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ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
A word Ethnomusicology is a composed of three words.
Ethno prefix: indicating race, people, culture, ethnic group
Music: sounds that are arranged in a way that is pleasant or exciting to listen to
Ology: is a suffix used with words the scientific study a particular subject.
Ethnomusicology provides an understanding into the interaction of musical academic study with
ideas about culture, folklore, heritage and tradition in cultural context of social structure
Ethnomusicology is the scientific study of music, especially traditional or non-western music, as
an aspect of culture.
 It is the comparative study of music of different culture
 Is the study of folk or native music, especially non-western culture and its relationship to
the society to which it belongs
 The study of the music of a particular region or people from the view point of its social or
cultural implications
 The comparative study of the music of more than one such region or people
Ethnomusicology studies:
 Folk music, ancient music, ethnic music and world music
 Folk music that is lives in oral tradition
 All music that a given locality
 The music that given population groups regards as their particular property of everyone
of country
(Ethno) Musicology is a field of knowledge having as its object the investigation of the art of
music as:
A physical: needing bodily strength
 Existing in the real material world
 Involving a lot of bodily contact
Psychological: is mental processed, designed to affect mind
 Existing in human mind, soul, feeling, sprit
Aesthetic: appreciating beauty
 Sensitive to art
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 Appealing and attractive quality

 Feeling satisfaction
Cultural: is fact, event, and concurrency of observed in the culture
Ethnomusicology is made up of both of the:
Musicological: the academic study of music and its history
Ethnological: study of human culture or the culture of specific societies, including social
structure, language, religion, art etc…
 And that musical sound is the result of human behavioral processes that are shaped by the
values, attitudes and beliefs of the people who members of a particular culture.
 Music sound cannot be produced except by people for other people one is not really
complete without the other.
 Music is a product of man and has structure, but its structure cannot have an existence of
its own divorced from the behavior which produces it.
 In order to understand how and why the behavior which produces it is as it is, and how
why the concepts which underline that behavior are ordered in such a way as to produce
the particularly desired form of organized sound.
Ethnomusicology studies including all contemporary music
Social structure: that influence important social systems
 Legal system
 Political system
 Cultural system
Society: Self-contained: having everything required
: Self-sufficient- population united by social relationships bounded from other
populations by geographic locations.
-not needing things from others, has a capacity to manage alone
Stratifications: unequal distributions of values in a population (i.e. class, status, resources,
grades, wealth, positional goods, etc…)

Folk Music
Folk Music: a community’s cultural historical background presented and passed on from one
generation to the next in spoken stories and song.
 Like folk literature lives in oral tradition
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 It is learned through hearing rather than reading

 It is functional in the sense that it is associated with other activities
Folk or traditional music has been the music of the common people.
It normally shared the entire community and was further transmitted by oral tradition.
 Old songs with no known composers
 Music that has been transmitted and evolved by process of oral transmission or
performed by custom over a long period of time
 The term folk music, folk song, and folk dance are the extensions of the term folklore
 One widely used definition is simply “Folk music is what the people sing.”
Folk music is one of the best known manifestations of Oromo folklore today
Any form of musical expression that is composed and performed by ordinary people and
transmitted orally to others.
Folk music is most commonly vocal music with musical instrument that is not electronically
amplified
Folk music is performed live informally rather than by commercial means or recording.
Traditional folk music involves a participatory process that unites the member of a community in
shared singing and/or is instrumental performance
It has a spontaneous pre-package property, as it emerges from mutual need and contribution.
Folk music has many forms including chantries, spirituals, work songs and ballads.
Such tunes (short piece of music) are context-sensitive, emerging from events, occupations and
emotions that the songs express
Folk songs of this kind are generally learned with ear rather than with eye, as most are not
written out as lyrics or in musical notation
People learn by listening and singing along with already knows the songs.
The concept of folk music
In determining whether a song or piece of music is folk music
 Most performers  The regular way of transmission
 Participants and  Social function
 Enthusiasts (person deeply involved)  Origin and performance
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The central tradition and folk music are transmitted orally that is:
 Learned through hearing  Small social networks of relatives or
 In a normal way in informal friends

Folk music and tradition

Oral tradition: providing both the creating and the stability of folk music.
It has provided many useful approaches method for understanding the transmission of music in
non-literate societies.
It consist both musical and ethnographic concerns essential to the study of folk music
The musical elements of oral tradition include:
 Form and style
 Folk classification and music
 Perception of the differences and similarities that related or distinguish individual pieces
Oral tradition is also a measure of a community’s sense of itself its boundaries, and the shared
values drawing together.
Folk music can be can be possessor of extensive knowledge, places of storage for these values
and a voice for their expression
Oral tradition often determines the social acceptability and limitations these values through its
continuous process
Sifting: important from unwanted and eliminate not needed and winnowing, unwanted: remove
that you do not want some values gradually become or vestigial (no longer functional remaining
as a sign)
Other enters and exit quickly from traditions and still others join into one and form a cultural
core that oral tradition support through many generations.

