Music of Africa

African music is the music of the people of the region of Africa. Africa is a vast continent covering 20% of the world with a population of about 70 million.

File:Handdrumming.jpg

Hand drumming is significant throughout Africa

Africa is a diverse and multicultural place, and it would be more accurate to talk about the many musics of Africa. The music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continent's many regions, nations and ethnic groups.

Although there is no distinctly pan-African music, there are common forms of musical expression, especially within regions. The concept of music in Africa, especially for the sub-Saharan Africa is somehow different from other region and culture. African music is more concern about expressing life in all of its aspects through the medium of sound.

Some musical genres of northern and northeastern Africa, and the Islands off East Africa, share both traditional African and Middle Eastern features. The music and dance forms of the African diaspora, including many Caribbean and Latin American music genres like rumba and salsa, as well as African American music, were founded on musical traditions from Africa, taken there by African slaves.

Traditional Music

Traditional music is referring to the characteristics of African music prior to the colonization era, which was most widespread during the late 19th century. This pre-colonial period was full of social changes and dynamism. Great African empires and kingdoms rose and fell, but their traditions and cultures are still prevalent to this day throughout African villages. Because of the extensive Arabian influence of the music on north Africa, we will focus our discussion on the music of sub-Saharan Africa, shares many characteristics from region to region.

A lot of African traditional music is or was performed by full-time musicians. Although the terms 'traditional music' and 'folk music' are often used interchangeably in the literature describing this music, the term 'traditional music' is more accurate, because some of it belongs to court music or sacral music traditions, therefore the term 'folk music' is not always appropriate.

Music is an integral part of African ethnic life, accompanying many kinds of events, including childbirth, marriage, hunting, and even political activities. The majority of sub-Saharan African folk music and traditional music is functional in nature. There are, for example, many different kinds of work songs, ceremonial or religious music and courtly music performed at royal courts, and typically none of these are performed outside of their intended social context.

Musical components

Despite their diversity, traditional African music’s share some common traits. More emphasis is placed on rhythms compared to melody and harmony. Repetition is use as an organizing principle on top of which improvisation is built. African music is mostly performed in group thus the heavy use of polyphony, polyrhythm and the use of conversational style of music and interlocking.

Form
The most frequent form in African tradition consists of repeated short phrases with the accompaniment of melodic- rhythmic ostinato patterns. For example, in the call and response method, a leader usually sings a phrase with a chorus singing back a response Two or more melodies may be combined to form larger sectional formations. Contrast is achieved through a series of musical movements or “acts,” each consisting of a section repeated several times.

Rhythmic Structure
Rhythm is the most illuminating characteristic of African music tradition. Four basic elements characterize African rhythmic structure. They are an equal pulse base, a metric time arrangement, a specific organizing principle unifying a diversity of simultaneous rhythmic patterns together, and an exact starting point for rhythmic groupings

Texture
African music, from the communal nature of African society, is marked by the simultaneous sounding of two or more pitches. Melody and rhythm are interwoven within this dense structure of various instrumental and metric combinations. Ornamental devices, either by singing or instrumental playing, are commonly used to add more layers providing a richer density to the texture. Another important feature of African music is its related movements or body percussion, such as hand clapping, foot stamping, and dance. It is nearly impossible to listen to African music without moving one's body.

Text / lyrics
African music is mainly use to transmit message and thought and record/recall historical events. Consequently, meaning and the text to the music is considered the most important.

Polyphony
Composition of African music use polyphony. Polyphony is defined as the composition of multiple simultaneously sounding and rhythmically independent parts. In this composition, the individual melody created is given more importance than the resultant harmony. The Zulu choral of South Africa is an example of vocal polyphony. During this performance, individual voices will enter at different moment in a cyclic and continuous manner, giving rise to a complex and constantly shifting texture.

