Track 12 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.
'Bunyoro Madinda' was recorded in Uganda, 1969. It is a social piece played on the madinda by a group of fishermen.
The madinda is a log xylophone. Twelve keys are placed across two banana stems and separated by tall sticks driven into the stems. The keys, in this case canoe boards, are tuned higher in pitch by cutting the lower edges of the boards and tuned lower by increasing the depth of a hand made notch in the middle of the under surface.
Formerly the instrument was played only for the important and wealthy and traditionally on the first performance a goat or cockerel was sacrificed.
The whole piece is made of many short repeated patterns. ( In a music session listen to the overall effect: a very rich overlapping texture of rhythm and pitch. )
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