An original approach to the understanding of the complete and sophisticated patterns of polyphony and polyrhythm of African music.

An original approach to the understanding of the complete and sophisticated patterns of polyphony and polyrhythm of African music.

. An accompanying compact disk enables the reader to work closely with the sound of African speech and song discussed in the book.

This important study in ethnomusicology is an attempt by the author -- a musician who has become a social anthropologist -- to compare his experiences of music-making in different cultures. He is here presenting new information resulting from his research into African music, especially among the Venda. Venda music, he discovered is in its way no less complex in structure than European music. Literacy and the invention of nation may generate extended musical structures, but they express differences of degree, and not the difference in kind that is implied by the distinction between 'art' and 'folk' music. Many, if not all, of music's essential processes may be found in the constitution of the human body and in patterns of interaction of human bodies in society. Thus all music is structurally, as well as functionally, 'folk' music in the sense that music cannot be transmitted of have meaning without associations between people. If John Blacking's guess about the biological and social origins of music is correct, or even only partly correct, it would generate new ideas about the nature of musicality, the role of music in education and its general role in societies which (like the Venda in the context of their traditional economy) will have more leisure time as automation increases.

Song and dance style--viewed as nonverbal communications about culture--are here related to social structure and cultural history. Patterns of performance, theme, text and movement are analyzed in large samples of films an recordings from the whole range of human culture, according to the methods explained in this volume. Cantometrics, which means song as a measure of man, finds that traditions of singing trace the main historic distributions of human culture and that specific traits of performance are communications about identifiable aspects of society. The predictable and universal relations between expressive communication and social organization, here established for the first time, open up the possibility of a scientific aesthetics, useful to planners.

First published in 1999, this volume explores the great diversity of music created by African communities is reflected in this book, which discusses the ways in which a wide range of musical forms are composed and performed from Egypt to South Africa and from Ghana to Kenya. As two composers explain here, this diversity provides much inspiration for western contemporary composition. Particular attention is paid to the contexts generate musical creativity. Ceremonies and festivals celebrating birth, death, marriage or rites of passage provide the impetus for much composition and performance, enabling young people to pick up, early on, some of the techniques and styles of which they then become the new exponents. The book also looks at the role played by formal music education programmes and bodies such as the South African Music Rights Organization and the South African Broadcasting Corporation in fostering musical activity, as well as the contribution of composers to the social and political changes that have dominated South African life in recent years.

(Berklee Guide). Learn the contemporary techniques and practices of the modern cello. The collection is a vital exploration of 21st-century cello techniques that every contemporary cellist should know when playing music outside of the standard classical repertoire. By exploring techniques such as chopping, pizzicato, improvisation, chords, ornaments, modes, polyrhythmic playing, and more, you will be prepared to play in a variety of contexts, including folk, rock, funk, jazz, world music and accompanying yourself while singing. Compiled and edited by Mike Block, this volume of etudes contains pieces composed by: Ashley Bathgate * Mike Block * Stephen Braun * Rufus Cappadocia * Rushad Eggleston * Erik Friedlander * Eugene Friesen * Natalie Has * Giovanni Sollima * Mark Summer * Jacob Szekley * Matt Turner * Jeffrey Zeigler.