Paul Berliner: Sound the Trumpet
Ethnomusicologist works at intersection of scholarship, music and politics
Friday, October 21, 2005
print |
Click to hear "Dande" in Real Audio or as an MP3 file.
Click to hear "Chaminuka We" in Real Audio or as an MP3 file.
To hear an interview with Paul Berliner on NPR's "Afropop Worldwide," click here.
Durham, N.C. -- Paul Berliner’s career has been spent at the intersection of
academics, human rights and music in the African nation of
Zimbabwe. A new professor of ethnomusicology in the Department of Music, Berliner
comes to Duke from NorthwesternUniversity. He’s no stranger to the
university, having brought his theater piece, “A
Library in Flames” to Duke in 2003. In it, he explores the
relationship of music to politics in Zimbabwe and tells the story
of Zimbabwean musicians caught in the middle of that country’s
bloody civil war.
Berliner, shown here playing the kudu trumpet made of antelope horns, talked with Dialogue about his interest in music and politics in Zimbabwe. His efforts to expand the popularity of Zimbabwe’s music, he has recorded mbira musicians on two albums on Nonesuch Records. The mbira consists of 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a gwariva (hardwood soundboard) made from the mubvamaropa tree.
Q. What does the music of Zimbabwe tell you about the politics of the area? Or why, if you are interested in the politics of the area, would you approach it through music?
Paul Berliner: One aspect of this issue concerns the overlapping domains of music, religion and politics in Zimbabwe. During the 1970s Independence War, for example, mbira players provided the music for religious ceremonies where religious authorities such as spirit mediums served as advisers for the local population. Some renowned mediums served as advisers for nationalist guerrillas operating in their areas as well.
During the same period, songtexts accompanying mbira music offered, among other themes, veiled social critique and political commentary, providing inspiration for the struggle against colonial rule. Under repressive regimes, people sometimes feel free to express political sentiments indirectly through song that they would be reluctant to express openly outside of performance contexts. The power of the mbira’s sound, intensifying emotion and inviting participation, as well as carrying songtexts, made it an important site of struggle and, thereby, a critical prism into understanding Zimbabwean politics.
Q. Your music/theater piece, "A Library in Flames," told the war of musicians being caught in the Zimbabwe civil war. Is the situation any better now for them?
PB: Sadly, the themes of my theatre piece (set in 1970s Zimbabwe) are as relevant today as when I first developed it. In retrospect, the piece’s principal character -- a murdered musician and political activist -- can be seen as an early pro-democracy opposition figure caught in the conflict between rival nationalist groups.
Since 1980 when Zimbabwe won its independence from the UK, President Robert Mugabe’s regime has become increasingly intolerant of dissent. Correspondingly musicians have come under increased pressure to censor their music. This has been true for some of country’s leading artists, including, ironically, celebrated composers of chimurenga (struggle) music which once inspired the nationalist struggle. The government has banned the protest music of Thomas Mapfumo, for example, which commented on the massive suffering of Africans caused by the regime’s corruption and failed economic policies. (Mapfumo, who was also personally harassed by the secret police, is currently living in exile in the United States.)
Recently, during the government’s rampage against the poor (which left 700,000 Zimbabweans homeless), another chimurenga composer, Comrade Chinx, had his home destroyed by government bulldozers and was injured in the attack. According to another report, a woman performer with a popular music group who appeared at a political rally for the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) was subsequently beaten to death by thugs representing the ruling party, ZANU-PF.
Q. What project are you working on now?
PB: I’m currently working on a book about mbira music, which grows out of a 30-year collaboration with Zimbabwean musicians, including my principal teacher Cosmas Magaya. The new book stands as a companion volume to my book, Thinking in Jazz, for Zimbabwe.
In part, the work is concerned with documenting and preserving Zimbabwe’s rich musical heritage in the face of the country’s social and economic disintegration. The book explores a number of inter-related themes. One is the production of musical knowledge, in particular, how such a unique and sophisticated musical language as mbira music has been passed from antiquity to the present without the use of writing. Related issues concern aural/oral composition and performance practices— explicating the creative processes through which artists continually renew their musical tradition, generating new ideas from old.
Correspondingly, the book aims to understand how individual artists develop unique voices within their tradition, expressing their own imaginations through renditions of the classical repertory. To learn about these processes, Magaya and I have recorded numerous live performances over the years and have translated an extensive sample of the music into notation systems I’ve devised so that it can be subject to formal analysis.
Finally, the book deals with the cross-cultural challenges of pursuing and producing musical knowledge. These include grappling with the distinctive perspectives that Magaya and I have brought to collaborative research in our respective roles as Zimbabwean artist and American scholar/musician.
