Africa

Themes

• What is Africa?

• Where is Africa?

• When is Africa?

Africa as Symbol

• Ancestral homeland?• Pastoral/impoverished?• ?

• Africa as psychic space

What is African Music?

• How do you know that you are listening to African music?

• Rhythm? Texture? Something else?

African Continent

• 2 broad zones• Maghrib– Like Mediterranean/Western Asia

• Sub-saharan– Culturally unique in many ways

• Nile River

Music in Everyday Life

• Work• Ceremonies• Play

• Social solidarity, transforms consciousness

• Expressive Media

Outside Influences

• Christian hymns• Muslim Cantillation• Music of West Asia• Euro-American pop

• Enculturation

Shona People

• Bantu-speaking• Successful people• Suffered under colonialism• Independence of Zimbabwe in 1980

• Mbira: changed as cultural symbol

Shona Spirits

• Four Classes of Spirits

• Invisible but have sensory experience• Advise descendants

• Mapira All-night family-based communal rituals• Possession Trances

Shona Mbira Music

• Mbira: thumb piano• 3:2 rhythmic structure• Separate individuals = polyphonic community

The Mbira

• Four Basic Features– Long thin keys of metal or plant material– Soundboard with bridge– Resonator to shape and amplify sound– Jingles that buzz

• Bi-lateral symmetry

Mbira Dzavadzimu• Mbira of the Ancestors– Instrument in Nhemamusasa– Placed in deze during performance– Bottle cap rattles– snail shells– Hand clapping– Singing– Hosho

Mbira and Spirits

• Ancestral spirits love to hear favorite mbira piece

• Makes possession more likely• Repertory does not change much

Mbira Song

• Two Interlocking Parts– Kushaura (main part)– Kutsinhira (interwoven second part)

• Each is polyphonic

Vocal Music

• Three styles– Mahonyera (vocables)– Kudeketera (poetry)– Huro (yodeling)

• Add depth and texture

“Nhemamusasa”

• “Cutting Branches for Shelter”

• Played for Chaminuka spirit• Song for War

• Great spiritual meaning- moving