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    Understanding African Music: Listen, Compose, Play, Learn
    Understanding African Music: Listen, Compose, Play, Learn
    Understanding African Music: Listen, Compose, Play, Learn
    Ebook232 pages1 hour

    Understanding African Music: Listen, Compose, Play, Learn

    By Mandy Carver

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    About this ebook

    Understanding African Music introduces important African musical concepts to musicians and the general public alike. It is a splendid volume of musical treasures from cultures and countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The book successfully accomplishes its aim to orient readers to the vast expanse of music and musicians, to ways of thinking and behaving musically and to the human capacity for cultural-artistic-social expression. There are critical lessons to be learned about African music and culture through the activities carefully framed by the author in the reading and listening that leads to them. There is nothing like it in the field. It is a textbook, a guide to deep listening, a study of the innovative musical ways of the human mind and body. The book is a shining realization of ILAM’s hope to fulfil Hugh Tracey’s 1960s vision for repatriating the music he recorded to its communities of origin by creating textbooks designed to teach African music in the schools.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateOct 1, 2014
    ISBN9781483539362
    Understanding African Music: Listen, Compose, Play, Learn

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      Book preview

      Understanding African Music - Mandy Carver

      All audio and video tracks available for download

      Please Click on this text to download the tracks

      © International Library of African Music

      Rhodes University

      P.O. Box 94

      Grahamstown 6140

      South Africa

      www.ru.ac.za/ilam

      Images © International Library of African Music

      This book was created by the ILAM Music Heritage Project SA funded by the National Arts Council of South Africa.

      Author: Mandy Carver

      Editor: Diane Thram

      Consulting editor: Andrew Tracey

      CD compilation & sound engineer: Elijah Madiba

      Design & layout: Jane Burnett

      Cover image: ILAM image by Curt Wittig

      ISBN: 9781483539362

      CONTENTS

      Foreword

      Map of Africa

      Acknowledgements

      INTRODUCTION

      Chapter 1 COMMUNITY, PARTICIPATION AND RELATIONSHIPS

      Community

      Songs for every occasion

      Music for court and politics

      Music for worship

      Work songs

      Participation

      Call-and-response

      Cycles

      ‘One-player-one note’

      Relationships

      Cooperation and contrast

      ‘Two-is-better-than-one’

      Case study: Nyoro horn band

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 2 MOVEMENT

      How is this music constructed?

      Case study: Chopi timbila music

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 3 RHYTHM

      The influence of speech on music

      Speech into rhythm

      Changing time signature

      Melorhythm

      Rhythmic structure

      Pulses

      Additive rhythm

      Time-lines

      Case study: Message drums of the Congo

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 4 MELODY

      Scales

      Pitch

      Connections with speech

      Speech tones

      Contour

      Speech rhythm

      Melodies from movement patterns

      Inherent patterns

      Unequal phrase lengths

      Improvisation

      Case study: Uhadi bow music

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 5 HARMONY

      One chord structure

      Two-chord and four-chord structures

      Harmonic intervals

      Why does African music move in parallel?

      Four-part harmony and cadences

      Case study: Shona mbira music

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 6 TEXTURE

      Monophony

      Homophony

      Polyphony

      Heterophony

      Case study: Nyanga panpipe dance

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 7 TIMBRE

      Vocal timbres

      Instrumental timbres

      Hand percussion

      What’s the buzz?

      Case study: Vocal timbres — a kaleidescope of sound

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 8 FORM & STRUCTURE

      Call-and-response

      Cycles

      Analysing cycles

      Inherent patterns

      Cycles are inclusive

      Interlocking structure

      Chakwi: an example of interlocking structure

      Ostinato with melodic variations

      Case study: Amadinda music

      ACTIVITIES

      Chapter 9 THE ENVIRONMENT

      Instruments made from available materials

      Themes in music

      Case study: Herder’s tunes — music from nature

      ACTIVITIES

      Endnotes

      Answers for activities

      References

      Resources

      Tracklist

      FOREWORD

      The International Library of African Music (ILAM) was founded by Hugh Tracey in 1954 as a research institute and archive for his field recordings, which it was his life-work to record and preserve for future generations. Hugh Tracey did a remarkable job of disseminating his field recordings globally from 1958, with the first releases of his 218 LP Sound of Africa series and with his 25 LP Music of Africa series published in the 1960s, at a time when African music had been recorded very little and heard even less beyond the continent. The music on these LPs and on all of his various field recordings has been digitized and is available from ILAM in various audio formats. In addition, ILAM’s archived field recordings can be explored from the ILAM website www.ru.ac.za/ilam by using its on-line audio search capability. Each entry gives users a 30 second audio clip to listen to and a complete meta-data record for the over 12,000 items in the database. However, throughout South Africa and Africa at large, many remain without internet access and without the means to purchase the recordings were they to discover that they exist. It is ILAM’s aim through this book to reach, through the schools and through internet marketing, many who might not otherwise ever hear the amazing wealth of music of sub Saharan Africa archived at ILAM, much less learn from it.

