African Tones

African Tone-Systems: A Reassessment
Author(s): Gerhard Kubik

Source: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 17 (1985), pp. 31-63
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/768436
Accessed: 01/12/2008 00:34
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ictm.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
International Council for Traditional Music is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Yearbook for Traditional Music.
http://www.jstor.org
AFRICANTONE-SYSTEMS-A REASSESSMENT
by Gerhard Kubik
There is an extensive literature on "African scales", but only rarely is it
reported what the internal order of the tone material is in the minds of
the musicians themselves. Only in a few works can one find direct
quotations from the musicians in their own vocabulary. One famous
example is Klaus Wachsmann's documentation of the tuning process of
an amadinda xylophone in Uganda, and the critical remarks made in
Luganda by the two royal musicians, Mr. Evaristo Muyinda and Mr.
Baziwe, while they were tuning their instruments. Simultaneously, the
process of tuning was measured "live" with a Stroboconn pitchmeasuring machine. Wachsmann writes (1957:14-15): "Strictly speaking
there is no scale which one could describe in unambiguous terms of
physical definition, but there are tuning processes in the course of which
corrections are made. Their trend can be described, and in favourable
circumstances one can form a realistic picture of the pattern in the mind
of the tuner."
Atta Annan Mensah has described the tuning procedure of a silimba
xylophone of the Lozi of western Zambia. Mensah comes from Ghana
and in his musical understanding was formed a great deal by Western
"serious" music. He observed Kanjele and Sililo, two Lozi xylophone
makers at length during the making and tuning of new instruments at the
Maramba Cultural Centre (formerly the Open Air Museum) in Livingstone, which is a well-known tourist attraction in Zambia. He came to
the conclusion that "The basic factor guiding Kanjele and Sililo seemed
to be their reliance on regional pitch- a virtue by which we experience a
note, not as an individuality, but as a member of a group, occupying
some place in a tone-region where it belongs. This virtue provides no
absolute guarantee for obtaining pitch accuracy, but its usefulness as a
general guide cannot be over-stressed. Kanjele's and Sililo's basis of final
judgement, as suggested by their constant reference to other notes, was
the relativity of a note to other members of the keyboard" (Mensah
1970:22).
Another contribution to the study of tunings is the book by the
Cameroonian ethnologist and musician Pie-Claude Ngumu on the
mendzao portable gourd-resonated xylophones played in Yaounde.
(Ngumu 1976: also his article 1975/76 in African Music which amplifies
his findings). Ngumu reports at length how the xylophones were tuned
by his main informant Ambasa. "Dans sa technique de fabrication,
Ambasa commence par fixer empiriquement le son d'une lame omvak.
La position de cette lame est double. Elle est initiale quant a sa fabrication. Mais quant a sa place, elle est centrale ...."
"Jepense que cela trouve sa justification dans la tradition beti. Le chef
de famille, en tant que responsable de la vie de tous ceux qui se reclament
32 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
de lui, se place toujours au milieu des siens, dans les reunions traditionelles. Aussi les musicians ont-ils trouve bon de faire pareil pour
souligner l'importance de la premiere lame de bois des mendzan. Ils ont
donne une position centrale a cette lame initiale. Tous les sons tirent leur
Dorenavant, je la designe par le chiffre 1." (Ngumu
origine d'elle ....
1975/76:14).
Omvak is the name of one of the four xylophones which play together
in a group. The pronunciation varies in the local languages of southern
Cameroon. As is the case in numerous other musical cultures of Africa
the tuning of the mendzan reflects the idea of a hierarchical order of
tones corresponding with a social pattern. This is evident from Ngumu's
account. Something similar has been reported by another Cameroonian,
the musician and theatre expert Jean-Baptiste Obama from Yaounde. In
an unpublished manuscript which he distributed among us at the
UNESCO conference on African Music in Yaounde, 23-27 February
1970, he wrote about a "polygamous" mvet. Mvet is the designation for
the Cameroonian stick zither (compare Kubik in: The New Grove, 1980)
and also the ngombi from the Peoples' Republic of Congo which I have
described, elsewhere, (cf. Simon (Ed.) 1983:91). Obama writes:
"-d'autant plus qu'il existe ci une classification africaine, certes
embryonnaire, mais curieusement 'socialisante' au point d'organiser les
notes, non en gammes classiques, mais en systeme 'familial' (grand
Parents, Mere, Fils, petit-fils etc.) parfois de type polygamique dans le
Mvet (lere epouse, 2? epouse, 3? etc.). Ceci prouve que la Musique est
autre chose en Afrique traditionelle qu'une simple affaire d'esthetique:
c'est la Philosophie ethique des Peuples Africains .. ."
