2018 FINE ARTS PENTATHLON

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

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.