Characteristics of folk music

A leading figure of the nature of folk music is its transmission through oral tradition
Folk people/society acquired songs by memorizing them.
 It uses related to national culture
 It was culturally particular; from a particular region or culture
 It commemorate historical and personal events
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 On the certain days of the year, particular songs celebrate the yearly cycle, seasonal
(limited to specific time of the year), occasional (irregular event), periodic (reappearing
from time to time).
 Weddings, birthdays and funerals…noted with songs, dances, and special customs
 Religious festivals often have a folk music component.
A folk music has been performed by custom, over a long period of time, usually several
generations.
Composition: Most folk songs are composed without notation
Notation: a system of sings or symbols used to represent information in music, musical notation
Note: a single sound of a particular length and PITCH (=how high or low sounds), made by the
voice or a musical instrument, the written or printed sign for a musical note.
Among the most important genres of folk music are ballads, short or a poem that tells a story

Epics: longer narratives in heroic style along poem about the actions of great men and women or
about nation, history; this style of poetry.
Work songs and other lyrical songs
Lyrical: expressing strong emotion in an imaginative way
: Expressing period’ personal feelings and thoughts
Songs of a ceremonial nature accompanying the life cycle of man or the annual agricultural cycle
Lullabies: a soft gentle song sung to make a child go to sleep
Praising horse, cattle and countries, war song
Chants: words or phrase that a group people shout or sing again and again

The origins
 Much of traditional music was originally vocal music, since it did not require an
instrument.
 Its forms are lyrical (showing passionate interest in something eagerness, having strong
emotions)
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 Songs of expression of admiration/praise and religious music keep/ retain their

traditional and unknown origins.
 Folk music seems to reflect a universal impulse (motivation) and is probably as old as
humanity itself starting from the dawn/ beginning of speech.
 Early from the beginning/distant past music was made by common people during both
their work and leisure
 Work songs with call and response structures enabled the labors to sing and coordinate
work within the rhythms of song
Manual labor often included singing by the workers, which served several practical
purposes
The work and economic production was often physical tasks and communal.
It reduce the burden of repetitive tasks
It kept the rhythm during at the same time pushes and pulls and speed of happening
It’s set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding (unwanted plants)
harvesting/ reaping (gather crop to cut and gather), threshing (separate seeds from
its unwanted cover), weaving (make close).
Milling: grading grain into flour small machine for crushing or grinding a solid substance into
powder. Churning: butter making, fetching/ collecting firewood, sheepherders, pastoral cattle
herder, lullabies.
Leisure: time that is spent doing what you enjoy when someone not working singing and playing
musical instruments was common.
The origins of folk music are in everything around us they are found in the chirpings of the
feathered choristers of nature
chirpings :A short high-pitched, especially as made by a bird
choristers: singer in chorus or choir
Chorus: part of song that is sung after each verse REFRAIN
 A group of performer who sings and dance in musical show
 In the voices or calls of various animals
 In the melancholy sound of the waterfall: melancholy (feeling or causing sadness)
 Wild roar of waves
 In the hum of distant multitudes hum (sing with lips closed)
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 The concussion of sonorous bodies, in the winds, high winds heavy rain moves with
speed and force around
Concussion: Sudden shock
Sonorous: producing sound
The beginning of music is lost I the day of yore (distant past) as are the beginning of speech.

Subject matter
 The idea/ information contained in folk music most traditional folk music has meaningful
lyrics (romantic, emotional, expressive).
Many epic heroic songs (a lengthy narrative poem in high language celebrating the adventures
and achievements of a legendary or traditional hero) of various cultures were pieced together
from shorter pieces of traditional narrative verse.
Other forms of traditional narrative verse relate the outcomes of battles and other tragedies or
natural disasters
Sometimes songs celebrate victory
Laments for lost battles and wars, and lives lost in them are equally prominent in many
traditions.
Lament: a song, poem or other expression of great sadness for who has died or for something
that has ended:
: Regrettable, Unfortunately
: These laments keep alive the cause for which the battle was fought
The narratives of traditional songs often also remember folk heroes
Some traditional songs narratives recall super natural events or mysterious deaths
Traditional songs a present religious lore in a mnemonic form
Mnemonic: word, sentence, poem etc. that helps you to remember something
Work song: frequently feature call and response structure and are designed to enable the laborers
who sing them to coordinate their efforts in accordance with the rhythms of the songs.
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The units of transmission

