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PROGRAM GUIDE
This information is intended to prepare teachers and students for a Young Audiences performance.
FOOLS IN PARADISE
Handeyi!
A Marimba Music Celebration
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Handeyi! is an exploration of traditional and contemporary African music and a first-hand experience of communal
music-making in the African tradition. The highly interactive performance engages the students in hand-clapping,
singing, movement and playing marimbas and percussion instruments, allowing them to experience the joy of
making music collaboratively. The music performed comes from the Shona people of Zimbabwe, the Zulu of
South Africa, the Lobi/Dagarti peoples of Ghana and the Susu of Guinea.
"Mhondoro”, a Shona song illustrates the tradition of mbira music for calling the spirits during ceremonies. This song
is about the Lion spirit. "Gomo Guru Re Zimbabwe", also from Zimbabwe, began as a political song during the civil
war, but has become a song of celebration sung and danced at soccer games and parades. The students learn simple
dance movements to accompany the singing. "Hama Dzedu" is a rousing marimba song extolling the virtues of
Zimbabwe and South Africa. "Kola Per Bir" is a playful song from northern Ghana about a mouse chasing a cat.
Students learn polyrhythmic clapping patterns to "Vamudara", a Shona mbira song. Call and response singing is
illustrated in "Kembendu" from Guinea and “Manhanga” from Zimbabwe.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Fools In Paradise is a 6-piece ensemble that has been performing at festivals, schools and events since 2001. The
band's founder, Kite Giedraitis, has been studying and playing marimba and mbira music of Africa since 1987.
Since his travels in Zimbabwe and Ghana in 1990-92, he has been a full-time marimba teacher and performer.
Erin Middleton has been performing for children since 1995 with various marimba bands. She makes regular
trips to Nigeria to visit her husband's family. Saxophonist Michael "Shoehorn" Conley is a multiinstrumentalist, arranger and composer who has performed in over 30 countries. Drummer and vocalist Saffire
Bouchelion has collaborated and performed on over 35 CDs. Kevin Finkle has been performing Zimbabwean
music since 1995. TJ Arko holds a percussion degree from PSU and brings a deep knowledge of classical and
contemporary marimba to the group. Together the ensemble creates a fun, high-energy musical experience that
gets audiences of all ages participating.
ABOUT THE ART FORM
Music-making and dance in the African tradition are based on community participation. Singing and dancing are
natural expressions of every person, offered as freely and easily as spoken language. Rather than being performed
by “specialists” they are every people's art, something inclusive and self-empowering that everyone incorporates
into their daily life.
©2008-2009
Young Audiences 1220 SW Morrison, Suite 900 Portland, OR 97205-2228 www.ya-or.org
Phone (503) 225-5900 (360) 693-1829 FAX (503) 225-0953 [email protected]
African musical instruments evolved independently of those in the European tradition and thus reflect different
cultural values. While string and wind instruments exist, they are not nearly as important as drums and
idiophones. Noisy, buzzy timbres are preferred. The instruments are diatonic or pentatonic, never chromatic.
The traditional African instruments featured in Handeyi! are:
The mbira is a hand-held wooden instrument with suspended metal “tongues” that are plucked by the thumbs. It
is found mainly in Eastern & Southern Africa, and is known locally by many names: sanza, likembe, and kalimba.
In this country, kalimba has emerged as the general name for the instrument. The mbira dzavadzimu is a threeoctave mbira with 22 keys, played by the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Its name means the "mbira of the spirits"
and though it is traditionally used in a ceremony called a bira, it is now also featured in contemporary Zimbabwean
music.
The marimba (wooden xylophone) is also found throughout Africa. It is a newcomer to Zimbabwe and South
Africa, brought in from neighboring countries, especially Mozambique. It is always played with other marimbas.
The marimba is cousin to the West African balafon, which is a smaller, high-pitched marimba with gourd
resonators. The balafon is used by the griots of West Africa to perpetuate the oral history of the Mande peoples.
It's found in Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau as well as parts of neighboring countries. The
gyil is the balafon's pentatonic cousin, somewhat larger and deeper-sounding, also gourd resonated. It's played in
the countries of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali where it is used in funeral ceremonies lasting several
days.
Percussion is an essential ingredient of African music. The djembe and the dundun are West African drums
used in the Handeyi! performance, along with congas, hosho, Zimbabwean shakers or rattles made of dried
gourds filled with seeds, and gankogui, a double bell from Ghana.
VOCABULARY
Handeyi - "Let’s go!" in the Shona language
Mangwanani - a traditional Shona greeting
Timbre - the quality or tone distinguishing voices or instruments; tone color
Ideophone - a musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument itself vibrating,
without the use of strings or drumheads. Includes marimbas, kalimbas, shakers and bells
Marimba - a wooden xylophone
Mbira or kalimba - an instrument with metal tongues plucked by the thumbs
Djembe - West African hand drum
Dundun - West African stick drum
Diatonic - having the usual seven notes per octave
Pentatonic - said of an instrument or song having only five notes per octave
Griot - a professional musician in West Africa who passes down the oral history of his people through song
FURTHER RESOURCES
Books:
Soul of Mbira by Paul Berliner (Univ. of California press, 1978)
African Music: A Peoples Art By Francis Bebey (Lawrence Hill & Co., 1975)
African Rhythm and African Sensibility by John Chernoff (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1979)
©2008-2009
Young Audiences 1220 SW Morrison, Suite 900 Portland, OR 97205-2228 www.ya-or.org
Phone (503) 225-5900 (360) 693-1829 FAX (503) 225-0953 [email protected]