Indigenous Music of South Africa
The making of indigenous music in South Africa – like the rest of the continent – is not limited to a certain period in history. Indigenous music is probably the only style of music that has been playing ever since the very first time it was performed, both traditionally in ceremonies and modern in recordings. Southern African societies have exchanged cultural and musical features far back in the past. The most accurate term for referring to this music is indigenous. This term applies to, for example, groups in Southern Africa such as the Khoisan adopting and sharing musical traits with groups further North of the continent such as the Bantu.
The Bantu, according to Guthries classification are those groups which come from the Niger- Congo region. They migrated to the south some many thousands of years back, the south was originally habited by the Khoi or Maswara (word probably adapted from Borwa meaning South) . The Khoisan adopted the Bantu Lamellophones. Lamellophones are a group of instruments with a series of thin plates or tongues, each of which are fixed at one end and have the other end free. The musician presses the free end of a plate with a finger or fingernail, and then allows the finger to slip off, the released plate vibrates to make a sound. Most lamellopohones are from Africa. Other names for them are Mbira, Sanza, Kisanji, Likembe, Kalimba, Kongoma.
Relatively indistinct Ethnic boundaries however make it difficult to identify distinct differences between different groups and their musical characteristics. The same is true of differences between musical traditions. This is because surveys regarding these topics are heavily dependant on literature and a problem in gaining an accurate view of the area is the extreme variability of sources. The varying ages of studies are also important, since the musical traits of societies studied 50 years ago may differ profoundly from the practices of those societies
The Khoisan People
At the end of the 1400s when the Europeans first found the Southern Tip of Africa, that area was already inhabited by several diverse groups. The pastoral groups in the area around the Cape of Good Hope were the Khoi and were the referred to by the Europeans as the Hottentots. The Hunter gatherers farther north were the San but referred to by the Europeans as the Bushmen. Their languages explored clicking sounds and have been classified as Khoisan languages. The Bantu languages were further to the north and east of the Cape and were interacting with some Khoisan peoples. Common musical traits of South African Indigenous music with other African peoples include the presence of polyrhythms, various degrees of influence of linguistic tones upon melody, numerous instruments, particularly drums, plucked lamellphones and xylophones. Other common features are rattling, buzzing arrangements on instruments as well as the use of cyclic form, with variations and extensive improvisation both in music and in text.
Many people in the Southern African region define music in terms of the presence of the metered rhythm. This means that drumming alone is considered music and chanting or speaking words is singing, so long as it is metrical. When the singing voice is used without rhythm, the resulting vocalization is not usually considered singing. Languages also play an important part in South African music. South African languages are tonal, so the nature of the languages tones restricts to some degree the freedom to move melodically. The languages of South Africa are not so dependant on tones as are the languages of West Africa. So the match of speech tone with melody is more a matter of aesthetics than comprehension.
Music of the Khoikhoi
The musical practices of the Khoi as recorded in early documents are important because of their influence on later developments. Many of their songs were reportedly based on descending 4-note scale, equivalent to D-C-A-G. Among the major instruments of the Khoi were various types of musical bows. Men played braced mouth bow and women a longer bow. A woman would secure the instrument by one foot while sitting down and rest its center on a hollow object serving as a resonator. The woman would then hold the upper part of the bow near her face, touching it with her chin to get a different tone. The tone can also be modified by touching the center of the string. The Gora was the most notable bow as it was used to herd cattle. It consisted of a string that the player put into motion by forcefully inhaling and exhaling over a feather connecting the string to the end of the bow. The Gora was borrowed by neighboring Bantu speakers. Single tone flutes were also important to the Khoikhoi. They were made from reeds about 40centimetres long with all the nodes removed or from the bark of a particular root. The flutes were played in ensembles for dancing, with each man sounding his note as needed to create a melody. Drums were made by placing skins over cook pots. The Europeans called this instrument a rommelpot.
Music of the San
The San live around Namibia, Southern Angola, Botswana. The most common instrument used was the bow which was derived from the hunting bow. It is also possible that this bow was originally a Bantu instrument. Other instruments which the San began to adopt from other groups was the plucked Lamellophone (likembe or mbira). The use of hunting bows as instruments is shown by a San rock painting. The bow was played by putting one end of it at the players mouth and resting the other on the ground. The bows produced 2 tones, separated by intervals of a second, a minor third or a major third. The music that the San created dealt with everyday topics such as success of the hunt of the day, as they were hunter gatherers. Songs were also accompanied with dances and quivering trances. The musical bow produces multipart music. This means interplay between fundamental tones and overtones. Another way which the bow could be played was as a group bow which was referred to as kambulumbumba. Three musicians would lay it at the same time, but playing different rhythms. One would beat the string of the bow in steady triplets. The other would hold another part of the bow and play an irregular rhythm and the other musician would play duple rhythms.
A Kuma (raft zithers) and a Bavugu (stamping tube) were also used by the San as instruments. They were made with three gourds or mock oranges placed one above the other and held with wax with a hole cut through all three. The instrument was then beaten against the upper thigh with the top of the instrument struck with the hand. These instruments were mainly played by women. San Vocalists sing individual variants on a basic line, use canons and sing with few words. The soloists in a group interweave their singing without necessarily responding to each other as it is done elsewhere in Africa. When the players of a mouth- resonated bow begin to sing, they occasionally stop bringing out melodic overtones with their mouths so that the vocal section and the instrumental section can be alternated to make a two part form. Both the Khoikhoi and the San yodeled as they sang which is not a commonly found technique in Africa, other than among the Shona of Zimbabwe . Their style of dancing is identical to that of the Tswana people who are neighbours and some blood cousins of the San. The role of music in South Africa as well as rest of the African continent has been as a symbol of political power whereby kings would even sponsor royal musicians. Music also plays an important part in puberty-initiation rites, particularly where control of the rituals is a mark of political strength.
