Africa - South of the Sahara
contains 38 cuts taken from various field recordings made by a number of ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and travelling music lovers. The detailed notes are written by one-time ethnomusicological superstar
Alan P. Merriam
.
Merriam
, whose book
The Anthropology of Music
laid much groundwork his inchoate discipline, attempts to dispel certain false assumptions about African music. For example, the notion that African music is "primitive," and that in some peculiar way it reflects what Western music may have been like before the development of "civilization,"
rightly dismisses as a "thoughtless point of view."
explains that this kind of false perception stems in part from the Westerners' fixation with the ancient, "upon which we often tend to place high premium." He continues, "for us there is a fascination and certain reverence for old objects which probably derives partly from the fact that our own culture is a young one in the world range." In spite of the fact that
is not without his own questionable stances, the notes he wrote for this series of recordings make many important points and debunk a number of prejudicial untruths that even to this day circulate about African music. Although the notes for these recordings transmit an impressive amount of information about African music, it is the musical examples themselves that truly speak volumes. The first cut is a song from the Zulu people of southeast Africa. Their song highlights a call and response song structure that is set up between the leader and the choir. Handclaps by the singers provide a percussive element to the tune. Amazing songs performed by the !Kung (commonly referred to as the Bushmen), the Bantu group known as the Bechuana, the Tutsi, the Wolof, the Twa (sometimes referred to as the Pygmies), and other peoples come to life on this exceptional set of LPs. For the typical North American, who can be so ignorant as to call Africa a country, these recordings and complimentary notes present a great opportunity for education as well as enjoyment. Unfortunately, in concordance with the academic parlance of the time, the names of the performers are not mentioned whereas the names of the Western song collectors, writers, and compilers are celebrated. Fortunately, as is the case with all of their out of print recordings,
Folkways
will dub a cassette version or burn a CD copy of
should you decide to order one. See their website for details: web2.si.edu/folkways. ~ John Vallier