Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation 3

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 3. This article is about the interpretation of a cinsengwe by the ing’omba Chitelela. According to the singer of the song, it is about good music and ultimate loneliness.

Song 1

The fragment of the cinsengwe Song 1, from 0:14 to 1:03, used in Survey 1987. The cinsengwe ing’omba Chitelela brought it in the 1930s. As played by an ilimba ensemble led by chief Chibale Teneshi Njipika in 1981.

Text of Song 1 ∵ I am left alone in need for/ while there is good music

Amalimbe fi alila kwa Chibale
Alila mwinamina akula panshi alila sensenta mbanindo
Nashala nenka mwantengamina / bantengamina / owowo

How the music sounds in Chibale
It sounds downward and upward, it drags over the ground, it sounds doing sensenta, but why
I am left alone with all of you against me/ with all against me/ owowo

In this translation malimba is taken to refer to music in general. In the rest of this article the word malimba is used meaning both one-note xylophones and music.

Interpretation by exegetes

Go to the article A theory about music for more detail about the text and a specific music theoretical interpretation of it.
Here follow some additional quotations of exegetes about this text.

[…] So, for music ‘sensenta’ describes the good expectations that it arises. Alila mwinamina akula panshi means that all good music comes from or is reflected from the ground. The ilimba is played while the player bows forward. With the drum that is also good. Ideally music comes from below. Also when you play the low tones on the lamellaphone the music goes below (akula panshi). It is especially the low tone group [mashiwi ya panshi] that makes the music do sensenta.
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Mwinamina means it makes you bend forward with your hands in the neck, it is a sign of sorrow. So the music makes you do this. Sensenta is the rocking movement that the bereaved performs [with the hands in the neck]. The –kula panshi can be interpreted as: the sad news or loss makes you lose all energy, it drags you.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

[After hearing the interpretation given by his father Mika Mwape Chungwa in 1986] Yes, I agree with the interpretation of the second line, only ‘mbanindo‘ should be ‘malimba’. The third line could also indicate that the medium, representing the mpanga, feels lonely among the villagers [audience].
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2004.

Resume of the exegetes’ interpretations

BanaNshimbi agreed with the musical interpretation of the song given in A theory about music. But she found her interpretation more prominent. Notwithstanding the latter, her commentary can be interpreted to show that the behaviour of those mourning – as described in the quotation – followed the sensenta model.
Alube Mika’s interpretation of the third line places the song at a moment that the public has to be exhorted to help in the mourning ritual. Then the song text means: ‘You know for Chibale music to work well it has to sound like this, so please don’t leave me without assistance to make it sound like this’. This lack of assistance could be caused by the fact that the public more or less agree with the death of the one who died. For some this could be a sign that witchcraft is involved.

We give a resume of the exegetes’ partial interpretations.
A. The second line indicates that (kupupa) music is played downward to the ground, that it moves over the ground and then goes up again. Mwinamina and sensenta point to the repetitive nature of the process.
B. Sensenta arises good expectations.
C. The second line describes the way people express sorrow after sad news or a loss.
D. The third line can be a quotation of a medium asking those present to help in the Ipupo.

Interpretation by the general public

In Survey 1987, participants expressed their views on the message of this song right after hearing it. Most focused on what they considered the main subject of the song, a broad interpretation of the song text (List 30). Further interpretation was discussed on the basis of three specific questions about the text of the song (Lists 31, 32 and 33).

The main subject of the song

List 30: The message (main subject) of Song 1, Survey 1987.

The last line with the dreaded image is most often used to derive the message from this song. Nevertheless, in many of the answers a link is made, more or less clearly, with the mourning behaviour that can be interpreted to be described in the second line. The interpretations in 5M5 and 5M8 must also be based on this. 5M11 and 5M14 link the message to witchcraft and hate. 5M12, 5M13 and 5M18 emphasise the (first and the) second line while 5M16 is the only answer combining attention for sorrow and music like the exegetes do.

Three specific questions

The answers to the three specific questions for this song provide more information about the interpretations made by members of the general public.

