African Music Vol 2 No 3(Seb)

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

African Music Vol 2 No 3(Seb) THE FOLLOWING BOOKS AND DISCS ARE AT PRESENT AVAILABLE AT THE SOCIETY’S HEADQUARTERS Price A fric a n D ances o f the W itwatersrand G old M ines 20/- by Hugh Tracey, illustrated with 120 photographs. Pub- (plus 9d. postage and packing) lished by the African Music Society, 1952. This is a book that everyone who attends an inter-tribal dance in the Gold Mine compounds will want to possess. An ideal gift book recommended by the Society. C hopi M u sicia n s (Their Music, Poetry and Instruments) 19/- by Hugh Tracey. Oxford University Press, 1948. (plus 9d. postage and packing) T he I c ila D ance—O ld Style (A description of drum and dance 8/6 rhythm) by Rev. A. M. Jones and L. Kombe. Published (plus 6d. postage and packing) by Longmans, Green and Co. for the African Music Society, 1952. L alela Z ulu, 100 Z ulu L y ric s 12/6 by Hugh Tracey, with illustrations by Eric Byrd. Pub- (plus 6d. postage and packing) lished by the African Music Society, 1948. A charming gift book, attractively illustrated. Recommended by the Society. N ew sletters and J ournals of th e A frica n M usic S ociety Newsletters, 1948-1953 5/- each Journals: Vol. I, Nos. 1-4 10/6 each Vol. II, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 15/- each N goma (An introduction to music for Southern Africans) by Hugh 9/6 Tracey. Longmans, Green and Co., 1948 (plus 9d. postage and packing) Y oruba M usic 7/6 A monograph by the African organist of Lagos Cathedral, (plus 9d. postage and packing) T. K. E. Phillips. Published by the African Music Society, 1952. RECORDINGS OF AFRICAN MUSIC S ound of A fr ic a Series. Eighty 12" discs, with full card index system, covering six territories in Southern Africa, with the music of over forty tribes, as enumerated in “African Music” Vol. 2, No. 1................................................................ 56/6 each (postage extra) M usic of A f r ic a Series. Selections of music from Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Congo, Ruanda-Urundi, the Rhodesias and Nyasaland, Mogambiquc, South Africa, and African Stories. 10" d i s c s .............................................................. 25/- each 12" d i s c s .............................................................. 38/6 each (postage extra) Please address your orders for catalogues, discs or books to: T he H on. S ecretary, A fric a n M usic S ociety, P.O. Box 138, R oodepoort, T ran svaal, S outh A frica At the present rate of exchange 1 dollar (U.S.) can be taken as 7 shillings. One South African Rand, of 100 cents, is equivalent to 10/- sterling. ALL PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE THE APPROXIMATE ORIGIN OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS JOURNAL ARTICLES 2 . T h e S t a n d a r d P a t t e r n i n Y o r ­ by Anthony King . P a g e 5 1 u b a M u s i c .... Nigeria 5 . K i g a n d a X y l o p h o n e M u s i c by Gerhard Kubik 6 Uganda 6. K a m b a C a r v e r s by Andrew Tracey 5 5 Kenya 8 . T h e M u s i c o f M y P e o p l e . by Agrippa M. Njungu . 4 8 Northern Rhodesia 9 . H y m n s o f t h e W a b v u w i by Robert Kauffman 3 1 Southern Rhodesia REVIEWS, ETC. 1 . Founders’ Dav in Ghana 3 . Celebration Dancing in Nigeria . by Mercedes Mackay 8 2 Ghana, Nigeria 4 . Natale Natale 0. by Father F. Giorgietti . 7 9 Sudan 7 . Letter . frotn Fr. Ch. v. Rijthoven 7 4 Northern Rhodesia 10. Letter ..... from Dr. The Rev. Brother Basil 7 3 Basutoland.
Recommended publications
  • RAFOC REMINISCENCES and RAMBLINGS - WEEK 62 – 11Th JUNE 2021
    ROYAL AIR FORCE OFFICERS’ CLUB Johannesburg P.O. Box 69726 BRYANSTON 2021 [email protected] www.rafoc.org President: David MacKinnon-Little Vice Presidents: Basil Hersov, Colin Francis, Geoff Quick, David Lake Chairman: Bruce Harrison [email protected] Tel: 011 673 0291 Cell: 083 325 0025 Vice Chairman: Jon Adams [email protected] Tel: 011 678 7702 Cell: 082 450 0616 Hon. Secretary: Colin Ackroyd Tel: 012 942 1111 Cell: 082 800 5845 Hon. Treasurer: Jeff Earle Tel: 011 616 3189 Cell: 083 652 1002 Committee Members: Russell Swanborough Tel: 011 884 2611 Cell: 083 263 2740 Karl Jensen Tel: 011 234 0598 Cell: 082 331 4652 Jean-Michel Girard Cell: 083 659 1067 Geoff Fish Tel: 012 667 2759 Cell: 083 660 9697 Web Master: Hanke Fourie Tel: Cell: 082 553 0210 Bank Account: Nedbank - Melrose Arch Br: 19 66 05 Account 19 66 278 063 RAFOC REMINISCENCES AND RAMBLINGS - WEEK 62 – 11th JUNE 2021 GREETINGS: Day 442... More snow on the Berg, extended Eskom load-shedding and water cuts continue in many residential areas... Eskom denies secretly launching stage 6 load-shedding... Ramaphosa places health minister Zweli Mkhize on special leave... Massive increase in criminals trying to steal your identity in South Africa... more than half of all South Africans (36 million) benefitting from government grants in some manner. South Africa’s shrinking tax base is too strained to fund the NHI experts say... Wildlife, bribery and cigarettes part of latest Op Corona successes... Hmm... Rassie upbeat about the 45-man Springbok squad announced for the three-Test series against the British Lions in South Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Interview with Diane Thram by Meredith Holmgren, in Conversation with Diane Thram
    Spring 2014 Interview with Diane Thram by Meredith Holmgren, in conversation with Diane Thram The International Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, is widely considered to be the oldest and largest repository of African music field recordings in the world. Founded in 1954 by Hugh Tracey as a research institution and archive, it preserves thousands of historical recordings going back to 1929 and continues to support contemporary fieldwork. Among its most renowned recordings is Hugh Tracey’s seminal Sound of Africa series—selections of which are available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings—which remains among the most influential fieldwork in the field of African ethnomusicology. Smithsonian Folkways Magazine editor Meredith Holmgren corresponded with ILAM’s director Diane Thram about their impressive collections and projects. The following represents an abbreviated, edited version of the conversation. ***** MH: What are the main collections at the International Library of African Music (ILAM)? DT: ILAM’s major holding is the Hugh Tracey collection, but other holdings include the Andrew Tracey collection and Dave Dargie collection... We’ve recently processed Jaco Kruger’s field collection, which includes extensive research on Venda music, from the northern part of South Africa. And [we have] another collection from a sociologist here at Rhodes University [Michael Drewett] who did a lot of research on the censorship of popular music during apartheid. His field recordings are being processed now and digitized. It’s an ongoing thing. We receive deposits from researchers doing work with African music and one of our aims is to build the archive.
    [Show full text]
  • African Music African Music
    ILAM’s Journal AFRICAN MUSIC AFRICAN MUSIC Volume 8, Number 4 - 2010 Available October 2010 SUBSCRIBE NOW! International Library of African Music (1LAM), Rhodes University, South Africa Founded in 1954 by Hugh Tracey Website: www.ilam.ru.ac.za African Music is a peer reviewed journal published annually. It includes a full length CD compilation. PLACE SUBSCRIPTIONS by returning this form via E-mail: [email protected] print it and return via FAX: 27^0)46-622-4411 send via regular mail: ILAM, Rhodes University, Box 94, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa Annual Subscription Rates Institutional $75.00 + $5.00 shipping and handling €64.00 + €3.00 shipping and handling £44.00 + £2.00 shipping and handling R400.00 + R20.00 shipping and handling Individual $37.00 + $5.00 shipping and handling €32.00 + €3.00 shipping and handling £22.00 + £2.00 shipping and handling R200.00 + R20.00 shipping and handling PAYMENT DETAILS Surname:__________________________________ First Name:___________________________________ Postal Address:___________________________________________________________________________ City_______________________________ code___________ Country_____________________________ E-Mail:_______________________________Credit Card type: □ Mastercard □ VISA □ Am. Express Credit card no:_________ -__________-__________-__________Expiry date_______ CVC No._______ Historical Recordings by Hugh Tracey SWP Records and the International Library of African Music ILAM Rhodes University PO Box 94 Grahamstown 6140 SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27 046-6038557 Fax: +27