Repetition
Most African composition are based on the repetition of a musical unit. It is that repetition that held together the other different units of the composition. These other unit are structured with great freedom relative to the first unit, producing their own rhythmic pattern that only coincide occasionally with one another and with the basic pulse. For example, in the mbira music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, a repeated pattern is established by the interaction of various parts, and the musician develops an improvisation out of this core pattern.

Call and response
The call and response is a form of music composition, whereby a singer or instrumentalist will sing or play a phrase and another vocalist or instrumentalist will answer with another phrase creating a lively exchange.

Hocketing
Hocketing is the sharing of rhythmic or melodic lines between two or more players, one part resting while the other part(s) has a note or notes. An essential element of hocketing is integration-the working together and interlocking of parts. In a more general sense, fast alternation of one or two notes between voices, instruments and timbres not only contributes massively to the dynamic of timbral and rhythmic distinctness that is intrinsic to the polyphonic and polyrhythmic structuration of much music in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Instruments

A wide variety of instruments are used within Africa. We will categorize these instruments into four groups namely, chordophones, idiophone aerophone and membraphone.
Membraphone
Besides the numerous drums, African percussion instruments can be divided into two broad categories: instruments with rhythmic functions and instruments with melodic functions. Large gongs, twin gongs, and ritual gongs; rattles and foot rattle; woodblocks and bells are examples of instruments with rhythmic functions. Membranophone drums are also utilized as both melodic and rhythmic instruments and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some of these drums are beaten with the hand, while other are beaten with a stick or rubbed. They are either single or double-headed and are played in ensembles of varying sizes. Kettledrums (the ngoma of South Africa), the West African hourglass “pressure” drum, clay pot drums (bompili) usually played by women, frame drums, and countless other drums are played throughout Africa.
Chordophone
Chordophone are instruments with string. One of the simplest and the most widespread of these instruments is the musical bow. Among the musical bow type we have the earth bow, the mouth bow and the resonator bow. To make a earth bow, you plant a flexible pole in the ground and bent it at an angle to the ground. To the end of the pole, attach a string and on the other end of the string attach a stone, or a small piece of wood which is planted in the ground. The mouth bow is formed of a string that is attached to both ends a flexible pole such that the pole is shape to form a bow with the string. The string is held in the mouth and struck on a spot along its length. The mouth will help alter the amplification of the original sound of the struck string. The resonator bow is a type of mouth bow, but with a calabash resonator fixed at the middle. Another style of musical bow, the multiple bow lute can be find in some part of Africa. A major musical instrument from West Africa is usually played by griot, the kora. It is a style of lute made of a natural calabash cut in half partially covered with cow skin and a hardwood post running through it. 21, 22 or 25 fishing line are run along the instrument length and over a bridge resting on the skin.

