Kora (instrument)

The kora (Manding languages: ߞߐߙߊ kɔra) is a beautiful stringed instrument that comes from West Africa. It has 21 strings that a player plucks with their fingers to make music. The kora mixes the sounds and ways of playing of both a lute and a harp, making it a special and unique instrument. People have enjoyed its gentle, rich tones for many years, and it remains an important part of West African music and culture.

Description

The kora is a special musical instrument from West Africa. It is made from a gourd that is cut in half and covered with cow skin to create a sound box. It has a long wooden neck and 21 strings that are played by plucking with the fingers. The kora has features of both a lute and a harp, making it a unique "double-bridged harp-lute."

Kora players often come from families of traditional storytellers and historians. The instrument is popular in countries like Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal, and was first found in the Gambia. Traditional koras have 11 strings for the left hand and 10 for the right, but modern versions can have extra bass strings. Players used to use a special tin plate to make the sound louder, but today they often use electronic pickups.

History

Possible Antecedents

In the 1300s, a traveler named Ibn Battuta wrote about women who played stringed instruments by plucking them with their fingers. Though he did not say how many strings they had, this shows that string instruments like the kora existed in Mali a long time ago.

Legendary Origin

Stories from the Mandinka people say the kora began in Kaabu. One story tells of a famous Jali, Mady Wouling Cissoko, who got the kora from a spirit and was the first person to play it.

Modern history

The first European writer to describe the kora was Mungo Park, a Scotsman, in a book from 1799.

The kora is even mentioned in the national anthem of Senegal: "Pincez tous vos koras, frappez les balafons."

In recent years, some players have used koras with 25 strings, mainly in Casamance, Senegal. Some players have special koras with two necks, letting them change the tuning quickly.

Monks in Senegal created a way to teach the kora using musical scores. One monk, Brother Dominique Catta, was the first person from Europe to write music for the kora.

A modern version of the kora called the gravikord was made in recent years. It has 24 strings and is made mostly of metal. Another modern version, the gravi-kora, has 21 strings and can be plugged into amplifiers. It is played the same way as the traditional kora and has been used by musicians like Foday Musa Suso, who worked with famous jazz musician Herbie Hancock.

Tuning

Today, many koras are made with parts from guitars instead of the old way using leather rings. This makes them easier to adjust to the right sound. However, it can limit how much the sound can be changed because the strings are shorter and lighter. Learning to adjust a traditional kora can be very hard, and many visitors to West Africa love the sound but struggle to keep their kora in tune when they return home. Some koras can be changed to use guitar parts instead of leather, but even wooden pegs can have tuning issues in certain weather unless made very well.

Images

Here are some historical images of kora players and koras from different times and places:

A kora player from the central northern Bandiagara Escarpment, Mopti Region, Mali, from the late 1700s. The kora’s neck and handles appear to have broken off.
Sambou, a jali of Niantanso, Mali, with a Kamalengoni (a relative of the kora) in 1872.
Kora players in Sénégal, 1900. These koras have straight necks, handles, carrying cords, tacked skins, and small, square soundholes.
Jali Fily Sissokho playing a 22-string kora with konso string terminations and nylon monofilament strings in 2008.
Sona Jobarteh tuning a 22-string kora with open machine head tuners in 2017.
An illustration showing the playing position of a kora, with strings notched into both sides of the square bridge.
Images of 4 koras showing 4 different sides.
A zoomed-in version of the 4 koras.

Scores

In West Africa, music for the kora was not written down until the 20th century. Experts called ethnomusicologists were the only ones to record some traditional tunes using special musical symbols.

Today, kora music is written using a special system called the Keur Moussa notation. This system was created in the late 1970s by a monk named Brother Dominique Catta from Senegal. Some Western musicians started using this system in the 1980s to write music for the kora. Many scores have been written for kora solo or with Western instruments. Notable composers include Jacques Burtin from France and others like Carole Ouellet from Canada.

Derek Gripper from Cape Town, South Africa has turned some West African kora music into pieces for classical guitar and has performed these works.

Selected discography

African composers (oral tradition)

Mali: cordes anciennes ("Mali: Ancient Strings"), Sidiki Diabaté, Batourou Sekou Kouyaté and Djelimadi Sissoko, Buda Music, 2000. This CD was the first album totally devoted to the kora. Sidiki Diabaté was the father of Toumani Diabaté and Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté, and Djelimadi Sissoko was the father of Ballaké Sissoko. Toumani and Ballaké recorded New Ancient Strings - Nouvelles Cordes Anciennes in 1999 (Hannibal), as a tribute to their fathers.
Gambie : l'art de la kora, Jali Nyama Suso, edited by Roderic Knight, Ocora, 1996. This CD is also a historical recording.
Kora Melodies from the Republic of The Gambia, West Africa, Alhaji Bai Konte, Recorded and produced by Marc D. Pevar; photography and notes by Marc and Susan Pever. Rounder Records 5001.
Jali Kunda - Griots of West Africa & Beyond, Ellipsis Arts, 1996. A book and a CD edited by Foday Musa Suso, produced by Bill Laswell. Photographs by Daniel Lainé. This album shows traditional kora music and three original meetings: kora and piano ("Spring Waterfall" by Foday Musa Suso and Philip Glass); kora and synthesizers ("Lanmbasy Dub'", with Bill Laswell, bass, and Jeff Bova, synthesizers); kora and saxophone ("Samma", a duet with jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders).
The Mandé Variations, Toumani Diabaté, World Circuit, 2008. Twenty years after his first CD, Kaira (Hannibal, 1988) - the first CD ever recorded with solo kora pieces without any song, Toumani Diabate alternates traditional pieces on a kora with leather rings and his own creations with a special tuning on a kora with wooden pegs.

Western composers (written music)

Quand renaît le matin, Abbaye de Keur Moussa, Art et Musique, 2007. This album gathers pieces composed and performed by Brother Dominique Catta and Carole Ouellet: solo kora pieces, songs with kora accompaniment and a Concerto for flute and three koras. There is also a piece composed by Brother Grégoire for three koras differently tuned and played by one musician.
Le Jour des Merveilles, Jacques Burtin, 3-CD Box Set, Bayard Musique, 2009. Pieces for solo kora, duets with cello, viola, guitar and koto, suites for flute, guitar and three koras.

Notable players

Main page: Category:Kora (instrument) players

France

Jacques Burtin (France)

Gambia

Foday Musa Suso (Gambia, United States), recorded with Herbie Hancock
Jali Nyama Suso (Gambia)
Jalli Lamin Kuyateh (Gambia/The Netherlands)
Sona Jobarteh (Gambia/United Kingdom, female kora player)
Bai Konte (Gambia)
Dembo Konte (Gambia)
Jaliba Kuyateh (Gambia)
Lamin Saho (Gambia)
Papa Susso (Gambia)
Suntou Susso (Gambia/UK)

Guinea

Tasana Camara (Guinea)
Djeli Moussa Diawara also known as Jali Musa Jawara (Guinea, now playing a 32-stringed Kora)
N'Faly Kouyate (Guinea)
Prince Diabate (Guinea)