    [Show full text]
  • African Music Vol 5 No 3(Seb).Cdr
    108 AFRICAN MUSIC SOCIETY JOURNAL NEW CATALOGUE THE IISOUND OF AFRICAII SERIES Recorded by Hugh Tracey The International Library of African Music announces the publication of a new catalogue for the first 210 LP. records in its "Sound of Africa" series. The information contained in its own card index system has now been extended and completely recompiled in book form. The book does not outdate the original filing system, which still keeps its usefulness for certain applications, in particular for librarians. lt now presents the relevant information in a more readily accessible form for all who are interested in African music, whether they are professors or students, Africans or Africanists. lt consists of two volumes, of 182 and 479 pages. Volume I comprises a number of completely new indexes, compiling various aspects of the total information under such headings as Instruments, Types of Musical Performance, Instrumental Scales, as well as African Musical Terminology listed under language and under types of musical performance, together with a selection of photographs. General sections are also included which review the history of this collection and the reasons which led to the publication of the "Sound of Africa" recordings. The basic listing in numerical order forms Volume 11. This book is thus something rather more than a catalogue; besides being used as a reference to the largest single collection of recorded African music from Central and Southern Africa, it may also be used as source material on African musical instruments and instrumentation, African terminology, scales and tunings, and types of musical performance. lt is published by the International Library of African Music at $55-00 (US) or R35-00 (SA) plus postage.
    [Show full text]
  • African Music Vol 1 No 3(Seb)
    84 AFRICAN MuSIC SOCIETY JOURNAL sweating in the daytime, getting . hungry when there is only water to drink, thirsty where there is only food to eat, and having thirst and hunger often when~ neithe;, water nor food can be got .••... thus does Dr. Laszlo start his book and in continuing ·he gives an understandable answer. Among the peoples of Portugueie East Africa Dr. Laszlo finds customs, practices, doctors, drums and dances which he tells about in a series of almost unrelated chapters. To those who know other parts of Mrica the tales he tells will be an amplification of tdbal rites which have been found elsewhere. It is perhaps the first word in the title which gives the reader an insight to this book for Dr. Laszlo naturally has a medical approach to most things, particularly to such rites as circumcision and puberty. Very few have been privileged to see many of the t.ribal festivals described in this book, but it is disappointing to find medical details given prominence over. things which would, I feel, have intellectual significance and I would like Dr. Laszlo to add more details of those moving emotional sights he must have seen leading up to and away from the nucleus of the investigation .he h.as reported.. The photographs are poorly reproduced and are disappointing but this is not a book which a serious student should consider as part of his library. Michael Lane. RECORD REVIEWS . Extract from "Nighis at the Round Table" by W. A. Chislett (The Gramophone). In September, 1954, I reviewed a group of Decca records in the Music of Africa series during which I drew attention to awards to be made each year by the Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Musical Form and Social History: Research Perspectives on Black South African Music
    Deborah James Musical form and social history: research perspectives on black South African music Article (Published version) (Refereed) Original citation: James, Deborah (1990) Musical form and social history: research perspectives on black South African music. Radical history review (46/47). pp. 309-319. DOI: 10.1215/01636545-1990-46-47-309 © 1990 Duke University Press This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24684/ Available in LSE Research Online: July 2009 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the published version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Musical Form and Social History: Research Perspectives on Black South African Music Deborah James Recently, audiences in Europe and the United States have responded with great excitement and enthusiasm to black music from southern Africa, especially from South Africa. While this new and unprecedented interest may be a product of growing aware- ness of the injustices and deprivations of apartheid, it must repre- sent an appreciation of the rhythmic and melodic qualities of the music itself.
