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Encyclopedia ID 124

Valiha tube zither

Also known as Valiha

Valiha tube zither: photograph by Rob Hooft
Photo: Rob Hooft, CC BY-SA 3.0, source on Wikimedia Commons

Pluck strings that run around a bamboo tube with two hands, following falling notes to play melodies, with a free mode of chord layers.

Heritage note

Part of the living heritage of Madagascar.

Origins

Usually placed in the era of Classical Worlds (about 1000 BCE to 500 CE), although its exact origins are uncertain, within the cultural world of Africa: Great Lakes and Indian Ocean.

Sources

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