Representation of music in Zambia: individual features

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. The shape and course of melodies and the weight and level of difficulty of songs. These are the concepts around which the representation of individual features of music revolves.

We first present the concepts themselves and then provide an overview of their coherence. At the end we will look at what the relationship is between the representation of individual features of music, as treated in this article, and the representation of a higher-order structure of music, as treated in A theory about music.

Here’s a warning: this isn’t our easiest article. Your effort may bring you the joy of understanding to some extent how musical features are represented in and among the people in Chibale, how they are related, whether these features refer to the structure of music or to its performance.

Contents

The shape and course of the melody

Three tone groups
Volume and pitch level of singing
Cadence
Melody contour
The alternation of tone groups in a melody

The weight and level of difficulty of music

Melody type – light and heavy music
Recognisability of a started song including the comprehensibility of its text
Tempo

The origin/nature of the song

Overview of musical concepts

Spatial orientation
Weight orientation
Orientation towards description or the listener’s perspective

Structural and performative features of music

Lightness and heaviness in structure and performance of music
Heavy and light, structure and performance
To bring heaviness to a light melody
Degrees of freedom while remaining effective

The shape and course of the melody

Three tone groups

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. Melodies are understood/experienced to be built of tones belonging to three tone groups.¹See the article about the prominence of three in Chibale music. The names of these tone groups are mashiwi ya panshi, (mashiwi ya) cibitiku and mashiwi ya pamulu. Tones of below, (tones of) cibitiku and tones of above.

The words small (-ce) and large (-kulu) are used interchangeably with above and below when referring to the structure of music, be it that with large and small there was more implication of a middle position (cibitiku) than with above and below.²Arthur Jones (1950) gives comparable examples of the use of ‘short’, ‘on-going’ (presumably referring to kuwela), ‘soft’, ‘little’ and ‘big’ in his article on the kalimba in the Lala region.

Song 143

A Ciwila song composed by one of the spirits possessing Mika Mwape Chungwa (ba Mwela). He brought it to historicise a musical gathering in 1981. Chief Chibale had invited a number of people to make music that we could record. [Unfortunately we just didn’t record this song. See for the melody form the illustration below.]

Mwapoleni mwebabomfi besu
Kani mutende mwabasanga abena musumba ee
Welcome to you, our dear workers
How are you? You have found all the people at the chief’s place

“You remember the song brought at the chief’s place. Mwapo is small (-ce); leni mweba bomfi besu, kani mutende, mwabasanga are cibitiku, and abena musumba ee are large (-kulu). The three tone groups should always be in a song. The small tones are above (pamulu), the large tones below (panshi). The song has to end on the large tones and mostly starts on the middle (cibitiku)³Or it starts above, as is the case here., just as the drums start their playing: cibitiku – kace – iyikulu. The lamellophone also always starts with cibitiku, then small, and ends on the low tones (bomba). We hear a melody divided in these three tone groups.”
Mika Mwape Chungwa ∵ personal communication, 1986.

Volume and pitch level of singing

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. For changing the volume of the performance of a particular song people use the following words. Kwimye shiwi: to raise the voice (word/tone)and kubweshe shiwi: lower the voice (word/tone), have the voice (word/tone) return. Loud singing by the chorus is also called kutumpula, to raise.⁴Imya also means: to lift; kubwesha: to lower, to return to the original position and kutumpula: to bring to the surface.
People use the same qualifications (kubweshe shiwi and kwimye shiwi) when comparing one performance with another.

Cadence

People call the ending of a melody mukutula or mukuponya (kutula, kuponya: to put/lay down). In case of a light melody, they also use musango wa kukula panshi: the way of going down. A classical, light ending has the complete sensenta form. Starting in the middle, going up and then going down (like the last line of Song 1). The cadences of heavy melodies are shorter.

Melody contour

To describe a melody with a smooth form people use lwa cipi cipi or lwa pepi pepi, straight, nearby. A new tone is likely to be near the previous tone. When it contains more leaps, the name is lwa patali patali: far, spread-out. A new tone is more likely to be far from the previous tone. People visualise this being spread out with the hands in the horizontal plane. The leap is seen as a curve in a path meeting an obstacle. Therefore, a song with few leaps is straight or it is lwalitambalala: meeting no obstacles.
Nyimbo sha banakashi shilapikana sana – the music of women meanders.⁵The word -pikana (make curves, meander) is akin to the word -pika: heavy drumming by the master-drum. People use it for the adding of curves (leaps) to a melody. For this they can also use the word heavy. Meandering music is heavy.
The only spread-out, curved, heavy thing in the performance of a Ciwila song at an Ipupo is the kupika of the master-drum.

