest hand- clapping pat-
staff, where they acquire tablature letter names. tern and dance movements (stepping in place, or to one
The basic mbira dzavadzimu keyboard has three side or the other, or forward and backward).
rows or manuals of keys, bottle- top buzzers affixed The grid’s initial vertical column represents beat di-
to a metal plate, and a finger hole on the lower- right vision 3 of the previous cycle’s final beat or the “pickup”
side of the keyboard (ex. 1a). Seated on a bench or to segment 1. Beginning the cycle in this position is a
stool— or on a floor mat, legs outstretched before convenience accommodating Cosmas’s common start-
them— musicians hold the mbira upright on their laps ing points for patterns: either on a pickup to a segment
like an open book, inserting the little finger through the or on its initial pulse, beat division 1. The preponder-
hole from the front of the soundboard to stabilize it. ance of pieces adopts the standard sixteen- beat form;
The tablature system numbers each manual’s keys from notable exceptions in this study include Kuzanga and
the center of the soundboard out to the sides. The left Bayawabaya (exs. 3a– b).
thumb plays the upper- and lower-l eft manuals, strik- Economizing on space, our system consolidates
ing the ends of the keys from above. The right thumb right- and left-h and components of the mbira’s multi-
plays the right manual’s keys 1–3 (or 4) with the same layered patterns on a single grid illustrated by Nyama-
technique as the left thumb; the right index finger plays ropa (ex. 4). The return arrow under the staff indicates
keys 4–9 (or 10), plucking the ends of keys upward the music’s cyclical nature. I generally use the term
from underneath. “part” to refer to a cyclical instantiation of a compo-
In the chiShona language (henceforth Shona), mu- sition that Cosmas regards as whole, complete in and of
sicians distinguish the respective manuals as pamusoro itself, repeatable. I generally use the term “pattern” for
(lit.: upper or top), pasi (lit.: lower or bottom), and a part’s right- or left- hand components. As in the case
nhetete (lit.: little) (ex. 1b). The keys’ relative pitches of Taireva (3) and Bangiza (5), graphic annotations
are depicted by three types of note heads (representing accompanying transcriptions periodically convey ad-
the mbira manuals) mapped onto a staff’s horizontal ditional details about Cosmas’s performance practices
lines and spaces. In their respective vertical positions, (exs. 5– 6). Parentheses around a note head on the ini-
the keys acquire tablature letter names (G through F), tial pulse of the metric grid, for example, indicate that
which, as a convenience, reference the treble staff. Each the note is skipped the first time through the cycle.
manual’s arrangement of keys forms a distinctive scalar Each composition chapter comprises two coordi-
pattern; arranged in ascending order, their notes form nated sections: illustrative transcriptions of the piece’s
a grand scale spanning three octaves (exs. 1c– d). The components and commentaries on them. The former
book references the music’s pitches through their key present a collection of components gleaned from
names (manual + key number), tablature letter names, Cosmas’s demonstrations and performances over the
or both: for example, B1, G, or B1/G. decades, and organized around his theoretical princi-
With note sequences on the staff representing the ples. At the outset, a compilation of parts introduces
contours of mbira patterns in relative terms, the pat- two complementary models to facilitate readers’ inter-
terns’ rhythms are represented by the spatial placement pretation of the composition’s features and their trans-
of note heads on a metric grid. Pulse columns formed formation. The first, which reflects Cosmas’s primary
by solid and dotted vertical lines varying in height and conceptual framework, comprises the polyphonic in-
thickness intersect the staff, subdividing the rhythmic stantiation of each part that he regards as basic or foun-
cycle (ex. 2). The standard “note and metric grid” for dational, serving as a springboard for variations.
mbira patterns comprises sixteen beats divided into A second model stems from a tradition of analysis
four- beat segments, with each beat divided into three by mbira music scholars who have theorized the har-
pulses (henceforth “beat divisions 1, 2, and 3”). The monic forms of pieces from players’ aural practices
onbeat column of beat areas corresponds to the down- (I take up the theory in The Art of Mbira).2 Although
stroke of one of the music’s accompanying hosho pat- Cosmas and his associates do not describe the music’s
terns.1 During performances, the same beat position is structural features in the language of academic mu-
Introduction 3