Among the Mpyem%, who are settled in the south-western corner of
the Central African Republic, the notes of a xylophone are also conceptualized as the members of a family. Maurice Djenda surprised me once
on a joint field trip in his home area when he represented tones by means
of hand positions. First he held the palm of his right hand just above the
ground and explained that this represented the size of the note, which he
then struck on the kembe (lamellophone); it was a high note. Then he
moved his open hand gradually upwards, away from the ground,
striking at the same time lower and lower notes with the thumb of his
other hand. He said, "One can represent the size of children with the
same hand positions." The hand positions, as they moved upwards
meant the increasing size of the children as they become older. In the
present case it referred to the notes of the kembe. The concept of high
frequency tones as small and low frequencies as big is widespread in
Africa and was first observed by Hugh Tracey. It is reflected in the
musical terminology of numerous African languages.
Returning to Pie-Claude Ngumu's account of the mendzan we learn
that the tuning of a 10-note instrument (omvak) proceeds as follows:
(Ngumu 1976). After the central note was established which Ngumu calls
No. 1 and which represents the "chef de famille" (head of the family) his
informant Ambasa continued by moving stepwise downwards: 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6. With Key No. 6 he reached the lowest note of the instrument. After
KUBIK
AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 33
these six notes he found the upper octaves of the three lowest ones: 6, 5
and 4, which representthe wives of the three male voices of keys No. 6, 5
and 4. Finally there remained one note to be tuned: No. 7 whose position
was between No. 1 and No. 6. Here Ngumu reports something very
interesting: "Apres le reglage des sons des neuf lames de bois que nous
venons de designer, Ambasa ne cacha pas son embarras pour fixer le son
de la derniere lame. Le xylophone qu'il avait connu et pratique dans son
enfance ne comportait que les neuf lames que nous venons de voir, pour
la construction du premier instrument. Mais par la suite il avait constate,
surtout lors de son sejour an pays Etenga, que quelques groupes de
mendzaU avaient introduit un nouveau son entre la lame 1 et la lame 6.
On appelait cette nouvelle lame Esandi."
"Le mot esandi, en Ewondo, vient du mot asanda qui signifie
"malchance". Le changement du "a"initial en "e", et du "a"final en "i", a
cree un nouveau mot qui designe l'action de jeter la malchance et le
trouble. C'est le mot esandi. Un objet aui porte ce mot comme terme de
designation est considere comme trouble-fete. Cette lame de bois de
mendzar qu'on appelle esandi est donc consideree, par ceux qui l'ont
introduite, comme une intervention purement etrangere au systeme,
interposant un son inaccoutume aux mendzat beti traditionnels. Sur le
degre de sa hauteur, il ne reproduit aucun autre son de toutes les lames de
bois des mendzar. On peut seulement constater que l'esandi produit un
son plus haut que 1, et plus bas que 6. D'autre part, il est le dernier venu.
Je le designe par le chiffre 7." (Ngumu 1976:37).
In his notation system Ngumu uses numbers, numbering the keys of
the four xylophones (from the viewpoint of the player holding his instrument) according to the internal order of the tuning pattern as conceived
by his informant Ambasa. Though the layout of the notes is regular and
stepwise, the pattern is conceived as beginning in the middle of the
keyboard with the note marked No. 1. The notes of the 10-key
instrument called omvak are numbered by Ngumu from left to right in
descending order of sound as in the following illustration (Fig. 1
reproduced from Ngumu 1976:38).
Ngumu's minute observation and description of the tuning process
makes the order behind this system clearly visible. Ambasa did not use
any external pitch references such as a tuning fork or an old xylophone
for tuning the new one. A tuning pattern was imprinted on his memory.
We may characterize this by the following traits: 1) It has a starting
point, i.e., what Ngumu has called note No. 1. This tone stands for the
head of an extended family or clan. No. 1 occupies a central position in
the hierarchy, from which all the other members radiate. 2) From this
central tone there is a line of six tones going down in steps. The size of
these steps is imprinted on Ambasa's memory by musical enculturation.
