LISTENING SELECTIONS
WEST AFRICA (Mali, Guinea)
Mande society refer to artisans as Jeli or Jali or Griot: They guarded the musical and oral traditions, this was a hereditary position.
- "Konkoba" performed by Toumani Diabate (Diabate's father was Sidiki and he was a jeli)
Video of Diabate with his father Sidike playing the Kora
Toumani has won two Grammy awards and nominated three other times.
First album released in 1988
Disclaimer on the album that he was a soloist on the album
Konkoba (song) is on the album Kaira, which uses the Kora
Very dense - many things going on musically
Not dance music, meant for listening
2. Second selection from West Africa (Wasulu)
Oumou Sangare, "Moussolou"
Remember: "Oumou is Wasulu and sings "Moussolou"
Oumou Sangare is the most well-known star of the new wassoulou sound and the kamalengoni is its base.
- She recorded for Oprah Winfrey's Beloved and with Alicia Keys. She won a Grammy for the Imagine album in 2012 collaborating with Herbie Hancok,Pink, Seal, and India Arie.
- She sings about the rolls of women instead of the traditional Griots perspective of singing about patrons and political leaders.
- The Kora is a modern version of a much older harp, the Hunters' Harp played on the West African savanna.
- The Kora's origin is the sounds made by a bow and arrow and then they attached a calabash to amplify the sound.
- The Wasulu region is in Southern Mali and is the home to the musical style called the Wassoulou.
- The use the Donso Ngoni (hunters' harp) associated with powerful spirits and the living and the dead and reserved for brave souls entering the bush to hunt - hence the name hunters' harp.
- The lighter harp is called a kalengonima. Women began using it in the 1980s
EAST AFRICA (Buganda or Unganda)
Bu: Place -Buganda
Lu: Language - Lunganda
Mu: Person Me Muganda
Ki: Adjective Kiganda
Bugandan Royal Court and the use of the xylophone.
Entaala is the the xylophone played in the court.
Amadina: is the xylophone played outside of the court.
MADE FROM BANANA TREES
John Speke was looking for source of the Nile and was the first to document the amadina. He was the first to reach Lake Victoria and visit the Buganda Court.
Listening Example 3 Kalagal Ebwembe
Recorded by Hugh Tracey in 1952 in the Buganda Court
Amadinda is played by three musicians with well defined rolls - no improvisation is allowed.
3 Parts:
1. Omunzi: starts the piece
2. Omwawuzi: interlocks the pieces
3. Omukoonezi: Plays only the top two slats of the amadinda to create the "binder pattern"
Central Africa
Forest Pygmy People of the Congo Basin
Southern Africa: Shona (Zimbabwe) the use of the mbira
mbira dzavadzimu (of the ancestors)
Many male isicathamiya choral groups formed in South Africa from the 1930's on with competitions in schools, hostels in Johannesburg and Durban who competed against each other.
Forest Pygmy People of the Congo Basin
- Largest group of hunter-gatherers in the world
- fifteen ethnolinguistic groups and population of 250-300,000
- "Pygmy" comes from ancient Greece used by Homer writing the Illiad to refer to the mythical race of short people.
- They are always on the move and have few instruments, rely on vocables - their voices.
Listening Example 4 "Hindewhu Solo" from the BaBenzele pygmies
- Hindewhu is onomatopoeia for the sound of the whistle and the singing
- Flute is from a papaya twig
- Herbie Hancock's group recreated it in their 1973 recording of "Watermelon Man" on the album "Head Hunter" and uses four beats instead of three.
- Uses off-beat phrasing and polyrhythmic conception.
Listening Example 5 "Song of Rejoicing after Returning from a Hunt" This is NOT exactly the same track from your listening guide.
- Effects of deforestation, global warming and environmental devastation caused by mining have made such celebrations rare.
Southern Africa: Shona (Zimbabwe) the use of the mbira
mbira dzavadzimu (of the ancestors)
This is a mbira which belongs to the family of lamellophones (they are also called kalimbas, sanzas or thumb pianos) They have 8 -50 keys.
The Shona mbira is heptatonic -7 tones to an octave. It's played with both thumbs.
If played in pairs, the lead is called the kushaura and the second part is the kitsinhira
Listening Example 6: Cosmas Alexia and Simon Magaya playing "Nmemamusasa"
Not exactly the same version as in your Pentathlon guide
- The recording opens with "Kushaura" or lead part -the lowest melody line.
- The bass is what stands out
- Very dense polyrythm
- Hosho is a gourd rattle - creates a buzzing sound which can also be made from using bottle caps.
Listening sample 7: Beauler Dyoko and Cosmas Magaya, "Nhemamausasa"
- Women didn't traditionally play the mbira
- Beauler Dyoko did but passed away in 2013
- She played this recording with Cosmas Magaya, same artist from the previous sample 40 years earlier
- The hosho (gourd rattle) keeps the ternary beat
- Huro= high yodeling
- Mahon'era=low riffing style using vocables
- Kudeketera = poetry of Shona life - appealing to ancestors and praising one's family and making political statements
Zulu (Republic of South Africa)
Isicathamiya (All-Male Choral Music)
- Zulu people are from South Africa (think Nelson Mandela)
- Isacathamiya is a mix of Zulu wedding song, European harmony, Christian missionary contact and influences from jubilee and minstrel troupes from the US.
- "Mbube" (Lion) was composed by Solomon Linda and recorded by the Evening Birds in 1939.
- Isacthamiya means Step Lightly
- Pete Seeger recorded a version with his group the Weavers in 1952 called "Wimowe" after mishearing it in the Zulu language.
- In 1961 The Tokens who learned it from the Weavers released a version called "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which went to #1 on the charts.
- It was featured in the 1994 Disney film "The Lion King"
- Soloman Linda had sold his song without a proper contract and didn't collect the millions of dollars in royalties until an expose in Rolling Stone in 2002 enabled Linda's family to recoup some of the royalties.
Original Solomon Linda with the Evening Birds "Mbube" (Lion) in 1939
Many male isicathamiya choral groups formed in South Africa from the 1930's on with competitions in schools, hostels in Johannesburg and Durban who competed against each other.
North Africa - Egypt
Umm Kuthum (Oum Kalsoum)
- Umm Kuthum was the most well-known singer int eh Arab world in the 20th Century
- She was born in 1905 in a small village in the Egyptian Nile delta region and began performing at the age of 5.
- She learned to recite the Quran, the Islamic Holy book.
- She was in 7 films and recorded 300 songs
- Legendary monthly Thursday night radio broadcasts were heard all over the world for almost 40 years
- Her funeral in 1975 drew 4 million mourners
- Her music was rooted in improvisatory recitation of the Quran and she infused poetry with TARAB - Arabic for enchantment which was the ultimate goal of a performance.
Listening sample 9 Umm Kulthum "El Ward Gamil"
- "El Ward Gamil" is from her final film, Fatma
- Monophony marks typical Arabic music
- 12 divisions in an octave in Arabic music
- Read the verses on page 44
"Sai Kassa Kwassa" By Kanda Bongo Man - Congolese Rumba
"N Dobine" by Youssou N'Dour Senegalese Mbalax
"Jarabi" by Eliades Ochoa and Diabati Toumani example of AfroCubism
Jarabi means passion.
Fela Kuti's "Zombie" example of Afrobeat
Obrafour's "Kwame Nkrumah"
"Pata Pata" by Miriam Makeba
Ladysmith Black Mambazo "Mbube"
Keita's "Tekerer"