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not to say that a contextual understanding of music is not important, but rather
to highlight its often predominance in non-Western music analysis.
African music typifies this class of non-western music because it is an art
form embodied in a myriad of contexts and functions. As such, it is almost
impossible (and even required) that its analysis be done hand-in-hand with
frequent reference to said context and function. Be it as it may that analysis of a
play song, for instance, cannot be complete without first considering the type of
game, gender and even the geography of the society in question, and a dirge
cannot be unraveled without bearing in mind the social status of the deceased,
gender of both deceased and performer(s) and the age of the deceased, should
this warrant a more prominent place for social/contextual analysis of African
music over other potential analytical mediums that abound therein? The
question that comes to mind is what then are some of these analytical
possibilities? And how do we access them? Why have they been avoided? Can
sound exist outside a context?
In his Representing African Music, Kofi Agawu answers some of these
questions as he speaks to the idea of functional and contemplative as applied to
African traditional music and Western art music respectively. It is interesting to
note however, that per the general definitions of functional as useful, practical,
purposeful and handy, both Western art music and African traditional music fall
under these terms, but some music scholars have always committed the latter to
a more functional realm than the former. To the functions of Western art music,
as used in musical drama, Agawu notes that in opera, for example, music for a
specific dramatic purpose may be provided by the composer to advance the
3
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texts, but alsothe language of texts tend to take special forms.5 The poetic and
proverbial nature of African languages is therefore a source for contemplative
materialnot forgetting the tonal quality of African languages and their impact
on speech meanings and in an extension its determination of pitches as
employed in songs.
By approaching African traditional music in this light, we realize that it
doesnt just serve a function or aid one, however, it has the potential to stand on
its own as an art form deserving of appreciation and analysisan appreciation
not subjected to anthropological biases or the tussle of its function in culture, but
to its qualities guided by text and musical units such as rhythm, pitch and
harmony.
Samuel Boateng
BIBLIOGRAPHY