Everything about Music Of Africa totally explained
The
music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continent's many
regions,
nations and
ethnic groups. Although there's no distinctly pan-African music, there are common forms of musical expression, especially within
regions.
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.
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.
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).
Relationship to dance
The treatment of "music" and "dance" as separate art forms is a European idea. In many African languages there's no concept corresponding exactly to these terms. For example, in many Bantu languages, there's 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's 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.
Traditional music
A lot of African
traditional music is or was performed by professional musicians. Some of it's belong to
court music or
sacral music traditions, therefore the term "folk" music isn't always appropriate. Nevertheless, both the terms "folk music" and "traditional music" can be found in the literature.
Sub-Saharan 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
childbirth,
marriage,
hunting, and even political activities.fact|date=November 2007}}.
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 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.
Further Information
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