 The way how a single part of folk song can be passed/ learned
 The oral transmission of folk music depends on memory and mnemonic devices that
facilitate it.
 Memory: the ability of the mind to keep/member learned information and knowledge and
give back again, restore.
 Mnemonic: the practice of improving the memory
: A similar in the sound of words endings, especially in poetry
: Regular/ repetitive form arrangement of similar sounds at the ends of the lines
 A singer learns a song by recognizing markers that he or she used previously
:Audiences also expect to come upon a marker they have experienced in other songs.
:This markers may be small coupling a word with a motif of a few notes or as extensive
as an entire piece (a single part taken from larger whole).
:The role of this marker may be so great that capable performance results in exact
repetition of a song as the singer first experienced it;
:Their musical function may be such that the encourage new phrase combinations or
improvisation.
:Taken as a whole, these memory markers become the units of transmission that make
oral tradition possible.
The repertory (all the plays, pieces of music, etc. that a performer knows and can perform) of
each singer time may have significance differences in a single particular song.
In folklore study we know the term variant and version used to inspect oral tradition. For
example we can look the differences in a ways of singing the same song.
Variant: a music that is different from or type of other music else
Version: a piece of music that is slightly different from the original music in which it is based.
Form: musical form refers to the overall arrangement structure of piece of music
 The rhythm organization of melody can reinforce those of a text.
 Rhythm: the regular repetitive form/arrangement of beats and emphasis in a piece of
music
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 Melody: short piece of music, voice or line sequence of musical distinctive sound quality
(tone) that listener perceives as a single nature.
 Melodic closure may occur simultaneously with textual ending
 The form of stanza will very often come into view by the nature of textual verse
 Stanza: division of poem: a number of lines of verse forming in a separate

Musical form
Refers to the arrangement of various components in a piece of music
Forms through repetition and difference
Difference is the distance moved from a repeat being the smallest difference
How to describe form
There are various ways of describing the repetition, change and variation that occurs in a musical
composition
Below table permits us to see forms of any folk music through specific stanzas.
Name Description Letter
First verse First words and music A
Refrain(chorus) New words and music B
Second verse Sound like first verse, but with some changes (like new words) A’
Refrain Same as first refrain B
Bridge New material, usually instrumental solo or different voice C
Third verse Sound like first verse, etc A’
Refrain Same as first refrain B
Refrain Similar to previous refrain, but with modest changes B’
(improvised vocal, B’ fade, etc)
Refrain: line or group of lines return repeatedly at regular intervals
Using the letter method, we can describe this song as having the form ABA’BCA’BB’
The small marks to the upper right of one A and one B designate variation.
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Common forms of music

Some forms are so common they have been given names as
Name Description
Binary: a two section form AB (each may be repeated: AA BB)
Ternary: a three section form ABA
Rondo: a complicated and many different parts ABACAB’A
Theme and variations AA’A”’A”’ etc

The typical folk song is strophic: the tune is repeated several times with successive stanzas of
poem:
Tunes may have from two to eight lines, but most often there are four
The musical interrelationship among the lines is described as the form.
Popular folk music
Popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called folk
revival
This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to
distinguish it from earlier folk music.
Modern folk music was understood to be a particular kind of popular music which was culturally
descended from. This kind of folk music is most often performed by gifted amateur and
professional musicians with play-for-profit performances and recordings.
The impact of recording technology makes folk music popular folk music
The popularity of “contemporary folk “recordings caused appearance of the category popular
folk music

Folk dance
 Folk dance:- is the traditional dances of a country that evolve from natural processes,
driving motivated from internal rather than from planning no external influences.
 It is developed gradually for all non-professional reasons
 Those that are performed for all non-professional reasons
 Ceremonial dance performed usually by members of the community
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 Community dances that are forms of communication and co-operation, done for a
purpose (at marriage, births) and in public places
 Originated and regular occurred through a long period of time established within a
particular racial or cultural division belongs to specific human group

