African Folk Music Research Assignment

Folk music is the rural music that originates form a popular culture or that is written in such a style,
that in theory may be called world music. It can be defined in many ways, typically known of
unknown authorship and is transmitted orally from generation to generation. Folk music is the music
that is sung by the people, not music recorded in a studio or performed on a stage. The roots of this
genre are in traditional music but is by no means all traditional. This genre is also referred as acoustic
music because usually acoustic instruments are played. Folk festivals are defined by ideas of
community involvement and participation. Workshops and masterclasses led by performances are
common and volunteers often help run these festivals. There are many different types of folk music
coming from most continents of the world, such as Eastern music, being African, Middle Eastern,
Indian, South-East Asian and Western music, South and North American and European, etc. From
here we will distinguish key aspects and features of the folk music, traditions, and festivals from the
Eastern side.

African folk music is a tradition mainly played at gatherings at special occasions. Traditional music, is
historically rich and diverse, with different nations of Africa having unique and distinct musical
traditions. Religion is quite significant to Africa, songs and music are used for ritualism and religious
ceremonials. This is passed down into several generations through use of stories, song, and dance.
There is a very strong culture in African tradition, it is varied and manifold consisting of a mixture of
countries with various tribes with have their own unique characteristics. They are widely diverse in
their own way, however most of them tend to hold some similarities. For example, the morals they
uphold, love and respect for their culture, and the strong respect for the aged and important people
such as their pervious kings and chiefs.

Having more than 3000 ethnic groups and 2000 different languages, the African continent is the very
embodiment of cultural diversity. There are thousands of cultural festivals, but some main ones
incorporating music include the Zimbabwe Harare International Festival of Arts showcasing over
1000 folk music performances, the Festival of the Dancing Masks, Morocco’s Fez Festival, a sacred
music festival. Additionally, Chana’s Afrochella, in which all of these celebrations attract music
lovers from all around the world. The traditional music in most of Africa is passed down orally, and
typically not in written form. Some of the traditions regularly relies on its large percussion section,
including xylophones, marimbas, djembes, drums and tone producing instruments such as a mbira
(thumb piano).

Traditional Sub-Saharan African folk music is as diverse as the regions various populations. Through
strong use of percussion, alike Asia, India and the Middle East, their music is very rhythmic. Patterns
such as polyrhythms (consisting of two or more irregular rhythms played with one another ‘2:3, 5:4,
7:8 etc’) nested tuplets, and complex time signatures are commonly used in this music. Another
thought why African music is to be considered so unique is to do with the fact the majority of the time
it is played through intuition and again not having any written music to study or analyse. This makes
it almost impossible to notate the music, especially melodies and harmonies on the western staff.
They use different tuning systems, such as rather than 12 tone equal temperament, rather they use
pure intonation. Also, their use of scales, tetra, penta, hexa and heptatonic scales, and melody
harmonisation is achieved by utilising third, fourth, and fifth intervals. However, as mentioned before
it is diverse in its ways, as some African music traditions involve strings, brass, and little complex
rhythms. In these ways this has been how African music has also evolved with now Rap, R&B and
Pop.

To conclude, African folk music is as mentioned earlier, very diverse in its individual ways. This
Eastern music involves lots of traditions within this music being celebrated such as dance and story-
telling in African festivals. The folk music played is different in different regions of the continent,
either way all of which is considered non-western music, through its use of complex rhythms,
harmonies and melodies. It is played by musicians all over, and musicians globally come to the folk
festivals mentioned earlier to experience and even play the music. Overall, African folk music is quite
beautiful in its many, many ways, through the way it is expressed, taught, and most importantly,
played.