3) After reaching the end of this tone-row, he proceeds by finding
partners for each of the three biggest notes. The partners are small (highpitched) notes, considered to be female voices, the "wives". In finding the
"wives" he proceeds up the keyboard-in contrast to his earlier
Fig. 1
downward procedure- finding the "octaves" from 6 to 6, 5 to 5 and 4 to
4.
With this ends the process of tuning the xylophone to a basically

hexatonic pattern. But there is an appendix. Some time ago a 7th note
intruded into the xylophone music of southern Cameroon. Where it
comes from is not known. Did it come from German mission and school
songs before 1916? Did it come from Western musical instruments such
as mouth-organs which were very popular among youngsters during the
German era in Cameroon?1
The seventh note is still considered an intruder, alien to the system and
therefore referred to as a "spoil-sport" (esandi). With it Ambasa fills the
"gap" in the hexatonic tuning pattern of his omvak. In his article in
African music, written later than the book, though the publication date
is earlier, Pie-Claude Ngumu confirms that the esandi is not a tone with a
long tradition in southern Cameroon. He bases this on an account by
Georg Zenker, who became the German administrator of the post of
Yaounde when it was founded in 1889, in the same year (Zenker 1895).
Zenker described two types of xylophones found in the area, the rail
xylophone (with gourd resonators) and the log xylophone (with a
banana stem base). He said that the 7th degree was often "missing"in the
tunings.
What are the components of Ambasa's inner tuning pattern? Are there
fixed intervals? What is actually going on in his mind when he tunes the
KUBIK
six descending notes, beginning with the "chef de famille"? Ngumu

writes: "Jusqu'apresent, je reste persuade que, chez les Beti, il n'y a pas
de commune mesure pour le reglage des 7 tons de mendzai. Je pense que
chaque groupe ethnique regle les sons des instruments en fonction de la
musique du coin, musique traditionnelle et musique plus recente des
musiciens actuels, musique dont les inflexions particulieres ne sont pas
necessairement identiques partout." (Ngumu 1976:65).
The tuning measurements of several xylophones and stick-zithers from
southern Cameroon which I recorded in 1964 also show considerable
variation, even when comparing apparently identical tunings with each
other. However, the Cents figures tend to come close to an equiheptatonic division of the octave. Where six notes are found, these tunings
give the impression of "gapped scales", if I may use A. M. Jones' term. In
an appendix to the second edition of his book Africa and Indonesia
(1971:240-242), and notes on pages 253-354) Jones published the
measurements of my tunings No. 6, 9, 10 and 15 from Cameroon. He has
also commented on Ngumu's book in a short review article (Jones 1978).
The intervals struck simultaneously in the xylophone music of
southern Cameroon are mainly thirds and octaves. When one pays
attention to the Cents figures not only for the intervals between neighbouring steps, but also for those of the thirds-which result on the
mendzarj from skipping one step-it becomes clear that most of the
thirds are indeed 'neutral', i.e. those that conform with an equiheptatonic tuning or about 343 Cents. There is no evidence that Ngumu's
informant Ambasa or any of my own informants in southern Cameroon
in 1964, 1966 or 1969/70 conceived their tuning patterns as consisting of
intervals of changing size, as is the case with the Western seven-note
diatonic scale. It is certain that Ambasa and others did indeed have one
standard interval size in mind, transferring it from step to step.
On the basis of all the information on the Cameroonian mendzaj
gathered so far, we may now tentatively delineate the Beti/Ewondo
xylophone tuning system and define it as (a) a pattern proceeding by
step, (b) proceeding from a central tone in the middle of the keyboard,
(c) with a standard interval size of ca. 160-180 cents, (d) with octave
duplication of certain notes, (e) with a traditional "gap"between tones 1
and 6. For sounding together, the performers within this system use
parallel octaves-in which case the voice of the "men" and "women"
notes sound together- and parallel (neutral) thirds, as euphonic voice
duplications. In the importance of the latter interval may even be hidden
the historical clue to how the Beti and many other peoples in Central and
West Africa arrived at a near equi-heptatonic tone-system. The desire to
transpose the consonant interval of a third in parallel movement over the
keyboard of a xylophone (or in vocal music through the range of
combining voices) demands adjustments, if this process is to take place
within a seven-note scale. The neutral thirds, fluctuating between 320
and 370 Cents represent one effective compromise solution.2
"Descending"and "ascending"scales
Ngumu's analysis relies predominantly on sympathetic observation of
his informant's behaviour and statements. It is possible to arrive at
valuable conclusions about what is intraculturally significant in the
organization of acoustic phenomena- especially with regard to tuning
patterns- from intensive observation of the musicians' actions. To
demonstrate this, I should now like to offer some observations from
Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Sudan.
