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A Question of Balance

by Ivodne Galatea

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    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

    Included is the African Ukulele, an arrangement of the tunes for the Orpharion, a kabosy-bodied fan-fretted baritone ukulele in a tuning of my own choosing.
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about

This is a recording of my arrangements of the traditional literature of the Mbira, Karimba and Kalimba of Africa.

Since my main composing and performing instruments are the Hohner Guitaret and the Hohner PIanet, I have been interested in how a traditional literature for those instruments could be made (in the manner of Brahms' Hungarian Dances, or Chopin's Mazurkas, or the German Dances of Beethoven and Mozart). This was in parallel with my attempts to make a Guitaret literature out of the Western Classical tradition (in my Art Guitaret Series).

A side-outcome of that was a large amount of staff-music transcribed thumb piano music, which I set about arranging for a member of the ukulele family of my own devising, the Orpharion (a kabosy-bodied fan-fretted baritone ukulele in a tuning of my own choosing). This ended up as a downloadable A4 36-page tablature book with notes and a bibliography, So included with the album download is that book.

Full notes on their origin are in the book. I can only echo what I say in the book - everyone should ahve and play a karimba, they are tiny, easy to play, and sound glorious. You walk the tines and the music just pops out. If you read karimba tab, you can play new tunes easily. Go to Kalimba Magic and buy the entry model, then carry it in your purse or trousers pocket always.

It used to be part of my album Equations of Life which now contains only my own compositions.

If you want to play this music yourself and you have a kalimba or a karimba, the tab for many of the tunes is available from Mark Holdaway at Kalimba Magic (www.kalimbamagic.com). Mark also sells many different instruments to play them on.

If you have a ukulele, banjo, mandolin or guitar, the full album download has an arrangement of many of the tunes for those instruments.

The audio in theory should be perfectly good, but I had to download the sound files again as the originals got lost with a hard drive and I didn't want to render them again.

The album cover shows where I recorded them, with the three Graces in the full size Barry Drinian chalk rendition of Primavera inspiring the mice on the Pianet to dance. You can see my kalimba and the old autoharp I use as a resonator. It's the only photo I have of the old setup as I switched rooms shortly after.

The pieces as played are
Chikunda
Shumba Panzira
Kana Ndoda
Meria
Wa Kalulu

Butsu MTandari
Sadza Madya Here
Rova Ngoma Mtawasa
Chemutengure
Bungu Utete

Bayawabaya
Chikunda 1 & 2
Aroiya Mwana
Chakwi
Hondo Mahondo

Kuzanga
Kukaiwa
Bangidza
Ndo Nofira Msango
Mahororo
Ndo Wombera
Taireva

Bamangolosa bachusuwano
Kana mano
Dambaza
Mwana aboyi mama
Chipenbere
Msengu
Masangano
Amai Wachauya
Kariga Mombe
Motsimo

NB it is being split into two records to line up with CDR creation and Red Book spec

credits

released December 14, 2014

Ivodne Galatea: Hohner Guitaret, Hohner Pianet, Arturia Oberheim SEMv, Flowerdew frame drum, Hang Drum
Cameron Byrd: Rokehan
Field recordings by these generous Freesound users:
• digitalfishmusic
• dmitry-patrakov
• filipe-chagas
• inchadney
• juskiddink
• klankbeeld
• kvgarlic
• lolitaperdurabo
• naturenutt
• yuval
• zabuhailo
• zulut

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about

Ivodne Galatea Nedlands, Australia

Principally playing original compositions of an ambient nature on the Hohner Guitaret as well as other thumb pianos/finger harps/lamellophones.
Interested in orchestration using field recordings, per the great John Cage's suggestions (1937).
The pieces are all pataphysical book reviews. They consist of musical essays on books of the same title that haven't been written, but should have.
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