Information about Music Of Africa
)
Hand drumming is significant throughtout Africa
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 (many Caribbean and Latin American music genres like rumba and salsa, as well as African American music) were founded to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken there by African slaves.
Rhythmic complexity
Sub-Saharan music has as its special feature a rhythmic music that has spread to other regions, especially to the Americans. The unique way of African polyrhythm is the distinguishing coherence of the African rhythmic pattern.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 different types of drums are often called engoma or ngoma in Central and Southern Africa.
During colonial times, European instruments such as saxophones, trumpets, and guitars were adopted by many African musicians; their sounds were integrated into the traditional patterns and are widely used in African popular music.
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 Bold textor texts in the music. This effect also forms the basis of drum languages (talking drums).Relationship to dance
)
An African woman, wearing native garments, performs during a visit from participants in the West Africa Training Cruise 1983.
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.
Traditional music
A lot of African traditional music is or was performed by professional musicians. Some of it is belong to court music or sacral music traditions, therefore the term "folk" music is not always appropriate. Nevertheless, both the terms "folk music" and "traditional music" can be found in the literature.African folk music and traditional music is mostly functional in nature. There are, for example, many different kinds of work songs, ceremonial or religious music and courtly music performed at royal courts, but none of these are performed outside of their intended social context.
Music is highly functional in African ethnic life, accompanying birth, marriage, hunting, and even political activities. Similarities with other cultures, particularly Indian and Middle Eastern, can be ascribed primarily to the spread of Islam.
Popular music
- For more details on this topic, see African popular music
Influence in 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, to some extent, 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.
See also
- Paul Berliner
- Gerhard Kubik
- International Library of African Music
- Ashenafi Kebede
- African popular music
References
- 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
- African Music
- 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
Music of Africa | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign states | Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Cte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda So Tom and Prncipe Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe |
| Dependencies and other territories | Canary Islands Ceuta Mayotte Melilla Puntland Runion St. Helena Socotra Somaliland Western Sahara |
The continent of Africa can be conceptually subdivided into a number of regions or subregions.
..... Click the link for more information.
Directional approach
One common approach categorises Africa directionally, e.g...... Click the link for more information.
The Horn of Africa (alternatively Northeast Africa, and sometimes Somali Peninsula) is a peninsula of East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Horn of Africa (alternatively Northeast Africa, and sometimes Somali Peninsula) is a peninsula of East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easternmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The music of the Middle Eastern and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Iran, and it's influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced (and has been influenced by) the to music of Greece and India music, as well as Central Asia,
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
African diaspora is the diaspora created by the movements and cultures of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, to places such as the Americas, (including the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America) Europe and Asia.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The music of the Caribbean is a diverse grouping of musical genres. They are each syntheses of African, European, Indian and native influences. Some of the styles to gain wide popularity outside of the Caribbean include reggae, zouk, salsa and calypso.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Latin American music, sometimes simply called Latin music, includes the music of all countries in Latin America and comes in many varieties, from the simple, rural conjunto music of northern Mexico to the sophisticated habanera of Cuba, from the symphonies of Heitor
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Rumba is an adult only type of music rhythms and dance styles that originated in Africa and were introduced to Cuba and the New World by African slaves. Rumba may refer to:
..... Click the link for more information.
Music and dance
..... Click the link for more information.
Salsa music or "salsa" is a Latin music generic/umbrella term developed in New York City specifically during the 1970s that was used to describe mainly Afro-Cuban popular Latin dance music generally utilizing rhythms from Cuba, particularly son and guaracha.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
African American music (also called black music, formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of music and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
123456 and 123456). However this is only useful for very simple polyrhythms, or for getting a feel for more complex ones, as the total number of beats rises quickly.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
In music, melisma (commonly known as vocal runs or simply runs) is the technique of changing the note (pitch) of a single syllable of text while it is being sung.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Yodeling (or yodelling, jodeling) is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal chest register (or "chest voice") to the head register (or "head voice"), making a high-low-high-low sound.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle anything that, produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a person playing it, can serve as a musical instrument.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The drum is a member of the percussion group that can be large, technically classified as a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Slit gong, sometimes also called "slit drum", is a log drum used throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. It is usually called a boungu in Africa. A whole log is hollowed out through a narrow slit running the length of the log.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Rattle may mean:
..... Click the link for more information.
- Rattle (percussion)
- Bird-scaring rattle, a Slovene device used to drive birds off vineyards and a folk instrument
- Football rattle, a noisy version of the ratchet for showing approval, used by sports fans.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Gankoqui (or Gonkoque) is a West African musical instrument, usually made of iron. It is a type of double bell, one pitched higher than the other, and is played with a stick.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
musical bow is a simple string musical instrument consisting of a string supported by a flexible string bearer, usually made out of wood. Often, it is a normal archery bow used for music rather than as a weapon.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a forepillar; those lacking the forepillar are referred to as
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Headline text
The kora is a 21-string harp-lute used extensively by peoples in West Africa.Description
A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge like a lute or guitar...... Click the link for more information.
fiddle refers to a violin when used in folk music. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music. Fiddle playing, or fiddling, is a style of music.
..... Click the link for more information.
Violin vs.
..... Click the link for more information.
xylophone (from the Greek meaning 'wooden sound') is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Indonesia. [1] It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lamellophone (also spelled "Lamellaphone"), also referred to as linguaphone (from "tongue", i.e. a long thin plate that is fixed only at one end) describes any of a family of musical instruments.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
mbira is a musical instrument consisting of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a deze that functions as a resonator. Mbira performances are usually accompanied by hosho.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge, instead of using a reed.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
trumpet is a musical instrument in the brass family. The trumpet has the highest register in the brass section; a standard B flat trumpet has a range comparable to the B flat cornet, a piccolo trumpet is an octave higher.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus
