Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté - Tegere Tulon: V. Janety
Tegere Tulon: V. Janety
Film by Moustapha Diallo (Macina Film) with help from Lucy Durán
Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté possesses one of the most beautiful and versatile voices of West Africa. A jelimuso (female jeli or ‘griot’) from Mali, she has acquired a cult following as the singer of Trio Da Kali, which was formed specially to collaborate with the Kronos Quartet. She was born into a celebrated griot family, the Diabatés of Kela, who have a legendary reputation as musicians and reciters of oral epic histories. Today, Hawa is the torch bearer of that tradition.
Growing up in Kela, Hawa participated in the young girls’ tradition of handclapping songs and dances (tègèrè tulon) from which she learned many improvisation, performance, and social skills. Performed exclusively by girls, handclapping songs are normally very short, consisting of one or two phrases repeated in call and response, often involving counting, each one with its own dance. Children make them up spontaneously, using the rhythms of language to generate musical rhythm.
Commissioned to compose a piece for Kronos Fifty for the Future, Hawa decided to revisit these handclapping songs of her childhood, which she hopes will encourage Malians not to abandon this rich cultural heritage. After creating four new pieces in handclapping style, she was later invited to create a fifth to celebrate Kronos’ executive director Janet Cowperthwaite and her 40th year with the Kronos Quartet. The resulting praise song, “Janety,” is a version of Soliyo, an archaic song with stock formulaic phrases around calling horses for the king to ride on. Roughly translated, the praise song says:
Janety, I call the horses for you.
Truly important people don't walk, they ride on horseback.
Janety, you have no equal. You are unique. We will visit you in San Francisco, city of hope.
Forty years! 'San bi nani!' - Janet & Kronos Quartet.
Janety - may God give you long life and good health.
Happy anniversary!
Program note by Professor Lucy Durán
Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté’s Tegere Tulon was written as part of Kronos Fifty for the Future, an education and legacy project that commissioned and distributed for free the first learning library of contemporary repertoire for string quartet. A program of the Kronos Performing Arts Association, Kronos Fifty for the Future was made possible by a group of adventurous partners and funders, including Carnegie Hall and many others.
The string quartet version of Tegere Tulon, arranged by Jacob Garchik is now available on Kronos' Fifty for the Future website (https://kronosquartet.org/fifty-for-t....