Back موسيقى إفريقية Arabic Música africana AST Afrika musiqisi Azerbaijani Música africana Catalan Africká hudba Czech Cerddoriaeth Affrica Welsh Afrika muziko Esperanto Música africana Spanish Musique africaine French Música africana Galician
 | This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. (April 2024) |
Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres makwaya, highlife, mbube, township music, jùjú, fuji, jaiva, afrobeat, afrofusion, mbalax, Congolese rumba, soukous, ndombolo, makossa, kizomba, taarab and others.[1] African music also uses a large variety of instruments from all across the continent. The music and dance of the African diaspora, formed to varying degrees on African musical traditions, include American music like Dixieland jazz, blues, jazz, and many Caribbean genres, such as calypso (see kaiso) and soca. Latin American music genres such as cumbia, salsa music, son cubano, rumba, conga, bomba, samba and zouk were founded on the music of enslaved Africans, and have in turn influenced African popular music.[1][2]
Like the music of Asia, India and the Middle East, it is a highly rhythmic music. The complex rhythmic patterns often involve one rhythm played against another to create a polyrhythm. The most common polyrhythm plays three beats on top of two, like a triplet played against straight notes. Sub-Saharan African music traditions frequently rely on percussion instruments of many varieties, including xylophones, djembes, drums, and tone-producing instruments such as the mbira or "thumb piano."[2][3]
Another distinguishing form of African music is its call-and-response style: one voice or instrument plays a short melodic phrase, and that phrase is echoed by another voice or instrument. The call-and-response nature extends to the rhythm, where one drum will play a rhythmic pattern, echoed by another drum playing the same pattern. African music is also highly improvised. A core rhythmic pattern is typically played, with drummers then improvising new patterns over the static original patterns.
Traditional music in most of the continent is passed down through oral tradition. There are subtle differences in pitch and intonation that do not easily translate to Western notation. African music most closely adheres to Western tetratonic (four-note), pentatonic (five-note), hexatonic (six-note), and heptatonic (seven-note) scales. Harmonization of the melody is accomplished by singing in parallel thirds, fourths, or fifths.
Music is an integral part of communal life in Africa.[4] African music is made for both public enjoyment and public participation, and it is this social bonding over music that informed Christopher Small's idea of musicking.[5] In Africa, music is used as an avenue for social commentary and moralism. Types include work songs, love songs, lullabies, boasting songs, praise songs, narrative songs, and satirical songs.[6] Music is also important to religion, where rituals and religious ceremonies use music to pass down stories from generation to generation as well as to sing and dance to.[7]
- ^ a b Collins, Professor John (2002). "African Popular Music". University of Alberta. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
- ^ a b "Definitions of Styles and Genres: Traditional and Contemporary African Music". CBMR. Columbia University. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ^ Estrella, Espie. "African music". Music Education. about.com. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
- ^ Takyiwaa, Manuh; Esi, Sutherland-Addy (8 May 2014). Africa in Contemporary Perspective: A Textbook for Undergraduate Students. Sub-Saharan Publishers. p. 430. ISBN 978-9988-647-37-7.
- ^ Crossley, Nick (2022). "Musicking to Music Worlds: On Christopher Small's Important Innovation" (PDF). Music Research Annual. 3.
- ^ Darkwa, Asante (1987). "Culture and communication: music, song and dance as medium of communications in África". Revista África. 10 (10): 131–139. doi:10.11606/issn.2526-303X.v0i10p131-139.
- ^ Floyd, Samuel A. (1995). The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 14–34.