The Kalimba:A Brief and Biased Historyof an AncientInstrumentMark Holdaway, PhDApril 21 2007

The kalimba is believed to have been independently in-vented in two different places and times in Africa.

Bamboo: 1000 BC Metal: 700 AD

Studies of xylophone and ka-limba music indicate that thekalimba was likely invented asa portable xylophone.

From David Livingston, before 1865

Xylophones were played by 2-3 people on opposite sideswith interlocking patterns. On the kalimba, one personcould perform those interlocking patterns.

By the way, this tuningand note layout arethought to be manycenturies old, andwe’ll play it today onthe karimba or thekarimba-tuned 8-notekalimba.

Shona creation myths indicate that the kalimba wasgiven to humans by the spirits when the world wasyoung. So its probably less than a million years old.

Archaeological digs have found metal mbira tines thatare about 1000 years old.

The first European documentation of the kalimba wasaround 1570, by Portuguese explorers. But the metal-tined kalimba had already spread across Africa by then.

How do we know how old the kalimba is?

A wood carving of akalimba player dancing,Mozambique, 1723.

African slaves in Brazilwere documented to havehad kalimbas in the late1700’s, but the instrumentdisappeared in SouthAmerica by about 1900.Note similarity to HughTracey Kalimba!

David Livingstone docu-mented the Sansa and Mbirabefore 1865.

Carl Mauch documented thetuning and note layout of theShona Mbira in 1872.

When AndrewTracey documentedthe Mbira tuning 90years later, the in-strument hadevolved, but wasconsistent.

By the late 1890’s severalkalimbas had found their wayinto European museums, butthe museum pieces were notwell studied or appreciateduntil Gerhard Kubik’s workin 1998.

The understanding thatkalimbas were real musicalinstruments dawned slowlyon people in the 20th century.

An Englishman named Hugh Tracey fell in love withmbira music in Rhodesia and started recording it in 1929.Major grant funding permitted him to spend most of 1952and 1957 recording across Africa.

Hugh Tracey also learned to play the dif-ferent kinds of kalimbas and mbiras heencountered, and he documented theirtunings and note layouts.

In 1954, Hugh Tracey founded the International Libraryof African Music to archive the thousands of hours of re-cordings he had taken. Shortly after, he founded AfricanMusical Instruments (AMI) and started making highquality kalimbas for export to Europe and America.Within a few years, dozens of kalimba makers sprung uparound the world.

Hugh Tracey Ka-limba, circa 1960. A hollow-body kalimba, 1898.

The Hugh Tracey Kalimba used the western diatonicscale (a departure from Tracey’s love of traditionalAfrican scales), but the instrument was not too differ-ent from traditional kalimbas.

Left-Right coordination isAfrican, but strict left-right alternation is rare inAfrican tunings.

57

61 2 65438

42 1

3

7 8

B

DB

G EC

G

#

#

GE

CAF#D

A

F#

The Hugh Tracey Kalimbawas a hybrid of Africanand Western sensibilities.

In the 1970’s Paul F. Berlinerspent years in Africa learning toplay the mbira and related instru-ments. His approach was to un-derstand the music, culture, andtraditions without imposing hisown western values.

Other people popularizedmore traditional typesof instruments.

A spirit medium andhis older keeper.

Mbira players at a bira, aceremony were the spirit ofa deceased person returns toinhabit a medium for a fewhours to visit with familyand friends.

Paul F. Berliner’s book The Soul ofMbira brought mbira culture to theUS. He taught hundreds of students atNorthwestern, U. of Chicago, and nowDuke University how to play mbiraand its grandmother, the karimba.These instruments usually requiredone-on-one instruction.

Since the 1970’s, Erica Azim has beenstudying and teaching the mbira. Sheruns www.mbira.org and an annualmbira summer school in Berkeley.

Hugh Tracey wrote outkalimba music with bothleft and right thumbs’notes on a single staff:

Right Hand

Left Hand

In 1979, Carol Burt-Beck developed a twostaff system for the kalimba. While this wasa good idea, I find it non-intuitive: 1) handsare backwards, 2) staff is at right angles totines, and 3) one the left hand’s notes moveopposite the tines.

RIGHT

LEFT

The Hugh Tracey Kalimba had possibilities for writtenmusic and self-instruction.

The kalimba with a regular western scale really is simpleand it sounds great the first time you play it, but the alter-nating left-right note layout does take a lot of time tomaster (years). So, for decades, there have been greatkalimbas masters such as Taj Majal or Maurice White,but lacking good instructional materials and lacking atraditional repertoire, there has been no clear path forlearning the kalimba. So people invented their own path.

RightLeft

In 2004, while teachingan “at risk” studenthow to play kalimba, Iinvented a form of tab-lature that is well-suited to the HughTracey Kalimba. Read-ing from bottom up, itis a map of the kalimbaand is parallel to the ka-limba. It breaks allWestern musical con-ventions, but it is well-suited to the kalimba.

Scale Chords

This tablaturecan be modifiedfor virtually ev-ery type of ka-limba. It is tiedto the physicalreality of the ka-limba and is lesssymbolic thanmusic staff.

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With seven new kalimbabooks, it is an exciting time tobe learning to play the kalimba.

In 2006, Sharon andRandy Eaton wrote asimple computer programcalled KTabS whichgreatly speeds up the tabla-ture-writing process. Thenotes sound as you plopthem down, and your com-puter will play the song, somost errors are eliminated.KTabS is also a wonderfullearning tool for students.

Kalimba Technology!

In the 1970’s to present, Andrew Tracey (Hugh’s son) ran theInternational Library of African Music and continued to studyAfrican music and kalimbas. In the 1990’s AMI started mak-ing the African-tuned karimba, the grandmother of the mbira.The lower row of tines is that ancient tuning we started with.

Back to Hugh Tracey’s Roots: African Tunings

The kalimba is an ancient African instrument with hun-dreds of forms and tunings and a rich spiritual tradition.Every group of people that encounters the kalimba makesit their own, adapting its uses and tunings.

Now, as people around the world encounter the kalimba,we can give it a Japanese or Persian tuning. Each differ-ent tuning turns the kalimba into a different instrumentwith a different voice, which helps it to express differentemotions.

More New Tunings: the Final Frontier?

The kalimba is a symmetric instrument, treating Left andRight on equal footing, stimulating our brains in a bilat-eral manner. It is a simple instrument - the magic lies inthe tuning which defines the landscape in which theplayer will explore, and if it is in tune, it will sound goodfor anyone. It is a healing instrument, with beauty andsymbolism that lead people into a place of peace and joy.It is an instrument that asks us to approach it both intu-itively and intellectually, and it holds the possibility ofbringing us into unity as human beings.

And it is an instrument which is ripe for innovative usesin Music Education and Music Therapy.

The Promise of the Kalimba