Evaluation of music in Zambia: mistakes

Mistakes affect the effect of the song and the ritual

Evaluation of music in Zambia: mistakes. In the 1980s, many people in Chibale were convinced that music would not have any effect when its performance contained mistakes (cileya).

Proverb 33¹Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.²Photo 129.

Mwana pabo tabifya masha

Mwe ngomba sha fila ngamwaile kukumanina kumbi, balya abapali incende bakatasha fye ingomba shabo epela.
Ukutali kwenu teti usubile ukutashiwa nangu ucite ciweme shani.

Your own people do not spoil the dancing

When dancers from different areas meet at a given place, those from the area will be praised in comparison to the visiting dancers.
Do not expect to be praised when you visit other places. People tend to be less critical towards the ones they know.

We can discern mistakes in dealing with the structure (musango umo wine) and mistakes in dealing with more changeable, performative features (fya kusala).
Mistakes in dealing with the structure were singing a wrong word, tone or stress in a known melody; singing a new melody not in concordance with the tone and stress of the text when spoken, or wrongly breaking a word into two (kuputula); and singing the wrong parallel tone (in polyphony).
Performance mistakes were singing out of tune; singing too softly; singing too slowly or too fast; singing in the wrong register, relative to the range of one’s singing voice; pronouncing unclearly; and for choruses (except for some christian choirs): singing without kuwela, called kuputula: break off. Failure to meet other requirements of performance can also be called cileya, such as voice quality and timing. Standards differ in part for each of the main song types. See below for an example of the evaluation of the singing (voice quality) of Song 1 and Song 20.
With drumming mistakes could be made as to the correct patterns for that particular music, playing unclearly, playing the wrong tempo, and starting wrongly.

The use of the word cileya (mistake)

Examples of the use of the word cileya outside of the direct context of performing are: to denote the sound a record makes on a gramophone the speed of which is changing from 33.3 to 45 rpm or vice versa and to denote the situation in which a person who normally, for instance, cooks well, fails to do so on an important occasion. 

Music example 1

Oral notation of failing to play the correct drum patterns at an important occasion, as remembered by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986.

Text of Music example 1 ∵ It has failed to sound

Bitiku bitiku
Cabone mfumu cakanga kulila
Mboto mbototo
Cabone mfumu cakanga kulila
Mbiti mbititi
Cabone mfumu cakanga kulila
Mbiti mbitiku
Cabone mfumu cakanga kulila

Bitiku bitiku etc.
It has seen the chief, it has failed to sound

Four oral notations of wrong drum patterns for the cibitiku. The mistakes are made because it is more difficult to play well at an important occasion.

Effectiveness is central

The effectiveness of the performance is central. Achieving that effectiveness requires correct and excellent performance. Many songs on this site therefore insist on proper, appropriate performance or resisting sloppiness. Three more examples are given here.

Song 17

A song brought by bamukaKunda Mfwanti (human name: banaSibilu) at a Kubuka I requested to be able to interview Kunda Mfwanti, the chief possessing her who died around 1900.

Text of Song 17 ∵ Sing without mistakes

Mwebaume apo twabona bamwana bwana
Nafwa bama, bama/lelo muimbe cileya

Hey friends, now that we have seen the white man
I am dying oh mother, mother/today sing without mistakes

The song asks for singing without mistakes because the occasion is special or potentially dangerous. This was the first Kubuka ever visited by a white man.
This text also goes to show that Mwami mediums, in this case bamukaKunda Mfwanti, originating from Chibale who are often also possessed by Ciwila spirits, can make new texts referring to the occasion, even if this was a healing or problem solving occasion.

A second  example

Song 19
A cinsengwe for kwilimuna underlining the importance of good singing. No recording.
This song can also be found in the Ambo (south) part of the Lala region.³Stefaniszyn (1951: 9) and Stefaniszyn (1974: Hunting song 7).

Text of Song 19 ∵ Let us sing with ardour

Bacibinda mwalala
Bukeni mwe bayinga weulele ungauce
Twimbe cibonga twilimune mishimu yabwela

Hunters, you have slept
Rise up, you hunters who sleep until dawn
Let us sing with ardour, let us do kwilimuna, the spirits have come

Cibonga is the opposite of cileya (mistake).
On Stefaniszyn’s translation of twilimune with “Let’s squat in worship!” Mika Mwape Chungwa commented: “Squatting is not necessary, the singing is the ‘worship’.”

