Africká hudba

Viacdielny spev

Viacdielne spevové a harmonické koncepcie sú základnými črtami mnohých afrických hudobných tradícií a západní cestujúci ich pozorovali už od najskorších období kontaktu. Na rozdiel od predchádzajúcich názorov sa „harmónia“ v africkej hudbe v súčasnosti nepovažuje za výsledok akulturácie, ale skôr za pôvod v mnohých častiach kontinentu. Polyfonické spevácke štýly takmer určite používali pravekí lovci v strednej a južnej Afrike. Medzi Sanom bol objav použitia loveckej mašle ako hudobného nástroja a spolu s tým objavenie harmonických napínaných strún predstavoval zhluk znakov, ktoré boli pravdepodobne vzájomne závislé.Otázky nastolené v 19. a začiatkom 20. storočia, pokiaľ ide o to, či bol lovecký luk alebo hudobný luk vynájdený prvý, sú určite v kultúre juhoafrických prehistorických poľovníkov irelevantné.

Multipartový spev v africkej hudbe zahŕňa dva úplne odlišné prístupy, homofonické a polyfonické, s definíciou týchto slov prispôsobených africkým kultúram.

Homofonické vokálne štýly

V homofonických štýloch sú všetky melodické línie, aj keď na rôznych úrovniach tónu, rytmicky rovnaké a začínajú a končia spolu. Jednotliví speváci si myslia, že ich hlasové linky - všetky majú rovnaký text - sú v zásade rovnaké, spievané iba na rôznych úrovniach. Muži spievajú „veľkým hlasom“ (tj nízkym hlasom), ženy a deti „s malým hlasom“ (tj vysokým hlasom). Ich hlasy môžu byť od seba oddelené tretinou, štvrtou, piatou alebo oktávou, ale považujú sa za tie isté piesne. V praxi sa však môže vyskytnúť nielen paralelný, ale aj šikmý a opačný pohyb. Do akej miery je tento jazyk povolený, závisí od tolerancie v tonalite konkrétneho jazyka. Napríklad vo východnej Angole je opačný pohyb bežnou praxou.V iných kultúrach je pohyb striktne paralelný v rámci štruktúry príslušného tónového systému.

Homophonic multipart singing is found in particular concentration along the Guinea Coast. It is also found throughout western central Africa, among most peoples of Angola, Zambia, and Malawi, and in many parts of East Africa. In northern central Africa it is found among the Zande and related peoples. In southwestern parts of the Central African Republic there is three-part harmonic singing with vocal parts shifting chromatically between two roots one semitone apart. Homophonic vocal styles are often linked to a call-and-response (leader-chorus) form.

Polyphonic vocal styles

In polyphonic styles the complementary individual lines differ in their rhythm and phrasing and carry different texts or syllables. They may be of different length, and their starting and ending points do not coincide. Such styles are more restricted geographically. The vocal music of the San communities in southwestern Africa is predominantly polyphonic, as are the vocal styles of Bambuti in the Ituri Forest and the Pygmy groups of the upper Sangha River area of the Congo and the Central African Republic. (The San and Pygmy peoples, whose polyphonic styles and tone systems are based on different principles, have often mistakenly been lumped together in evolutionist theories.) In other parts of Africa, isolated islands of polyphonic singing occur among or between largely homophonic communities. Thus, the otherwise homophonic Gogo people employ polyphonic techniques in their saigwa and msunyunho songs, and Nyakyusa children of southwestern Tanzania use yodel and polyphony in a song type called kibota.

A distinct style of polyphonic singing is found in much of the music of the peoples of the lower Zambezi valley, in parts of Mozambique, and also in Zimbabwe, as exemplified by the Karanga-Shona threshing song shown here:

This is a diagrammatic transcription showing the relationships between the five male voice parts (here transposed one octave and five semitones higher). In actual performance the voices enter consecutively, each starting from the double bar in his particular line and then repeatedly backtracking to the beginning of the line. The entry point for voices 2 and 3 is one pulse after the commencement of the last note of voice 1. When voice 1 repeats his line, his second syllable signals the entry point for voices 4 and 5. The cycle (which is continually repeated) is 18 pulses long. The harmonic scheme comprises a sequence of bichords in fourths and fifths, characteristic of much Shona music. The roots of these bichords, E A C / E G C, are shown above the top staff. The tone system here is hexatonic.

Polyphony is also prevalent in South Africa and Swaziland. In the dance-songs of the Nguni people (including the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele), two or more voice parts, commencing at different points in the cycle, often overlap extensively. At least two parts, solo and chorus, are always regarded as essential. In fact, a solo vocalist singing the entire song usually does not complete a single voice part but instead shifts from one part to another when he arrives at the entry point of each part.

The Zulu bow song transcribed below begins with the bow phrase, which simulates a chorus part. During repetitions of this ostinato, the voices (sung in this transcription by Zulu princess Constance Magogo kaDinuzulu, her son Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, and several of his young children) enter in turn, each beginning at its double bar: first, voice 1, then, in subsequent repetitions of the 16-pulse cycle, voices 2 and 3. The lines shown below the song may be rendered by additional singers or by voices 2 and 3 as occasional variants.

This song sounds very different indeed from the previous Shona example, mainly on account of its tone system, which has two semitone intervals. A pentatonic variant of the Zulu hexatonic system cited above, it is based on two instrumental roots a semitone apart. The melodic line produced on the ugubhu gourd bow employs harmonic partials 3 and 4 of the two fundamentals B and C, these harmonics being selectively resonated by moving the open end of the gourd resonator closer to or farther from the player’s chest.

Despite the marked tonal dissimilarity between the Shona and Zulu songs, they clearly share an almost identical underlying formal structure, based on the principle of deliberately nonaligned, overlapping voice parts that retain the same relationship to one another through all successive repetitions of the song. The relationships of their parts can be demonstrated by concentric circles, in which clockwise rotation represents a cycle, or strophe, of the song, which is continually repeated.

All the vocal music considered above has as its basis some kind of tone system. Among the Zulu and other Nguni peoples, however, certain non-melodic forms of chanting coexist alongside melodic styles of performance—even among items that fit the same category of “dance-song”—just as some English nursery rhymes are sung while others are recited or chanted. In such cases, fixed musical pitches are absent, and a singsong form of rhythmical recitation is used instead. The close affinity of such pieces with melodic songs is confirmed by their sharing of the same circular, multipart formal structure.

There is indeed evidence from many different parts of Africa of the use of intermediate vocal styles, falling somewhere between the extremes of speech and song. In many African cultures the boundary between the two does not tally exactly with the Western, demonstrating that definitions of music and song are culture-specific.