Dance as a cultural and social activity

Dance: is short in duration mode of expression performed in a given form and style by the
human body moving in space
Dance occurs through purposefully selected and controlled rhythmic the resulting phenomenon is
recognized as dance both by the performer and the observing member of a given group.
Dance is one of the cultural manifestations of man, created by man in his own environment.
It is the continuous movement of the body to a certain rhythm within a given area.
Rhythm: a strong regular repeated pattern of sounds or movements.
It is an expression of emotions, how releasing of emotions for amount of energy; or simply is a
source of joy. Dance is at least as old as man. Give him pleasure, and expressed his feelings
about the most important of events of his life. He believed that through dancing he could
communicate with the unseen spirit world, which controlled the visible world in which he lived.
Folk dance therefore, is a serious business intimately bound up with the need / social security/
well-being/ welfare of the society. Folk people dancing to celebrate birth, pray for good hunting,
victory in battle etc. Children play dances, adult courtship dance (the time when two people have
a romantic relationship before they get married). Popular folk dance and modern dance
developed from folk dance.
Ethnic dance
The dance of a group which holds in common genetic, linguistic and cultural ties with special
emphasis on cultural traditions
An integral part of group of life, an organizing factor of the community, a medium of control of
the group a medium of social ritual, recreational significance
Ceremonial dance
Dances performed at particular times of the year in a performer/ audience context
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Display dances which fulfill some of the criteria of purpose, place, performer, time of year
associated with ceremonial forms
Nature and function of folk dance
Many folk dances best expresses their ancient functions when performed in their native habitat.
In the village they enhance spirit of communication, shared feelings and beliefs and brotherhood
Celebrates original festivals
Oromo folk dance is diverse because of Oromo’s vast cultural diversity.
Again, here, according to the nature and functions, the vast body of folk dances can be further
subdivided according to the basic character or particular occasion of performance of dance
Among Oromo society the range and variety of folk dance traditions are still surviving through
difficulty
The Oromo has many cultural regions
In each there are different styles of folk dance
The tribal dance are either ritualistic or simple celebrative
Mostly performed with participants of that occasion
The vast body of Oromo dances can be further subdivided according to the basic character or
particular occasion of performance of the dance.
Such as ritual dances
Ceremonial dances
 Harvest dance  Social dance
 Dances of boys as girls
 Form and techniques

Elements of dance
1) Design, 2) step, 3) gesture, 4) dynamics, 5) technique

Design Dance is characterized by design. That is, a planned organization on regular

way/arrangement/pattern of movement in time and space. Pattern in time is provided by
rhythm which beats of movements into measure.
Pattern in space created by floor pattern (the path sketched /looking line) by the dancer’s
traveling feet) and planes (the travels on which he moves).
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Steps Dance patterns are made up of stapes. Which are developed from man’s basic
movements (locomotive) actions such as, walking, running, jumping, hopping (to move by
jumping on one foot), skipping (move with jump), sliding (move smoothly), galloping and
leaping ( to jump high or a long way), stamping (to put your foot down heavily and noisily
on the ground), turning and swaying (move slowly from side to side).

Gesture Dance may also use gesture whish express specific emotions or ideas mime or
sign language. Brandishing (in an aggressive or threatening way, clasping (hold tightly in
hand s in supplication (the act of asking for with very humble request.

Dynamics Dance involves dynamics which is tension, effort, or energy with which a
movement is made and range from transition, or changes. It may be smooth or sharp.

Related elements
MUSIC dance because of its basis in rhythm is related to music and accompanied by it.
Folk dance is part of one ritual act performed by whole community.
COSTUME AND PROPERTIES
The visual elements of costumes and properties also contribute to dance.
For example headdress, stylized makeup, elaborate head dress, stick, special clothing.

Form and techniques

Attendance at public fiestas is unplanned:
The participants in many dance gatherings observe closely joined organization and definite rules
for the individuals place in the community and in the communal dances.
How to look folk dance critically
1. Its origin: the root from the where develops
2. Location
3. Traditional costume
4. Setting and events performed with
5. Music/sung played together/ combination of with dance
6. Number of participants, sex, and age
7. Formation/ style of movement
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 Broken circle,
 Hand joined in a formation of as shoulder height full circle
 Two/ Parallel  Single Line
8. Styles of movement
 Jumping : Leaves surface with both feats
 Count stapes  Neck dance  Leaves surface with both feats
 Walks
 Head shake dance
 Roll, turn over and over
 Begin falling clock wise/ anti clock wise
 Face to face
 Count stages of walks to right side onto the right front hold slow
 (Counts) continue walking with the left front, then the right foot (quick, quick), slow
For two or more dancers:
 Mirroring: - facing each other and doing the same
 Retro age: performing a sequence of moves in a reverse order moving background in space and
time.

