What is the history of African music?
What is the history of African music?
Major and minor migrations of African peoples brought musical styles and instruments to new areas. The single and double iron bells, which probably originated in Kwa-speaking West Africa, spread to western Central Africa with Iron Age Bantu-speaking peoples and from there to Zimbabwe and the Zambezi River valley.
What is traditional African music called?
African music includes the genres Jùjú, Fuji, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, Afrobeat and others. The music and dance of the African diaspora, formed to varying degrees on African musical traditions, include American music like Dixieland jazz, blues, jazz, and many Caribbean genres, such as calypso (see kaiso) and soca.
What is the oldest African music?
Saharan ‘green’ cultures left a legacy of rock art describing some are the earliest scenes of African music such as in the painting below. It is probably one of the oldest existing testimonies to music and dance in Africa and is attributed to the ‘Saharan’ period of the Neolithic hunters.
What is the main purpose of traditional African music?
In Africa, music is a social activity in which almost everyone participates. Music highlights African values, with various traditions accompanied by a melody. Many events of importance are celebrated with music, whether it is a marriage, a birth, or a ceremonial rite of passage.
What makes African music unique?
African singers use a wide variety of sounds. The melodies are short, repeated over and over, also include whistles and yodels which is peculiar to African style of music. Soloist often improvises new melodies while the chorus continuous with the original melody creating a polyphonic structure.
What are the important characteristics of African music?
There are eight characteristics that define African music: Polyrhythms, ostinato, the use of percussion, background shimmer, close connection with the music and language, participatory nature of the arts, a close connection with the performing arts, responsorial form.
How has African music influenced the world?
New Genres in a New World Jazz music, blues music, and gospel music all grew from African roots. Spirituals, work calls, and chants coupled with makeshift instruments morphed into blues rhythms and ragtime. Ragtime paved the way for jazz, and elements from all these styles influenced rock and roll and hip hop music.
How did the music of Africa influence the world?
African music has been a major factor in the shaping of a number of American musical styles, including what we know today as blues and jazz. These styles have all borrowed from African rhythms and sounds, brought over the Atlantic ocean by slaves.
What are the 8 purposes of African music?
Why is music important to African culture?
Music is a form of communication and it plays a functional role in African society. Songs accompany marriage, birth, rites of passage, hunting and even political activities. Music is often used in different African cultures to ward off evil spirits and to pay respects to good spirits, the dead and ancestors.
What is the importance of music to the African culture?
Music is an integral part of the African culture, with various ceremonies being preceded by some sort of music. Music is used to communicate, pass literature, welcoming heroes among other ritual functions. There are diverse genres of music in Africa like hymns, dirge, that create mood and feel for the occasion.