Toward a Kpelle Conceptualization of Music Performance

Author(s): Ruth M. Stone

Source: The Journal of American Folklore , Apr. - Jun., 1981, Vol. 94, No. 372 (Apr. -
Jun., 1981), pp. 188-206
Published by: American Folklore Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/540124

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 RUTH M. STONE

Toward a Kpelle Conceptualizatio

of Music Performance*

THE SALIENT FEATURES OF A MUSIC, as conceived by

in the creation and appreciation of its performance, ma
those identified by an analysis in which only Weste
In the final analysis, however, the Western research
the relevance of his or her background. Rather, he
and sets it aside for a brief time, to the extent that
Ethnomusicologists have initiated attempts to unde
theory in a variety of cultures. Such efforts inc
among the Tiv of Nigeria, Steven Feld among the K
dra McCosker among the Kuna of Panama, and

* This paper draws on material presented in a more extended m

munication and Interaction Processes in Music Events among the Kpe
Indiana University, 1979), and is based on fieldwork conducted in 1
was funded by a joint Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Soc
Fulbright-Hays, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare whi
edged.
Terms which may be unfamiliar to some readers are defined below.
dynamics: degree of loudness and softness of sound
form: structure of music as a product
hocket: the performance of a melodic phrase by several voices, each performing one or several notes that
fit together to make up the longer pattern
ostinato: a phrase that is repeated persistently and composed of a recurring melodic and/or rhythmic
motif

polyphony: combination of several simultaneous voice parts, each with some degree of independence
rhythm: movement of music through time
tempo: the speed of a composition of music
For a general discussion of definitions, see Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1969).

Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 94, No. 372, 1981

Copyright ? 1981 by the American Folklore Society 0021-8715/81/3720188-19$1.40/1

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 189

'Are'are of the Solomon Islands. Participants in a recent panel at the

Society for Ethnomusicology Meeting also commented on music theory i
session entitled "Interpretation and Metaphor in Ethnomusicolo
Theory."l
The following exposition of Kpelle ideas about music and its organization
should be considered as an initial attempt to explore patterns of Kpelle concep-
tualization about music performance. For the Kpelle, music as performance in-
volves the production and audition of musical sound as part of a constellation
of artistic communication, much less easily segregated and isolated from other
verbal art than is often the case in Western conceptualization. The term pele
comprehends certain types of singing, dancing, playing of instruments, and
speaking, in music events as well as in games. Pele incudes a set of multi-
channeled interactions created in multiple dimensions of time and connecting
multiple domains of culture. The presentation here, therefore, involves a con-
stant and deliberate tension between the relevances of the Western
ethnomusicologist and the Kpelle participants' patterns of ideation. Richard
Brown's comment for sociology is equally apt for ethnomusicology and
folklore as he observes:

It is not a matter of the sociologist's symbolic constructs as against a concrete social reality;
rather his typifications are typification of what the actor has typified. . . . His self-reflection on
his own process of concept formation, instead of removing bias should remain in dialectical
tension with his study of the actor's formation of concepts in everyday life.2

During 1975-76, I observed intensively two Kpelle performing ensembles.

One group came from Gbcyflataa, a town in which a town chief governed,
some ninety miles interior in Liberia and one hour's walk from the main road.
The other group, the Nonis, resided in a rubber camp along the main highway,
where a more informal political organization obtained. The Kpelle ideas, for
the most part, emerged first for me in the course of music making and daily in-
teraction. They also appeared in extensive feedback interviews conducted by

Charles Keil, Tiv Song (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979); Steven Feld, "Sound and Senti-
ment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression" (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University,
1979); Sandra Smith McCosker, "Ethno-theories of Music: An Example from the Kuna in Panama"
(Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Bloomington, Indiana,
November 20-23, 1980); Hugo Zemp, "Aspects of 'Are'are Musical Theory," Ethnomusicology, 23
(1979), 6-48.

2 Richard H. Brown, "The Emergence of Existential Thought: Philosophical Perspectives on Positivist

and Humanist Forms of Social Theory," in Existential Sociology, ed. Jack D. Douglas and John M.
Johnson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 85.

