Andrew Tracey’s transcriptions

Yesterday the memorial service for Andrew Tracey took place at Makhanda Cathedral (edited live stream here). In addition to the Christian liturgy, there were a number of wonderful musical and spoken contributions from friends and students around the world.

While following the ceremony I was organising some videos of casual conversations that we had recorded during our project, and came across this one:

Chaka Chawasarira comments on the transcriptions Tracey made in 1970 by Chawasarira’s friend, playing partner and teacher Matias Chidavaenzi. Mangoma plays him the pieces, generated using a suitable tuning on symres.org, where the transcriptions are freely accessible.

I’m sure this video would have delighted Andrew! Not only does it show the long journey his work has come since then, but it is also a testament to the care with which it was created (plus that of Zack Moon, who edited most of the pieces online).

See also:


Comments

2 responses to “Andrew Tracey’s transcriptions”

  1. Zack Moon avatar

    Beautiful to see this full circle journey of time Andrew Tracey spent with these men Mathias Chidavaenzi and Sekuru Chawasarira back in the early 1970’s to learn and write down their music only for Sekuru Chawasarira to be able to listen to those same notes written down back then played back to him audially in 2023! Amazing!

  2. Chaidaavaenzi would make mbiras for my father and my sister would be asked to go and collect them. He was a distant relative and played mbira with my father.
    The speed I am picking from Chidavaenzi is typical of what Josamu would do right up to his last recordings. That speed requires the wooden board to be less wider and you can see that with James Kamwaza’s mbiras. You play slower if the wooden board is wider because you have to put more effort.
    The Kuvachenjedza style by Chidavaenzi was also the same as my father would play it. He also played Dimbotimbo style very well. He was not recorded because our local area was very inaccessible. His father played mbira and grandparents too.

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