Valiha

Description

valiha is named after a zither I encountered in the small seaside fishing village of Ifaty, in the
Mozambique channel of Madagascar.
The instrument is entirely cylindrical in design, reflecting the primary material from which it
is constructed, bamboo. I found instrumentalising the zither in a conventional sense to be
uniquely challenging, so I decided to attempt to unlock its richly evocative potentiality by
transforming 5 simple, plucked, pizzicato gestures into a piece that extends well beyond the
physical confines of the zither. In doing so the work evokes the natural elements and
energies embedded within the origins of bamboo (water, grass, wind) and recycled
telephone wires and discarded bicycle brake cables that are repurposed as strings.
Timbres redolent of steel, bamboo and liquid jostle and collide amongst windswept
textures, creating a biomimetic soundscape recounting the life force of the instrument
itself.