In Busoga, southern Uganda, it is customary to lay out the notes of an
embaire log xylophone on its banana stems only shortly before a
performance. At the end of each performance the instrument is taken
apart, and the xylophone keys and the banana stems are kept in a shady
place, usually inside a house. This is to prevent the banana stems, whose
humidity is important foi the mellow sound of the instrument, from
drying out quickly in the excessive heat, and also the keys from getting
out of tune. However, in order to be able to reassemble the 15 notes of
the embaire quickly in the correct order, the keys were numbered in one
case I observed. (See photo in Kubik 1982:83). The purpose was to
avoid having to tap each note to find its proper place in the scale-a
time-consuming and tiresome process, especially when dancers and
onlookers are already waiting impatiently for the music to start.
In the case of the embaire ensemble of Venekenti Nakyebale which I
documented at Bumanya (Busoga) on January 2, 1963, the notes were
numbered in descending order from 1-15 in the manner of a scale. The
smallest (highest) xylophone note had the number 1. (Kubik 1964a; and
recordings No. B 7117-7120, Ph.A. Vienna).
In 1964 I came upon a further case of numbering the slats of
xylophone, this time in the Central African Republic among the Azande.
A kponingbo- which is one of the two types of log xylophones found
among the Azande of the C.A.R. (Kubik 1967a:44-45)-had the notes
numbered. I saw this instrument in Zemio and it had 12 notes. Here too,
the numerical order was in the form of a scale, from the highest to the
lowest key.
Eventually I came upon a third case in Khartoum in February 1975
during a lecture tour. The Director of the National Innovation Centre for
Popular Creativity, Dr. Amin Mohamed Ahmed, introduced me to two
expert Azande musicians from the south. They were employed by the
music school of Khartoum, strangely enough not as teachers of African
music, but as house keepers. As it turned out, the two musicians played
kundi most excellently. In this case the designation did not refer to the
harp (cf. Kubik 1964b), but to the box-resonated lamellophone called
likembe in Zaire. And they were even more expert on a 14-key
kpaningbo log xylophone (local pronunciation).
I invited them to give a demonstration during one of my lectures at the
Department of Culture, Ministry of Culture and Information,
Khartoum. They came with their carefully constructed and tuned
instrument and played it, sitting opposite each other, with great
expertise. The 14 keys were numbered from 1-14 in descending order of
KUBIK
pitch, characteristically with Latin (and not Arabic) numerals. In fact the
typical English 1 and 7 were used.
Unfortunately I was only able to communicate with these musicians
through an Arabic and English speaking interpreter. Asked for the
reason for numbering the slats, it seems they replied that it was for
quickly assembling the loose-keyed instrument.
In January 1977, when I visited Khartoum again, I was amazed to find
that one of the musicians, Mr. Saimon Bazawi, ca. 26, had in the
meantime been promoted and integrated into the National dance troupe
of the Sudan. His kpaningbo had been acquired by the Department of
Culture. It was still in excellent shape and I was able, on this occasion to
take a photograph.
In none of the three cases examined was it explicitly stated by the
musicians why the numerical order went from "smallest" (highest) to
"biggest" (lowest) and not the other way. Although the numbering had a
practical purpose, the descending order and even the fact that there was a
numbering order at all, cannot be explained as a consequence of the
practical purpose alone. In Maurice Djenda's home village in the southwest of the Central African Republic, children once made a small log
xylophone for us whose notes were identified with ideographic symbols
and not with numbers. These symbols did not have a scalar order. (Fieldnotes 1966, G. Kubik).
The numbering system cannot be there by chance either. I think therefore that it is legitimate to assume that it must reflect a principle of order
in the tonal world as conceived by the musicians, regardless of the fact
that this notation is a "modern" one which could only have existed in
Uganda, southern Sudan and Central African Republic since the introduction of Western-type school education; hence the use of Latin and not
Arabic numerals by the Azande musicians of Khartoum.
How can it be shown that this descending order is motivated by
musical, not extra-musical ideas? Can it be that other (non-musical)
associations play a role, such as for example, "people walking in single
file" with the small ones first, as was suggested to me by a participant in a
seminar I held (on the invitation of Professor John Blacking) at Queen's
University, Belfast, in April 1975? Do the small ones come first in the
society of the Azande and the Basoga?