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190 RUTH M. STONE

playing videotape recordings of events and recording commentaries upon t

made by Kpelle observers. Initially, these feedback sessions were largely
directed. As I gained vocabulary proper to such discourse, I gradually direc
more questions to participants. An important aspect of these resear
endeavors is that they were all conducted in Kpelle and did not involve the
of English translators.
The Kpelle, who number approximately 340,000, live inland along the Gu
coast of West Africa extending from Liberia into Guinea. They eng
primarily in slash-and-burn rice agriculture and secondarily in cash crops. S
seek employment in rubber, mining, and coffee concessions in various par
Liberia and take up temporary or permanent residence away from their ho
villages.3

Audio Emphasis

Kpelle people are attuned to audio phenomena in everyday life to a degree

remarkable to the outsider. Sound, both verbal and nonverbal, is noticed,
manipulated, and admired. Onomatopoeia is present in speech and ubiquitous
in song texts. Sound images communicate in a multitude of ways.
The most general Kpelle word for sound is tip.4 It is applied to ordinary
sound, such as that produced by a blacksmith pounding iron, or to the sound
made by a musical instrument, but when sound is produced by a person or sur-
rogate person-including an instrument, animal, bird, or other living be-
ing-it can also be referred to as w6o ("voice").
All people, birds, animals, and instruments have voices. The instrument has
a voice because it is personified, but it is also a material object, and the sound it
produces can thus be referred to as tin, especially when the speaker is not focus-
ing on the human aspect of organized sound. For the Kpelle, w6o refers to the
voice of a group of performers, of an individual singer or instrument, or of an
individual part of an instrument, such as a string. Other Liberian people have
similar concepts, and the Dan (Gio) even use the identical term.'
W6o also means a speech or group of words-that is, verbal sound that is

Liberia: Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, 1974 Census ofPopulation and Housing, Population
Bulletin, No. 2, 1976. For a good overview of Kpelle ethnography see James L. Gibbs, "The Kpelle of
Liberia," in Peoples of Africa (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965), pp. 197-240.

4 For a summary of Kpelle orthography see Stone, p. viii.

5 The evidence is based on a survey of terminology conducted in the field. See also Warren L.
d'Azevedo, The Artist Archetype in Cola Culture, Preprint No. 14 (Desert Research Institute: University of
Nevada, 1966), p. 43; also Hugo Zemp, Musique Dan (The Hague: Mouton, 1971), p. 72.

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 KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 191

spoken or sung. In this sense, it stands against wule, which is organized

that exists with some continuity in time to form "song." While wule is
both by humans and surrogate humans such as instruments, most Kpel
not associate it with natural phenomena such as the wind or waterfalls. E
tions occur when the listener possesses some special power. Witche
ancestral spirits can and do sing on occasion, especially for listeners with
natural power. Animals and birds sing when they are within a superna
context or being heard by someone with special insight. The key to sou
wule is that they are intelligible as organized. Culture heroes, such as W
hero of an epic cycle) sing.6 Characters in Kpelle myths often sing, and
of the key characters in these myths are birds and animals operating a
rogate humans.
The imitation of an action or a sound via a medium that is different from t
original is referred to as pQk86 (pg, "self," and k6n, "measure"; "m
against the self"). Therefore onomatopoeia is pQk6o, as is drumming
imitates the voice of a bird. PQk6.r is a valued aspect of music performan
a skilled drummer is adept at imitating many kinds of sounds. Similarl
epic singer is judged for his skill in imitating the myriad sound facets of
life in his performance.
All this emphasizes that the audio-acoustic aspect of communication is p
inent in Kpelle life. This acoustic emphasis is also realized in every
speech, for example, in the names of certain months in the Kpelle calen
The month that coincides approximately with February is known as ny
ny6n, a name imitating the sound heard when one walks over the leave
have fallen on forest paths during the dry season. The month of Octob
called iwee, the sound made by the bird kpalo-ii.ni.
In certain events of Kpelle life such as storytelling, verbal images conv
multitude of ideas. The storyteller indicates the sound made by boiling w
fi, fa, fi. Or he indicates the way a boy runs: kili, kfli, kili. He can say th
confusion in a crowd made the situation yuu-yuu, depicting the sound of
confusion. All these terms convey meaning through repetition as well as
bre.

Acoustic focus on language also extends to music performance. The name of

the two-headed cylindrical stick-beaten drum is gbin-gbiun, which conveys
something of the sound quality it produces. The /u/ vowel sound denotes
what the ethnomusicologist would term a relatively low-pitched instrument
and what the Kpelle would term a "large-voiced" instrument. In practice or

The woi epic is considered to contain many elements of Kpelle culture. This centers on the multi-
episodic adventures of the superhuman hero woi, as performed by a storyteller singer and chorus.