Idiophone
Idiophones (self-sounding instruments) are instruments that may be sounded without the aid of a vibrating string, a stretched, vibrating membrane or a vibrating reed. Idiophones may be played as rhythm instruments or may be used as melodic instruments depending upon the type of idiophone. They are the most abundant instrument to be found anywhere in Africa. Rattles are principally rhythm instruments and are shaken to create sound. Of the many rattles found in Africa, two categories may be observed: (1) those rattles that are played by the hands and (2) those that are worn on the body and shaken by the movements of the player's body. Those rattles that are played by the hands include the gourd variety which may be either container in nature (objects such as pieces of bone, bamboo shoots or metal placed inside a gourd) or may be surrounded by nets of objects such as sea shells or beads. Friction idiophones, such as pieces of notched bamboo, are played by scraping another stick across the bamboo. Other idiophones such as bracelets of metal or a notched stick being passed through a dried fruit shell also exist and are used to create rhythmic sound. Stamped sticks and stamped tubes also form another category of idiophones (in this case concussion idiophones). These sticks and tubes are held in the player's hand and performed by being held at an angle and striking the ground or a slab of stone at an angle. On occasion three tubes are played at the same time each of which is playing a different rhythm. The adenkum (a long gourd with one end cut open to allow for resonance) is a stamped idiophone usually played in the vertical position by hitting the ground. All of the above idiophones are rhythm instruments and play no melodic function. They may, however, be tuned to a complex of pitches or even to a specific pitch in some cases; for example, the adenkum. However, no attempt is made to use these instruments melodically by creating a graduated scale of pitches. There are two basic types of tuned idiophones: (1) the mbira or sansa ("hand piano") and the xylophone. The mbira is made by arranging a graduated series of strips (wood or metal) on a flat sounding board and placed inside a resonating gourd or box. A unique quality is added to the instrument by the addition of rattling pieces of metal or possibly a chain of sea shells or other small articles to create noise. Mbiras may consist of from one to three manuals and range from five to twenty keys per manual. There are three main forms of tuned xylophones found in Africa: (1) wooden slabs arranged in a graduated scale are mounted over a resonance box (a pit, a clay pot or an open trough may be used). Iboland in Nigeria and the Zaramo of Tanzania make xylophones of this type; (2) In the Kissi country in Guinea and in the Ivory Coast, xylophones are made by laying keys over two pieces of banana stems; (3) Gourd resonators are used to resonate keys placed above the open gourd and mounted in a wooden frame. These gourd resonating xylophones are found in west, central and east Africa. Xylophones may be played by themselves or in combination with other xylophones or with other combinations of instruments. It is common among the Vatapa (Shona) of Zimbabwe to hear large ensembles involving as many as ten to fifteen players performing in large xylophone ensembles consisting of xylophones ranging in size from small (those that are strapped over the back and carried) to large (those that are large enough to have the player stand on a riser to reach).

Aerophone
Many African societies utilize a number of instruments falling into the group known as aerophones. In Africa three broad groups of aerophones are recognized: (1) flutes, (2) reed pipes and (3) trumpets and horns. Although flutes may be made from a husk of cane or the end of an animal horn or gourd, the most common material in use to make flutes is bamboo. They may be open-ended or closed, they may be played in the vertical or horizontal (transverse) positions. Although most African flutes are made with a number of holes (from two to six), some flutes are made with a single hole. A number of these flutes are made so that the technique of melodic playing known as hocket can be employed. Using the hocket technique melodies are formed by each flute sounding single tones in a melodic chain. Trumpets and horns are made from the horns of many animals which include elephant tusks and are used in various ensembles. Here again, instruments are often arranged in families. Babembe horns are made in human likeness in the Congo. In the case of the Babembe horns, a dorsal opening is cut in the back of each likeness and the player buzzes his/her lips to create a single tone.

from Wikipedia

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 array 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 like the Kora as well as fiddles), many types of xylophone and lamellophone such as the mbira and different types of wind instrument like flutes and trumpets.

Drums used in African traditional music include tama talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums (pronounced by some "engoma") in Central and Southern Africa. Other percussion instruments include many rattles and shakers, such as the kosika, rainstick, bells and woodsticks. Many cultures use song and dance to ward off evil spirits, and pay respects to good spirits, the dead, and ancestors.

Musicians

We can divide african musician into three category: the non professional, the semiprofessional and the professional. Most african traditional music is a participative performance. There is a perpetual give and take between the main performer and the public, and the public is fully part of the performances. Tradition and culture helped each participant to know how it should respond to a particular rhytmic. Other people in the african society even though not fully musician have music has one of the requirement to fulfill their social responssability. These are people like healer who from time to time have to perform sacred songs, just for the occasion. The last group of musician are the full time musician. They are usually member of a cast and they position in the society is gained hereditary. In the West African Malinke region, we have the Griot who are full time musician and used to travel from village to village, singing for dignitaries and rich business people.