Nguni Peoples
Nguni is a term scholars use to identify the Southernmost Bantu-Speaking people in Africa. In South Africa, they were largely settled along the coastal land between the Drakensburg and the Indian Ocean.The two Nguni groups which constitute a large part of the indigenous population of South Africa are the Zulus and Xhosas. The Xhosas are the Southernmost Nguni peoples and the closest to the Cape of Good Hope. Some of them settled and mixed among Khoisan groups. This is shown by the fact that they have many clicks in their languages. The Zulus are descendants of clans united into a nation by Chaka. These indigenous groups became involved in wars with the Boers, the English and with each other. Some groups separated themselves and fled from the Zulu kingdom to form other groups, namely the Ndebele of the Northern Transvaal and Zimbabwe, the Tsonga - also known by the deregatory term Shangaan - of Giyani along the border of South Africa and Mozambique. Music of the Nguni groups choral singing is the most common form of music practiced for the Nguni groups. This is especially done in communal musical events.
The Zulu language causes sung tones to be lowered in pitch when the vowels follow voiced spirants. Singing is done with an open voice and is polyphonic and responsorial, with the divergence of parts occurring as phrases begin and ending at different points. The musical bow is also commonly used by the Nguni people. Scales are based on natural tones of the bow often omitting the seventh. Nguni musical structures are diverse but they often don’t have the seventh and perfect fourths and fifths are prominent. The use of semitones may be attributed To the traits of the bow. Musical bows used by the Zulus was the Ugubhu and the Umakhweyana. The Ugubhu was an unbraced gourd-resonated bow more than a meter long. The umakhweyana was braced near the center and gourd resonated. Braced bows have the main string divided in different ways, so the differences in the fundamental tones range from a whole tone to a minor third.
Sotho People
Three Sotho clusters appear regularily in the study of Southern African music. Those living in Botswana and the North West of South Africa - the Tswana, those living in South Africa- the Pedi, and those from Lesotho and also found in South Africa – the Southern Sotho. These peoples speak close language dialects that are different from Nguni languages. The Sotho people share many musical traits with the Nguni people. This includes choral singing (mahobelo) which was dominately seen amongst the Tswanas, reed flutes and one stringed chordophones. Reed-flute ensembles would occur, especially as the chiefs right. Flute dances that resembled those of the Nguni occurred amongst the Tswana groups. Pedi boys used a one-tone flute. When they play it they whistle with their lips while they inhale. The Southern Sothos, some of which also lived in South Africa adapted the Gora, from the Khoi. They called it Lisiba, from their word siba which means feather. The feather ideally comes from the cape vulture. The lesiba is connected with cattle herding, as it was among the Khoikhoi to control cattle. It is played by both inhaling and exhaling. The songs sung with the lesiba are called linon and unlike the Nguni peoples, Sotho response singing often do not overlap. Sotho peoples use rattles made from cocoons and animal skins. They are worn by women with their dance skirts and they rattle whilst they are dancing.
The Venda
The Venda live in the mountainous north eastern areas of South Africa. Their language resembles that of the Karanga branch of Shona. The national music of the Venda is the Tshikona, an esemble of one-pitch pipes played in hocket. Each chief had his tshikona which would perform on important occasions. Tshikona was music sponsored by chiefs. Traditonally, men played pipes and women played percussion but Venda men working in mines would perform the music there and the dancing and do their own drumming. Some of the performig groups were even competitive. The pipes used in Tshikona are ideally made from bamboo found in eastern Venda. They are heptatonic within a range of 3 octaves. Metal and plastic pipes are also used. The Venda also like the Sotho, played reed pipes pentatonically covering 2 octaves. Instruments used by the Venda include also a 21 key xylophone- the Mbila mutonodo, the 27 key Lamellphone, the Mbila dzamadeza and the Ngoma which is a huge pegged drum with 4 handls, played with Tshikona and in other ceremonies.
The Tsonga
The Tsonga live in the south of Venda or are also interspersed with them. The Tsonga share musical traits with the Venda in south Africa and the Shona of Mozambique and Zimbabwe. They have a mouth- resonated braced bow that is played with a friction bow similar to that of the Tsonga called the Xizambe. Instead of a string for the bow, a palm leaf ribbon is used. It can be stopped at up to 4 places at a time with the players mouth bringing out tones from it. When two bows are played in duet, they are a fifth apart. The songs are rhythmically challenging. Music is played in religious ceremonies to free people of the tribe from evil spirits of other tribes. The music resembles musical styles of the Zulu people. The Tsonga have a variety of drums. The Xigubu, a double headed drum made of metal containers, Ndzumba, used for puberty school, the Ngoma, foe beer drinking, the Ncomane, for exorcism rituals. Others are the Xitiringo, a 3 hole transverse, Mqangala, a mouth resonated bow, a Xitende, a large guard-resonated braced bow, a Mohambi, a 10 slat xylophone.
No comments:
Post a Comment