A chance meeting at Aristodemo Casciani's in Barga Vecchia this afternoon proved once again what people have been saying for many years – that the real cultural centre of Barga can be found right there inside Aristo's bar. Just how many interesting people pass through that door in a year ? Today in walked American sculptor and musical instrument maker Don MacLane. You can call into his site here and see what kind of Interactive Kinetic Sculpture he makes in his studio in the states, but what was interesting today for the people sitting in the bar was the hand made music instrument that he carried with him. A beautiful hammered Mbira. Never heard of of an instrument called a hammered Mbira ? Not surprising really as he kind of invented the thing

I spent a lot of time traveling and needed an instrument that was easy to carry along. So I built a series of instruments blending the Mbira from Zimbabwe with the hammered dulcimer. I call the result a Hammered Mbira. They are tuned when I build them, the tuning is relatively immune to changes in environment and the instruments are very rugged. I have carried these instruments all over the world and play them in bus stations, train stations, in airports, on hotel stoops and in parks. Don MacLane

And who should be sitting in the bar that afternoon ? The recent visitor to Barga, the Scottish Small Pipes maker Hamish Moore Alessandro Rizzardi on mandolin added to the trio and then Roberto Conti arrived with an Irish drum – a bodhran and we were all set for a multi instrument, multi cultural event where words had little meaning as music is the perfect international language. Click on the link below to hear a short excerpt of Don's hammered Mbira in action.

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