Email: GF’s birthday. Loves African music, dance, culture. (Jamaica)
Happy Birthday!
African music is historic, ancient, multi-faceted, passionate, diverse. Many creative, distinct musical traditions. Music, songs, dance performed in traditional ceremonies.
Sub-Saharan African music relies on percussion instruments like xylophones, djembes, drums, tone-producing instruments like mbira, thumb piano. A wide range of slit gongs, rattles, double bells, harps, fiddles, flutes, trumpets.
Some visible traits of Caribbean music are soca, calypso, zouk. Latin American music genres like rumba, conga, bomba, cumbia, salsa, samba, blues, jazz are influenced by African music.
Like music of Asia it’s highly energetic, rhythmic. Complex styles, patterns involve one rhythm played against another to create poly-rhythms. Common poly-rhythms play 3 beats on top of 2. A triplet played against straight notes.
Understanding African music is difficult. Mesmerising beautiful expressions of love, life. Don’t have written traditions like India. Horn of Africa music (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia) is typically pentatonic. Uses 5 pitches per octave in contrast to heptatonic 7 note scale. Music of Ethiopia uses a modal system called qenet with 4 main modes – tezeta, bati, ambassel, anchihoy.
West African music has special elements of Islamic, Sufi music. Enchanting! African dancing is highly creative, graceful, energetic. Needs great levels of strength, stamina, flexibility in movements, co-ordination, balance. Spectacular, sensational sounds!