Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation conclusion
Song text interpretation by the general public
Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, conclusion. This article concludes a series of articles on variation in song text interpretation. See the beginning of the series.
An important note in advance. We are only examening the general public’s interpretation of texts of songs played on a tape recorder. We could not study the interpretation within the direct context of application of the song and song text.
Some song texts are comprehensible to almost everyone. Others are not understood by up to two-fifth of the public.
Individual knowledge, which fills gaps or reframes the meaning of the text as compared to the meanings attributed to it by the exegetes, is common. In all examples, we find divergent interpretations: two, three or even more different interpretations of the same text.
Some may be ignorant, or feign ignorance, about one or more of the topics of these five songs. However, the general public in Chibale is arguably capable of handling song text interpretation to a fairly high standard. Many people in Chibale feel, think, and talk about song texts, stories, proverbs, omens, dreams, incidents, misfortune, and so on, as important signs and messages. They use proverbs, song texts, and stories to influence others. See for another example the article on sound and language for the interpretation of sounds in nature as signs. Exegetes are experienced and often trained in explaining the signs and messages to others.
Proverb 2751Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.
Munshipaya alatola
Non-hunters can come back with meat
It is not always up to the masters. Even ‘normal’ people may have an answer.
With a little luck people can do things you would not expect from them.
It’s not just hunters who come back with “the red thing”. One may think of going into the wild to pick mushrooms but end up picking game meat because an animal died at the place where you seek the mushrooms. And those who go into the wild looking for masuku fruits can be lucky to find a left-over piece of meat left by a lion.
Comparing the interpretations by exegetes and by the non-specialist public
Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, conclusion. First of all, we cannot speak of the exegetes’ interpretation nor of the general public’s interpretation. There are differences in interpretations between different exegetes as well as among the general public.
Among the general public, the range of the differences seems to be larger. They guess more often, for instance, with answers that begin with “Then it must be that”, “I presume”, “I can’t think of nothing else than”, and the like.
If there are more possible interpretations, or if possible interpretations differ greatly in nature, there is more chance of differences between the interpretations made by exegetes and those made by the general public. Apparently, the exegetes are more adept at taming the number of possible interpretations, or at maintaining two interpretations simultaneously.
Interpretation of music in Zambia: variation, conclusion.
Footnotes
- 1Example from the proverb book Amano mambulwa.