[While commenting on Song 19] It is very important to sing the song exactly right. Singing can only be kupupa when it is cibonga, not cileya, especially because the spirits are near now and offerings can be made at this very moment.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

A third example

Song 18
A cinsengwe for kwilimuna underlining the importance of good singing. No recording.
This song can also be found in the Ambo (south) part of the Lala region.⁴Stefaniszyn (1951: 5) and Stefaniszyn (1974: Hunting song 24).

Text of Song 18 ∵ Sing well for me

Mwebakashi mpelela bunga
Mailo ndi nelwendo kuya ku matanga abanyama
Tetimbwele nalema
Kamwimba bwino nakuwa mumbulu

My wife, grind meal for me
Tomorrow I shall go to reach the game herds
I shall not return before I tire
Sing well for me, I bark like a wild dog

The wild dog, that like the human hunter has relatives that stay in the village, is a ‘roamer of the mpanga’, a honorific title for great hunters. The barking of the wild dog (in the mpanga) is contrasted with the good singing in the village.

Singing without mistakes is important for kwilimuna. If the text contains pleading [the spirits], mistakes are a little less important. When you’re doing kwilimuna, the composition of the words should follow the sequence, like when you’re writing a letter. It has to progress gradually (pepi pepi). Too much joy could get you into trouble.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2006.

Conclusion

To have effect the song has to sound well at just the right moment.

Mistakes affect preferences and feelings

Evaluation of music in Zambia: mistakes. In the 1987 survey, people were asked whether they heard no mistakes, some mistakes or many mistakes in the performance of the nine songs that were played for them. For six of these songs only two to five persons detected some mistakes while for Song 163 it were nine people.
In Song 1 sung by chief Chibale with a voice marked by his age, softer and less forceful than the voices in the other songs (excluding the very heavy Song 163), 20 persons heard some mistakes and 18 many mistakes. Lastly, in Song 20 where some members of the chorus sing too high for the ranges of their voices, 22 people detected some mistakes and 34 many mistakes. 

Song 20

A kalindula song brought by the band Tula Twabane at a Sandauni in 1985. It was used in Survey 1987.

Text of Song 20 ∵ Let’s praise

Tubalumbe ba [follow the names of all band members]
Ai yo iyo iyo mama ai yo iyo iyo mama we
O tubalumbe balishiki
Ai yo iyo iyo mama ai yo iyo iyo mama we
Tubalumbe ba makali wesu
Ai yo iyo iyo mama ai yo iyo iyo mama we
O tubalumbe ba chief Chibale
Ai yo iyo iyo mama ai yo iyo iyo mama we

Let’s praise [the members of the band]
Oh, let’s praise the ones doing the lishiki
Let’s praise our beautiful selves
Oh, let’s praise chief Chibale
Ai yo iyo iyo, mother, ai yo iyo iyo, mother, you

The band members are introduced one by one. Bamakali: makali is a town word for big and beautiful, for instance ‘makali wan’: beautiful girl. Balishiki: those who do the lishiki; more generally: girls dancing.

Lower scores and absence of feeling

The ones detecting mistakes in Song 1 or Song 20 give lower value scores (ratings) to these songs.⁵The strengths of the rank-correlation between the quantity of mistakes detected and the value score for Song 1 and Song 20 are -.61 and -.70 respectively. It does not seem to be the case that one is less inclined to detect mistakes in the singing of a song belonging to one’s favourite song type: the mistakes in Song 20 are also noted by the young and those in Song 1 also by older persons.

As to the feelings experienced while hearing the songs: when mistakes are detected there is absence of feelings or there are negative feelings in 67.5% of the cases, joy feelings in 27% and sorrow feelings in only 5.5% of the cases. This underlines the importance of the absence of mistakes for appreciating music and is in conformity with the principle that kupupa songs should not contain mistakes in order to be effective. It also illustrates that feelings are used as feedback mechanism for the effectiveness of music: the mistakes lead to a lack of feelings which is interpreted (felt) as a sign of a lack of effectiveness of the music.
In the 2004 Survey this result was not repeated. This possibly has to do with the fact that, in the 2000s, there is less attention for the fulfilling of the conditions in music that lead or lead not to effectiveness (properness, structural and changeable features) than for the ‘measurement’ of the effect in the own body. See also the concluding article of this series.