Songs and dances in Zambia: the root melody

Songs and dances in Zambia: the root melody. The name for a melody in its root form is musango wa kwimbilamo, a kind of singing.
The songs within one musango have the same length. And they are similar in the contour of the melody, in the ratio note repetitions : steps : leaps, in the number of syllables used and in rhythmic density. They are not similar in text, apart from a name or exhortation, that occurs in every realisation of that musango.
At one or more points in the realisation of a song within a musango, the singer can slightly change the melody or rhythm to fit the words of the text. Or, she can make the choice to switch to the parallel fourth of the root melody and continue in the parallel for some notes to return to the root melody again. In this process there can be transition notes that have another interval as to the root melody than a fourth. In this way, a, sometimes great, number of melodies are all understood as the realisations of one musango.

Songs and dances in Zambia: the root melody. A daughter of a certain social dance song genre has a, not too, different musango, sometimes two, with all of the melodies made in the period of its popularity in that one, or two, musango.

The root melody makes it easier for the chorus to learn the song

Songs and dances in Zambia: the root melody. A possessing spirit brings new songs in one, sometimes two, root melodies, musango. It is especially important for Ciwila, the possession type for the composition of new songs. The musango guarantees that the chorus will be able to quickly learn a new song text. This is an important condition for success and for the heating of the ritual. As discussed in the articles about the evaluation of songs, the public prefers ‘simple’ songs that are ‘easy to learn’.
The musango is the mark of the spirit in a certain possessed.¹Note that the musango is not a ‘motto‘ in the sense used by Rouget (1985:205). When the same spirit possesses two people, which is not uncommon, it will use different musango through them.

The spirit does not possess two persons to do the same work twice. Each possession serves another goal.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.