Abstract
Several hints have been given in the last chapter concerning the vigorous, dynamic, outgoing nature of Central African musical expression. In specific terms, how uniform is this character and what does it mean? Do broad-leaped melodies, belligerent rhythms, and volcanic performance mark all tribal music? Furthermore, what does musical organization here signify in terms of pristine simplicity and sophisticated complexity, and what bearing, if any, does organization level have upon the leaping musical temperament?
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Notes
E. M. von Hornbostel, “African Negro Music,” International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Memorandum 4 (1928), p. 52.
K. P. Wachsmann, “A Study of Norms in the Tribal Music of Uganda,” Ethnomusicology, Jr. of the Society for Ethnomusicology, I, 11 (Sept. 1957), pp. 9–16.
Loose-log xylophones without resonators are the instruments of the Belgian Congo and Uganda transcriptions. A root name for the fixed-log xylophone of the Belgian Congo is malimba or madimba, for the free-log xylophone of the north Belgian Congo, padingbwa; the Uganda xylophone is called madinda (among the Baganda). See Olga Boone, “Les Xylophones du Congo Belge,” Annales du Musée du Congo Belge, Ter-vueren. Ethnographie, Série III, Tome III, Fasc. 2 (1936), p. 97 f; also, M. Trowell and K.P. Wachsmann, Tribal Crafts of Uganda, p. 317.
The term “syncopation” has also been used by the present author elsewhere in a second sense, i.e., with reference to additive music with its alternation of unequal beats. However, the first and more basic definition of syncopation — as an “upbeat” phenomenon — is the one adopted for the present work. Cf. Rose Brandel, “Music of the Giants and the Pygmies of the Belgian Congo,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, V (1952), pp. 16–28.
Rose Brandel, “The Music of African Circumcision Rituals,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, VII (1954). pp. 52–62.
Arthur M. Jones emphasizes the idea of “staggered points of entry” in “African Rhythm,” Africa, XXIV (1954). pp. 26–47.
In addition to examples to be given above, parallel thirds appear in examples by George Herzog (Angola) and W. Heinitz (Tanganyika). See Herzog in Wilfrid Hambly, “The Ovimbundu of Angola,” Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, XXI (1934), pp. 217–223.
W. Heinitz, “Zwei Phonogramme aus Rutenganyo,” Vox, XXII (Dec. 1936), pp. 50–56.
A. M. Jones in “East and West, North and South,” African Music, I, 1 (1954), p. 60.
Erich M. von Hornbostel, “Wanyamwezi-Gesänge,” Anthropos, IV (1909), pp. 781–800, 1033-1052. (See particularly, Exx. 3 and 7.) Also see transcriptions in P. H. Molitor, “Nègres de Tanganyika,” Ex. 17, p. 725, and Ex. 28, p. 730.
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Brandel, R. (1973). The Music. In: The Music of Central Africa: An Ethnomusicological Study . Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7396-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7396-2_4
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