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Music of Africa

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Geo-political map of Africa divided for ethnomusicological purposes, after Alan P. Merriam, 1959.

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of north Africa (red region on map) has a different history from that of Sub-Saharan African music.[1]

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, little 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 nature of the desired resultant rhythm, the normal 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

Musical instruments

Besides using the voice, which has been developed to use various techniques such as complex hard 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, rain stick, bells and wood sticks. Also has lots of other types of drums, and lots of flutes, and lots of stringed instruments, and blowing instruments. Many modern instruments, such as flute, double reed, trumpet-type horns, stringed instruments and percussion of all kinds can trace their origin to Africa.

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]

Main article: African 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 African 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. On his album Graceland, the American folk musician Paul Simon employs African bands, rhythms and melodies, especially Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as a musical backdrop for his own lyrics. In the early 1970's, Remi Kabaka, an Afro-rock avant-garde drummer, laid the initial drum patterns that created the Afro-rock sounds in bands such as Ginger Baker's Airforce, the Rolling Stones, and Steve Winwood's Traffic. He continued to work with Winwood, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger throughout the decade.[19]

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.[20][1]

See also

References

  1. ^ GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page 34, quoting examination board syllabus.
  2. ^ GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page 36.
  3. ^ Jones, A.M. (1959). Studies in African Music. London: Oxford University Press. 1978 edition: ISBN 0-19-713512-9.
  4. ^ Ladzekpo, C.K. (1996). Cultural Understanding of Polyrhythm. http://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/PrinciplesFr.html.
  5. ^ Peñalosa, David (2009: 21). The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.
  6. ^ Locke, David (1982). "Principles of Off-Beat Timing and Cross-Rhythm in Southern Ewe Dance Drumming” Society for Ethnomusicology Journal Nov. 11.
  7. ^ Ladzekpo, C.K. (1995: webpage). "The Myth of Cross-Rhythm", Foundation Course in African Dance-Drumming.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Agawu, Kofi (2003: 92). Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94390-6.
  10. ^ Peñalosa (2009: 53).
  11. ^ a b Peñalosa (2009: 51).
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Kubik, Gerhard (1999: 54). Africa and the Blues. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-4-415-94390-6.
  14. ^ Jones, A.M. (1959: 210-213). King, Anthony (1960). “The Employment of the Standard Pattern in Yoruba Music” American Music Society Journal.
  15. ^ GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page 35, quoting examination board syllabus.
  16. ^ Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. The Music of Africa. New York: Norton and Company, 1974. Print.
  17. ^ Scaruffi, Piero (2007). A History of Popular Music before Rock Music. ISBN 978-0-9765531-2-0
  18. ^ Roberts, John Storm (1986: cassette) Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth and Growth of Congo Music, Original Music.
  19. ^ Azam, O.A. (1993). The recent influence of African Music on the American music scene and music market http://azam.org/archives/geocities/www.geocities.com/omarazam/papers/afrMusic.htm
  20. ^ "The Characters." Lion King Pride. 2008. Disney, 1997-2008. Web. 01 February, 2010.

Department of Music And Musicology

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