Kora
Kora
This page will demonstrate how one can imitate the sound of the kora using using a classic guitar.
What is a kora?
The Kora is a West African harp of the family of bridge harps or harp-lutes1. With a tonal range of more than three octaves, the Kora is the highest developed string instrument in Africa. While the sounds produced by the Kora resemble that of a harp, when played in the traditional style, it bears resemblance to a guitar played using the flamenco or delta blues technique of plucking polyrhythmic patterns with both hands (using the Kora’s handposts as support for the remaining fingers).2 Learning to play this instrument is difficult and requires cultural and spiritual guidance. However it is possible to express one’s appreciation of the Kora’s sound and to replicate its sound through the re-tuning of a classic guitar.1
History
The Kora is an instrument used within the Jali (griot) families of the Mande people of West Africa who are the descendants of the Mali Empire which rose to power in the 13th century under the rule of the Mandinka King Sundiata Keita.3 Found throughout modern-day Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Gambia, this harp-like instrument has been an essential storytelling tool for West African Griots and the preservation and continuation of oral storytelling.4 Historically, the kora’s hypnotic and soothing melodies have often been accompanied by singing.
African folklore and history has always been transferred orally and therefore the lack of written history has made the continent vulnerable to the misrepresentation of its different cultures. As a result, it would be difficult to responsibly pinpoint the origin of the Kora. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that the Kora did not gain popularity around the region until the late 1700s.5
Build
The Kora’s body is composed of a long hardwood neck that passes through a calabash gourd resonator.6 The sounding corpus of the calabash gourd is covered with untanned hide of sheep, cows or antelopes.5 In this sounding corpus, a sound hole and hole for the Kora’s bridge is cut and the skin of this instrument is attached at the edge with nails.5 A round wooden stick made of African rosewood is inserted vertically into the calabash in order to support the strings that will be mounted onto it.5 For each string that is mounted, a wet strip of skin is braided around the stick.5 Once the drying phase concludes, two other strings are inserted into the calabash vertically in the hide at the edge of the calabash and serve as hand grips.5 Then, a crossbar is inserted horizontally. The bridge stands upright on the hide, transmitting the vibrations of the string. The 21 strings of the kora run in two parallel planes laterally in notches over the narrow sides of the bridge and are knotted behind with the string holders. 10 strings are plucked on the right side and 11 are plucked on the left side with the thumbs for the bass strings and the forefingers for the higher pitches while other fingers hold the hand grip (see figure 1. for a visual reference).5
In contrast to the guitar, the Kora differs most prominently in string placement. The Kora’s strings are organized in diatonical order.7 With ten strings on one side of the bridge and eleven on the other, the ascending scale is played zigzag right (F) - left (G) - right (A) - left (B) from the deepest to the highest string using the thumbs in the lower range (uppercase letters) and the forefingers (lowercase letters) in the upper range.7 The bass range is played with the left thumb and the discant range is played with the right forefinger.7 Finally, the note (x) is also played with the right forefinger, but this is a percussion effect executed by knocking on the wooden handle.7On the other hand, the classical guitar takes the shape of a sound box, of which the top side of the instrument serves as the sound board on which its strings lay flat as opposed to the Kora strings that stand parallel to one another.8
While these structural differences may seem limiting, Derek Gripper, a well-known classical guitarist from Cape Town specializing in the Kora music of Mali, has proven that a careful retuning of the classic guitar makes the adaptation of Kora music possible via alternate tunings.
Tuning
The classic guitar is tuned according to scale E-A-D-G-B-E9 while the classic Kora uses the standard Silaba tuning scale F-G-A-B-C-D-E (in some cases the Sauta tuning which corresponds to the scale F-G-A-H-C-D-E).7 In more technical terms, the kora is tuned heptatonically, this means that the octave is divided into seven notes:
The deep octave 2 (bass range) is incomplete (F-C-A-B),7
The lower middle octave 3 is complete (F-G-A-B-C-D-E),7
The upper middle octave 4 is complete (f-g-a-b-c-d-e),7
The high octave 5 (discant range) is incomplete (f-g-e).7
After years of apprenticeship and research into the craft of the great Toumani Diabaté (a descendant of the Mande Empire and leader of The Symmetric Orchestra composed of griots from across the Empire), Derek Gripper settled into a tuning for the classic guitar that could adequately capture the standard tuning scale of the Kora, D-A-D-F#-B-E with a capo at the third fret.10
Therefore, in order to properly mimic the sound of the Kora, the use of a particular plucking strategy is required when playing a classical guitar according to Gripper’s adapted tuning scale.
