From "Theory of African Music, Vol. II"
Volume II is more general and cross-cultural in its approach, and it is advised to start with the introduction of Volume I and Chapters III and IV because this volume deals with topics relating to auditory perception and cognition, music and oral literature, music and graphic symbolism, and portraits of individual creative musician-composers. Volume II concerns itself with the creative musical mind of individuals and in tradition; how musical personalities in various African cultures conceive, categorize, perceive and process movement and sound, and how they integrate their specific experiences within the broader realm of culture. It is a misunderstanding to see the objective of Volume II as presenting a theory of African “rhythm,” as the author has outgrown the rhythm stereotype of Africa and the quest for grand theories.
Volume II was supposed to be published in 1995 as a sequel to Volume I (published in 1994). Due to the closure of the International Institute for Traditional Music in Berlin soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, funding for Volume II was lost and the book was delayed until it was ultimately published in 2010. In that time the author went through: different computer systems and other computer-related hurdles; scanning and digitizing the original typed version of the texts; publishing several books and making contributions in other books; and final revisions for Volume II, including the limited inclusion of information collected after 1994 and the shortening of Chapter IX due the death of musician-composer Donald Kachamba in 2001.
Since Volumes I and II contain research conducted up until 1994, a Further Recommended Readings section is included.
Chapter 6: The Cognitive Study of African Musical “Rhythm”
Tracklist
Section 1: Cognitive Anthropology and African Music: What We Can Learn from Each
00:00 Historical recitations and songs to the kora
Section 2: Timing Systems
03:49 Pounding millet
06:16 Visekese dance songs
Section 3: Time-Line Patterns
09:44 Bal (reed pipe) dance
10:38 Mɔkutuk (water drumming)
12:26 Drum variations with kachacha time-line pattern
13:45 Solo song with kembe (lamellophone)
15:44 Mangolongondo (log xylophone) performance
18:19 Tɔba music
© 2010
University of Chicago Press edition 2010
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