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192 RUTH M. STONE

teaching situations, rhythmic patterns are communicated through v

mnemonic devices. An iron idiophone (kQnq) player refers to one of the patter
he plays as kp6i, kp6n, kperfi, kpog, kperfe. This phrase, using the /e/ vo
depicts a relatively high-pitched, or, from a Kpelle perspective, a small-vo
sound. The familiar West African percussive pattern consisting of tw
eighth-notes grouped in units of two and three is conceived by the Kpel
follows:

KQD J ,1 Jr ,'
Grouping
of Pulses KpnO kpgo kperen kpen kperen
2 + 2 + 3 + 2+ 3

Figure 1. KQne r

Here kp64 represent

represents a dotted q
by a quarter note.
As a final example, K
ensemble, communica

Nulci fAa, oulei f6a bemcy

Let the song agree, let th

The word bemVy?i d

from the chorus and
he employed the clos

Din kpila k?, w;s6.

Dried millet, wes [sound

In this case, the soun

and the ending of a c

7 T 130.4. (T - text and tran

texts). These texts are deposi
Indiana.

T 139.14; also passim.

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 193

Aside from the Kpelle performance metalanguage, the texts within m

events abound with vivid sound depictions. Both the Gbcyflataa group an
NQni group employed the following sound image, with minor variation
their song texts. In a performance by F6me, from Gbqyilataa, she sang:

Ku 6araa kp-la-ptle, 4a #Ci t. Oelei s6, Oi nyin.

Our fellow young women, I raised my eyes to the sky, I lowered them.
.Ni-yA e pit gata-gata y. gb&i-kp&i-si-gbai.
My tears fell gata-gata like corn from an old corn farm.9

The term gata-gata conveys the sound of the dropping tears.

In performing the Woi epic cycle with the Gbcyilataa ensemble, Kurtf
his text with verbal imitations of sounds: musical instruments, voices of
and people walking. One of his most explicit imitations occurred in an ep
in which he told of how WQi banished a jealous wife to the fork in the
outside of town. There she was forced to make a living by carving woo
bowls with her voice. The sounds of her singing chipped away the wood
male clients paid by making love to her.
The words employed as she carved not only imitated the subtle nuanc
the sounds of fine carving, they also translated aspects of visual appearanc
audio representations.

B64kai kpo16n, kpol6D, kpol6n, kpo16n, kpol6n,

kpo16i, kpol6n, [large inside] kpo16B, kpo16f, kpol6n, kpol6n, kpo16e, kpol6g.
Kpol6D f.e-laa.
[flatness]
Kalf fe-laa.

Bowl [flatness]
K6ro k6ro, m0nO m6ng, f6e-laa.
[smallness, shiny blackness, flatness] [performed three times]
KalO k6ro k6ro.

Bowl [smallness]
Kalf m6nQ m6no.

Bowl [shiny blackness]

Kalt b6nkai.

Bowl [large inside]l?

9 ATR 454.3/ T 51.15-16. (ATR audio tape recording; numbers indicate tape reel and item
numbers for the recordings). These tapes and accompanying documentation are deposited at the Archives
of Traditional Music.

10 T 160.2 ff. The translations in brackets indicate onomatopoeic expressions.

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194 RUTH M. STONE

When a female client appeared, WQi's wife showed her obvious distaste for
ing for this woman. To the amusement of the storytelling audience, she
only one term to describe the carving sound and quickly finished the jo

Kpftili, kpftili, kalO kpftili . . .

[ugliness] bowl . . .1

Children's games, many of which incorporate songs, also show attentio

sound detail. The children from Gbyfilataa, for example, play and sing t
following game:

Leader: B6neD pi i t6u-kaoi s60.

Rat come and take the palm nut.
Chorus: Nelelc.
[sound of rat creeping]12

The children sit in a circle. As the leader sings the opening phrase and t
chorus responds each time, the players rhythmically move a finger from
center of the circle to its outer perimeter and back. This movement repres
attempts to entice the rat to come to the very center of the circle where a tok
representing the palm nut has been placed. The choral reply acoustic
depicts the rat's slow, stealthy movement.
The children sing the last part of the game in unison, continuing to m
their fingers back and forth and hoping not to be caught in the middle-
symbolic trap-when the song ends. The soloist, by controlling the numb
song repetitions, can avoid ending when his finger is in the middle. In this
part, the words add a further sound image-that of catching a bird's leg
trap under water.

Unison: Kei-ki-zi-kee, werei-kao gbaai t6e y& mu,

[Bird named by voice sound] hind-leg bone cut a water vine under water,
vi-kix-vio, y6lop-oo.
[sound of being caught, sound of quickness]
Doo-nfiu y6loi-oo moi.
The singer is very quick.13

The concern with pQkO0, specifically, imitation of action and sound thro

l1 T 163.13.