    [Show full text]
  • African Music Vol 2 No 4(Seb)
    THE GUITAR IMPROVISATIONS OF MWENDA JEAN BOSCO 81 THE GUITAR IMPROVISATIONS OF MWENDA JEAN BOSCO by DAVID RYCROFT Mwenda Jean Bosco’s improvised guitar songs—particularly his Masanga—are by this time widely known and appreciated. This has been due, initially, to the wide circulation of his records after he became one of Hugh Tracey’s “discoveries” and, as a direct result of this, to his popularity as a radio personality in Central and East Africa. This initial article has been confined to consideration of two of Bosco’s earliest re­ corded works, Masanga—both in its guitar-accompanied song version and as a guitar solo—and Bombalaka, a guitar song.2 Attention will be paid to the guitar music rather than to the vocal line. A later article will provide transcriptions of ten more of his works, all of them guitar songs, and attempt a comparative treatment of his style. Hugh Tracey reports first hearing Mwenda Jean Bosco in the streets of Jadotville, Katanga—singing to his own accompaniment—in 1949. He was a Sanga speaker, a language of the Luba group of Bantu languages, but the words of his songs are largely in Kingwana (or “Congo Swahili”, a local lingua franca) with other borrowings, some French, and some as yet unidentified. His instrument was a standard steel-strung “Spanish” guitar of the type marketed far and wide through trading stores. Bosco had apparently had no musical tuition of any kind but was a self-taught guitarist of some three years’ standing. Somehow, he had managed to avoid becoming a mere chord- strummer and had developed his own deft though basically simple melodic “finger style” through which he was able to express African musical ideas and not merely those of the Spanish guitar—which one knows only too well.
    [Show full text]
  • The System of the Mbira
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Rhodes University: Hosted Journals THE SYSTEM OF THE MBIRA by ANDREW TRACEY This is a re-edited and updated version o f the paper presented at the 7th Symposium on Ethnomusicology (Venda University) in 1988, published by ILAM in “Papers presented at the 7th and 8th Symposiums in Ethnomusicology” (1989). It is reproduced here because o f the worldwide interest which has developed in mbira and its system in recent decades. Going up by road to Zimbabwe, I always start to get a thrill of excitement when I get up into the Soutpansberg and look down towards the Limpopo. Not only does the country start to look like Zimbabwe, with the baobab trees, and the Venda language which sounds half Shona, but this is the start of MBIRA COUNTRY. It is the southern boundary of an enormous stretch of Africa from here to the Zambezi and beyond, covering parts of at least seven countries—northern South Africa, eastern Zimbabwe, central and southern Mozambique, southern Malawi, parts of Botswana, Namibia, Angola and possibly further. In short it could be described as the Zambezi basin. Here is where exists a system of music with its own rules, uniquely African, extraordinarily consistent, wonderfully expressive. The system appears in song and in many instruments, but the key is the mbira.1 I discovered mbira through my father, Hugh Tracey. It was his favourite instrument. He first heard a njari mbira in about 1921 when he arrived as a boy among the Shona/ Karanga at Willand Farm, Gutu, near the modern Masvingo.
    [Show full text]
  • ARSC Journal
    124 ARSC Journal difficult to digest, but the practice goes on. This incredible, surreal music can be heard on Rounder Record's Mbube; its development well-documented by scholars such as Veit Erlmann and Dale Cockrell. Siya Hamba is an essential collection which fills two more gaps in our knowledge of South African music, specifically the popular music of the 1950s. The disc consists of cuts from the vast archive of Hugh Tracey, founder of the International Library of African Music, who spent four decades recording African music. It has been compiled and selected by John Storm Roberts, in many ways his spiritual successor. It is divided into two halves, "Country Sounds" and "Small Town Jump," and both provide revealing surprises, as well as being delightful listening. As the title suggests, "Country Sounds" are field recordings from rural areas. Often recorded at general stores on home-made or mail-order instruments, the selections demonstrate the durability of African structures and sensibilities. Frans Ncha's "Adiyo Jaxo Kxaja Nkwe [You Can't Kill a Leopard with a Stone]" (Track 7), for example, proves that the autoharp - which according to Tracey was the most popular imported instrument in the country in the 1920s - can function as an ad hoc mbira. Similarly, "Amazeyiboka [Some Socks are Real Costly]" (Track 5) takes western harmony and treats it as cyclical and heterophonic, in a manner similar to the Bibiyak pygmies or the Venda of the northern Transvaal. Other selections provide links, real or imagined, to folk forms on either side of the Atlantic. Track 2, "Suta Tseleng (Get Out of the Way)", performed solo by Jacquot Mokete on harmonica and voice, seems an arranged marriage: the harmonica comes from the Mississippi, but the singing is in a different melodic mode, and not in the same meter.
