MUSIC OF AFRICA worshippers after fasting during the Muslim holy

feast of Ramadan. Percussion instrumentation

Music has always been an important part includes the rattle (sekere), thumb piano
in the daily life of the African, whether for work, (agidigbo), bell (agogo), and two or three
religion, ceremonies, or even communication. talking drums.
Singing, dancing and hand clapping and the
beating of drums are essential to many African Axe
ceremonies, including those for birth, death, -is a popular musical genre from Salvador,
initiation, marriage, and funerals. Music and Bahia, and Brazil. It fuses the Afro-Caribbean
dance are also important to religious styles of the ,archa, reggae, and calypso, and
expression and political events. However,
is played by carnival bands.
because of its wide influences on global music
that has permeated contemporary American, Jit
Latin American, and European styles, there has Hard and fast percussive Zimbabwean
been a growing interest in its own cultural dance music played on drums with guitar
heritage and musical sources. Of particular accompaniment, influenced by mbira-based
subjects or researches are its rhythmic guitar style.
structures and spiritual characteristics that
Jive
have led to the birth of jazz forms. African
music has been a collective result from the -popular music form of South African
cultural and musical diversity of the more than music featuring a lively and uninhibited
50 countries of the continent. The organization variation of the jitterbug, a form of swing
of this continent is a colonial legacy from dance.
European rule of the different nations up to the
end of the 19th century, whose vastness has
LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC INFLUENCED BY
enable it to incorporate its music with
language, environment, political AFRICAN MUSIC
developments, immigration, and cultural
Reggae
diversity.
is a Jamaican musical style that was
strongly influenced by the island’s traditional
TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF AFRICA
mento music, as well as by calypso, African
African traditional music is largely functional in
music, American jazz, and rhythm and blues.
nature, used primarily in ceremonial rites, such
One of the reggae’s most distinctive qualities is
as birth, death, marriage, succession, worship,
its offbeat rhythm and staccato chords.
and spirit invocations. Others are work related
or social in nature, while many traditional
Salsa
societies view their music as entertainment. It
Music is Cuban, Puerto Rican, and
has a basically interlocking structural format,
Colombian dance music. It comprises various
due to mainly to its overlapping and dense
musical genres including the Cuban son
textural characteristics as well as its rhythmic
montuno, guaracha, chachacha, mambo,
complexity. Its many sources of stylistic
and bolero.
influence have produced varied
characteristics and genres.
Samba
Samba is the basic underlying rhythm
SOME TYPES OF AFRICAN MUSIC
that typifies most Brazilian music. It is a lively
and rhythmical dance and music. It is a lively
Afrobeat
and rhythmical dance and music with three
-is a term used to describe the fusion of
steps to every bar, making the Samba feel like
West African with black American music.
a timed dance. There is a set of dances-rather
than single dance- that define the Samba
Apala (Akpala)
dancing scene in Brazil. Thus, no one dance
-is a musical genre from Nigeria in the
Yoruba tribal style, used to wake up the
can be claimed with certainty as the “original”
Samba style.
Juju
Juju is a popular style from Nigeria that
relies on the traditional Yoruba rhythms, where
the instruments in Juju are more Western in
origin. A drum kit, keyboard, pedal steel guitar,
and accordion are used along with the
traditional dun-dun (talking drum or squeeze
drum).
Kwassa Kwassa
It s a dance style begun in Zaire in the
late 1980s, popularized by Kanda Bongo Man.
In this dance style, the hips move back and
forth while the arms are move following the
hips.
Marabi
Is a South African three-chored township
music of the 1930s-1960s which evolved into
African Jazz. Possessing a keyboard style
combining American jazz, ragtime and blues
with African roots, it is characterized by simple
chords in varying vamping patterns and
repetitive harmony over an extended period of
time to allow the dancers more time on the
dance floor.
Soca
It is also known as the “Soul of Calypso.”
It is a modern Trinidadian and Tobago pop
music combining “soul” and “calypso” music.
Were
It is a Muslim music often performed as a
wake-up call for early breakfast and prayers
