Music in East Africa Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

by Barz, Gregory

• ISBN13: 9780195141528
• ISBN10: 0195141520
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback w/CD
• Copyright: 2004-02-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Music in East Africa is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around theworld. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Visitwww.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study. Music in East Africa introduces readers to the various ways in which historical music traditions and present-day musical performances either collide, fuse, or remain mutually exclusive in contemporary East Africa. Through descriptions of performances and case studies that detail the lives ofindividual musicians, Gregory Barz shows how people in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania create, dance to, and interact with traditional East African music. Focusing on specific contexts in which music is integrated into the everyday lives of individuals and communities, Music in East Africa considers thesignificance of music for people as they negotiate the world around them. It looks at the defining principle of musical performance in East Africa--how drumming (and the playing of other musical instruments), singing, dancing, and drama are deeply connected to traditional cultures. The bookhighlights the importance of individual musicians as specialized members of communities and describes the role of musical performances in such social systems as popular entertainment and religious rituals. It also shows how traditional East African music and performance has responded tomodernization, colonization, commercialism, and nationalism. Featuring vivid illustrations and eyewitness accounts of performances, Music in East Africa incorporates numerous activities that encourage readers to engage with the music. The book is packaged with a 70-minute CD containing examples of the music discussed in the text.

Author Biography

Gregory Barz is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Preface	xiii
CD Track List	xvii
1. Heating Up!	1	(15)
East Africa	1	(3)
Traditional Music Performance: The Example of Ngoma	4	(1)
What is "Music" in East Africa?	5	(3)
Greetings	8	(6)
Conclusion	14	(2)
2. Traditional Performances in Two Villages and a Town	16	(24)
Introduction	16	(2)
Case Study #1: Nyanhugi Village, Sukumaland, Tanzania	18	(7)
Case Study #2: Bugwere Village, Busoga Region, Eastern Uganda	25	(8)
Case Study #3: Kisumu Town, Western Kenya	33	(4)
Musical Transcription	36	(1)
Gender and Traditional Music Performance in East Africa	37	(1)
Conclusion	38	(2)
3. Fostering Social Cohesion: Competition and Traditional Musical Performance	40	(19)
Introduction: Competition as Social Cohesion	40	(1)
Case Study #1: Bulabo in Sukumaland, Tanzania	41	(6)
Bufumu	47	(1)
Bagaalu and Bagiika Dance Societies	47	(1)
Samba	48	(1)
Changes and Adaptation in Bulabo	49	(3)
Case Study #2: Choir Competitions in Dar es Salaam	52	(1)
Vignette 1: The Initial Evangelical Encounter	53	(2)
Vignette 2: The Emergence of Tanzanian Voices	55	(1)
Vignette 3: A Postcolonial Moment	56	(2)
Conclusion	58	(1)
4. Individuals in East African Musical Worlds: Gideon Mdegella and Centurio Balikoowa	59	(30)
Introduction	59	(3)
Vignette 1: Gideon Mdegella	62	(1)
Vignette 2: Centurio Balikoowa	63	(1)
Communities and Musical Specialists	63	(1)
Gideon Mdegella: "Mwalimu"	64	(11)
Mwalimu wa Kwaya: Ritual-Musical Specialists in the Tanzanian Lutheran Church	65	(1)
"I Am Able to See Very Far, but I Am Unable to Reach There"	66	(9)
Mdegella and "First-Class Music"	75	(1)
Centurio Balikoowa	75	(13)
Background	76	(2)
Musical Instruments	78	(1)
Endere (Flute)	78	(3)
Endingidi (Tubefiddle)	81	(1)
Construction of the Endingidi	82	(2)
Ntongooli (Bowl Lyre)	84	(2)
Personal History	86	(2)
Conclusion	88	(1)
5. Situating Traditional Music within Modernity	89	(29)
Introduction	89	(1)
Vignette: Anthems and Identity	90	(11)
Case Study #1: Mu Kkubo Ery 'Omusaalaba	101	(7)
Basic Tenets of Kiganda Traditional Music	102	(1)
Issue of Timbre	102	(2)
Drumming	104	(2)
Issue of Interlocking Patterns	106	(2)
Case Study #2: "The Roots of Benga"	108	(10)
D.O. Misiani, the "King" of Benga	111	(3)
Conclusion: Popular versus Traditional-"Modernity Happened!"	114	(4)
6. Cooling Down!	118	(6)
Introduction	118	(1)
Traditional Music and the Interrelation of the Arts in East Africa	118	(6)
Glossary	124	(2)
Resources	126	(11)
Index	137