List 31: What does ‘Alila mwinamina akula panshi’ mean?

The answers indicate that more people than List 30 seems to imply, heard that the second line is about music or music and sorrow.

List 32: What does ‘Alila sensenta’ mean?

With 43% of the people not knowing what ‘alila sensenta’ means, this is the most difficult text part in our five examples. A reason for this may be that sensenta is not a regularly used word. Certainly its music structural meaning is practically unknown. 5Tb2 and possibly 5Tb3 and 5Tb7 seem to be based on the usage of the word for the gathering of heavy rain clouds while 5Tb5 and possibly 5Tb6 seem to be based on its usage for the carrying of a heavy object over a longer distance. 

List 33: Why does it end with ‘Nashala nenka bantengamina’?

Joint analysis of all answers

A homogeneity analysis of the answers to the four questions about Song 1 shows three groups of answers. 

Figure J: Homogeneity analysis of the four questions about the text of Song 1.

The plot resulting from the homogeneity analysis of the answers to the four questions about Song 1 represents, in two dimensions, the four dimensional cross-table that is made up of all the series of four answers that each individual interviewee gave.¹In order to be able to perform a homogeneity analysis, no answers with a low score can be retained. So, similar answers to the same question are taken together and isolated answers with a very low frequency are skipped. In the plot, the answers that are taken together are separated with a slash.

Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, example 3. The plot shows three groups. At the right is the group of all I don’t know/understand answers. This means that the group of people who do not know the answer or understand the message is more or less the same for each question. The second group, at the bottom left, comprises the answers referring to music. They are primarily based on the second, sometimes the first, line. 5M2 is also in this group which may indicate that the ‘effects’ mentioned are (partly) musical. The third group, at the top left, consists of answers that refer in various ways to the wretched state in which the singer, or the one quoted in the third line, finds himself. They are based on the third line of the song text while in some cases the second line is taken along in the interpretation. 

Conclusion

The clear separation of the three groups in the plot is an indication that people tend to give answers that revolve around one interpretative approach.²In the first dimension the two interpretation groups are clearly separated from the I don’t know/understand group while in the second dimension they are clearly separated from each other. With 0.768 and 0.483 the dimensions have rather high eigenvalues, a measure of how much of the information is accounted for by each dimension. The Music answers are plotted more extremely since they form the minority of the answers (17%, versus 48% for the wretched state answers).

The clear separation between the two interpretation groups seems to indicate that although the two interpretations may be made simultaneously, the answers are mainly given from one interpretative approach. The answer (5Tc7) that unites both interpretations is given by one twelfth of all interviewed. Its position in the plot seems to indicate that the musical interpretation is dominant or that the double interpretation is only given once one approaches the text from a musical vantage point.

As we saw in the article A theory about music and at the beginning of this article, the exegetes interpret the text at least along a musical line and a mourning line. These interpretations can be made simultaneously (polysemy).
A fairly large part of the public (around one third) does not understand the text. In the others, the two interpretations of the exegetes are found, albeit that the mourning interpretation is extended to a wretched state interpretation. When polysemy occurs, it seems that one of the two interpretations is leading.

Proverb 28³Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.⁴Photo 177.

Akana kanshiwa kaumfwile mano mulukolo

Ngoli mwana wanshiwa, amano ukapula kuki bambi. Ukuba weka nangu wakukwafwa, ubwafwilisho bukatula kumbi kati wanakilila. Ecimo cine nobwana bwa nshiwa. We walilufya abafyashi bobe uko winga tola amano yakubomfya mu bwikalo bobe. Ngoli umwana musuma, bambi aba ibelele ebaka kwebako ifyakucita ngawaba no nwafya.

The orphan got knowledge while sitting outside the house

When you are an orphan, knowledge will be got from other people than your parents. You have lost both your parents who could have given you good advice on the way you can live. If you are well mannered, other people will advise you how to go about when you are in trouble. This holds for others too. When you are alone with none of the ones you know to help you, the help you need will come from other people as long as you are well-mannered.

Continue to the fourth example in the article series on the variation in song text interpretation.