Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. Most importantly, the music of north Africa (red region on map) has a different history from that of Sub-Saharan African music.[1]
- North Africa is the seat of the Mediterranean culture that built Egypt and Carthage before being ruled successively by Greeks, Romans and Goths and then becoming the Maghreb of the Arab world. Like the musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa (sky-blue and dark green region on map), its music has close ties with Middle Eastern music.
- East Africa and the offshore islands in the Indian Ocean (light green regions on map) have been slightly influenced by Arabic music and also by the music of India, Indonesia and Polynesia. However, the region's indigenous musical traditions are primarily in the mainstream of the sub-Saharan Niger Congo-speaking peoples.
- Southern, Central and West Africa (brown, dark blue and yellow regions on map) are similarly in the broad sub-Saharan musical tradition, but draw their ancillary influences from Western Europe and North America. The music and dance forms of the African diaspora, including African American music and many Caribbean genres like soca, calypso and Zouk; and Latin American music genres like the rumba, salsa; and other clave (rhythm)-based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of African slaves, which has in turn influenced African popular music.
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North African music
The music of North Africa has a considerable range, from the music of ancient Egypt to the Berber and the Tuareg music of the desert nomads. The region's art music has for centuries followed the outline of Arab and Andalusian classical music: its popular contemporary genres include the Algerian Raï. For further details see: Music of Egypt, Music of Libya, Music of Tunisia, Music of Algeria, Music of Morocco and Music of Mauritania.
With these may be grouped the music of Sudan and of the Horn of Africa, including the music of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.
Sub-Saharan music
African traditional music is frequently functional in nature. Performances may be long and often involve the participation of the audience.[2] There are, for example, many different kinds of work songs, songs accompanying childbirth, marriage, hunting and political activities, music to ward off evil spirits and to pay respects to good spirits, the dead and the ancestors. None of this is performed outside its intended social context and much of it is associated with a particular dance. Some of it, performed by professional musicians, is sacral music or ceremonial and courtly music performed at royal courts.
Sub-Saharan rhythm
The ethnomusicological pioneer Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) observed that the shared rhythmic principles of Sub-Saharan African music traditions constitute one main system.[3] Similarly, master drummer and scholar C.K. Ladzekpo affirms the profound homogeneity of sub-Saharan African rhythmic principles.[4]
Cross-Rhythm
Polyrhythm is the joining of two or more rhythms. The regular and systematic superimposition of cross-beats over main beats creates a specific sub-set of polyrhythm called cross-rhythm. From the philosophical perspective of the African musician, cross-beats can symbolize the challenging moments or emotional stress we all encounter. Playing cross-beats while fully grounded in the main beats, prepares one for maintaining a life-purpose while dealing with life’s challenges. Many sub-Saharan languages do not have a word for rhythm, or even music. From the African viewpoint, the rhythms represent the very fabric of life itself; they are an embodiment of the people, symbolizing interdependence in human relationships.—Peñalosa (2009: 21)[5]
Cross-rhythm is the basis for much of the music of the Niger-Congo peoples, the largest linguistic group in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Cross-rhythm was first explained as the basis of sub-Saharan rhythm in lectures by C.K. Ladzekpo and the writings of David Locke.
Cross-rhythm pervades southern Ewe music.—Locke (1982: 231)[6]
At the center of a core of rhythmic traditions within which the composer conveys his ideas is the technique of cross-rhythm. The technique of cross-rhythm is a simultaneous use of contrasting rhythmic patterns within the same scheme of accents or meter. . . By the very nature of the desired resultant rhythm, the main beat scheme cannot be separated from the secondary beat scheme. It is the interplay of the two elements that produces the cross-rhythmic texture."—Ladzekpo (1995)[7]
The cross-rhythm three-over-two (3:2), hemiola, is the most significant rhythmic ratio found in sub-Saharan rhythm.
. . .the 3:2 relationship (and [its] permutations) is the foundation of most typical polyrhythmic textures found in West African musics.— Novotney (1998: 201)[8]
3:2 is the generative or theoretic form of sub-Saharan rhythmic principles. Victor Kofi Agawu states very succinctly:
[T]he resultant [3:2] rhythm holds the key to understanding... there is no independence here, because 2 and 3 belong to a single Gestalt.—Agawu (2003: 92)[9]
Key Patterns
Musics organized around key patterns [also known as bell patterns, timeline patterns, guide patterns and phrasing referents] convey a two-celled (binary) structure, a complex level of African cross-rhythm.—Peñalosa (2009: 53)[10]
[Key patterns] express the rhythm’s organizing principle, defining rhythmic structure, as scales or tonal modes define harmonic structure. . . Put simply, key patterns epitomize the complete rhythmic matrix. Key patterns are typically clapped or played on idiophones, for example a bell, a piece of bamboo [or wooden claves in Cuban music]. In some ensembles, such as iyesá and batá drums, a key pattern may be played on a high-pitched drumhead.— Peñalosa (2009: 51)[11]
Gerhard Kubik. . .claims that a timeline [key] pattern 'represents' the structural core of a musical piece, something like a condensed and extremely concentrated expression of the motional possibilities open to the participants (musicians and dancers).— Agawu (200-6: 1)[12]
At the broadest level, the African asymmetrical timeline patterns are all interrelated….— Kubik (1999: 54)[13]
The Standard Pattern
The most commonly used key pattern in sub-Saharan Africa is the seven-stroke figure known in ethnomusicology as the standard pattern.[14] The standard pattern is expressed in both a triple-pulse (12/8 or 6/8) and duple-pulse (4/4 or 2/2) structure.[11]
Musically Africa may be divided into four regions
- The eastern region includes the music of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as the islands of Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Comor.
- The southern region includes the music of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Angola.
- The central region includes the music of Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, including Pygmy music.