That the numbers refer to pitch is obvious, because what the musicians
want to avoid is wasting time while reassembling the instrument. Also,
the numbers cannot refer to the physical size of the slats, because this is
often irregular and does not necessarily go in step with the series of
pitches.
I have no doubt for myself that the numbering really reflects ideas
about tonal order. Although there are significant differences between the
tone systems of the Basoga and the Azande-the Kisoga system being
approximately equi-pentatonic (see Wachsmann 1967) while the Azande
have intervals of different size in their pentatonic scale- there are also
significant common traits: 1. The tonal material is ordered in both cases
as a pattern proceeding by step. 2. The tuning procedure starts with the

highest pitch and ends with the lowest.
Among the Azande these concepts are expressed in the structure of the
verbal mnemonic patterns used for tuning various instruments. Samuel
Ouzana, the little Zande harp player, who was one of my informants in
1964 in the Central African Republic, used to tune his harp while singing
a tuning formula and simultaneously sounding the five strings to each
syllable.
Verbal tuning pattern for the five-string harp (kundi) used by Samuel Ouzana, Zemio,
Central African Republic, in May 1964:
0
'ili
Note:
oai sa su-nge.
_*_ _
**
Mu ;a ku-ndi ki bi bya-le-u
v
ki-ndi.
Ku-luo pai sa su-nge.
The five lines represent the strings of the harp and not the stave of the Western
staff notation.
Fig. 2
With the first section of the mnemonic pattern Ouzana tuned the
strings by step from the highest to the lowest notes of the pentatonic
Zande scale. With the second section he checked the expected harmonic
sounds. As in many other areas of Africa these are obtained by skipping
one note of the scale. Here, the harpist did not strike them simultaneously, but played them split up melodically in a sequence. (See the
middle part of the figure above). With the last section Ouzana
reconfirmed the scale pattern. In Zande harp music characteristic chordal
patterns are used as is evident, for example in Samuel Ouzana's harp
song: "Gbaduleo" (see Kubik 1964b:69).
Similar tuning mnemonies are found in one or another variant
throughout Zande country, extending across contemporary borders into
Zaire and the southern Sudan. They are reliable hints at how people in a
musical culture arrange their tonal material.
Wachsmann's investigation of the tuning processes of harp and
xylophone among the Baganda, to whom the neighbouring Basoga are
related, have also shown a movement from high to low notes.
(Wachsmann 1950, 1957). These results do not exclude the possible
presence of extra-musical relationships which may also be motivating
factors.
In the southern and south-eastern parts of Africa scale patterns are
often conceived in the reverse order, from the "biggest"to the "smallest"
tone. This is the case, for instance, among the Lozi of western Zambia as
is apparent from the process of making and tuning a silimba xylophone,
(see Mensah 1970), among the Mbwela, Luchazi, Luvale, Chokwe, and
related groups in Angola, and among the Tswa of Mozambique. A Tswa
group which I heard at a "mine dance" to which Hugh and Andrew
Tracey took me in January 1966 had the keys of their xylophones
numbered from low to high notes. The Chopi of Mozambique, as we
KUBIK
have learned from Hugh Tracey's testimony, also tune their xylophones
from the chief note hombe in an ascending scale. (H. Tracey 1948).
Chordal tuning patterns
During our West African tour of 1973 Donald Kachamba from Malawi
was once asked by the Ghanaian musicologist Ben Aning, Legon, what
concept he followed in tuning his guitar. Donald said: "Iam thinking like
playing. I hear the tune". By "tune" Donald meant "tuning" as he
explained to me later.
Donald has said to me that he actually "hears"the tuning internally, as
if he was playing, and from this he tunes his guitar. By physical actions
such as turning the pegs, placing the fingers on the fretboard, striking the
strings, etc. he gradually brings the notes of the guitar into congruence
with his inner tuning model. (Note, diary, February 2, 1973).
Donald's music figures among the musical developments in southcentral Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. In their concepts and their
teaching and learning methods these musics are very close to the socalled traditional music of the region, although Western musical instruments are used.3
I observed many times with Donald that he does not tune his guitar to
the open strings, following the pattern (from low to high) E - A - D - g - b
- e, but that he begins with chords, fingers on. He fingers a tonic major
chord. Which kind of fingering he actually uses depends on the kind of
tuning he wants, because, like other guitarists of the region, he uses
several different tunings. Often he plays five-string guitar with the fifth
string removed.