12 T 367.

13 Ibid.

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 195

nonverbal means, is also evident. Kao, former master drummer f

Gbeyilataa, produced the sound of the nam( or spirit of the Poro secret societ
making a sound with his voice near the drumhead. He also imitated sou
the slit drum, hourglass drum, and transverse wooden horn with his g
drum.
In nonperformance contexts, automobile horns contribute importantly to
the total audio environment. Some "money-buses" (commercial transport
pickups) are equipped with fancy horns that play a short melodic phrase of
several different pitches. These, as well as simpler horns, are sounded as the
vehicle approaches the town and continue to be heard until it has disappeared.
In fact, in an oral history account, one of these horns was so admired that it
received a proper name, Te-te-pQu, and a special music performance was named
after it.

Audio phenomena are focal areas both within the sphere of performance
(pele) and, more broadly, in everyday life. People point to and label the subtle
shadings of sound from one audio medium to another, and from non-audio
media-such as visual media-to audio media. Not only is audio primary, but
where a Westerner might rely on a visual image to explain sound-as in the
expression "tone color"-the Kpelle more often rely on a sound image to ex-
plain aspects of experience.

Sonic Conceptualization

To describe sonic conceptualization from the Kpelle perspective requires

that the ethnomusicologist bracket such concepts as pitch and timbre, holding
them open to question. This act requires one to step back, as it were, and ap-
ply a broader frame to the study than has previously been employed, for if one
assumes that the Western categories are valid, those categories significant to
the Kpelle may be obscured. So little research has been conducted cross-
culturally concerning categories such as pitch and timbre that, in most cases,
we do not know the range of their comparative applicability.
Significant Kpelle music concepts came to my attention throughout my
research project, but only during the latter part of the study did I begin to
comprehend them in something approaching native terms. A considerable ini-
tiation period was necessary for development of background knowledge of
Kpelle ideas to make it possible for me to interpret my data from even a quasi-
Kpelle perspective.
Several basic notions underlie Kpelle concepts of sound and its organization.
Sound, though analytically separable from other kinds of communication such
as kinesic or visual, is conceptually part of several areas in the finite sphere of

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196 RUTH M. STONE

music performance. Speech, dance, instrument playing, and singing

transmutable within the performance situation, and these forms of c
munication become interchangeable in certain respects. A solo dancer, for
ample, evaluated a particular master drummer's skill as follows:

Va fig.6 sfye a hfl;.

He doesn't pick up my feet well.

A drummer, in another example, commented on how he plays for dancer

Nfiui a ke mllai, berei a g6x siye lai, f k6 nale tf.

When a person is dancing, the way he raises his feet, you play it that way.

Finally, someone commented on a dance he had observed:

MAla rih6 tf ...

That dance she spoke (executed) ...

In each case, movement is conceptually transformed to sound. While we m

separate music sound from these other communicative means for analytica
purposes, it is, for the Kpelle, much more closely bound up and inte
changeable with them than is the case in Western music.
The Kpelle distinguish w6o su ket? ("voice with a large inside") from w6o
su kuro tei ("voice with a small inside"). Occasionally, they also distinguish
voice in the middle (sAma) between these extremes. These concepts of large a
small apply to singing voices, instrumental sounds, and speaking voices, an
the idea incorporates both pitch and resonance attributes. A large voice is bo
lower in pitch and more resonant than a smaller voice. This distinct
parallels Herzog's analysis for the Jabo (Glebo) in southeastern Liberia. The
Jabo designate a small voice ke, the name for a bird with a high-pitched voi
and a large voice dolo, the name for a bird with a low-pitched voice. Herzo
also points out that pitch is not isolated by the Jabo from its association wi
other sound elements.14 Similarly, Zemp reports the Dan distinctions of lar
or small voice.15
In verbalization, the Kpelle focus to a great extent on qualities of timbre
They describe a voice as tQOi ("standing"), or kulAi ("coming out"), wo

14 George Herzog, "Speech-Melody and Primitive Music," Musical Quarterly, 20 (1934), 452-466.

" Zemp, Musique Dan, p. 72.

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 197

that denote clarity and penetration. As one informant said while participa
in a feedback interview:

f86o f6 kulAi we6 nyfi a p0ri niu w61i tgoi.