Regional styles

North Africa—Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco—bears a strong Arab and Islamic stamp thanks to medieval Islamic expansion. Egypt especially has deep musical connections to the rest of the Arab world, being one of the epicenters of Arab classical and popular music for hundreds of years. While arabic traditions are more proeminent, a coptic musical tradition adopted from the music of the ancient egyptian is also existant. Coptic music is characterized by a strong vocal and the use of cymbals and triangles. Morroco classical music style is Arab-Andalusian. It feature an orchestra of traditional stringed instrument such as the rabab (two strings violin), 'ud (Arab luth) and qanun (zither). Song in arabic often accompany this music. West Africa, below the expanse of the Sahara desert, is one of the most musically fertile areas of the world, containing such musical powerhouses as Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea. Once the home to various Empires that grew rich from trans-Saharan trade, the region is home to some of the most sophisticated classical and court music traditions in sub-Saharan Africa. For thousand of year, professional musician, called griot played an important role as historian in the kingdom that develloped in the saharean region of west africa. In addition to the griot, music in Senegal is also characterized by the complex drummings that often accompany dance. East Africa also has deep musical ties to the Islamic world; from the Egyptian-influenced taraab music of the Swahili coast to the oud-driven music of the Nubian people of Northern Sudan. Additionally, Ethiopia and Eritrea have their own ancient, unique and interrelated musical cultures that date back more than 1,000 years. The khoisan (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa, Lesotho, and parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique) is the anglicanized name of two tribes, the Khoi and the San. The music of this area is simpler than the music of other African cultures, both in types and variety of instruments and stylistically. More prominent harmonically are vertical fifths and octaves alongside rhythms less complex than those of Western Africa. In fact, percussive instruments are not as prominent in the Khoisan area as they are in other areas of Africa. Remarkable, however, is the presence in the music of the ‘hocket’ technique, where individual notes of a melody are sung by different musicians, and a technique similar to yodeling. Because of the nomadic nature of the people, the music is played throughout the day and not associated with any rituals relating to the harvest.

Music and culture

Relationship to language

Many 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).^{[citation needed]}

Relationship to dance

An African woman, wearing native garments, performs during a visit from participants in the West Africa Training Cruise 1983.

The treatment of "music" and "dance" as separate art forms is a European idea. In many African languages there is no concept corresponding exactly to these terms. For example, in many Bantu languages, there is one concept that might be translated as "song" and another that covers both the semantic fields of the European concepts of "music" and "dance". So there is one word for both music and dance (the exact meaning of the concepts may differ from culture to culture).

For example, in Kiswahili, the word "ngoma" may be translated as "drum", "dance", "dance event", "dance celebration" or "music", depending on the context. Each of these translations is incomplete.

Therefore, from an intracultural point of view, African music and African dance must be viewed in very close connection. The classification of the phenomena of this area of culture into "music" and "dance" is foreign to many African cultures.

Popular Music

The popular African music refers to the music with compositions started during the colonization and after the colonization era.

African music during Colonization

The colonization era saw the emergence of a new urbanization. The cities where inhabited mostly by African who were working for the occupier mainly as servant, clerk or cook. People closer to the occupier where also ranked higher in the social ladder, and this participated in the beginning of the downfall of traditional African music. Traditional African music lost its appeal before these new urban dwellers and the occupiers brought musical instruments and styles that were quickly adopted by Africans. Musicians were doing their best to mimics music and musical genre from the occupier’s country. A genre of music, the Palm Wine, grew out the Krou people of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was a genre of music played with the guitar by sailors around palm wine drink. As sailor, they visited the west coast of Africa up to the coast of today’s DRC (Democatic Republic of Congo) and in the way introduced the Palm Wine genre and the guitar to these regions. With the appearance of recording studio and the radio in 1924, musicians were now able to reach a wider audience. This also allow musical genre to spread more easily throughout the continent. The end of World War II saw a new trend in the African musical sphere, the importation of music from Latin America, like rumba, chachas boleros, and mambos. Musicians adopted easily these styles of music. They were well appreciated by the occupiers and also very close to their native musical style. This started a latin craze, especially in the French colonies and the Belgium colony of Congo. This latin craze helped shape and give rise to new musical genre. The highlife is one of this genre that originated in Ghana, with E.t. Mensah as one of its hero. The highlife was a truly popular musical genre that will have its influence cross the border of Ghana to mainly other English speaking country like Nigeria. It is characterized by jazzy horns and multiple guitars. In Congo, the melding of the palm wine style of playing the guitar with the Latin musical genre, will create a style known popularly as the Congolese Rumba or Soukous with prominent figures like Antoine Kolossay (Papa Wendo), Joseph Kabasele Tshamala (Grand Kale) and Francois Luambo Makiadi (Franco). This style, like the highlife will have also a continental influence in sub-saharan colonized Africa.

