VOCAL

Music 10

FORMS OF
AFRICAN
MUSIC
 As Africa changed in response to
the European colonization and
globalization, the role of music
changed as well. Also, as a result of
the African slave trade and
migrations, the music and dance of
Africa have influenced a number of
musical styles and genres.
VOCAL FORMS OF AFRICAN MUSIC

MARACATU SOUL

BLUES SPIRITUAL

CALL –AND-RESPONSE
MARACATU
First resurface in the African
State of Pernambuco,
combining the strong rhythms
of African percussion
instruments with Portuguese
melodies.
BLUES
• A musical of the late 19th century that has a
deep roots in African – American
communities.
• The notes of blues create expressive and
soulful sound.
• The feelings that are evoked are normally
associated with slight degrees of misfortune,
lost in love, frustration or loneliness.
 SOUL
• It was a popular music genre of the 1950’s and
1960’s
• It originated in the United States. It combines
element of African – American Gospel music,
rhythm and blues and often Jazz.
• The catchy Rhythms are accompanied by
handclaps and extemporaneous body moves which
are among its important features.
SPIRITUAL
• The term Spiritual, normally associated with a
deeply religious person, refer to a Negro
Spiritual, a song form by African Migrants to
America who became enslaved by its white
community.
• The texts are mainly religious, sometimes
taken for Psalms of biblical passages.
CALL AND RESPONSE
• The call and response method is a succession of
two distinct musical Phrases usually rendered by
different musicians where the second phrase acts
as a direct commentary on or response to the
first.
• It also forms strong resemblance to the verse –
chorus form in many vocal compositions.
 CLASSIFICATION OF
AFRICAN INSTRUMENTS
 01
IDIOPHONES
Musical instruments
that produce sounds
by striking, shaking
or scraping.
DJEMBE (ZHEM-BAY)
● It is a single-headed open goblet
drum played with bare hands.
● It is one of Africa’s most functional
and popular instruments because of
the unusual range of pitches that it
can create.
● It has a unique and distinctive design
carved and hollowed out of a tree
trunk and covered with a goat skin.
 SHEKERE
• It is a beaded handmade rattle.
• It consists of a hollow gourd or
calabash, covered with a net of
seeds, beads, shells or any
available materials from West
Africa.
• It is played in a variety of styles
and comes in many shapes and
sizes.
 AGBE
● It is a very large beaded calabash
traditionally owned and played by
professional musicians in Nigeria.
● It is an instrument that can never be
shared even with the family members
but can be inherited by a son from
his father if he is professional
musician.
 02
MEMBRANOPHONES
Musical
instruments which
have vibrating
animal membranes
 TALKING DRUM
• It is one of the most respected drum in
Southern Nigeria similar to Kalangu
drum of Northern Nigeria.
• It is played with a beater and can imitate
a speech patterns or use as signals for
warnings and announcements.
• The talking drum leads most of the
musical instruments and its sound gives
the dancers the direction what to do at a
given time.
 03
CHORDOPHONES
Musical instruments
that produce sounds
from the vibration of
strings.
 KORA
● It is one of the most famous
stringed instrument similar to a
guitar.
● It is a long-necked harp with 21
strings placed on a gourd covered
with skin of an animal.
● This instrument is played with the
fingers in upright position and
often used to accompany worship
songs.
 MUSICAL BOW
• It is the oldest and widely used string
instrument in Africa. It consists of a
flexible wooden sticks with strings
attached on both ends similar to a bow
and arrow.
• It can be played by plucking or by
striking using a wooden stick.
• The types of musical bows are the mouth-
resonated bow, earth-resonated string
bow, gourd-resonator string bow.
 04
AEROPHONES
Musical
instruments that
produce sounds by
vibrating air.
 KUDU HORN
● It comes from the horn of kudu
antelope hollowed out as a wind
instrument used for signals.
● This instrument comes in a set of six
horns which mirrors the propagation
of Africa’s musical tradition.
● The Kudu horn releases a mellow
and war, sound that has the ability t
add a unique accent to the African
music.
 TRUMPETS
• It is widely spread and are made from
variety of materials such as wood, metal,
horns, tusks, and gourds.
• The trumpets in Africa are ceremonial in
nature and used in different functions
such as for giving signals and
announcements.
• Some African tribes believed that the
trumpet has the power to cast away evil
spirits, cure diseases, and to give the
warriors and hunters protection from
harm.
LAMELLAPHONES 05
any of a class of a musical
instruments played by the
thumbs, whose sound is
generated by plucking
flexible tuned tongues of
metal, wood, cane or any
material attached in a board
resonator.
 MBIRA
(thumb piano, or finger xylophone)
 MBIRA
● It is Zimbabwe’s most important instrument played in
religious and social celebrations. The Shona people in
Zimbabwe use mbira to communicate with their
ancestors with “Bira” ceremony through a medium
spirit or “Trans.”
● It is a lamellaphone percussion instrument consisting of
series of tuned metal or bamboo tongues attached on a
sound board or box resonator. It is called a thumb
piano because the thumbs plays the wooden or metal
tongues.