tradition

Because mbira is the traditional music of the Shona people and is central to their spirituality, culture and folklore, the question of respecting and maintaining tradition is an important one. We talk of traditional songs, traditional instruments, traditional tunings, traditional mbira pieces, traditional variations, and traditional religious/ceremonial contexts.

But we also know that traditions are not frozen in time; what is today considered tradition is the product a process of oral transmission shaped by continuity with the past and variation which springs from the individual or the group.

Because mbira is a medium for communication with ancestral spirits, mbira's special ceremonial context is a powerful force for maintaining consistency from generation to generation; the ancestral spirits like to hear the songs they heard when they were here.

But as we discussed on the page on mbira songs (), because the music and tradition are passed down aurally and orally and because we know mbira musicians create new versions of traditional pieces, there is a limit to what we can know about "how traditional" anything truly is. Was the Nhemamusasa we now call "the original Nhemamusasa" once a new version called "the new Nhemamusasa" to distinguish it from a now lost version?

While respect for mbira's traditions is essential, treating mbira as museum music ignores the reality that mbira, like all traditions, is alive and dynamic.