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About African Music
Musical Style and Instruments
African music has certain distinctive traits. One is the use of repetition as an organizing principle. 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. Another common characteristic is polyphony, the simultaneous combination of several distinct musical parts. African music also has a conversational quality, in which different voices, instrumental parts, or even the parts of a single player are brought into lively exchange.
In West Africa, drum ensembles consisting of three to five musicians who play interlocking patterns are common. In the akadinda xylophone music of the Baganda, two groups of three players each face one another across one xylophone. The first group plays a repeated pattern in octaves, and the second group fills in the missing beats with an interlocking pattern. Among the southern African peoples, polyphony is most highly developed in vocal music. In traditional Zulu choral music, individual voices enter at different points in a continuous cycle, constantly overlapping each other.
Drums are among the more popular African instruments, but other important percussion instruments include clap-sticks, bells, rattles, slit gongs, struck gourds and clay pots, stamping tubes, and xylophones. African stringed instruments include the musical bow, lute, lyre, harp, and zither. The flute, whistle, oboe, and trumpet are among the African wind instruments.
African Music in Society
Professional musicians served as historians in the African kingdoms that developed from the 10th century to the 20th century. Among the Mande people of western Africa, professional bards still recount the histories of powerful families and advise contemporary rulers. Music in African societies is a medium for the transmission of knowledge and values and for celebrating communal and personal events. Accordingly, important stages of an African person's life are often marked with music. There are lullabies, children's game songs, and music for adolescent initiation rites, weddings, title-taking ceremonies, funerals, and ceremonies for ancestors.
In many African religions, sound is thought to be one of the primary means by which deities and humans impose order on the universe. In West Africa, drummers play a crucial role in possession-trance ceremonies, in which the gods enter the bodies of devotees. A drummer must know specific rhythms for particular gods and be able to regulate the flow of supernatural power in ritual contexts. Music is also used to organize work activities. The pygmy societies of the central rain forest use singing and vocal cries to coordinate during hunting.
Popular Music
African popular music is a blend of African, European, African American, and Middle Eastern musical traditions. In most parts of Africa, popular music was pioneered by workers drawn into expanding colonial economies during the early 20th century. The most influential style of popular music within Africa is Congolese guitar band music, also known as soukous, which developed in the towns of central Africa. South Africa is home to mbaqanga, a popular form of dance music that developed in the segregated black townships created under apartheid. The Zulu male choral style isicathamiya draws upon traditionalwedding songs, African American choral styles, and Wesleyan church hymns.
Dance
African dance is associated with both sacred and secular events, and it plays a crucial role in education, work, entertainment, politics, and ritual. Common African dance patterns include team dances using formalized patterns, such as straight lines or circular formations; group dances that allow individuals to emerge and display their skills; and solo dances.
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