Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pines region. In these areas it is also an instrument of the spiritual world, being used
in ceremonies to appease animistic forest spirits.
Thebamboofromwhichthe
valiha
ismademustbecutduringthethree-dayperiod
during a full moon, which is when the plants are apparently free of certain insects -
otherwise months later they will emerge from eggs laid inside and destroy the instru-
ment. (I have seen this happen when a friend tried to import a huge consignment of
valiha
, only to have them ruined by the insects; we were forced to make an enormous
bonfire consisting of hundreds of contaminated
valiha
!)
The
valiha
has a royal heritage: according to Justin Vali, King Radama II was a
superb composer. During his reign Queen Victoria gave him a piano, which resulted
in the standardising of
valiha
-tuning into diatonic form - called
lalandava
('straight
road') - corresponding to the white notes on a keyboard. One of the most legendary
players of the instrument, the late Rakotozafy, built himself a
marovany
-like
valiha
out of sheet iron, and today his music is still widely played on the island's radio sta-
tions.
The
marovany
,unlikethetube
valiha
,appearstohaveAfricanorigins.Itistunedin
averydifferentwayandisplayedinthecoastalregionswheretheAfricaninfluenceis
more apparent than in the highlands. If you happen to be in the right places in Mada-
gascar,searchingforrecordingsofMalagasymusic,andyouwanttohearphenomenal
marovany
players, ask for Madame Masy, Bekamby, Daniel Tomo or Albi, to name a
few of the best.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of CDs of Malagasy music; good web-
sites on which to find these include:
www.discovermadagascar.co.uk
(from which
you can order, among others,
The Sunshine Within
, a beautiful album by Justin Vali),
PaddyBushisamusicologist.Heisoneofveryfewwesternerstohavemasteredplay-
ing the
marovany
and
valiha,
and has performed in the UK with Justin Vali
.
COMMUNICATIONS
TELEPHONES
Makingcalls
Theseven-digitphonenumbersgiveninthisguide(markedwitha symbol)
are landline numbers. The ten-digit numbers are mobile/cellphone numbers, which all be-
gin 03 and are indicated by a
m
symbol in this topic.