African Music after independence

The independence period, in the 1960s, was a vibrant period both politically and culturally for the emergence of a free and proud Africa. The hopes and many disillusions that followed were witnessed by African musicians. African modern musician will be taking more freedom in their musical composition and start to blend traditional music with foreign musical style. The African style that emerged during the occupation will develop and give rise to new variety and subgenre. Musician will more readily use local instrument and sing in their local language. The music was thus participating to the liberation of the African mind in its own way. Salif Keita, with its electric kora, in Guinea will adapt and blend old traditional songs and instruments with the modern instruments. Fela Kuti of Nigeria, around 1970, will bring highlife to a new dimension and create a new genre, the afrobeat. It is a fusion of stylistic element from its own musical culture, afro American pop style, Latin American with a prominent modal jazz. Its lyrics were very critical of the junta’s ruling in Nigeria during his time, and to this day he is revered as the most outspoken musician in Nigeria.

African music in the 21st century

Modern African music is well mature and national musical genre has emerged throughout the continent. The global musical style such as jazz, R&B, hip hop, rock’n roll, country and reggae have the most impact on current composer. Successful musician are usually the one who successfully blend these foreign musical style with the musical traditions of their country. Hip hop started in the 1970s among the black youth of New York. The lyrics and delivery style of hip hop borrow heavily, like most other African American style of music , from African tradition. Since the 1980s and early 1990s, Hip hop has entered the African scene and is now being recreated by African youth throughout the continent. At the beginning, in the 1990s, African hip hop artist were mostly mimicking their American counterpart, which gave a bad name to hip hop as a deculturalization and Americanization of the youth. These early days, hip hop was more a style of the youth in the upper strata of the society. The second wave of hip hop artist took the musical style closer to home, creating local flavors to the hip hop genre, and singing in their local language. This period started in the mid 1990s and can be called the africanization of hip hop. However, each country will create its own style. In Ghana, the highlife will be merged with hip hop to create the hiplife. In South Africa, the hip hop lyrics is use to express the struggles of the youth in the post apartheid society.

Reggae music is well present in Africa. It really took off sometime after the concert of Bob Marley in Harare for Zimbabwe independence in 1980. The main centers of reggae are South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria. The sound identifies more with current trend in African music and bands experiment often with the use of traditional musical instrument. Malian native, Askia Modibo merged the reggae with the pentatonic music of its region, the Wassoulou, on “Wass-Reggae” released in 1995. The lyrics follow the tradition laid by Bob Marley back in Zimbabwe, very concerned with the society the artist is living and the problem of the world. Alpha blondy, a native from Cote d’Ivoire, release an album in 1986, with virulent title like “Apartheid is Nazism” asking for US intervention to stop apartheid in south Africa..

The music of the independence, like highlife and rumba Congolese have further inspire and give rise to new local musical genre that are well entering into the 21st century. Ndombolo is derived from the soukous. It is a fast paced soukous. In contrast to the Congolese Rumba which has its origin in the fusion of musical form, the Ndombolo has its origin in the dance of the same name the Ndombolo (“The Gorilla dance”). The dance was started as a satyr of the late regime of Congolese president L. D. Kabilla and soon became a continental craze. It is promoted by lead singers like Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabele, Koffi Olomide and group like Extra Musica and Wenge Musica among others.

