Matric no: MUS/2015/002

Name: ADEBISI OLSOLA REUBEN

Course code: MUS 490

Course title: MUSIC CRITICISM AND SCHOLARSHIP.

A REVIEW ON THE MUSIC OF AFRICAN

(J.H KWABENA NKETIA)

LECTURAL IN CHARGE

PROF.MIKE OLATUNJI
CRITIC REVIEW OF THE MUSIC FO AFRICA BY J.H KWABENA NKETIA

The music of Africa is an introduction designed for the general reader and college

student. Prof Nketia was born in Ghana: he is the director of the institute of Africa studies at the

university of Ghana in Legon and a regular member of the department of music at UCLA, and

his numerous books and articles have earned him recognition as the leading scholar in the field

of African music.

His book is heavily biased towards the music of West Africa; although he generally

ignore the music of southern Africa societies because he argues, rather curiously, that it ‘belongs

to stylistic family outside African (pg, 3) he does give a few examples of and references to music

from other part of Africa, especially Tanzania.

For those who want to know more about African music as art form and as a means of

expressin African attitudes and ways of thinking about the world…Nketia’s introduction is rather

short on information about African concepts of sonic organization, but it is as good as anything

currently available, and it could be improved if the publishers were to provide a demonstration

tape or record of at least the music given in the transcription in the text.

Prof. Nketia rely chiefly on staff notation to convey some idea of the musical structures

even to those who have not heard a performance live or on record. He also describes the role of

music in community life, the recruitment of performing groups and training of musicians, the

different social processes that generate and constrain musical creation, and the interrelationships

of music and dance and of melody and speech. He does not forget, as do some anthropologists,

that his main concern is with the special world of music: ‘the functional use of song in social life
or its value as source material should not make us overlook the importance of the musical

content of the songs’(pg.205)

Minor criticism of this book are that many of the captions do not indicate the sources of

the photographs, though their position in the text sometimes a context, and that in Chapters 15

and 16, on Rhythm in vocal music and speech and melody, it would have been useful to have had

specific references to publications on other African musical traditions where the same or similar

principles have been observed. Also, on pp. 113 ff. different scales are shown without any

indication of their distribution in Africa or reference to their use in specific recordings. The

chapter on rhythm could have been less confusing if there were examples of the different types

and solid referencing.

His approach is not geographic, or ethnographic, but topical: fragments of cultural

behavior from widely separated areas are juxtaposed to illustrate general observations.

Occasionally, the fragments are extensive enough for one to appreciate the flow of an African

musical event (such as the kpledzo festival of the Ga as observed at Tema on the Ghana coast

and described on pages 222-223). However cultural specifies merely footnote a general

observation, and the reader gets no sense of the musical reality behind the author’s assertion.

For example, we are told that performance roles in the instrumental ensembles

…… may be based on the call and response form: an ensemble leader may start the

music, as in the xylophone music of the Chopi of Mozambique (in East Africa), or the music of

Akan flutes or trumpets (in Ghana). (p.53).

The function of leader is clear in this passage, but nothing of the music comes across. Moreover,

the Kontonkoli culture and the trumpets of the Akan are not.
In section 4 of the book, the close integration of music and social life, it is inevitable that

changes, in the way of life of an African society-in its institutions, political organization, and

aspects of economic life or religious practice-should lead to corresponding changes on aspects of

musical practice or in the organization of performances. Where hunters’ associations cease to be

active, their music and ceremonies cease to perform and continue to live only in the memory of

those who use to practice it. Where the worship of particular gods ceases, the music associated

with them similarly falls out of use. Such breaks in the continuity of tradition do not occur in

every locality at the same time; hence, survivals of musical types that were once popular or

widely practiced can be found here and there. In

In most African society, the emphasis on percussive instruments finds it highest

expression in the use of membranophones (drums with parchment heads).

Drums are usually carved out of solid logs of wood; they may also be made out of strips

of wood bound together by iron hoops. Almost all drums are played in a percussive way.

In conclusion, another point of contention is the fact that authenticity is relative. Looking back

each generation is likely to find it interpretation more “authentic” than that of the succeeding

generation.