African Tribal Music Essay

Native American music has many different musical styles. Within every Native American tribe there is a variety of musical styles and instruments. In response to the research that I have conducted, there are three main musical styles that are going to be my point of focus. The Sioux Grass Dance, the Zuni Lullaby, and the Iroquois Quiver Dance are the principal methods which contribute to Native American music.      

Many may know that it can be almost impossible to completely identify what African Dance is. Africa is a huge continent that holds many different cultures, beliefs and overall ways of living. It is said to be the most “socially and racially diverse on the planet (wikipedia).” Even though Africa can be one of the most diverse places on earth, there can be similar dance styles being established throughout many other larges countries. Creativecareerguice.com states that “history, language, song, background, and purpose and cannot be translated to another dance of the same culture much less another

From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

a. Most of the collective music manifestations found in sub-Saharan Africa represent the community, and encourage group participation using a method that is called call-and-response. If they aren’t using a call-and-response such music’s are usually to be found at events such as religious ceremonies, and/or most other ritual based activities.

“In less than a minute, the death wail went up out of every cabin in the Quarters, and Brother Ezekial began the death chant: Soon one morning, Death come knocking at my door…. Oh, my lord, What shall I do” (Walker 17)? Death was common for slaves. They routinely died from disease, beatings and accidents on the plantation, and they expressed their sorrow in the form of song. “I see death around the corner, gotta stay high while I survive, … Keep my finger on the trigger, no mercy in my eyes” (“Death Around”). Death is still common in the African American society. “Black males ages 15-19 die from homicide at 46 times the rate of their white

Throughout the many years of time, music has been associated with the lives of humans. Ranging from the oldest recorded music in 1888, The Lost Chord, to Motherese, or the way that mothers “sing” to their babies to communicate to them, to our modern music of radio stations blaring our favourite song while we drive from place to place. Music has found its place within human lives, intertwining its existence with ours. Incredibly enough, humans have found a way to harness music with our very hands and create elegant melodies from tools. Beginning with instruments that look like a guitar, instruments that look like a flute and instruments that look like a drum, we began making controlled music with rhythms and harmonies. As years passed and civilization began to grow, musicians came to be. These ancient musicians played music for others on the instruments that they would make and performed for many.

Africans create their own music, and what I mean when I say they create their music is they provide their own instruments. They mainly consist of drums, flutes, rattles and bells. Trumpets and xylophones may also be used, but those are only used “depending on what is available in their given area”( Nketia, 92). Every region is different, especially when there is so little they can

American Indian life in the present time can be characterized as one big melting pot. Some societies try to preserve their own identity, while other groups came together in some way and brought their cultures together. A lot of what is known about their music has come from the past century when technological advancements were just beginning to take place. It was also during this period of time that there was a lot of turmoil between the whites. It was obvious that each tribe had its own musical identity, whether it dealt with style, uses of, or ideas of what music was. At that time there were thousands of groups, all speaking their own language, and each had several songs to accompany ceremonies, dances, and to divide society. Anthropologists have put them into categories according to their ways of life.

After close examination of the aesthetic qualities of both Native American and Indian music cultures I have decided to point out the various distinctions amongst the two cultures. Native Americans often used their music during various religious ceremonies to cleanse one’s spirit or human condition claiming that these rituals possessed omnipotent powers. The Native Americans music is so sacred that they despise of outsiders recording their ceremonies because of the preconceived notion that others would destroy the powers within the context of the music entirely. However, Indian artists often use their compositions for mere entertainment. Indian music often is a mixture of outside influences and it’s free flowing compositions possessed with various

To begin, the particular videos that we will be discussing are Paul Simon’s diamonds on the sole of her shoe, Kinobe’s kora performance, and Youssou N’Dour’s song daan featuring American singer/ rapper Akon. These three particular videos relate to the west African musical culture because they all involve singing, instrumental music, and dancing which are all characteristics of this particular music. Most of their music consist of a beat that you can dance to and that is usually how you can tell whether it is or is not this type of music. Rhythm and melody are two key factors of west African music and all three of the videos consist of both characteristics. The songs above were very unique to me. It may have been the beat that makes me want to dance, the calmness of it, or it may have even been uplifting to me. They all presented something different that drew my attention to them.

Scholars have attempted to define music, and to be quite honest, it will be a huge challenge to try to weave a definition around the art that is music, because it is beyond definition. However, for the purposes of this work, we shall adopt the definition by Aluede & Eregare (2009), not because the definition is, in itself, complete, but because it captures the very essence of what we look for in the definition of music. Music, according to Aluede & Aregare (2009), is not only an organization of sound but also a symbolic expression of a social and cultural organization, which reflects the values, past and present ways of life of human beings. Also, Jones (1975), cited in Amana and Onogu (2015), defines music as “a language which encodes emotions, aspirations and people’s goals in autonomous and self-expressive arts forms.” These definitions are important in understanding music, because they highlight the fact that music does not only appeal to the feel-good emotion, it is not only used for entertainment; it is a valid form of social expression and this underscores the centrality of music in African socio-cultural life.

     Before one starts to outline the traditional religion in Africa, one must first explain the way Africa is as a whole. Without the knowledge of the past combined with knowledge of culture, one would have a very vague, if any, understanding of traditional religion.

The music of India is one of the oldest unspoken musical traditions in the world. The basis of for Indian music is “sangeet.” Sangeet is a combination of three art forms: vocal music, instrumental music (Indian music). Indian music is base upon seven modes (scales). It is probably no coincidence that Greek music is also base upon seven modes. Furthermore, the Indian scales follow the same process of modulation (murchana) that was found in ancient Greek music. Since Greece is also Indo-European, this is another piece of evidence for the Indo-European connection (Dance and music of India).

Some may say that without a written language, literature cannot exist. However, to deny the oral traditions and songs of cultures prior to the existence of their written languages would deny the world some of the earliest literature of humankind. Whether passed down through oral or written means, literature consists of all stories, songs, and poetry every generation loves, inspires, and passes on.