Representation of music in Zambia: Chibale
Representation of music in Chibale, Zambia. What representations of music exist, or can be made, in Chibale, Zambia that specify or explain its characteristics?1We present the research for the articles on the representation of music in Ways of working for uncovering underlying principles.
We will look at the representation of a higher-order structure of music as well as the representation of individual features of music.2Compare Graziano & Johnson (2006:294-295).
Follow the links below to go to the relevant articles.
Representation of a higher-order structure of music
In the 1980s, no verbalised representation of a higher-order structure of music existed in Chibale. On the other hand, there were practices, song texts and stories that seemed to testify of such a higher-order structure. Together with the exegetes Mika Mwape Chungwa, banaNshimbi and Salati Mukoti, we tried to reach a verbalisation of this structure that made sense in Chibale.
Please, read the article about the worldview of the exegetes before you start with A theory about music.
Figure A: Representation of the various aspects in the spatial layout of rituals.
Representation of the various aspects in the spatial layout of rituals. In this setting linked to the mpanga are west, inside, spirit, woman, dancer and darkness. And linked to the village east, outside, human, man, drummer and light. Throughout the ritual, contrasts and transitions continue to occur between these aspects. Aspects in the music also play an important role in this. These are treated in A theory about music and Representation of individual features of music.
Representation of individual features in music
Representation of music in Chibale, Zambia. In Chibale, the representation of individual musical features aims to clarify the following.
- The shape and course of the melody. Expressing musical features in terms of size, vertical space and horizontal space.
- The weight of music. Expressing musical features like melody type, recognisability and comprehensibility, and tempo, in terms of weight.
- And, the origin of music. Some musical features originate from one of two types of areas in the Chibale landscape and the spirit world connected to these. This overlaps with the weight of music and is mostly used for discerning musical genres.
We first present the various concepts separately and then examine their relationship. Lastly, we examine in what ways they express the structure of music and the performance of music.
The two forms of representation compared
In the concluding article of this series on the representation of music in Chibale, we explore the connection between higher-order and feature representations. This brings us to a critique of A theory of music.
Other representations
Read the article on the representation of Catholic music to see major differences but also some similarities with the representations of music presented in this series of articles.
Footnotes
- 1We present the research for the articles on the representation of music in Ways of working for uncovering underlying principles.
- 2Compare Graziano & Johnson (2006:294-295).