In Cote d’Ivoire, during the political riots of the 1990s, a new musical genre will emerge with roots in the urban and the local youth culture, the zouglou. Its musical genre originate from small groups of youth that performed during social get together events like football(soccer) competition. They used traditional percussive style, especially the Bete people of Cote d’Ivoire style of Alloucou. Thes groups will grew up to form band, and borrow some elements from the Congolese popular music. Zouglou lyrics heavily emphasize humor, wordplay, and sharp social commentary. This genre, which was promoted by bands like Les garagistes, Magic System, Soum Bill among others will soon inspire other genres. The now famous coupe-decalle, the mapouka and the gnakpa are all spring out of the Zouglou and can be eard throughout Africa.

The global movement of world music is also present in Africa. It is made up of musicians who are experimenting with a wider usage of African musical composition and instrument mixed with foreign style of music. Manu Dibengo, jazz composer from Cameroon is one of the longest proponents of the fusion of African and foreign style of music. He is well known for his “Africanized” jazz composition since the 1960s. He will be renowned worldwide with its album “Soul Makossa” in 1972. Renown vocalist Cesaria Evora is from the Cap verd. She has popularized to the global scene a traditional musical genre of Cap verd, the Morna. She receive the grammy Awards of best World music album in 2003 for her album Voz Amor.

Influence on 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 along with his own lyrics.

As the rise of rock'n'roll music is often credited as having begun with 1940s blues music, 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 contemporary music.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• LEXIQUE DE LA SAPE: UN OUTIL CONSTRUIT DANS LE CADRE D’UNE ÉTUDE ANTHROPOLOGIQUE

T Hanon

• Africa: The Rise of African Hip Hop

Msia Kibona Clark Washington, DC Fela: The Life & Times of an African Musical Icon By Michael E. Veal

• African folklore: an encyclopedia

By Philip M. Peek, Kwesi Yankah

• Playing With Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa - Page 98

by Mai Palmberg, Annemette Kirkegaard

• Music is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music - Page 147

by Frank Tenaille

• Tracey, Hugh. (1961). The evolution of African music and its function in the present day. Johannesburg: Institute for the Study of Man in Africa.
• Lomax, Alan: Folk song style and culture. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Publication No. 88, Washingthon 1968.
• Lomax, Alan, Bertenieff, Irmgaard, Paulay, Forrestine: Choreometrics: a method for the study or cross-cultural pattern in film. Research Film, Vol 6, No. 6, Göttingen 1969.
• Koetting, James T (1992). "Africa/Ghana", Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, Second edition, New York: Schirmer Books, 67-104. ISBN 0-02-872602-2. 
• Kubik, Gerhard Zum Verstehen Afrikanischer Musik, Aufsätze, Reihe: Ethnologie: Forschung und Wissenschaft, Bd. 7, 2., aktualisierte und ergänzte Auflage, 2004, 448 S., ISBN 3-8258-7800-7 (in German language)
• Simon, Artur (Ed.), "Musik in Afrika", (Staatliche Museen) Berlin 1983 (in German language)
• Bender, Wolfgang: Sweet Mother - Moderne afrikanische Musik, 1985, Trickster Verlag, München. ISBN 3-923804-10-5 (in German language)

External links

• MUSIC IN OUR WORLD HTTP://TRUMPET.SDSU.EDU/M345/AFRICAN_MUSIC1.HTML
• African Popular Music: Evolution and Diversity
• African Music
• A collection of contemporary & classic African Music videos
• A glossary of African music styles
• International Library of African Music at Rhodes University Department of Music And Musicology
• Rhythms of the Continent (BBC)
• Some African musical instruments
• East African music

{Sources|215644249}