Master Class on African dance and instruments – Baganda and Basoga

The teaching and performing of African music has grown in Italy over
the past few decades thanks mainly to musicians from Western Africa.
Much less is known, however, about the rich elaborate musical output in
the Eastern part of the continent.
In collaboration with the Department of Art, Dance and Drama at
Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda), the Cini Foundation’s
Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies has promoted a
master class on the music of the Baganda, the largest ethnic group in
Uganda, and of their neighbours, the Basoga. The master class is
organised by Sylvia Nannyonga Tamusuza and is followed by a performance
by the Ensemble “Ugandan Beat of Africa”. One of the richest music
traditions in Uganda features is the bananalog xylophone, an instrument
widely found throughout the Great Lakes Region.
This large xylophone or akadinda, played by five musicians, was of key
importance in performing the court repertories in the ancient kingdom
of Buganda. A second xylophone, the amadinda, is played by three
musicians. Today both instruments are played by expert musicians using
a special technique of interlocking musical formulas.
Similar to the amadinda, the embaire is played by the Basoga, the
Baganda’s neighbours, who cultivate a great variety of instruments and
musical repertories. The xylophones are accompanied by a special set of
drums. During the concert and the seminar, in addition to the
xylophones and drums, some other solo instruments will also be
presented, like the ndongo (a lyre), the mulere (a flute), and the
ndingiti (a one-stringed fiddle).
Dance (“music to be seen”) is an integral part of Ganda and Soga music,
as it is in other Ugandan musical cultures. During the concert there is
also a selection of dances, including the bakisimba, the most important
Baganda dance, based on a very unusual movement of the pelvis. Various
sizes of ngomas (double-skinned drums with string ties) and a long
single-skin drum (engalabi) are the instruments used to make music for
the dances.
The 1 June concert will be open to the public.

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
30 May – 1 June 2008

Master Class: 30 – 31 May 2008
9.30 – 12.30 e 14.30 – 17.30
Subscription fee: Euro 80 (to be payed in cash on the first day)

Concert: 1 June 2008
18.30
Free entrance

Information
Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies
tel. +39 041 2710357
e-mail: musica.comparata@cini.it