Kora (instrument)

Kora

The kora is a 21-string harp-lute used mostly by peoples in West Africa.

Kora (instrument) Media

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  Traditional range of the kora

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  Kora (Bridge-Harp Or Plucked Harp-Lute) from St. Cecilia's Hall Museum, Edinburgh

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  Kora sheet music (fragment of the score of One Thousand Sources, for solo kora, by Jacques Burtin).

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  Master kora-maker Alieu Suso of the Gambia

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  A kora player wearing a korte necklace, from the central northern Bandiagara Escarpment, Mopti Region, Mali. The kora neck and handles appear to have broken off. Late 1700s.

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  Sambou, jali of Niantanso, Mali, with a Kamalengoni (a relation to the Kora) in 1872.

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  Kora players in Sénégal, 1900. The koras are straight-necked, with handles, carrying cords, tacked skins and small, square soundholes.

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  Jali Fily Sissokho playing a 22-string kora, tuned with konso string terminations and strung with nylon monofilament strings, 2008.

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  Sona Jobarteh tuning a 22-string kora with open machine head tuners, 2017.

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  Playing position of a kora, showing how the strings are notched into both sides of the square bridge