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African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2016)
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UMASKANDI IZIBONGO: SEMANTIC, PROSODIC AND MUSICAL DIMENSIONS OF VOICE IN ZULU POPULAR PRAISES
Get PDFUmaskandi izibongo are Zulu popular praises characterized by rapid, tonally nuanced phrases of incisive social comment set to instrumental music. They articulate the experiences, genealogy and heritage of their orators, and are replete with idioms and lyrical encodings intelligible only to those familiar with the contexts, symbols and sounds specific to umaskandi life worlds. Izibongo have been combined with features of Zulu style and idiom to create a hybrid, indigenous genre of popular music. Umaskandi orators articulate shared experiences of poverty, inequality, migrancy and dispossession in South Africa, and often use martial, caustic imagery to evince their social critique. A genealogy of izibongo is offered linking umaskandi to other popular praises, to genres of dance and bow music, and to izibongo zamakhosi, or the praises of kings. From research based on fieldwork in KwaZulu- Natal conducted between 2012 and 2015, the close analysis, transcription and translation of songs by umaskandi artists Phuzekhemisi, Mfaz\u27 Omnyama and Jonathan Mathenjwa offers insight into the style and structure of izibongo. The semantic, prosodic and musical dimensions of voice are explored through graphic representation and analysis in \u27Praat\u27. The analyses demonstrate the complex interplay of speech tone, intonation, rhythm and rate, and how these prosodic features articulate and complicate umaskandi texts. The emphasis on voice complements a literature that has to date focused on its instrumental accompaniment on guitar. The use of digital methods of analysis and transcription offers an alternative to staff notation as a toolset for theorizing African music
African Music, Power and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe. Mhoze Chikowero. 2015. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 35 bw illustrations, bibliography, index, 346pp.
Get PDFMusics of the Free State: Reflections on a Musical Past, Present, and Future. Martina Viljoen, ed. 2015. Zagreb: Croatian Musicological Society. 7 colour photographs, 2 maps, 9 tables, 28 music examples, index, 362pp.
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"…THOSE WHO DID IT HAVE POWER...” MUSIC, HEALTH AND HEGEMONY IN TANZANIA IN THE CONTEXT OF HIV/AIDS
Get PDFThis article investigates the display of power relations in the production of health knowledge about HIV/AIDS through music that addresses the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Tanzania. It specifically looks at the intersection of the state and religion in both shaping culture and influencing decision-making in the production of health knowledge on HIV/ AIDS. I argue that the study of HIV/AIDS and the creative process of music about HIV/ AIDS is also the study of power relations at multiple levels. Using two recordings, \u27Mambo kwa socks\u27(Things with socks on) and \u27Usione soo,sema naye” (Do not feel shy, speak to him or her), which have been forbidden from public broadcast by the government of Tanzania as evidence, I suggest that musical performances that focus on HIV/AIDS involve the production of multiple, often dissonant and antagonistic interpretations among individuals because of the musical styles employed and because of the interpreters\u27 different ages, social positions, context, social and historical spaces