The Music of Central Africa

One.- I. Introduction: Geographical, cultural, and language areas outlined.- II. The Music and Some Preliminary Considerations.- Terminology defined: “primitive,” “simple,” “complex,” “high civilization”.- Harmony: parallel thirds as precursors of functional harmony; comparison with protoharmony of European gymel and European folk music; chronology of intervals of third, fourth, fifth.- Rhythm: misconceptions concerning African rhythm; the African hemiola style and its relationship to the traditional European hemiola; relationship to additive rhythms of Orient; Western offbeat syncopation versus the African hemiola style.- Scale Make-up and Terminology: “diatonic” as indicating a scale comprising only tones and semitones; “chasmatonic” as indicating a scale comprising one or more intervals greater than a tone; “pentatonic” as a special species of chasmatonic, within the octave span.- Antiphonal and Responsorial Singing: clarification of terminology.- Names of Instruments: the significance of similar names in different areas.- III. Musical Ethnology of Central Africa.- Music for the Ceremonial: healing; initiation (puberty circumcision, secret society, royal); birth; marriage; hunting; new year and new moon.- The Work Song.- Music for Entertainment: group participation; professionalism.- Music for Litigation: vocal music as a vehicle for criticism and airing of grievances.- The Dance: realistic, entrovert versus abstract, introvert.- Speech Melody and the “Talking” Drum.- IV. The Music—Analysis and Discussion.- Melody Types (diatonic, chasmatonic, short-lined, long-lined): one- or two-step nucleus; descending tetrachord; rising pentachord fanfare; hexachord; minor seventh with tritone effect; octave (descending and ascending; zig-zag thirds); supra-octave ladder of thirds; non-tempered intervals.- Rhythm: the African hemiola style; horizontal hemiola (close-paced; sectional); vertical hemiola (instrumental, vocal, vocal-instrumental); tempo (rapid gamut).- Polyphony and Form: parallelism (thirds, fourths, fifths); overlapping antiphonal and responsorial singing (canon at fifth and at unison; elongated cadence); ostinato and drone-ostinato; contrapuntal movement (dual- or triple-melody type; interjection-variation type); “hanging chords”; combination of polyphonic devices; raised “leading-tone”; litany form; rondo form; sequence or lai form; development in melody or in overall form.- V. Singing Style.- Problem of Identifying Factors Comprising a Vocal Style: structure of music; voice-production components.- Physio-Acoustical Terms Defined: registration (use of the two groups of muscles, arytenoid and thyroid, controlling the vocal cords); upper register (timbre resulting from the functioning of the arytenoid group of muscles); lower register (timbre resulting from the functioning of the thyroid group of muscles); isolated register (timbre resulting from the functioning of one group of laryngeal muscles without the other); resonance (amplification of sound in a tuned cavity, notably the pharynx).- African Female Singing: combined registration with lower register predominating; high intensities; lower pitch range; result equals typical stridency of low register at maximum.- African Male Singing: combined registration with upper register predominating; high intensities; upper pitch range; result equals typical hoarse-guttural “tenor” quality of upper register at maximum.- Gutturalness: especially in men’s voices; resulting from upper register at high intensity, from pressure of neck constrictor-muscles on larynx, and from tongue hyoid-muscle pressed towards rear of oral pharynx.- Resonance: non-pharyngeal; mouth resonance (in both men and women).- Absence of Vibrato: occasional tremolo.- Emphatic, Outdoor, Group Style: shouting and screaming; dynamic and timbre accents (points of excessive breathiness, gutturalness, nasality).- Ornaments: not common except in Arab-style singing; different-pitched and same-pitched grace note before the beat; “Scotch-snap”; mordent; double-mordent; note-clusters between two tones; double grace-notes before beat.- Special Effects: yodelling; humming; Sprechstimme; hocket; glissando; whistling; drum duplication of vocal melody.- Syllabic, Non-melismatic Style.- VI. Conclusion.- Possibility of “Musical Map”: common, widespread style elements; sporadic elements.- Symmetry and Asymmetry in Central African Art Forms.- Two.- Preface to Transcriptions Transcriptions.- 1. Mangbetu choral song.- 2. Babira choral song.- 3. Babira choral song.- 4. Babira circumcision drums.- 5. Babira circumcision dance.- 6. Babira circumcision dance.- 7. Bapere circumcision dance.- 8. Bapere circumcision bird.- 9. Bapere circumcision flagellation.- 10. Bapere horns (Cent-Frequency Chart 1).- 11. Baperex ylophone (Cent-Frequency Chart 2).- 12. Mambuti Pygmies elephant feast.- 13. Mambuti Pygmies dance; flutes and drum (Cent-Frequency Chart 3).- 14. Mambuti Pygmies hunting song.- 15. Batwa Pygmies dance.- 16. Batwa Pygmies dance.- 17. Bahutu dance.- 18. Watutsi royal drums.- 19. Watutsi royal drums.- 20. Watutsi epic song of war.- 21. Watutsi epic song of war.- 22. Babunda new year song.- 23. Bambala drum telegraphy.- 24. Baya dance.- 25. Mboko mouth bow (Cent-Frequency Chart 4).- 26. Mboko riddle song; zither (Cent-Frequency Chart 5).- 27. Porno perambulating song.- 28. N’Gundi humorous love song; sanza (Cent-Frequency Chart 6).- 29. N’Gundi song.- 30. Babinga Pygmies elephant-hunt ritual.- 31. Babinga Pygmies social dance.- 32. Yaswa xylophones (Cent-Frequency Chart 7).- 33. Kukuya ivory horns (Cent-Frequency Chart 8).- 34. Kuyu shaman’s alligator-song; horn (Cent-Frequency Chart 9).- 35. Kuyu birth-of-twins dance.- 36. Bongili banana work song.- 37. Baduma paddlers’ song.- 38. Baduma paddlers’ song; sanza (Cent-Frequency Chart 10).- 39. Okandi women’s dance.- 40. Banyoro xylophone (Cent-Frequency Chart 11).- 41. Banyoro royal horns (Cent-Frequency Chart 12).- 42. Batoro dance.- 43. Bamba flutes (Cent-Frequency Chart 13).- 44. Baganda historic song; harp (Cent-Frequency Chart 14).- 45. Baganda historic song.- 46. Baganda royal xylophones (Cent-Frequency Chart 15).- 47. Wasukuma wedding song.- 48. Wanyamwezi chief installation.- 49. Wanyamwezi wedding tune on sanza (Cent-Frequency Chart 16).- 50. Wachaga chief-praise song.- 51. Wameru spell-breaking party song.- 52. Wahehe elephant hunting song.- Melody Type Chart.- Cent-Frequency Charts.- 1. Bapere horns.- 2. Bapere xylophone.- 3. Mambuti flutes.- 4. Mboko mouth bow.- 5. Mboko zither.- 6. N’Gundi sanza.- 7. Yaswa xylophones.- 8. Kukuya horns.- 9. Kuyu horn.- 10. Baduma sanza.- 11. Banyoro xylophone.- 12. Banyoro royal horns.- 13. Bamba flutes.- 14. Baganda harp.- 15. Baganda royal xylophones.- 16. Wanyamwezi sanza.- Numerical-Territorial Index of Transcriptions.- Tribal Index.- Index-Glossary.- Illustrations following.