You can listen to Gripper's reasoning behind his choice of tuning here.
Plucking
Putting these structural differences aside, both instruments can be plucked in a manner that invokes different rhythms at the same time to create tension. Traditionally, the Kora is played with both hands using only the thumbs and forefingers.11 As mentioned earlier, the strings are arranged in two parallel rows, where each hand plays a particular row of strings.11 This arrangement is useful when playing the Kora as it makes it easier to play individual intervals and melody lines in parallel octaves, fifths, thirds.11This arrangement characterizes the Kora’s polyphony. One finger strikes each string at a time, however, 2,3, or even 4 adjacent strings can be plucked.11 Additionally, each finger can autonomously play an independent melodic figure or a repeating ostinato pattern interlaced with the patterns of the other fingers in a polyrhythmic fashion.11
Given that the Flamenco and Delta Blues plucking techniques take on a polyrhythmic pattern and resemble that of the Kora, it becomes possible to use these techniques in the adaptation of kora sounds on the classic guitar.
As a result, it is this polyrhythmic plucking style and its' stacking of melodic patterns that gives rise to this tension that we perceive when we listen to the kora or to classic guitar. With Gripper’s adapted tuning scale and the proper polyrhythmics, one can produce kora-like music on the classic guitar.
Comparing the kora to the classic guitar
Using audacity, I recorded the first ten seconds of Toumani Diabate’s “Jarabi” (a kora piece taken from spotify) and the first ten seconds of Gripper’s imitation of this piece (a performance retrieved from YouTube). When listening and comparing both pieces, it is clear that both artists are playing the same notes but there is still a noticeable difference in timbre. Figure 2 shows the spectrum graph of the first ten seconds of the piece when played on the kora, while Figure 3 shows the spectrum graph of the first ten seconds of the piece when played according to Gripper’s kora-adapted tuning scale for the classic guitar (D-A-D-F#-B-E with a capo at the third fret). If you compare the Kora’s spectrum graph to that of the guitar’s, you’ll notice that sound waves with the frequency of approximately 584 Hz and 613 Hz are produced when the note D5 is played. For the kora, the fundamental has a frequency of 613 Hz. Although audacity recorded the note as D#5, I believe this semitone increase is expected due to the difference in timbre between the two instruments. When comparing both recordings, it was clear that the kora produced a pitch that was higher than that of Gripper’s guitar that produced a fundamental of 584 Hz. Regardless, the sound coming from Gripper’s guitar is still quite pleasant and imitates the sound of Kora in a manner that is quite fascinating.
Here you can you can listen to the first ten seconds of "Jarabi" on spotify, while here you can listen to the first ten seconds of the song being performed by Gripper.
References
1. Harald Loquenz, info@kora-music.com. (n.d.). The Instrument. Kora. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from http://www.kora-music.com/e/kora.htm
2. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, March 17). Kora (instrument). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_(instrument)
3. The kora instrument. Kora Music. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.kora-music.ml/the-kora-instrument/
4. A little big history of the Kora. A Little Big History of the Kora - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://korahistoria.weebly.com/
5. History: The jaliya tradition. The Kora Workshop. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://thekoraworkshop.co.uk/about-the-kora/history/
6. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Kora. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/art/kora-musical-instrument
7. Harald Loquenz, info@kora-music.com. (n.d.). Strings and modes. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from http://www.kora-music.com/e/tonleitern.htm#:~:text=The%20Kora%20is%20tuned%20heptatonically,of%20more%20than%203%20octaves.
8. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, March 6). Acoustic guitar. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_guitar
9. http://classicalguitar101.org/tune-your-classical-guitar.html#.YkkyF27MK3I
10. YouTube. (2022). YouTube. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnHp3tM1Qwg.
11. Harald Loquenz, info@kora-music.com. (n.d.). Kora Kosi - Spieltechnik. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from http://www.kora-music.com/d/spieltechnik.htm