- The western region includes the music of Senegal and the Gambia, of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia, of the inland plains of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the coastal nations of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo as well as islands such as Sao Tome and Principe. Snare drums were made in Africa
Musical instruments
Besides using the voice, which has been developed to use various techniques such as complex melisma and yodel, a wide array of musical instruments are used. African musical instruments include a wide range of drums, slit gongs, rattles, double bells as well as melodic instruments like string instruments, (musical bows, different types of harps and harp-like instruments such as the Kora as well as fiddles), many types of xylophone and lamellophone like the mbira, and different types of wind instrument like flutes and trumpets.
Drums used in African traditional music include talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums (or engoma) in Central and Southern Africa. Other percussion instruments include many rattles and shakers, such as the kosika, rainstick, bells and woodsticks. Also has lots of other types of drums, and lots of flutes, and lots of stringed instruments, and blowing instruments.
Relationship to language
African languages are tonal languages, leading to a close connection between music and language in many African cultures. In singing, the tonal pattern or the text puts some constraints on the melodic patterns. On the other hand, in instrumental music a native speaker of a language can often perceive a text or texts in the music. This effect also forms the basis of drum languages (talking drums).[15]
Influences on African Music
Historically, several factors have influenced the tribal music of Africa: the environment, various cultures, politics, and population movement. All of these factors essentially go hand in hand. Each African tribe evolved in a different area of the continent, which means that they ate different foods, faced different weather conditions, and came in contact with different tribes than the other societies did. Each tribe moved at different rates and to different places than the others, and thus they were influenced by different people and circumstances. Furthermore, each society did not necessarily operate under the same government, which also significantly influenced their music styles.[16]
Popular music
African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues, jazz and rumba derive to varying degrees from musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by African slaves. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock, rhythm and blues. Likewise, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio techniques of western music.[17]
The appealing Afro-Euro hybrid the Cuban son (music) influenced popular music in Africa. The first African guitar bands played Cuban covers.[18] The early guitar-based bands from the Congo called their music rumba (although it was son rather than rumba-based). The Congolese style eventually evolved into what became known as soukous.
Influence on North American music
African music has been a major factor in the shaping of what we know today as blues and jazz. These styles have all borrowed from African rhythms and sounds, brought over the Atlantic ocean by slaves. Paul Simon, on his album "Graceland" has used African bands and music, especially Ladysmith Black Mambazo along with his own lyrics.
As the rise of rock'n'roll music is often credited as having begun with 1940s American blues, and with so many genres having branched off from rock - the myriad subgenres of heavy metal, punk rock, pop music and many more - it can be argued that African music has been at the root of a very significant portion of all recent popular or vernacular music.
African music has also had a significant impact on such well-known pieces of work as Disney's The Lion King and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, which blend traditional tribal music with modern culture. Songs such as Circle of Life and He Lives in You blend a combination of Zulu and English lyrics, as well as traditional African styles of music with more modern western styles. Additionally, the Disney classic incorporates numerous words from the Bantu Swahili language. The phrase "hakuna matata," for example, is an actual Swahili phrase that does in fact mean "no worries." Characters such as Simba, Kovu, and Zira are also Swahili words which mean "lion," "scar," and "hate," respectively.[19][1]
See also
- Paul Berliner
- Gerhard Kubik
- International Library of African Music
- Ashenafi Kebede
- African popular music
- List of African guitarists
- Clave (rhythm)
- Victor Kofi Agawu
- Arthur Morris Jones
References
- ↑ GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page 34, quoting examination board syllabus.
- ↑ GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page 36.
- ↑ Jones, A.M. (1959). Studies in African Music. London: Oxford University Press. 1978 edition: ISBN 0197135129.
- ↑ Ladzekpo, C.K. (1996). Cultural Understanding of Polyrhythm. http://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/PrinciplesFr.html.
- ↑ Peñalosa, David (2009: 21). The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.
- ↑ Locke, David (1982). "Principles of Off-Beat Timing and Cross-Rhythm in Southern Ewe Dance Drumming” Society for Ethnomusicology Journal Nov. 11.
- ↑ Ladzekpo, C.K. (1995: webpage). "The Myth of Cross-Rhythm", Foundation Course in African Dance-Drumming.
- ↑ Novotney, Eugene D. (1998). "The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics", UnlockingClave.com. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
- ↑ Agawu, Kofi (2003: 92). Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415943906.
- ↑ Peñalosa (2009: 53).
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Peñalosa (2009: 51).
- ↑ Agawu, Kofi (2006: 1-46). “Structural Analysis or Cultural Analysis? Comparing Perspectives on the ‘Standard Pattern’ of West African Rhythm” Journal of the American Musicological Society v. 59, n. 1.
- ↑ Kubik, Gerhard (1999: 54). Africa and the Blues. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-4-415-94390-6.
- ↑ Jones, A.M. (1959: 210-213). King, Anthony (1960). “The Employment of the Standard Pattern in Yoruba Music” American Music Society Journal.
- ↑ GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page 35, quoting examination board syllabus.
- ↑ Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. The Music of Africa. New York: Norton and Company, 1974. Print.
- ↑ Scaruffi, Piero (2007). A History of Popular Music before Rock Music. ISBN 978-0-9765531-2-0
- ↑ Roberts, John Storm (1986: cassette) Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth and Growth of Congo Music, Original Music.
- ↑ "The Characters." Lion King Pride. 2008. Disney, 1997-2008. Web. 01 February, 2010.
External links
- African Music
- Glossary of African music styles
- International Library of African Music at Rhodes University
- [2] Mapouka and other African genres
Department of Music And Musicology
- Rhythms of the Continent from the BBC
- Historical Notes on African Melodies
- Music of Africa at the Open Directory Project
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