Music of Africa

It’s a HUGE continent!

Regions of AfricaWhat do you already know about Africa that would affect the cultures of the different regions? (colonization, slave trade, economic trade, religion, etc.)

How has Africa influenced its neighbors?

African Instruments

Djembe a rope-tuned skin-

covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa.

Membranophone

Traditionally only played by men.

The wikipedia page for djembe has tons of great information.

Djembe Sound Examples

ASU Island Stomp – Rhythmic Variations

Kuku – Djembe and Dundun

Kuku Dance

Yankadi and Macru

Yankadi Rhythms

Dundun Family Used to accompany the

Djembe in West African Music. Double sided membranophone. Comes in three sizes and is played using sticks. Often a bell (piece of metal) is connected to the instrument and played along with the drum utilizing polyrhythms.

Sabar Senegalese drum

originally used for communication with other villages. One sided membranophone. Played using one hand and a stick.

Sabar Dancing

Sabar Drumming

Sabar Concerto – Mark Sunkett

Talking Drum (Dundun, Tama, etc.)

This drum goes by many names, but in English is known as a talking drum.

It is played by using a stick and hand to create sound, and an arm squeezes the cords on the sides of the instrument to change pitch.

In an ensemble, the drums will be tuned to different pitches.

Example of the Talking Drum.

Ensemble

Mbira – Thumb Piano This instrument goes by many

names, however mbira (mmm beerah) is the most commonly used. It is also called ilimba or kilimba.

Comes from the Shona people in Zimbabwe and is played in Southern and Eastern Africa.

The resonator around the instrument is called deze.

A rattling sound is well-liked for this instrument so you can often find bottle caps nailed to the instrument or deze to create this effect.

Part of the lamellophone family.

Example of mbira music.Mbira Jazz

Mbira Video

Kora Stringed instrument from

West Africa.

A harp built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator with a long hardwood neck. The player uses only the thumb and index finger of both hands to pluck the strings in polyrhythmic patterns (using the remaining fingers to secure the instrument by holding the hand posts on either side of the strings).

Kora Examples Kora Video

Wikipedia

Kora Video – close-up of technique.

Kora Ensemble

Zeze Bowed or plucked string

instrument from sub-saharan Africa.

Zeze with ensemble

Zeze fiddle

Balafon The precursor to the

marimba.

Idiophone

Wooden bars of various lengths produce different pitches. Gourds are used as resonators.

Balafon example

Balafon in an ensemble

Other Instruments Shekere

Caxixi

Udu

Whoo! That was a lot of instruments.

What have we now figured out about African music? What else do we need to know?

What do we now know?

Characteristics of African Music

New World Encyclopedia

Vocab WordsVocabulary Definition

Hocket dividing a melody between two parts, notes in one part coinciding with rests in the other.

Oral Tradition cultural material and tradition transmitted orally from one generation to another.

Cross-Rhythm the effect produced when two conflicting rhythms are heard together.

Polyrhythm when two or more rhythms with different pulses are heard together, eg where one drum is playing in triple time and another is playing in quadruple time, three against four.

Music Listening 1 Strophic Form

Acoustic Guitar – Finger style

Bass line – ostinato – QQQQ

Music Listening 2 Zeze

Membraphones

Electronic – possible E. Drum – ostinato

E. Bass

Male Voice – Call and Response

Music Listening 3 E. Bass, E. Guitar – high register, Drum Set

African language

Strophic

Music Listening 4

Music Listening 5

Simba Pori Tanzanian band based in Moshi, Kilimanjaro. What

about this music makes it African? Do you hear other cultural references?

One Race

Freedom

Famous African Musicians

Miriam Makeba

South Africa

Malaika

Pata Pata

Malaika Lyrics:

Malaika, nakupenda Malaika

Angel, I love you, Angel

Youssou N’Dour

Senegal

Youssou N’Dour is not only an influential musician, but also a social activist. He started the "Set-Setaal" (be clean) movement. Without any

help of the government, they cleaned up the ghettos, improved water supply, sanitation and the

housing situation.

Birima

7 Seconds

Fela KutiNigeria

Water No Get Enemy

Zombie

Multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the

Afrobeat music genre, human rights activist, and political

maverick.

Angelique Kidjo

Benin

Agolo

Summertime

P-SquareNigeria

Chop My Money

Personally

Paul Simon, South Africa, and

the cultural boycott during

Apartheid.Link

Graceland

You Can Call Me Al

Diamond on the Soles of Her Shoes

Apartheid - a former social system in South Africa in which black people and people from other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white people and were forced

to live separately from white people

Graceland AlbumPros Cons

End of Unit – What do we know?