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Africa

Africa. Themes. What is Africa? Where is Africa? When is Africa?. Africa as Symbol. Ancestral homeland? Pastoral/impoverished? ? Africa as psychic space. What is African Music?. How do you know that you are listening to African music? Rhythm? Texture? Something else?.

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Africa

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  1. Africa

  2. Themes • What is Africa? • Where is Africa? • When is Africa?

  3. Africa as Symbol • Ancestral homeland? • Pastoral/impoverished? • ? • Africa as psychic space

  4. What is African Music? • How do you know that you are listening to African music? • Rhythm? Texture? Something else?

  5. African Continent • 2 broad zones • Maghrib • Like Mediterranean/Western Asia • Sub-saharan • Culturally unique in many ways • Nile River

  6. Music in Everyday Life • Work • Ceremonies • Play • Social solidarity, transforms consciousness • Expressive Media

  7. Outside Influences • Christian hymns • Muslim Cantillation • Music of West Asia • Euro-American pop • Enculturation

  8. Shona People • Bantu-speaking • Successful people • Suffered under colonialism • Independence of Zimbabwe in 1980 • Mbira: changed as cultural symbol

  9. Shona Spirits • Four Classes of Spirits • Invisible but have sensory experience • Advise descendants • MapiraAll-night family-based communal rituals • Possession Trances

  10. Shona Mbira Music • Mbira: thumb piano • 3:2 rhythmic structure • Separate individuals = polyphonic community

  11. The Mbira • Four Basic Features • Long thin keys of metal or plant material • Soundboard with bridge • Resonator to shape and amplify sound • Jingles that buzz • Bi-lateral symmetry

  12. MbiraDzavadzimu • Mbira of the Ancestors • Instrument in Nhemamusasa • Placed in deze during performance • Bottle cap rattles • snail shells • Hand clapping • Singing • Hosho

  13. Mbira and Spirits • Ancestral spirits love to hear favorite mbira piece • Makes possession more likely • Repertory does not change much

  14. Mbira Song • Two Interlocking Parts • Kushaura (main part) • Kutsinhira (interwoven second part) • Each is polyphonic

  15. Vocal Music • Three styles • Mahonyera (vocables) • Kudeketera (poetry) • Huro(yodeling) • Add depth and texture

  16. “Nhemamusasa” • “Cutting Branches for Shelter” • Played for Chaminuka spirit • Song for War • Great spiritual meaning- moving

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