The study and classification of musical instruments

Organology the studies of musical instruments provide us the facts concerning their
classification, description and measurements. The study of musical instruments may be
approached in the following four ways.
(1) Classification and construction
(2) Social and artistic functions
(3) The music that instruments, and
(4) Plays in techniques make.
The study of the constructions of musical instruments includes description of the materials used,
measurements of the parts, and methods of construction. There are four-part classification
systems based on the means by which instruments produce sound.
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Idiophones
Instruments that are self-sounding, that is the material of which they are made, weather wood,
metal, or substance, is somehow set into vibration.
Vibrate: to move or make move from side to side very quickly and with small movement.
: Self-sounding instrument like bells, your tow hands and feet when they are clapped together or
stamped (act of hitting down foot) on the ground.
: Material which is set into motions such as by: Strike (striking/ hit) shaking, scraping/rubbing
and making sound or by stamping.
Idiophones are classified by the way they are cased to vibrate, concussion, struck /hit stamped,
shaken, scarped, plucked or rubbed.

Chordophones
String instruments have one or more vibrating strings as the sound source. Instruments with
strings that can be plucked or bowed
Pluck: to play a musical instrument by pulling the strings with your finger.
Bow: rubbing stretched strings.

Aerophones
Aerophones are instruments in which an enclosed column of air vibrates to produce sound.
The size and shape of the inside of the instrument, termed to bore (deep hole). Have an opening,
or mouthpiece through which the player blows air.
Blow: to send out air from the mouth.

Membranophones
Popularly known as drums
Membrane stretched over an opening across one or both ends of the instruments.
:Membraphones are distinguished by their material shape, skin or heads are how fastened,
playing position and manners of playing.
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Music/Sound: the Materials of music

Music is sound organized in ways meaningful to people in a specific time and place.
 Music is purposefully constructed from particular types of sounds that have over time come
to convey meaning within a given cultural setting.
 Music therefore can be defined as organized sound that is meaningful to people within a
specific time and place.
 Music the purposeful organization of the quality, pitch, duration, and intensity of sound.
 Each music culture organized the four main characteristics of sound quality, intensity, pitch
and duration in distinctive ways.

Sound sources: instruments

 Musical instruments are almost found everywhere as the voice, and they tend to be made of
materials native to their place of origin.
Sound sources: The voice
 Voice is very flexible instruments that can produce a variety of sounds, some quite unexpected.
 A singer can alter the quality of her /his voice by generating the sound from within chest, head
or nose.

Characteristics of Sound
 If music is the purposeful organization of sound that enters our consciousness through the
sense of hearing, we need to subdivide the listening process into manageable parts.
 We can break down sound into four the sense of hearing characteristics that are useful in all
cultures: quality, pitch, duration intensity.
Quality
 The distinctive sound of a particular voice or instrument is termed its quality/tone color
/timbre
 Each sound source generates certain harmonies that produce distinctive sound and enable
listener to distinguish between the voices of two singers or two musical instruments sound.
:Factors such as the construction of an instrument,
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 materials from which it is made or

 the ability of craftsmanship,
 an instrument made from.
 the ability of a voice to produce and
 the ability of instrument to use are also other aspects of sound production that shape quality
Sound –producing mechanism
Chest voice: produces a low, powerful, throaty vocal quality, sound
vibrated from within the chest, with a low, powerful, throaty vocal
quality. ►Naahoo Gobana
Head voice : a light, bright, high tone resonated in the head.
Falsetto : the process of singing by men in a high register above the normal male singing range.
Nasal : a buzzing vocal quality produced by using the sinuses and mask of the face as sound
resonators.
Pitch
 Is the highness or lowness that we hear in a sound
 The pitch of a sound is determined by the frequency of its vibrations,
 The faster the vibrations, the high the pitch; the slower the vibrations, the lower the pitch.
 The scientific for the rate of sound vibration is frequency
 The musical term for the quality of sound which is recognized so instinctively, is pitch.
 Low pitches (low frequencies) result from long vibrating elements. High pitch from short one.
 The distance between the highest and lowest pitch that can be sung or played by or instrument
is called range
 The distance between two pitches this is called interval.
Intensity /Dynamics
 Degree of loudness or softness in music
 A tone has a dynamic level –is soft or loud – in relation to others tones around it .
 The volume at which music is played
 when instruments are played more loudly or more softly, or when there is a change
in how many instruments are heard, a dynamic change result; such a change may be
made either suddenly or gradually.
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Duration /Rhythm
 Any sound we hear has its duration. So, sound exists in time, the length of time we
hear it in minutes, seconds, or micro seconds.
 Rhythm is the follow of music through time.
 We also enjoy allowing the rhythm of music stimulate movement in our bodies , as
when we dance.
Beat
• When you clap your hands or tap your foot to music, you are responding to its beat.
• Beat is a regular, repeatedly occur that divides music into equal units of time