      A desire to disseminate Tracey’s field recordings to their communities of origin and recognition of the need for teaching materials for African music, together with the hope to begin to fulfil Hugh Tracey’s vision to repatriate his field recordings through his African Music Codification and Textbook Project (1969), have motivated the ‘ILAM Music Heritage Project SA’. Many heartfelt thanks are extended to the National Arts Council and its Arts Development Officer for Music, Ms. Lindi Ngcobo, for providing ILAM with the necessary funding to create this book and another designed for the music component of the Department of Education’s mandated creative arts curriculum for grades 7 and 8.

      Understanding African Music is designed for high school music majors aged 15-18, but is also expected to appeal more broadly to the general public because of the nature of its content. The book is beautifully illustrated with many images from Hugh Tracey’s field excursions taken from the late 1930s through the 1960s. Lessons designed by music educator, Mandy Carver, feature 96 audio tracks selected from Hugh and his son Andrew Tracey’s field recordings. These audio tracks and several video clips that are essential to the lessons are provided on a multimedia disc that accompanies the book.

      One of Hugh Tracey’s concerns was that the changes brought by the modernization and urbanization that accompanied the colonization of Africa would, over time, cause the music he was recording to disappear. To this end he believed that it was imperative to provide material for African music education in the schools. With the publication of Understanding African Music, the ILAM Music Heritage Project SA is providing practical materials for contemporary curricula that pay attention to African musical values and systems of organisation. It is providing music teachers and students and any other users of this book with a listening and visual experience that is sure to increase their knowledge of African music and at the same time enrich their lives. — Diane Thram, Editor

      Covering a vast geographical area and including peoples whose particular histories are complex, ‘African Music’ defies a simplistic description.

      Acknowledgements

      Andrew Tracey needs my special thanks for many reasons. His generosity with his knowledge, and his enthusiasm as a teacher have set many of us on our way in African music. In the course of writing this book I have referred to Andrew’s articles, taken his advice, used him as a sounding board, relied on his transcriptions and benefitted from his editorial feedback. Andrew gave his permission to use his transcriptions and material from the film The Chopi Timbila Dance With Venancio Mbande that he made with Gei Zantzinger (producer) in 1975. Andrew also performed in track 83 along with Elijah Madiba.

      Andrew Tracey and Gerhard Kubik’s publications have been invaluable. Andrew Tracey’s articles provided information on Nyanga panpipes, Chopi timbila and the Shona harmonic system and mbira dza vadzimu. I highly recommend Gerhard Kubik’s Theory of African Music Vols I & II (2010) published by University of Chicago Press. I relied on Kubik and Peter Cooke for the information on Ugandan Xylophones. The third significant author whose research has informed this book is Dave Dargie. Both his writing and recordings on Xhosa music have been of help in the preparation of the book.

      Karen Howard provided the kpangolo rhythm score. Patricia Shehan Campbell put me in touch with Karen and I am grateful to them both. I am grateful to Doug Goodkin for permission to use his ideas for the cross rhythm movement activity (activity 2) in chapter 2. Doug is an inspirational Orff Educator based in San Francisco. His numerous publications are all worth having. The Sakhuluntu Cultural Group is featured in the video clip on gumboot dance. Vuyo Booi, leader of the group, trained the dancers who are: Simthembile Mtengwana, Thulani Faxi, Mandilakhe Rhawana and Sipho Jantjie.

      Elijah Madiba, ILAM’s chief sound engineer was always generous with his time, expertise and humour. Many happy hours were spent in his studio trawling through the archive. Editorial help came from Dodie Springer, Diane Thram, Shiloh Marsh and Andrew Tracey.

      I have appreciated the support of my colleagues in this project, Diane Thram and Jane Burnett. As Director of ILAM and editor of this book, Diane’s vision and commitment have been unflagging, and Jane’s calm aura and artistic sensibility was just what was needed. — Mandy Carver, Author

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