His voice doesn't come out w6o [penetrating sound] in a way that it stands a person's

The Kpelle also speak of a sound as noooi ("voiced"), which imp

resonance in addition to clarity and penetration. Still another way of descr
a voice is to say /6o su pono.i ("voice whose inside is clear"), which contr
with h6o su kpinie ("voice whose inside is dark"). The former quali
preferred in music performance.
Lack of clarity is expressed as 16o g&la-gila, the hyphenated form of a
onomatopoeic expression. Lack of penetration is also labeled h6o kp
("voice swallowed").
A particularly significant dimension of sonic quality can be termed "lev
energy." Thus the Kpelle speak of t6o t4e yelei ("voice raised to the sky"
contrast to t6o maa y6i0q ("voice lowered"). This distinction inv
dynamics, tempo, pitch, and sometimes timbre. Therefore, if one perfo
tells another to lower his voice, it may mean he should sing more softly, m
slowly, at a lower pitch level, or all three of these things. Energy level als
plies when evaluating a drummer; one audience member commente
follows about a drummer:

lyee maa yPQ09, a ialei sli-sti.

His hands are lowered, he's playing sri-sri [sound of quietness].

Energy level also applies in evaluating dance movement, as when one list
commented in a feedback interview:

L6 66 nei a tgoi gS gt tI gg saai?

What is he standing, doing that his feet are dying?

Another set of terms relating to energy level involves the concept

wi? ("heavy") and ffiaoi ("light").16 These terms gloss the categorie
pitch, timbre, tempo, and sometimes dynamics. A poor drummer ma
characterized as having heavy hands, or a poor dancer as having heavy feet
terms are also used in a nonevaluative manner: when a performer asks ano

1* "Light" and "heavy" are not opposites for the Kpelle. In Kpelle thinking, they represent a co
and the negation of the concept, rather than polar opposites. No term exists to express the equiva
"opposite."

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198 RUTH M. STONE

to "be heavy on it" (iwi4 ma), he means to emphasize and dwell upon
sound through dynamic and durational accent. A heavy voice (w6o wi?
considered both resonant and low pitched, although this designation is an
frequent one.
The Kpelle demonstrate a great facility for multiple structuring of sou
That is, they appear to focus simultaneously on very specific, small sound u
and on much broader sound combinations. They do not consider one note
its successive notes linearly, but attend rather to the multiple ways a note
ists with others in time.
By virtue of the use of staff notation, Western ethnomusicologists
phasize the isolation of individual points of sound, for each point takes on
concrete reality as it is written as a note head for visual comprehension a
manipulation. While Kpelle musicians recognize and distinguish these
dividual sounds, as evidenced in tuning patterns and names, pitch is not th
primary conceptual focus.
Ideally, performance involves many individual sounds coming together
unitary whole, constructed from many diverse parts. A chorus does not r
pond in unison; rather, it breaks up into individual parts. This fractioning
cludes the low-pitched ostinato chorus members, mQu-siye-681ai ("owl-rais
people"), singing multi-ostinato parts. Referring to this, one informant s

NQai di k6 fla pule wooi mu tti t.i.

The people should respond to the song individually.
Nulei f6 k$ zuu-oo.
The song shouldn't be just zuu [sound of unison].

For this reason also, hocket performance is much admired and valued. I
tiiru (transverse horn) ensembles, for example, each performer plays one
two notes that are fitted to those of other performers, thus interlocking
compose the single melodic unit. Such complex synchronization exemplifi
this principle of simultaneous individualization.
A further dimension of Kpelle sonic concepts touches on Western conside
tions of polyphony, rhythm, and tempo. Two sounds considered to be relat
to one another are designated pori.e ("fit" or "equivalent"). They are id
tical, existing in proper sonic or temporal relation. Therefore, the term po
embraces the temporal and sonic dimensions simultaneously.

Temporal Conceptualization

Basic to an understanding of Kpelle temporality-both as it exists in eve

day life and in music events-is a recognition of its multiple dimensions. O

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 199

way of conceiving of multiple-dimension time, as explained by Alfred Sch

is that we exist together in multiple dimensions of time.17 In its broad d
sions, this notion is compatible with Kpelle thinking, and the dimen
labeled by Schutz as inner and outer time can be profitably explored in
for the Kpelle.
Previous studies of African music temporality have usually focuse
analysis of music in terms of a unidimensional linearity. Furthermore, as
Merriam has pointed out, analysis has been pursued with the inher
ethnomusicological assumption that equally spaced beats are basic to m
sound organization.18 Linearity does not adequately fit the Kpelle situatio
will be evident when features of Kpelle temporal concepts are discussed.
First, outer time, for the Kpelle, is conceived in three-dimensional spa
terms: this space is created, manipulated, and altered within the interacti
a music event. It is characterized at one level by the distinction between
"inside" of the performance and the "outside" of the performance. A
former says, "Kwa 16i belei su ['We are entering the inside of
performance']." Actions are classified as taking place inside or outsid
finite sphere of pele.
On another level, if one speaks of nulei ti palu ("behind that song")
means either the song before or after the present song. Similarly, goran
("that year") points either to the year before or after the present year.
in such a system focuses not on a stream flowing in an unalterable directio
in Schutz's outer time, nor, as Merriam has suggested, on a spiral-type m
that is cyclical,19 but rather on a three-dimensional spatial conception. Thi
concept emerges, for example, from comments made by event participa
discussing performance:

Nulei sfye.

Raise the song [meaning to begin the song].

Iw6o tee yelei.

Raise your voice to the sky [meaning, as noted above, increase dynamic level, pitch, or
tempo].
Mila hi tee.

Cut the edge of the dance [meaning that the dance should pause with a proper pause cue]

17 Alfred Schutz, "Making Music Together: A Study in Social Relationship," in Collected Papers II
Studies in Social Theory (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962), pp. 169-177.

1' Alan P. Merriam, "Analysis of African Musical Rhythm and Concepts of Time-Reckoning" (Pap
delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Austin, Texas, November 4, 197
19 Ibid.

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200 RUTH M. STONE

Ka f6a oulei mu.

Respond underneath the song [meaning that the chorus should respond to the song].
Nulei t6o.

Drop the song [meaning that the song should be sung].

BSlei 6 y6e.
Lower the performance [meaning that the performance should pause].
Ble-K.alo9 kia belei mei.
The petformance chief is over the performance [meaning that he presides in the political hierar-
chy].
Nfnii tf who su kttei.
The inside of that woman's voice is large [meaning that the woman has a low-pitched, reso-
nant voice].
Belei aA pTlao.
The performance has gotten down [meaning that the performance has meshed and the music
making is synchronized].
Belei su 6 k6.t.

Enlarge the inside of the performance [meaning that audience members should step back to
enlarge the performance area].

The terms "edge," "underneath," "over," and "inside" are all locational
words within the event, indicating the nature of this dimensionality. In addi-
tion, the verbs give detailed description to the action: "raise," "cut,"
"agree," "drop," "lower," "get down," and "enlarge."
A second related characteristic of Kpelle temporal conception is the emphasis
on movement or process. Movement is precisely indicated by the verbs in the
examples cited above. Dance movements are also described with verbs, precise-
ly labeling movement. Therefore one says "16kig pfli" ("throw" 16kin),
"sokokpa tte" ("cut" sokokp&), "kenemi 661a" ("split" kenemA).
In Kpelle music events, the concept of movement is prominent in the Kpelle
image of "going down a road together." The performers' voices going down
the same road expresses the Kpelle idea of temporal and sonic fit. Conversely, if
the performers do not integrate their voices properly, they go down different
roads. One performer explained:

NOui kAa fAai mu a nymoo0, t6o k? 11 64 pere,

If the people are responding underneath it badly, his voice goes on this road,
markA woo k$ 11 6 pere.
his fellow's voice goes on this road.

The Kpelle describe a song that is fitting together properly as nulei lii perei
("song going down the road").
This emphasis on movement should not be confused with linear movement
in which one event follows another in succession, for while the image of road

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 201

is prominent in Kpelle music events, the linear aspect is not fundamen

the Kpelle, "road" denotes movement which is more than directiona
it characterizes a synchronization of movement among people. Since wa
is fundamental to Kpelle life, it is not surprising that the image of roa
chosen.
The Kpelle focus on time in three-dimensional terms with movement that is
fundamentally nonlinear may be characterized in terms of expandable moments
or "presents." Within these presents, people elaborate and build three-
dimensional experiential structures. They bring in objects, people, and ex-
perience, through movement of many different qualities, constantly
negotiating, fitting, and adjusting one to another, making past experiences fit
into the present and thereby de-emphasizing the linear passage of time.
Kpelle time is like a bubble in that while it is variably expandable, at some
point it must cease to expand. Like the bursting of the bubble, the participants
move to another present in time through a leap or shock, similar to that
described by Schutz for entering or leaving finite spheres of interaction.
Therefore, life consists of a series of presents more distinguishable from one
another by qualitative rather than quantitative differences. That the Kpelle are
cognizant of people growing old and time passing in the sense of outer time is
not in question. The point is that this dimension of time is simply not em-
phasized: rather the Kpelle elaborate the present.
The term "expandable" is used purposely since, in Kpelle music events, the
degree and nature of expansion depends upon the degree of success with which
the participants' communication and interaction are meshed. Kpelle song texts
and their construction offer a concrete realization of this whole schema of ex-
pandable presents. A single text sung by F6m? of Gbylilataa will illustrate the
point. In the song, she expands the present by juxtaposing different elements:
(1) stereotypic phrases; (2) comments on occurrences of the recent past; and (3)
comments evaluating the immediate present performance. The stereotypic
phrases, sometimes in the form of proverbs, may be like the following:

NA k$ a duo-kpio-tio-kpai, na s.69 wdru ma ne fa pfi,

I'm a swaying thing, if I strike a tree its dew doesn't fall,
wtiru a s6x mA n? k6 11 a pfi.
if a tree strikes me, its dew falls.20

These phrases are characteristic and fundamental to the structure of this par-
ticular song, but they are found also in the songs of other performers.

20 ATR 454.3/ T 45-56.

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202 RUTH M. STONE

The comments on occurrences of the recent past may include the fo

NA pA ziai sfye damap-daman.

I undertook the trip damap-damag [sound of something moving easily].
NA If Oi kfila Gbeyflataa.
I went and came the Gbeytlataa.
Na pa nA w?li s6o naa.
I came and took a lover there.
NA w.li laa 6a Gbua-pere yaa-yaa.
My lover's name is Short-road yaa-yaa.21

Drawing on another event of the past, F.6m comments on an incide

volving girls entering the Sande society:

Gbolowa k.tei a yaoi-ee.

The large uninitiate is afraid.
Ve gbalai pili ni a hflee.
She didn't throw the sword well.22

Leaping to the present performance situation, F6me admonishes the

to notice an upcoming important phrase as she sings,

Ku 6araa, ka ka w61i to9 itdoo wule ma,

Our fellows, listen to my singing song,
Oa k? doOi, Ag? ma yoron 66.
when I, singing it, I open its net.23

She later makes a generalized comment about the ZkQ1le Kpelle, a gr

ing north of the Central Kpelle.

ZokQl?-pai 6oii, da dl w4ii 6a yfli a manan.

The ZQkole are stupid, they cook their lovers' food with cassava.24

In this present of the event, F6m? has expanded the moment to

thoughts, ideas, and incidents from various sectors of time. The unit

21 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

s Ibid.

2 Ibid.

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KPELLE MUSIC PERFORMANCE 203

ment consists of both a stereotypic past embodied in characteristic phrase

the more recent past of specific incidents.
Within the event, F.me exemplifies the Kpelle ability to focus on discr
frames that are conceptually united but do not progress in a linear order.
leaps from one time frame to another, bringing experiences to a central,
ent focus. A Westerner reading a Kpelle song text may receive the impres
that the singer is using a stream-of-consciousness technique to organize
present his or her thoughts. Of course the Kpelle can, and do, conceptua
progression of events, one following another, as in a narrative folktale.
linear progressions are primarily out of awareness in music performance ev
Even in everyday life the focus is on the juxtaposition of these qualitatively
ferent aspects of time in an expandable present. Furthermore, what is o
translated as past tense in conversation or narration, is, in fact, conceived
present tense that prevails until another quality or dimension of presen
realized. In the following phrases an informant used four different statem
of present to relate various past actions, as he related an oral history of m
performance:

Gbeyfla saa, nyai, Gb6n-pllaoi a naa kole, h.i

Gbeyila dying, and Gbog-pilai has now become ill, his eyes
f6 no kwaa kaai, hi6 kt velii ti siye.
no longer see, his son takes up that drum.

Many Kpelle speakers also use the English word "time" (t&i), to mean mo-
ment, but in no sense does it denote movement or passage of time. It may,
however, mean coordination of movement, as when a person admonishes per-
formers:

Ka ziye tAi ma.

Do it in time.

In other than music events, the Kpelle use relatively few verbal expressions
for distinguishing the past. They speak of le to indicate something of recent
past, within the past few days or weeks; nyoo, within the past year; and w61o,
which can be intensified by repetition (w610, w619), meaning the entire past
beyond ny6q. We have seen above that in relating to the distant past, the
Kpelle often bring elements of that remote time to a present moment. An in-
formant speaking of the mythical past simply indicates it by speaking of kuwQ
nua-pQlQ-na, diwQ nua-p9Ql-na, diwQ nua-pQol-na ("our old people, their old
people, their old people"). Even such a phrase is a series of repetitive presents
brought together.