The alternation of tone groups in a melody

Near and spread also denote the gradualness of the alternation of tone groups in a melody.
Light (for near) and heavy (for spread) also can describe this gradualness.

The weight and level of difficulty of music

Melody type – light and heavy music

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. As to the structure of music, people discern music that is heavy, dragging and music that is light, easy. Nyimbo sha kukule shiwi and nyimbo shipubile respectively. Lightness arises from the lack of leaps in the melody and its gradual contour. The melody remains in one of the three tone groups for a long time. And in the heavy type the tone groups alternate more quickly. Light songs are also called sha lubilo, quick and sha pamulu, of above. And heavy songs sha panshi, of below.
During performances, lightness is experienced in the conformance of the new (at that moment unknown) song with a known musango.

Typical examples of light tunes are found in all classical men’s music: ing’omba, Ciwila and Kaluwe songs and cinsengwe. And Mwami songs and most women’s songs and social dance songs are of the heavy type. In the typical pitch progression of the light type two successive pitches are either the same or one step apart, and only occasionally more than that. In the heavy type, they are one step apart, or, less frequently, more than one step apart or the same.

The differences found are the same as the differences made between lwa pepi pepi and lwa patali patali. See under Melody contour above.

Recognisability of a started song including the comprehensibility of its text

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. As to the performance of a particular song, one discerns easy, weak and hard, strong songs. Lukonaka and lukosele respectively. Also here, a relation exists with the shape of the melody as it is realised in a particular performance. However, it is much more related to the difficulty of singing the song oneself. The latter is a significant consideration. A large part of the population is used to contribute to performances by singing the chorusline.
Light, easy, weak and heavy, hard, strong are also used to express the comprehensibility of the song text. That is, whether it requires a knowledgeable person little or or a lot of knowledge/interpretation respectively.

Tempo

Weight also relates to tempo. A slow tempo is described with the verb kukokomoka: to delay, to drag, to be heavy. And a fast tempo is described with kwangusha or kupufya: to be light.
In general, drum and dance tempi from the Lamba and the Lenje regions are considered heavier (slower) than the lighter (faster) tempi in the Lala region.

See Elaboration M for the view of the general public on lightness and heaviness of songs.

The origin/nature of the song

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. An aspect overlapping with the weight and level of difficulty is the origin, or nature, of the music. It is often used to discern musical genres. People distinguish between music coming from the higher land (mulundu) and from the river land (nika). However, this distinction is much less clearly expressing musical differences than light and heavy do. It is especially concerned with differentiating those associated with mulundu and those associated with nika, not so much their music. See the article on the origin of music.

Overview of musical concepts

Table V: Overview of musical concepts

Table V gives an overview of musical concepts used in Chibale.
The differently coloured rows show the five orientations of the concepts. From top to bottom: size (one concept), vertical space (four concepts) and direction (the last three concepts also evoke direction), horizontal space (two concepts, both also evoke sequence), weight & level of difficulty (four concepts), and origin/nature (one concept). The concept of the alternation of tone groups has a double orientation. It serves as the pivot between the two large groups of spatial and weight orientations. The two aspects can be partially expressed in each other.

Spatial orientation

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. Vertically oriented are the positions of the three tone groups, volume, pitch and cadence. It is easy to understand that the first, third and fourth concepts are related. As to the second (volume) people explain that the singer has to raise herself when singing louder.

Horizontally oriented are the qualifications of the number of leaps in a melody. And those of the alternation of tone groups within a melody. The relation is clear. The contour of a melody with many leaps is less smooth than that of a melody with few leaps.
One tone can be formulated to be above another one. But the leap from one tone to another is formulated in the horizontal plane. The leap is conceived as a curve in a path caused by an obstacle. This conception of the leap reproduces the dominant vision of light, straight, mulundu, male melodies as a norm.

Weight orientation

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. Oriented to weight & level of difficulty are alternation of tone groups within a melody, melody type, recognisability & comprehensibility and tempo. This orientation is above all about level of difficulty (expressed as weight), regarded from a mulundu, male perspective. A smooth alternation of tone groups is easier. A recognisable melody (musango) is easier. A simple but educating text is easier. And a fast tempo is easier. The latter has to do with the generally lighter (higher) singing and drumming tempi in the Lala region as compared with those in the rest of the Kaonde-Lamba-Lenje-Lala area. Also important, slower singing is associated with mourning which is heavy.
For the general public, the light-heavy distinction for music brought at large-scale gatherings is about comprehensibility and recognisability and to a lesser extent about the inyimbo sha kwimbila patatu: the alternation of the three tone groups. See the article on the assessing of the lightness and heaviness of songs by the general public in Chibale.

