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David F. Garcia, Listening for Africa: Freedom, Modernity and the Logic of Black Music\u27s African Origins
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REASSESSING THE ZIMBABWEAN CHIPENDANI
Get PDFThe Shona chipendani (pl. zvipendani) is among dozens of musical bows found throughout southern Africa. An understanding of where the chipendani fits into the larger space of Zimbabwe\u27s musical and social life is markedly thin. Other than Brenner\u27s observation that the chipendani may occasionally be played by adult men while socializing over beer, descriptions of the chipendani seldom go further than remarking on theinstrument\u27s associations with cattle herding, and reducing it to the status of child\u27s play. In this article, I argue that conceptions of the musical and social identity of the chipendani must be expanded beyond its conventional portrayal as a herdboy instrument, since other groups of people have been actively involved in performing the instrument. I further maintain that the social role of the chipendani extends beyond providing accompaniment for a singular activity-that of cattle herding-into other contexts. By challenging Tracey\u27s conception of solo bow playing as "self-delectative,” my account of chipendani music opens up space for new readings of other musical bows throughout southern Africa
EDMUND "NTEMI” PILISO JAZZING THROUGH DEFEAT AND TRIUMPH: AN INTERVIEW
Get PDFAssociated with the local swing style usually described as African jazz, Edmund "Ntemi” Piliso was one of the most highly regarded, frequently recorded, extensively consulted and best known South African musicians of the twentieth century. Renowned for his deep knowledge of the urban black South African popular music of his time, as well as for his reflexively intelligent insights into its relationship with mainstream international jazz, he is perhaps more appropriately thought of as an "organic intellectual” of his time, place, and musical culture. The article introduces Piliso and then presents a wide-ranging interview dealing with his life and work. Piliso recounts this history, offering numerous insights into many of the key social, political, and musical developments of his time
A STUDY OF THE DINAKA PIPE DANCE OF THE PEDI PEOPLE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Get PDFThis article provides a description and musical analysis of the Pedi genre known as dinaka, as it is currently practised (2016) in the rural areas throughout the Limpopo province. The role of this music is examined along with the implications of learning and performing it as a cultural outsider. The construction, methods of tuning, and playing techniques of the pipes, drums, and other instruments associated with dinaka are discussed. The form and structure of the music are interpreted as well as the idioms of rhythm, melody, and dance repertoire which imbue the genre with a distinct sound. Common methods for creating improvisational variations among the instrumental and dance parts are explained. The connection of dinaka to styles of Pedi vocal music is examined along with the proverbial meanings of the songs with which these melodies and rhythms are associated. Transcriptions of the dance steps, pipe melodies and drum rhythms have been developed to provide a visual representation of the music. The aim is to provide a resource from which one can study and understand the many aspects of dinaka
CONTINENTAL MUSICOLOGY: DECOLONISING THE MYTH OF A SINGULAR "AFRICAN MUSIC”
Get PDFThe musical identity of the African continent is sustained in the popular imagination by the idea of its unity. This identity emerges from a constellation of ideas about Africa\u27s distinctiveness constructed by generations of scholars who have diminished its diversity to substantiate the claim that shared principles of musical structure and function in sub-Saharan cultures can be read as ideal types for the continent as a whole. The idea of a singular "African music” is predicated on the notion that African "traditional” music of precolonial origin in sub-Saharan Africa possesses a set of distinctive features that are essential to its identity. Musical cultures as diverse as Aka, Ewe, Shona, Yoruba, and Zulu are subsumed within a singular frame of reference; others that do not possess these features are, by implication, excluded. To make sense of this myth of a singular "African music” we must reckon with the universalising impulse that sustains it. This means interrogating the discursive formations out of which it has been fashioned. Whose interests does it serve? Taking a decolonial perspective on the power dynamics that structure global south-north relations in the academy, this article points to the ways in which the north perpetuates its authority and dominance over the south by subsuming others within its cultural and intellectual ambit. Decolonising "African music” means dismantling the hegemony of "continental musicology” and the myth of a singular "African music” that is its creation
THE EVOLUTION OF SOTHO ACCORDION MUSIC IN LESOTHO: 1980—2005
Get PDFThe article describes the origins, evolution and status of Sotho1 koriana accordion music from the 1920s through the 1960s and 70s when it was considered shebeen music, and from1980 to 2005, when there was a change of attitude towards it and only sporadic production. Two concerns are: the status of koriana music, and, its appreciation by Sotho people themselves. Data was collected through observations, interviews with artists and listeners, and from cassettes, radio and TV programmes. Aspects of the music are described and related to non-musical events of the period
