Kalon'ny fahiny

Kalon'ny fahiny is a Malagasy song tradition of the Imerina highlands, in which the ba-gasy manner of singing is applied to themes of love, courtship and gentle melancholy. Developed under French colonial rule and popularised in the final decades of that era, it sets Malagasy poetry for solo or duet voices accompanied principally by piano, occasionally guitar, in the salons and theatres of Antananarivo. Its composers, among them *Andrianary Ratianarivo* and *Naka Rabemanantsoa*, wrote hundreds of songs that became the shared sentimental repertoire of the highlands, transmitted through 78rpm recordings, radio and family singing rather than through a commercial album culture.