Ethnomusicologists
Who they are and what they actual do?
Many ethnomusicologists have initial background in academic music,
as the students of performance, theory or composition, anthropology and folklore
Many students of ethnomusicology specialized the music of a particular culture or area,
and
even a particular genre of music
 Most of them actually do is to carry out research about non-western, folk,  popular
and vernacular music,  music in culture
 Ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and folklorists
 Understand the music as product of culture
 Deal with musical concepts, attitudes, or form of behavior
 Analyze the interaction of various domains in culture
Non Western and folk-music research
1. Ethnomusicologists believe that music must be understood as
• a part of culture, and
• as a product of human society
• society musically defines itself, in its study of classification of music
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• Its idea of what music does

• How it should be in the way a society change its music
2. Just as important ethnomusicology is the study of the world’s music’s from a
comparative and relativistic perspective
3. Principally, ethnomusicology is study with the use of field work
4. Ethnomusicology is the study of all the musical manifestations of a society.

Music in Non Western Cultures

Non Western music reflects the diversity of the world’s, religions, languages, geographical
conditions, and economic social systems. The varied peoples of the world have music that seems
to express their distinctive values, beliefs, and ways of life. The many different musical cultures
each exhibit (display):
-Characteristic instruments
-Performance Practices
-Tonal distinctive kinds of sound Systems
-Melodic and Rhythmic Patterns
None-Western societies differ in their range of musical styles as well. Some of these societies,
for example, have only folk music (music that is commonly performed by almost anyone in a
village); other cultures also have popular music (music that is learned largely through recording,
films, and broadcasts). Some cultures also have in addition to folk and popular music i.e.
classical music of a complexity that requires highly trained performers
Characteristics of Nonwestern Music:-
All over the world, music is closely linked with religion, dance, and drama and folk music
feature. Music also can serve as:
• entertainment
• accompaniment to everyday activities
• magic rites
• ceremonies marking important phases of life
• and used to send messages and relate traditions
Oral Tradition
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• None western music is most often transmitted orally form parent to child or from
teacher to student.
• Compositions and performance techniques are learned by rote (repetition and
memorization and imitation).
Improvisation
• to invent music while you are playing/singing, instead of planning it.
• Improvisation is basic to many nonwestern musical cultures.
Voices
-Singing is the most important way of making music in the vast majority of nonwestern
cultures.
-Vocal quality varies widely from one musical tradition to another.
Example:-Middle East and North Africa singers cultivate
-Nasal:-produced partly through the nose
-powerful:-vary great, extreme
-Nervous tone:-worry
Sub-Saharan Africa

Opened throated sound is generally preferred by singers. The vast range of vocal techniques
including: shouting, loud voice. Crying:-used to emphasize that you think something is
extremely bad on shocking, Whispering:-to make a soft, quiet sound. Sighing:-to make and then
let out along deep breath that can be heard to show that you are disappointed, sad, tired.
Humming : -to sing a tone with your lips closed, to make allow continuous sound.
Yodeling:-changing your voice frequently between its normal level and a very high level.
Singing through the teeth; an amazing vocal technique is used among African’s can produce two
sounds at the same time, a low ,sustained tone together with, a high, frightening melody.
 Elements of African Music
Rhythm and Percussion
Rhythm: ordered flow of music through time; the pattern of durations of notes and silences in
music Percussion: musical instruments that you play by hitting them with your hand or with a
stick. Rhythm and percussion sounds are highly emphasized in Africa music. This emphasize
reflects the close link between music and dance in Africa culture.
 Characteristics of African Music
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African Music is characteristically complex; it is often

Polyrhythmic: music with contrasting rhythms: a technique of musical composition in which
several contrasting rhythms are used simultaneously.
African Music characterized by different rhythms.
Heterophony: simultaneous performance of musical variations: the performance of several
variations of a piece of music played by different instruments or sung simultaneously.
Polyphonic: with several melodies: describes music consisting of two or more largely
independent melodic lines, parts, or voice that sound simultaneously
Melody: also tune (short piece of music), voice, or line, is a linear sequence of musical tones
(quality), that the listener perceives as a single entity (unit/body).
A melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more the figuratively, the term cam
include series of other musical elements such as tonal color For instance, it is difference between
Tonal color: particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same
pitch and loudness. For instance, it is difference between a guitar and piano playing the same
note at the same loudness. Sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production,
such as voices and musical instruments.

