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Meanings of Music in Africa

African music sounds primitive to Western listeners because it functions, not primarily for entertainment as in the West, but as a vital part of African community life and culture. As one sociologist puts it: "Music follows the African through his entire day from early in the morning till late at night, and through all the changes of his life, from the time he came into this world until after he has left it" (Warren and Warren, 1970, p. 3). Africa is a continent in which almost 800 different languages are spoken; however, the one common thread among all the inhabitants of this huge continent is their love for music and their deep involvement with it (p. 3).

Africa can be divided into two parts: North Africa and Black Africa (south of the Sahara Desert). Because North Africa is largely influenced by Arabic music, this survey will focus on the traditional music of Black Africa. The heart of Black Africa consists of an immense area that stretches across the middle of the continent. It includes West, Central, and East Africa. Much musical diversity occurs within this middle portion. For instance, music in the northern portion of Black Africa exhibits Arabic influence. The Cushitic tradition of Ethiopia and the Horn area is influenced by the Coptic church. This music is characterized as "slow, restrained, ametric, antiphonal, heterophonic, and somewhat melismatic" (Merriam, 1982, p. 137).

The music of the south can be further subdivided into two broad categories: the African Hunter style and the music of the Nguni peoples. The African Hunter style is the music of the San of the southwestern Africa and the African Pygmies dispersed throughout Africa. The African Hunter style is characterized by the use of: "falsetto, yodeling, hocketing (a technique in which the melodic line is distributed among several voices), disjunct melody (wide skips in the melodic line), and dense texture represented by polyphony, various voca...

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Meanings of Music in Africa. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:24, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701569.html