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21M.293

Musics of Africa

3-0-9 units. HASS-A · Undergraduate

Studies musical traditions of sub-Saharan Africa, with focus on West Africa. Explores a variety of musical practices and their cultural contexts through listening, reading and writing assignments with an emphasis on class discussion. Includes in-class instruction in drumming, song and dance of Senegal, Ghana, and South Africa, as well as live lecture-demonstrations by guest performers from throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Limited to 15; preference to majors, minors, concentrators. Admittance may be controlled by lottery.

Fall 2005 · Music of Africa

Topics

  • Preliminaries; Overview of Course
  • The Field of Ethnomusicology, the Concept of “Soundscapes” and its Application to the Study of World Music
  • Organology and Instruments: The Sachs-Hornbostel System of Instrument Classification
  • African Music: A Review of Ethnomusicological Literature
  • Senegalese History, Culture, and Music
  • Popular Music in Senegal: mbalax and Hip-Hop
  • Sabar Drumming: An Introduction to Basic Hand Techniques, Rhythms, and bàkks
  • Sabar Drum Workshop with Artist-in-Residence, Lamine Touré
  • Interlude: Southern Africa
  • Music of the Mande: The jali and his Instruments
  • Guest Lecture - Demonstration by Balla Kouyate, a Balafon Player from New York City
  • Malian Superstars: Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare and Ali Farke Touré
  • Music Cultures of the Ewe and Dagbamba
  • Case Study: Agbekor (Ewe)
  • Urban Music Roots: Highlife and Palm-wine Music
  • Interlude: Central Africa
  • Music and Identity: jùjú and fúji Bands
  • Music and Politics: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Afro-Beat
  • Music and Ritual: Hausa Music and the bori Ceremony
  • Interlude: East Africa
  • Final Presentations
  • Conclusions

Readings

  • Agawu, V. Kofi. Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions . New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. ISBN: 9780415943895.
    Listed reading
  • ———. African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780521480840.
    Listed reading
  • Barz, Gregory. Music in East Africa . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780195141528.
    Listed reading
  • Berliner, Paul. Soul of Mbira . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226043791.
    Listed reading
  • Blacking, John. “Some Notes on a Theory of Rhythm Advanced by Erich von Hornbostel.” African Music 1 (1955): 12-20.
    Listed reading
  • Charry, Eric. Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226101620.
    Listed reading
  • Chernoff, John Miller. African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780226103440.
    Listed reading
  • Collins, John. West African Pop Roots . Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780877229162.
    Listed reading
  • Herson, Benjamin. Fat Beats Dope Rhymes and Thug Lives: Youth, Politics and Hip-Hop in Dakar . Undergraduate Thesis, Hampshire College, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Knight, Roderic. “Music Out of Africa: Mande Jaliya in Paris.” The World of Music 33, no. 1 (1991): 52-69.
    Listed reading
  • Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts . Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780252009860.
    Listed reading
  • Merriam, Alan P. “African Musical Rhythm and Concepts of Time-reckoning.” In African Music in Perspective . New York, NY: Garland Publishers, 1982. 443-461.
    Listed reading
  • Nketia, J. H. Kwabena. The Music of Africa . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1974. ISBN: 9780393092493.
    Listed reading
  • Sachs, Curt. The History of Musical Instruments [by] Curt Sachs . New York, NY: Norton, 1940.
    Listed reading
  • Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2000. ISBN: 9780393975369.
    Listed reading
  • Stewart, Gary. Breakout: Profiles in African Rhythm . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780226774060.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Rumba on the River . New York, NY: Verso Books, 2004. ISBN: 9781859843680.
    Listed reading
  • Tang, Patricia J. Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griots in Contemporary Senegal . Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Senegal.” In The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 6, Africa and Middle East , edited by John Shepherd, et al. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN: 9780826474360.
    Listed reading
  • Titon, Jeff Todd, ed. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World’s Peoples . 3rd ed. New York, NY: Schirmer Books, 1996. ISBN: 9780028726120.
    Listed reading
  • Turino, Thomas. Nationalists, Cosmopolitans and Popular Music in Zimbabwe . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226817026.
    Listed reading
  • Waterman, Christopher Alan. “‘Our Tradition is a Very Modern Tradition’: Popular Music and the Construction of Pan-Yoruba Identity.” Ethnomusicology 34, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 48-53.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Jùjú: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780226874654.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 3 · TOPICS: Organology and Instruments: The Sachs-Hornbostel System of Instrument Classification · Readings: Sachs. pp. 454-467.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 4 · TOPICS: African Music: A Review of Ethnomusicological Literature · Readings: Merriam, Nketia. 1974, pp. 3-20.
    Reading assignment
  • Agawu. 2003.
    Listed reading
  • Focus on Wolof Griots, Masters of the Sabar Drum Tang. 2000, pp. 31-122.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 6 · TOPICS: Popular Music in Senegal: mbalax and Hip-hop · Readings: Herson.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 7 · TOPICS: Sabar Drumming: An Introduction to Basic Hand Techniques, Rhythms, and bàkks · Readings: Tang. 2000, pp. 158-204.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 9 · TOPICS: Interlude: Southern Africa · Readings: Berliner, Paul (1993). Excerpts.
    Reading assignment
  • Turino, Thomas (2000). Excerpts.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 10 · TOPICS: Music of the Mande: The jali and his Instruments · Readings: Charry. pp. 1-27 and 90-145.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 11 · TOPICS: Guest Lecture - Demonstration by Balla Kouyate, A Balafon Player from New York City · Readings: Knight.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 14 · TOPICS: Music Cultures of the Ewe and Dagbamba · Readings: Agawu. pp. 8-30.
    Reading assignment
  • Worlds of Music . 1996, pp. 78-101 and 111-118.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 15 · TOPICS: Case Study: Agbekor (Ewe) · Readings: Chernoff. pp. 39-88.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 16 · TOPICS: Urban Music Roots: Highlife and Palm-wine Music · Readings: Collins. pp. 17-41.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 17 · TOPICS: Interlude: Central Africa · Readings: Stewart (2004). Excerpts.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 18 · TOPICS: Music and Identity: jùjú and fúji Bands · Readings: Waterman.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 19 · TOPICS: Music and Politics: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Afro-Beat · Readings: Stewart (1992). pp. 114-123.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 21 · TOPICS: Interlude: East Africa · Readings: Barz, Gregory (2004). Excerpts.
    Reading assignment
  • There is no required textbook for this course. Readings from various sources will be assigned for each class session.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: U (Spring) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-A

Sources