Ono of the characteristics that gives Africa music its distinctiveness is the large number of
colorful instruments used both individually (as accompaniment to singing) and large and small
ensembles (group of performers: a group of musicians, dancer or actors who perform together
with roughly equal contributions from all numbers). Two or more events tend to occur
simultaneously within a musical context. E.g. in a single ceremony/ festival female at one group,
male another group, male groups also possibly perform separated in different groups.
Even players of simple solo instruments (such as the musical law or flute (wind instruments with
high sound/ a wood wind instrument with a cylindrical arrow body) manage to manipulate
(operate) the instrument is such a way to produce simultaneous sounds by playing overtones with
the bow, by humming (sing with lips closed).
Bow, musical instrument, causing which the instrument emits (culture sound) as sound. The vast
majority of bows are used with string instruments plucked string instruments opposed to bowed
strings while bowing and the lice. Melodies often consist of two balanced phrases. There is often
a leader, chorus relationship in performance and polyphonic performances are generally
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structured so that two parts or two groups of vocalist or instruments titlists often perform in
antiphony
Antiphonic: music performed in altering sections. Responsive charting, a musical response
or answering phrase.
This binary musical form often occurs with variations or improvisations on short-melodic motifs.
Much of traditional Africa music is associated with dance, which adds to the multidimensional
effect of the presentation. Overlapping choral antiphony and responsorial singing are principal
types of African polyphony. Various combinations of Ostinato (repeated melody: a short
musical phrase or melody that is repeated over and over, usually at the same pitch) Drone-
ostinato (a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note are chord
is continuously sounded through most or all of a piece). Poly melody (mainly two part), and
parallel intervals are additional polyphonic techniques frequently employed.
Monophony: is the simplest texture, consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This
may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave (such as
often when women and men sing together) if an entire melody is played by two or more
instruments or sung by a chair with a fixed interval between the voices or unison, it is also said to
be in monophony.
 African music

African music is the main manifestation of culture in its broadest sense. Traditional Africa may
be defined as that music which is associated with indigenous Africa music may be defined as that
music which is associated with indigenous Africa institution of the pre-colonial era. African
music is basically the music of the indigenous people of Africa. Music and dance are terms that
are usually used to denote musical practices of African people. This explains that ancient African
society did not separate their everyday life activities from their music and other cultural
experience It is widely observed that African traditional music has undergone changes thought
the centuries. What is termed Africa traditional music today is probably very different from
Africa music in former times. In view of the role Africa music and learning, Africa music is a
path through which knowledge is transmitted. According to Tchebwa (2005) there fivefold of the
purpose of Africa music.
1. Educational: music is used teach traditional tales, word and thinking games (proverb),
guessing game (charades, etc..). it is also used during imitation periods to teach Africa values.
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2. Liturgical: (relating to religious worship or to a service of worship) it is a tool to

communicate to the ancestors, the values and songs devoted to the divinities (the quality
associated with being God), to the protecting spirits, (prayer, chants, magic incantations, etc.).
3. Playful: music generally used for entertainment, for instance, at social gatherings, such as
weddings and celebration of special achievements etc.
4. Functional: it is important during all ritual actions in life such as music for drinking
fishing, making palm wine, splitting wood, etc.
5. Cathartic (purifying producing a feeling if being purified emotionally, spiritually
purifying)
Music is used to support and attack mystical (having a divine meaning that is beyond human
understanding) Power from the world beyond, as a form of intercessor and catalyst of social
violence under reign of the gods, the protecting spirit etc.
Given the vastness of the content, the traditional music of Africa is historically ancient, rich and
diverse, with the different regions and nations of Africa having distinct musical traditions