    [Show full text]
  • MUSICKING at HOME on the WOOD THAT SINGS: CONTEMPORARY MARIMBA PERFORMANCE PRACTICES in ZIMBABWE by WONDER MAGURAUSHE Submitted
    MUSICKING AT HOME ON THE WOOD THAT SINGS: CONTEMPORARY MARIMBA PERFORMANCE PRACTICES IN ZIMBABWE by WONDER MAGURAUSHE Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject MUSICOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA Supervisor: Professor Marc Duby JUNE 2017 Declaration I declare that MUSICKING AT HOME ON THE WOOD THAT SINGS: CONTEMPORARY MARIMBA PERFORMANCE PRACTICE IN ZIMBABWE is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Initials and Surname: W. Maguraushe Student number: 55544681 Date: June 2017 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Marc Duby for his visionary guidance and dedication, which kept me on radar throughout the compilation of this thesis. May the Lord bless you abundantly. To my family, thank you so much for enduring long periods without me as I travelled to attend to the demands of this research. Your support makes you my most prized companions. For making this study possible, I would like to acknowledge all my research participants; marimba performers, marimba makers, marimba music fans, and festival organisers. Your commitment to Zimbabwe marimba music performance practice has a reserved place in my heart. To Richard and Isaac, I say bravo! I am personally indebted to members of Rimba Resonance Vibes Ensemble for being such a wonderful band to work with. All of you are destined for dizzy heights in the world of marimba music performance; just keep on scaling! iii ABSTRACT This thesis explores the current state of marimba music performance practice in Zimbabwe.
    [Show full text]
  • Mbira Music of Jege A. Tapera
    44 AFRICAN MUSIC SOCIETY JOURNAL MBIRA MUSIC OF JEGE A. TAPERA by ANDREW TRACEY Jege A. Tapera, when I knew him in 1961, was a clothing factory worker in Bula­ wayo, Southern Rhodesia, but, first and foremost, he held himself to be a murid^i n>em- bira, an mbira player. The African inhabitants of the Bulawayo area belong mostly to the Ndebele tribe who do not possess the mbira, but there is also a considerable number of Shona-speaking people resident in Bulawayo itself. Among these, only a very few players of the mbira are to be found, perhaps because Bulawayo is well outside Mashona- land; only two were well-known—Matheu Zvimba, a Zezuru njari player from the Zvimba reserve near Salisbury, and Tapera, who is of the Nohwe clan of the Zezuru tribe of the Shona peoples. He was born in about 1905 in the Mangwendi reserve, fifty miles east of Salisbury in the Mrewa district of Southern Rhodesia, of a Rozvi father and a Zezuru mother. When he was a young man of about twenty-five he made a journey from his home in Mangwendi some 200 miles down to the town of Tete on the Zambezi river in Por­ tuguese East Africa, and there he heard being played the type of mbira known by the local Sena/Nyungwe people as chisansi or kasansi (i.e. the diminutive form of the word sansi. The sansi is one of the larger forms of traditional mbiras that are played by the Sena/Nyungwe). From the evidence of the basic layout of its keyboard, this chisansi is in fact fundamentally the same instrument as that known throughout a large part of the Zambezi area of Northern Rhodesia and in Nyasaland as kalimba.
    [Show full text]
  • Ngibambeni- Ngibambeni for Ugubhu and Voice
    Ngibambeni- Ngibambeni for Ugubhu and Voice Transcribed from the performance of Mntwana Princess Magogo ka Dinizulu Transcribed by Siphelele Mkhabela for the SAMRO Foundation’s Indigenous African Music (IAM) Project supported by the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation © SAMRO Foundation 2019 1 THANK YOU!!! for supporting the SAMRO Music Archive Your purchase helps the composers keep composing and helps us to keep promoting our excellent creators in southern Africa. We would love to know more about you as our customer. If you have any suggestions on how we can serve you better feel free to contact us at [email protected]. Please be aware that there are some restrictions regarding this score. Owning this score does not give you licence to perform it in public, or to record any part of it without a legally required licence. A performance licence can be obtained from SAMRO (Southern African Music Rights Organisation). Getting a SAMRO Performance licence: It’s really not hard - simply contact [email protected] or phone them at +27 (11) 712 8000 and SAMRO Consultants would be delighted to help you through the paperwork. For more information on SAMRO visit www.samro.org.za and for more information on copyright in South Africa see the back page © SAMRO SAMRO MUSIC ARCHIVE | 20 De Korte Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa | [email protected] 2 Ugubhu Ugubhu bow is an unbraced gourd-bow that comes from the Zulu speaking people. The bow instrument is an “old traditional instrument that people were playing during the time of King Shaka” (Mandela; 2005).
    [Show full text]