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 beopen 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