Música africana
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Africa es un contienente con un rango de diferencias étnicas, culturales y lingüísticas enorme. Una descripción general de la llamada música africana no es posible por la cantidad y diversidad de expresiones. Sin embargo, hay similitudes regionales entre grupos disímiles, así como tendencias que son constantes a lo largo y ancho del contienente.
La música del norte de África y partes de la región del Sahara tienen una conexión a la música del medio este europeo más que con la de la región sub-sahariana. Por otra parte, la música y la danza de la diáspora negra (música caribeña y latinoamericana) como la rumba y la salsa,así como la música de los afroamericanos, fue tomada de varias tradiciones africanas por los esclavos que fueron trasladados a distintos puntos del mundo.
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[editar] Complejidad rítmica
La música de la zona sub sahareana tiene una característica especial que la distingue por la complejidad rítmica en relación a otras regiones, en especial a la zona latinoamericana.
El aspecto remarcable del poliritmo africano hace discernible y coherente el resultado posterior de los patrones rítmicos.
[editar] Escalas y polifonía
Los sistemas de escalas varian entre regiones, existen escalas diatónicas, pero también otras formas como la escala pentatónica. Los intervalos suelen ser muy distintos a aquellos encontrados en la música europea.
El tono polifónico existe en la forma de intervalos paralelos (generalmente terceros, cuartos y quintos) reinterpretando la antifonía coral y la respuesta solo coral, y de manera ocasional melodías simultáneas e independientes.
[editar] Musical instruments
Besides using the voice, a wide array of musical instruments is used. African musical instruments include a wide array of drums, slit gongs, rattles, double bells as well melodic instruments like string instruments (musical bows, different types of harps and harp-liker instruments like the Kora as well as fiddles), many types of xylophones and lamellaphones such as the mbira and different types of wind instrument like flutes and trumpets.
The wide array of drums used in African traditional music include tama talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and different types of drums often called engoma or ngoma in Central and Southern Africa.
During colonial times, European instruments such as saxophones, trumpets, and guitars were adopted by many African musicians; their sounds were integrated into the traditional patterns and are widely used in African popular music.
[editar] Timbre
In many African music cultures, there is a preference for "noisy" timbres. In some lamellaphones, for instance, metal rings are put around the lamellas to create a buzzing sound. Devices to create a buzzing sound also exist in string instruments. For example, on the enanga harp, scales of a kind of goana are fixed on the instrument in such a way that the vibrating strings will touch it. This gives a crackling timbre to the sound. Another example are membranes made from spider webs attached to the openings of calabash resonators in some types of xylophones. In singing, one can often also meet raspy or rough timbres very unlike the voice ideal of western music.
[editar] Relationship to language
Many African Languages are tonal languages. In many African cultures, this leads to a close connection between music and language. In singing, the tonal pattern or the text puts some constraints on the melodic patterns. On the other hand, in instrumental music, a native speaker of a language can often perceive a text or texts in the music. This effect also forms the basis of drum languages (talking drums).
[editar] Relationship to dance
The treatment of "music" and "dance" as separate artforms is an European idea. In many African languages there is no concept corresponding exactly to these terms. For example, in many Bantu languages, there is one concept that might be translated as "song" and another that covers both the semantic fields of the European concepts of "music" and "dance". So there is one word for both music and dance (the exact meaning of the concepts may differ from culture to culture).
For example, in Kiswahili, the word "ngoma" may be translated as "drum", "dance", "dance event", "dance celebration" or "music", depending on the context. Each of these translations is incomplete.
Therefore, from an intracultural point of view, African music and African dance must be viewd in very close connection. The classification of the phenomena of this area of culture into "music" and "dance" is forreign to many African cultures.
There is a close connection between the polyrhythmic structure of African music and the polycentric structure of many African dances, in which different parts of the body are moved according to different rhythmical components.
[editar] Traditional music
A lot of traditional African music is or was performed by professional musicians. Some of it is courtly music or sacral music. Therefore, the term "folk" music is not always appropriate. Nevertheless, both the terms "folk music" and "traditional music" can be found in the literature.
African folk music and traditional music is mostly functional in nature. There are, for example, many different kinds of work songs, ceremonial or religious music and courtly music performed at royal courts, but none of these are performed outside of their intended social context.
Music is highly functional in African ethnic life, accompanying birth, marriage, hunting, and even political activities. Much music exists solely for entertainment, ranging from narrative songs to highly stylized musical theater. Similarities with other cultures, particularly Indian and Middle Eastern, can be ascribed primarily to the Islamic invasion.
[editar] Popular music
Genres of popular African Music include:
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[editar] See also
- Paul Berliner
- Hugh Tracey
- Gerhard Kubik
- International Library of African Music
[editar] References
- Tracey, Hugh. (1961). The evolution of African music and its function in the present day. Johannesburg: Institute for the Study of Man in Africa.
- Lomax, Alan: Folk song style and culture. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Publication No. 88, Washingthon 1968.
- Lomax, Alan, Bertenieff, Irmgaard, Paulay, Forrestine: Choreometrics: a method for the study or cross-cultural pattern in film. Resarch Film, Vol 6, No. 6, Göttingen 1969.
- Koetting, James T (1992). “Africa/Ghana”, Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples, Second edition, New York: Schirmer Books, 67-104. ISBN 0-02-872602-2.
- Kubik, Gerhard Zum Verstehen Afrikanischer Musik, Aufsätze, Reihe: Ethnologie: Forschung und Wissenschaft, Bd. 7, 2., aktualisierte und ergänzte Auflage, 2004, 448 S., ISBN 3-8258-7800-7 (in German language)
- Simon, Artur (Ed.), "Musik in Afrika", (Staatliche Museen) Berlin 1983 (in German language)
- Bender, Wolfgang: Sweet Mother - Moderne afrikanische Musik, 1985, Trickster Verlag, München. ISBN 3-923804-10-5 (in German language)
[editar] Enlaces externos
- African music lyrics and more
- AMR - African Music Radio
- AfricanMusic.org
- African Music
- A glossary of African music styles
- International Library of African Music atRhodes University Department Of Music And Musicology
- Rhythms of the Continent (BBC)
- African Drumming Festivals and Ceremonies
- Some African musical instruments
- Publishers of Scores and Manuscripts of traditional and contemporary African MusicChabacano (discusión) 03:29 4 dic 2006 (CET)