Music/Sound: the Materials of music

 Music is sound organized in ways meaningful to people in a specific time and place.
 Music is purposefully constructed from particular types of sounds that have over time come to
convey meaning within a given cultural setting.
 Music therefore can be defined as organized sound that is meaningful to people within a
specific time and place.
 Music the purposeful organization of the quality, pitch, duration, and intensity of sound.
 Each music culture organized the four main characteristics of sound quality, intensity, pitch
and duration in distinctive ways.
Sound sources: instruments
 Musical instruments are almost found everywhere as the voice, and they tend to be made
of materials native to their place of origin.
Sound sources: The voice
 Voice is very flexible instruments that can produce a variety of sounds, some quite
unexpected.
 A singer can alter the quality of her /his voice by generating the sound from within chest,
head or nose.
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Characteristics of Sound
 If music is the purposeful organization of sound that enters our consciousness through the sense
of hearing, we need to subdivide the listening process into manageable parts.
 We can break down sound into four the sense of hearing characteristics that are useful in all
cultures: quality, pitch, duration intensity.
Quality
 The distinctive sound of a particular voice or instrument is termed its quality/tone color /timbre
 Each sound source generates certain harmonies that produce distinctive sound and enable
listener to distinguish between the voices of two singers or two musical instruments sound.
:Factors such as the construction of an instrument,
 materials from which it is made or
 the ability of craftsmanship,
 an instrument made from.
 the ability of a voice to produce and
 the ability of instrument to use are also other aspects of sound production that shape
quality
Sound –producing mechanism
Chest voice: produces a low, powerful, throaty vocal quality, sound vibrated from within the
chest, with a low, powerful, throaty vocal quality. ►Naahoo Gobana
Head voice : a light, bright, high tone resonated in the head.
Falsetto : the process of singing by men in a high register above the normal male singing range.
Nasal : a buzzing vocal quality produced by using the sinuses and mask of the face as sound
resonators.
Pitch
 Is the highness or lowness that we hear in a sound
 The pitch of a sound is determined by the frequency of its vibrations,
 The faster the vibrations, the high the pitch; the slower the vibrations, the lower the pitch.
 The scientific for the rate of sound vibration is frequency
 The musical term for the quality of sound which is recognized so instinctively, is pitch.
 Low pitches (low frequencies) result from long vibrating elements. High pitch from short
one.
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 The distance between the highest and lowest pitch that can be sung or played by or
instrument is called range
 The distance between two pitches this is called interval.
Intensity /Dynamics
 Degree of loudness or softness in music
 A tone has a dynamic level –is soft or loud – in relation to others tones around it .
 The volume at which music is played
 when instruments are played more loudly or more softly, or when there is a change
in how many instruments are heard, a dynamic change result; such a change may be
made either suddenly or gradually.
Duration /Rhythm
 Any sound we hear has its duration. So, sound exists in time, the length of time we
hear it in minutes, seconds, or micro seconds.
 Rhythm is the follow of music through time.
 We also enjoy allowing the rhythm of music stimulate movement in our bodies , as
when we dance.
Beat
• When you clap your hands or tap your foot to music, you are responding to its beat.
• Beat is a regular, repeatedly occur that divides music into equal units of time

Listening for musical texture ad form

When quality, intensity, pitch and rhythm combine that we are really experiencing music
different sound characteristics all aspects of sound interact. We can first consider the vertical
structure of music, called texture and then move on to form, the overall organization of music
shaped as the characteristics of sound interact.
Hearing and comparing textures
Textures the perceived relationship of simultaneous musical sounds or voices combine with each
other. There are five major categories of musical texture, the name of which are based on
phone/voice/ sound. These textures, which include monophony, biphony, polyphony, and
heterophony, are summarized by line drawings in the figure
 26

Monophony literally a “single sound, the simplest musical texture. The simplest musical texture
is monopoly, literally a single sound. A texture is monophonic when an individual voice or
melody instrument performs alone (solo), or when more than one voice or instrument sing or
play the same melody together, sounding the same pitch in the rhythm at the same time.
For example: singers sung, in which one hares first an individual voice and then a choir
singing in monopoly.

Biphonic singing: two tones, the fundamental and an overtone, are made audible
simultaneously by a single singer; also known as harmonic singing.
A biphonic texture has two distinct lines, the lower sustaining a continuous pitch (drone)
while the other performs a more elaborate melody above it.

Homophony: a physical texture, as in the western hymn, where the parts perform different
pitches but move in the same rhythm a same sounding “texture, occurs when a melody is
supported by other vocal or instrumental parts, all of which move along in roughly the same
rhythm as the melody, but on different pitches.

Polyphony: combinations of more than one voice or instruments can create textures called
polyphony, literally “many sounds.” While polyphony generally occurs when several voices or
instruments perform different melodies or different rhythms together, some instruments, such as
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the piano, the accordion, and some zithers, have the capability to produce multiple musical lines
on their own.

Heterophony: a musical texture in which two or more parts sound almost the same melody at
almost the same time: often with the parts or unlamented differently. Heterophony, produced by
several voices or instruments that perform similar but slightly different melodies and rhythms at
the same time.