during Ramadan celebrations. Relying on pre-
arranged music, it fuses the African and
European music styles with particular usage of
the natural harmonic series.
Zouk
It is fast, carnival-like rhythmic music,
from the Creole slang word for “party”. It
originated in the Carribbean Islands of
Guadaloupe and Martinique and was
popularized in the 1980’s. It has a pulsating
beat suppies by the gwo ka and tambour bele
drums, a tibwa rhythmic pattern played on the
rim of the snare drum and its hi-hat, rhythm
guitar, a horn section, and keyboard
synthesizers.
VOCAL FORMS O AFRICAN MUSIC
BLUES
The blues is a musical form of the late
19th century that has had deep roots in African-
American communities. These communities are
located in the so-called “Deep South” of the
United States. The slaves their descendants
used to sing as they worked in the cotton and
vegetable fields. The notes of the blues create
an expressive and soulful sound. The feelings
that are evoked are normally associated with
slight degrees of misfortune, lost love,
frustration, or loneliness. From ecstatic joy to
deep sadness, the blues can communicate
various emotions more effectively than other
musical forms. Noted performers of the Rhythm
and Blues genre are Ray Charles, James
Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, and
John Lee Hooker; as well as B.B. King, Bo.
SOUL
Soul music was a popular music genre
of the 1950s and 1960’s. It originated in the
United States. It combines elements of African-
American gospel music, rhythm and blues, and
often jazz. The catchy rhythms are
accompanied by handclaps and
extemporaneous body moves which are
among its important features. Other
characteristics include “ call and response “
between the soloist and the chorus, and an
especially tense and powerful vocal sound.
Some important innovators whose recordings
in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of
soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank
Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles and Little
Richard (who inspired Otis Redding) and
James Brown were equally influential. Brown
was known as the “Godfather of Soul”, while
Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also often
acknowledges as “soul forefathers.”
Example of soul music are the following:
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Ben, All I could
Do is Cry, Soul to Soul, and Becha by Golly,
Wow.
Ray Charles
Spiritual
The term spiritual, normally associated with a
deeply religious person, refers to a Negro
spiritual, a song form by African migrants to
America who became enslaved by its white
communities. This musical form became their
outlet to vent their loneliness and anger, and is
a result of the interaction of music and religion
from Africa with that of America. The texts are
mainly religious, sometimes taken from palms
of Biblical passages, while the music utilizes
deep bass voices. The vocal inflections, Negro
accents and dramatic dynamic changes add
to the musical interest and effectiveness of the
performance. Examples of spiritual music are
the following: We are Climbing Jacob’s
Ladder, Rock My Soul, When the Saints Go
Marching In, and Peace Be Still.
Musical Instruments used in Maracatu
The Maracatu uses mostly percussion
instruments such as the alfaia, tarol and caixa-
deguerra, gongue, agbe, and miniero.
The alfaia is a large wooden drum that is rope-
tuned, complemented by the tarol which is a
shallow snare drum and the caixa-de-guerra
which is a war-like snare. Providing the
clanging sound is the gongue, a metal
cowbell. The shaker are represented by the
agbe, a gourd shaker covered by beads, and
the miniero or ganza, a metal cylindrical
shaker filled with metal shot or small dried
seeds called “Lagrima fre Nosa Senhora.”

Call and Response

The Cal and response method is a succession
of two distinct musical phrases usually
rendered by different musicians, where the
second phrase acts as a direct commentary
on r response to the first. Much like the question
and answer sequence in human
communication, it also forms a strong
resemblance to the verse-chorus form in many
vocal compositions. Examples of call and
response songs are the following: Mannish Boy,
one of the signature songs by Muddy Waters;
and School Day – Ring, Ring Goes the Bell by
Chuck Berry.

Maracatu

Maracatu first surfaced in the African state of

Pernambuco, combining the strong rhythms of
African percussion instruments with Portugese
melodies. The maracatu groups were called
“nacoes” (nation) who paraded with a
drumming ensembles numbering up to 100,
accompanied by a singer, chorus, and a
coterie of dancers.