Fascinating Topics II

     Today I am going to tell you about the imabura harp. It looks similar to the Western concert grand harp we are familiar with, but there are differences. The imabura harp has an extra sound box in it, that the concert grand does not have. The lower part is wide and deep, while the top is smaller. It is shorter and stouter than its tall, graceful concert grand siblings.

Top: Western concert grand harp
Bottom: Imabura harp

     One person plays the strings and another hits the soundbox, beating it like a drum. It also does not have pedals; it is tuned to one key, and it is very slow to re-tune to another one.

     The imabura harp descended from harps from 16th and 17th century Spain. It was brought to South America from conquistadors, missionaries, and Jesuits, and it shares many qualities of their instruments. It became immensely popular, and it is now considered a native instrument.

     The hand position for the players of these harps is very interesting. The dominant, stronger hand of the player is on the upper strings, while the other one plays the lower. That would certainly not work with every instrument! I find that quite fascinating.

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     Another interesting South American instrument is the charango. The charango is a chordophone  in the guitar and lute family. Though it has European roots, the exact history of the instrument is unclear. There are different version of the story of how it came about. It used to be a rather rare instrument, but it is more common now.

     The design does not stay the same for long; it is constantly changing. Typically the backs of them are carved out of wood, but there have been many other materials used as well. These include plastic, tin cans, animal horns, fruit bark, tortoise shells, and even the backs of armadillos.

     There are ten different strings, grouped in sets of two. The names of them are G,C,E,A, and E again. They can be plucked, or a pick can be used. Traditionally the player would use a flat pick.

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Now on a completely different note: Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues.

     Bessie Smith was born in 1884. When she was small, her father died, so she and her brother Andrew used to perform on street corners to earn money for their family. He played the guitar, and she danced and sang. That was the beginning of her performing career. She joined a traveling vaudeville show of which the later famous blues singer Ma Rainey also performed. She later formed her own act, and became very famous. She was known for what people think of as the classic blues, though she also dabbled in the vaudeville, country blues, and jazz. She recorded with the famous jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Fletcher Henderson.

      She sang about political issues, financial hardship, and love. Sadly, her own life was not dissimiler to her music. She grew up in poverty; she struggled with alcohol addiction; she had a horrible marriage with a man named Jack Gee, who took away the child she informally adopted. She was killed from wounds from a car accident, which caused her right arm to be amputated.

     Despite her tragic life, Bessie Smith was a wonderful musician. She shaped many people’s opinion of blues music and was a pioneer in the segment of her genre. She will ever be remembered as the Empress of the Blues.