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204 RUTH M. STONE

The term for year, koran, is a further illustration of the argument that
Kpelle view time as expanded presents. Koran is identical to the term for
fence which on Kpelle farms circumscribes and encloses the farm area. Time
this sense, is a spatial area which is set apart but is not necessarily linear. Ko
is also the term used for "ritual," and to utter ritual speech is to koran 6
("open the fence"). In kinesic-proxemic terms, circumscribing an area to b
symbolically filled is accomplished at one level by musicians circling a town
separate the performance area from the malevolent spirits. On a more spec
level, circumscribing occurs as participants move in a counterclockwise dire
tion around the dance area, thus forming the boundary marker between
dance and nondance phases of the event.
I have noted that Kpelle prefer a performance made up of many sm
diverse parts combined into a unified whole, and that hocket technique ex
hibits this ideal in the extreme. Yet it is more than a matter of sound patter
combining with sound pattern B to become toQnQ ("one"), as the Kpelle r
to the unity that results. Rather, the result is similar to Schutz's "inner" t
where protention, retention, and anticipation combine to create a unity o
various qualities. That is, at one point sound A and sound B are tQno9.
simultaneously or consecutively, sound A and sound B, as well as sound C, e
ist in a kind of unity. Therefore, tQnQQ reflects a unity in the event, com
hending various levels and made up of diverse elements. This performance i
consists in creating unity by playing out Kpelle cultural rules to the limit.
the negotiation of diversity. The nature of tQnoQ is multifaceted, depending
the participants' perspectives and interpretations.
The Kpelle do not distinguish this segmentation at different levels
specificity in a quantitative way, unlike the Western ethnomusicologist w
distinguishes a motif from a phrase, a period, and a song in reference
segments that become increasingly inclusive. The Kpelle use the word wule
refer variously to segments known in Western terms as motif, phrase, peri
and song. Wule exists on all these levels, and contextual data determine th
level invoked at any particular moment.
The matters of tempo and relative speed relate to temporal conceptualization a
are mentioned here briefly in light of the argument presented. The word m
which means "dance," also means "fast." Ideally music, especially for danc
is performed as fast as is possible without loss of synchronization and precis
The emphasis is not on the quantitative time between drumbeats, but rat
on the qualitative synchronization working toward ever greater precision.
more desirable to combine many different parts than to play at a significan
faster tempo.
From the preceding discussion of temporal and sonic concepts, certain terms
emerge as significant to Kpelle evaluation of music. Table 1 indicates how

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 Table 1. Classification of sonic and temporal aspects

PITCH TIMBRE DYNAMICS RHYTHM TEMPO POLYP

160 su k~tt,/ kuro tei h6o pfiappii

I
(voice inside large! (voice gotten down)
small)

(i6o kulSi iiulei Iii perei

I
(voice coming out) (song going down
the road)

h6o su pon69i/kpini; oiulei zQQ

I
(voice clear/dark) (song meshing)

1loo zu ski

(voiced) (straight voice)

1:60 tO. yelei/maa

I o~~~~ulei t6o t&i ma
(son~g sung in time)
(voice reaching to xk
the sky/lowered) (v

I
(voice heavy/light)

tiulei see seeC gie mal mua f6lua 66

(voice standing/ (song seated on top of (fast) (v
fuzzy) one another)

#6o kp6lW mua tinalgiQ

(voice swallowed) (turned around, slow)

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206 RUTH M. STONE

these terms relate to those used in Western music style analysis. Particul
striking are the number of Kpelle terms that encompass more than
Western term. The first set of terms under the column labeled "pitch," f
example, .6o su ket/kuro tei ("voice inside large/small"), embraces both pi
and timbre. The last term in the rhythm column, nulei zoQ ("song meshing
embraces rhythm, tempo, and polyphony. Therefore this term combines b
sonic and temporal qualities into a single concept.
From the few aspects of Kpelle music discussed here, several features eme
that are striking and contrastive to many Western music concepts.
1. Audio communication is highly valued, and other kinds of human
perience are often translated into sound terms for expressive purposes.
2. Kpelle categories of analysis often embrace several Western categor
Energy level, as an example, glosses the categories of dynamics, tempo
pitch, and sometimes timbre.
3. Performance in Kpelle terms should emphasize maximum diversity wit
which unity can be achieved.
4. Temporal conceptualization centers on expandable moments that ma
considered to possess a kind of three-dimensional spatial quality.
This preliminary exploration emphasizes the importance of examining p
formance from multiple perspectives and comparing how different peopl
conceive of the creation of their particular music.

Indiana University
Bloomington

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