Raha tiany (Things We Like)
Tarika, Son Egal, 1997
(Rasoanaivo / Razafindrakoto)
A cousin of mine suggested that I should meet his uncle, Razafindrakoto Dieudonné, who is the last descendant of the musical family who formed Ny Antsaly, the first Malagasy traditional music group to ever tour abroad to any great extent. His father was the author and composer of many songs that Ny Antsaly did. I never imagined that Ny Antsaly were part of my family, and I was excited to hear all about the group and the repertoire that they had kept for so long.
I brought a valiha and korintsana and set off on a long journey. I expected to meet an old man living gracefully in a villa somewhere, perhaps with a song book or recordings of his work. Instead, I met a bare-footed young man who still lives with his old mother in an empty house in the countryside of Tana.
He said there were millions of songs but none of them were recorded. He did not own a valiha and hadn't played for such a long time that he would not remember any. He didn't even have the recordings of Ny Antsaly which I'd had all the time. I gave him my valiha and encouraged him to play with me right then on the hillside. He was amazed that I had brought a valiha and he really enjoyed plucking it again.
If only he'd had a valiha at home, he could have still played all the repertoire and done something about it. I invited him to come to town the next day to play anything he could remember. Unfortunately, he was so rusty and all of this came too suddenly for him. My only way of encouraging him to keep on playing was to promise him that we would do one of their songs. I chose this one because I really liked the feel of it, but I re-wrote the words because the original ones were full of swearing!
It just says 'We play with things we like', and names all the Malagasy instruments that we like and use - valiha, kabosy, jejy, lokanga, marovany, aponga tapaka, piripitry, atranatrana, kipantsona, apongalahy, faray, tsikadraha...
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