Orientation towards description or the listener’s perspective

The qualifications in the domains size and space place more emphasis on description. In contrast, those in the domains weight and level of difficulty place more emphasis on the listener’s perspective. What is received?

Using more than one qualification

The left hand qualifications in Table V are sometimes used interchangeably, just like those at the right hand side. A comprehensible song may be referred to with lukonaka. But also with mashiwi anono, small words, or with ‘words from above’. Something that contributes to this is the broad palette of meanings of the word ishiwi, plural mashiwi, used in many of the qualifications. Mashiwi means voices, pitches, tone groups and words. To be sure, the words in the left respectively the right column are not just interchangeable. But it is not uncommon to refer to a characteristic with more than one word from that column.

Structural and performative features of music

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. In the articles A theory about music, Layout and course of the rituals and Drummers and dancers: connection and opposition, a number of features are treated that form structural departure points for performance. The structural features of songs and singing are related to the musango umo wine, the abstraction of the musango.
Other features are performative: more changeable and informed by the purpose and the scale of the occasion. These are called fya kusala: ‘of own choice’. And then there are features that are related both to structure and to performance.

The concepts primarily oriented to structure are related to tone groups, alternation of tone groups, melody type and origin/nature.
Predominantly oriented to performance are volume and pitch-as-performed.
Belonging to both are number of leaps, alternation of tone groups, recognisability/comprehensibility and tempo. Each has a structural side but can be used performatively as well. Some examples. A light performance of a structurally heavy melody. A slower tempo in performance within the generally faster range of Lala drum tempi. And a spread, curved performance of a structurally nearby, straight melody.

Structural and changeable features play a role in the evaluation of music. See for instance their place in the Lists 10 and the Lists 11.

Heavy and light, structure and performance

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. The structure of a song can be heavy or light and its performance can be heavy or light. This results in four combinations.

• structurally light music performed lightly, for instance a Ciwila song at an Ipupo, like Song 147,
• structurally light music performed heavily, for instance a personal mourning song like Song 88,
• structurally heavy music performed lightly, for instance women’s song Pa kwisha like Song 178, and
• structurally heavy music performed heavily, for instance a Mwami song at Kubuka like Song 163.

It is not so much light or heavy, more often it is about lighter or heavier. Mwami songs are heavy but their performance at a public ritual is lighter than in private healing sessions. The soloist (shing’anga) sings in a louder, higher voice and the tempo is higher as well. And while most mourning music is light, it is sung heavier, lwa ya panshi, at smaller mourning occasions.

Because of their ability to sing both versions [light and heavy], the Ciwila mediums are the ones who have the privilege (nsambu) of singing and dancing during the day as well as during the night at funerals. […]
The Kaluwe possessed sing lightly at Kwilimuna and Cilili and heavy when they are in the mpanga without kills. That is the time the hunter has to lower his voice because for him it is an occasion for mourning because of ishamo (cililo ce shamo).
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2004.

To bring heaviness to a light melody

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. Another way to bring heaviness to a light melody is to curve (leap) to the parallel fourth of a certain note in the melody and continue the melody in the parallel for a certain period. Especially when this is done more than once, the melody will become much more ‘curved’, ‘meandering’ (heavy) than the source melody. Some female starters of songs are well-known for this. The dominant mulundu, male perspective on this method, called kupikawila, is that the method reduces the sensenta quality of the melody. And that it is performative rather than structural.

The differentiation between heavy and light song structure and song performance is related to the intended effect, for instance kwilimuna or kulila, and the occasion, for instance: the larger the audience, the lighter the performance.

The weighting and lightening of songs have been part of ways to transform, and maybe also partly appropriate, songs in the past. For instance from the male to the female domain or from the ritual to the everyday domain.

Degrees of freedom while remaining effective

Representation of music in Zambia: individual features of music. This adds detail to the significance of the musango. Through performance – which itself is informed by the purpose and scale of the occasion – structure (musango umo wine) is transformed into an actual, contextualised form. The performance does not render ‘the original’ as closely as possible but rather is an expression of structural and contextual degrees of freedom (fya kusala) while still achieving an effective result.

The parallel with the social theme Individuality and conformity is inescapable and is acknowledged by the exegetes.

Yes, fya kusala we also find in the way of living (musango wa kwikala) used in former days and in some ways also today. A set of rules (mushila) and doctrines (mafunde) formed the basis of living while people also tried to see where they had freedom within that whole.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2007

In the concluding article of this series on the representation of music in Chibale, we compare the representation of individual features with that of a higher-order structure of music. We will see that where the representation of individual features has no bias, the representation of a higher-order structure of music is influenced by the ideal of light music and has problems explaining the efficacy of heavy music in healing.