Songs and dances in Zambia: extension of the repertoire

New music

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. In the 1980s, many thought that all music (of Chibale origin) came from the mpanga. In most cases, this was done through mediums, but in exceptional cases, non-possessed individuals were involved.

Yes, why is music of equal value as fresh meat, new products, medicines and solutions to problems? The Mwami and Kaluwe songs that exist are known to help. An old Ciwila song would not help [in the heating of the ritual] as it would not mark that very occasion.
And why do especially the Cililo and Ipupo need new texts and kucitila and kwilimuna not? Maybe because they are about death, an important turning point in the exchange between the mpanga and the village. As for the other two, they are part of an ongoing exchange. Or maybe because they are about individual humans, not about the possessing spirits or their work. This only holds for the texts, the musango they [the Ciwila possessed] use may be very old.
Alube Mika ∵ personal communication, 2007.

‘New’ music through mediums

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. There was no such thing as a ‘new’ song in the 1980s. It was ‘unknown until now’ or it ‘originated from somewhere else’. A word used in relation to songs coming close to ‘new’ was bwangu: recent, quick. It referred to the fact that that particular song or style had recently become known while before that it had not been played. According to many in Chibale, we could only speak of newness in the sense of an extension of the repertoire when we defined repertoire as the repertoire known at that particular moment. They were convinced that all music (of Chibale origin) already existed. And it was brought to people by spirits through spirit possessed at occasions at which the songs were needed.

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. Specialists called a song ‘raw’ (lubishi) before it was sung for the first time. That is: after having been unknown for a prolonged period. During and through the first performance it was cooked (kwipiko lwimbo).¹The spread of the knowledge of the concept ‘cooking a song’ even among relative specialists (mediums) was small. We did a survey after the concepts ‘cooking a song’ and ‘raw song’ were brought forward by Mika Mwape Chungwa. Twenty mediums were asked what ‘cooking a song’ was. The answers were: don’t know (9); doesn’t exist (4); bringing a new song (4); no answer (3). Three of the four persons saying it was ‘bringing a new song’ were shing’anga. This implies that ‘cooking a song’ was a specialists’ concept.

Proverb 8

Ifyalula muntu bung’omba fyamipashi fifuma mumpanga, nomba kukopa likoso bungaba bwangalo.
What changes a human being into an ing’omba are the spirits of ancestors and specialists from the mpanga, not imitation which is just kwangala.

‘New’ music through non-possessed

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. For non-possessed persons the bringing of a new song always involved a dangerous actual or metaphorical journey through the mpanga. The non-possessed person disappeared from his village and was abducted into the mpanga by nature spirits (cibanda). After three weeks he suddenly reappeared, changed but unharmed, and he started to sing a new song, typically a new social dance song, that is a new text and musango, possibly also with new drum patterns and dance movements (in the latter case, introducing a new type of social dance).
The ancestral spirits (mupashi) taught him this song to replace the ‘anti-songs’ (nyimbo sha fibanda: nature spirits’ songs) that the nature spirits tried to teach him which would have caused his death. The characteristics of these anti-songs were the opposite of those of good songs. They had deviant forms (for instance in the shape of the melody), they were meaningless, they lied, they were aggressive, they were mad, they caused madness or death. Up to the 1950s, they could be heard at certain places in the deep mpanga. Events similar to the journey through the mpanga after abduction occurred during the metaphorical journey through the mpanga that showed itself in a protracted state of apparent death. When the preparations for the funeral had already nearly been finished, the seemingly deceased suddenly rose singing a new social dance song.

Only five cases of the acquisition of new songs through non-possessed persons were remembered in Chibale in the 1980s. Three of the persons involved became mediums in a later stage.
Before songs can be brought through them, all spirit-possessed have made a less spectacular and much longer journey through the mpanga. Their journey is the possession illness.

New song texts

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. Song texts are seen as inseparable from the song. However, the musango system provides a root melody but not a root text. No text is seen as a musango’s model text, all texts on one musango are ‘its text’.

It is recognised that humans can make small alterations to an existing text provided it remains in the same musango. This also has consequences for music not within the musango system. Kalindula songs with a text entirely made by one individual were not found, for example. After some investigation, all songs claimed to have been made by one of the players turned out to have only a few words changed in ‘the original’. That is the version learned from another band, from outside or within Chibale.

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. What catches the ear when listening to different performances of one song is that there are always differences in a few words (see for instance the variations made on the text of Song 1). This limited playing with the text of a song is the norm in all music except christian music. It is likely that famous starters of songs, apart from being good singers, had one or both of the following qualities. The ability to choose the right song from a large repertoire at the right moment. And the ability to make small changes to the text that made it applicable to the situation, funny or the like.

Here is another cisango verse [Follows the last stanza of Song 178]. In former days sometimes new lines were added by the women themselves, not by the spirits, because it was for fun (pakwangala).
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

Newness can apply to revival or reuse

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. When a song or genre has been in the background for a while, it can go through a revival, mostly on the initiative of the one who starts the song at gatherings. These songs can then lose their old name and be called after that starter or after a salient part of its text or a salient dance movement going with it.

One can imagine that if for certain song types the musango got blurred, for instance because no clear ownership could be claimed, subsequent text changes might make the melody supersede the original musango boundaries and gradually change into another song (musango) or even style. This way of gradual change seems applicable to the development of social dance songs and the female repertoire, presuming that they were not subjected to the monopoly on repertoire extension like that of the mediums producing the male repertoires. Unfortunately, we could not gather enough historical repertoire to give sufficient substance to this assumption.

Classification of ‘new’ songs

Songs in Zambia: extension of the repertoire. If a song has something new, it is almost always a (partly) new text to an existing musango and rhythmic accompaniment. The classification is that of the musango of which this song is a member. If it is a social dance song, the song may get a new name derived from a salient part of the text.

Occasionally a song has a new text and a new melody to existing rhythmic accompaniment. The classification of this new musango depends on the factors discussed elsewhere: purpose, occasion, purport of the text and on the rhythmic accompaniment. The song is called a daughter (variation) or sister (variant) of an existing genre. Its name, however, can also refer to a salient part of the text.

Rarely does a song have a new text, a new melody and a new rhythmic accompaniment. This song will get a new genre name. The song is called a daughter (part of the same cluster). Or sister (part of another cluster but of the same importance) of an existing genre. For instance the following classification:

Cimbilingoma was a daughter of cinko, the sister of cinsengwe, together the ancestresses of all dances. It had two musango.
BanaNshimbi ∵ personal communication, 1987.

means:

Cinko and cinsengwe together form the basis of the whole repertoire of [Chibale] music. Cimbilingoma was a social dance song that came after cinko; it had a number of different song texts, two melody sets and one style of drumming.²Note that the cimbwasa is not mentioned. Compare the article about the relation between the major song genres.

When a new song genre comes from outside, it usually gets the outside name.