Composing the Music of Africa
Title | Composing the Music of Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Malcolm Floyd |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 397 |
Release | 2018-12-17 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0429864299 |
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.
Composing the Music of Africa
Title | Composing the Music of Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Malcolm Floyd |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 366 |
Release | 2018-12-17 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0429864302 |
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.
The African Imagination in Music
Title | The African Imagination in Music PDF eBook |
Author | Victor Kofi Agawu |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 389 |
Release | 2016 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0190263202 |
The world of Sub-Saharan African music is immensely rich and diverse, containing a plethora of repertoires and traditions. In The African Imagination in Music, renowned music scholar Kofi Agawu offers an introduction to the major dimensions of this music and the values upon which it rests. Agawu leads his readers through an exploration of the traditions, structural elements, instruments, and performative techniques that characterize the music. In sections that focus upon rhythm, melody, form, and harmony, the essential parts of African music come into relief. While traditional music, the backbone of Africa's musical thinking, receives the most attention, Agawu also supplies insights into popular and art music in order to demonstrate the breadth of the African musical imagination. Close readings of a variety of songs, including an Ewe dirge, an Aka children's song, and Fela's 'Suffering and Smiling' supplement the broader discussion. The African Imagination in Music foregrounds a hitherto under-reported legacy of recordings and insists on the necessity of experiencing music as sound in order to appreciate and understand it fully. Accordingly, a Companion Website features important examples of the music discussed in detail in the book. Accessibly and engagingly written for a general audience, The African Imagination in Music is poised to renew interest in Black African music and to engender discussion of its creative underpinnings by Africanists, ethnomusicologists, music theorists and musicologists.
African Polyphony and Polyrhythm
Title | African Polyphony and Polyrhythm PDF eBook |
Author | Simha Arom |
Publisher | Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris |
Pages | 706 |
Release | 1991 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN |
An original approach to the understanding of the complete and sophisticated patterns of polyphony and polyrhythm of African music.
Representing African Music
Title | Representing African Music PDF eBook |
Author | Kofi Agawu |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 289 |
Release | 2014-04-23 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN | 1317794060 |
The aim of this book is to stimulate debate by offering a critique of discourse about African music. Who writes about African music, how, and why? What assumptions and prejudices influence the presentation of ethnographic data? Even the term "African music" suggests there is an agreed-upon meaning, but African music signifies differently to different people. This book also poses the question then, "What is African music?" Agawu offers a new and provocative look at the history of African music scholarship that will resonate with students of ethnomusicology and post-colonial studies. He offers an alternative "Afro-centric" means of understanding African music, and in doing so, illuminates a different mode of creativity beyond the usual provenance of Western criticism. This book will undoubtedly inspire heated debate--and new thinking--among musicologists, cultural theorists, and post-colonial thinkers. Also includes 15 musical examples.
A Composer in Africa
Title | A Composer in Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Stephanus Muller |
Publisher | AFRICAN SUN MeDIA |
Pages | 184 |
Release | 2006-01-01 |
Genre | Music |
ISBN | 1920109048 |
Grové was arguably the first composer to incorporate Black African elements into the fabric of his music, venturing far beyond mere couleur locale to forge a creative synthesis of the indigenous and the "Western". His vast oeuvre encompasses every genre, from opera and ballet to chamber music, orchestral works and song. But he is also a fine essayist, and his short fiction has received praise from André P. Brink. This is the first study of its kind to be devoted to a South African composer.
Composition in Africa and the Diaspora: Composing music in divergent environments
Title | Composition in Africa and the Diaspora: Composing music in divergent environments PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 2008 |
Genre | Blacks |
ISBN | 9781933459011 |