On March 22, 1974 during his second stay in Vienna I watched him
attentively while he was tuning his six-string guitar to fulusi (Full C).
Here the basic tuning of the strings corresponds with the western tuning
pattern, with the exception of the 6th string which is tuned a semitone
higher. Without the capotasta it sounds F instead of E.
In this tuning he proceeds as follows: First he fingered string No. 2 at
fret 1 and tuned the major third c-e between string Nos. 2 and 1. As soon
as he had got this interval, he struck the open 3rd string, tuning it to g, to
form the 2nd inversion triad (g-c-e) between string Nos. 3, 2 and 1. I
have long come to the conclusion that this chord is something like the
nucleus and point of departure of his harmonic ideas. It also plays an
important role in the multi-part organization of his music. (See Kubik
1974:20-23).
Then he gradually tunes downwards to the 4th, 5th and 6th strings
while fingering the full C major chord (see Fig. 3). As soon as the chord
sounded right to him, he played a descending melodic phrase, which
reminded me of a tuning formula. Finally he checked the success of his
tuning process by trying further chords and musical fragments.
In Vienna on April 6 Donald again played solo guitar in fulusi tuning.
Now I asked him to record it for me on a tape and "measure" it by
comparison with the 54 tuning forks (from 212 to 424 c.p.s.) which have
been recommended by Hugh Tracey for field work. (H. Tracey 1958b
also under Notes and News, pp. 77-78). Donald knew the procedure
already, because he had used the forks the same year to measure the
c.p.s. of many instrumental tunings from Malawi himself during our
joint evaluation of the recorded and filmed material of 1967.
First Donald tuned his guitar. He attached the capotasta at the 4th fret.
Then he recorded his finished tuning on a NAGRA 4.2 L, at 19 cm/sec.,
after sounding a reference tone with a 440 c.p.s. tuning fork. His
behaviour during the recording was characteristic: (1) he fingered his C
major chord and (2) he sounded each string with fingers on from the
highest to the lowest note consecutively several times. This was in the
same order as he had tuned them.
Then he fetched the small case with the 54 tuning forks. He compared
his recorded guitar notes with those of the appropriate forks and wrote
down in a note-book the c.p.s. number written on the fork, as soon as he
had identified the right one. Since the set, which was specially made by
Ragg Tuning Forks Ltd., Sheffield, comprises only one octave, unisons
and octaves are not distinguished in Donald's evaluation. This was
irrelevant, however, for my subsequent calculation of the Cents
intervals.
He also recorded a second tuning: Kiji (Key G). This tuning corresponds with that of the Western guitar, the 6th string now tuned
(relatively) to E. In Donald's case the capotasta was on the 4th fret.
While recording this tuning he positioned his fingers as if playing a G
major tonic chord. This is also exactly the basic fingering position used
by Mwenda Jean Bosco (Mwenda wa Bayeke) in his "Tambala moja"
(For greater detail on Bosco's music see David Rycroft 1961 and 1962;
and John Low 1983).
FULUSI
KIJI
Fingering:
Th.<'
String
No.
Tuning
forks
(c.p.s.)
1
2
3
4
5
6
232
364
272
228
360
272
(E)
(C)
(G)
(E)
(C)
(G)
Fingering:
[
Intervals
(Cents)
String
No.
Tuning
forks
(c.p.s.)
420
505
305
410
485
1 (G)
2 (B)
3 (G)
4 (D)
5 (B)
6 (G)
272
340
272
408
344
272
Intervals
(Cents)
813
387
498
295
407
Fig. 3
At the end of this procedure I asked him why he had recorded gitala
yogwila, literally "touched guitar", i.e. guitar with fingers on. He said
that recording the "open strings of a guitar, anyone could do that. It is
not a tuning."
KUBIK
Major triads are the basis of consonant chordal chains in the multipart organization of music in several regions of Africa. Some of the most
impressive examples may be heard in the music of the Bongili and Bakota
in the north of the Peoples' Republic of Congo. (Recordings B 8750-8752
in the Ph.A. Vienna). They are also found in Mpyem3 music of the
Central African Republic. (See Kubik 1967a:47, and recordings Ph.A. B
8740 and 8745). Parallel singing in major thirds is a prominent feature of
Sya stories, and here this is combined with semitone progressions. Sya
stories constitute an important cultural heritage among the Mpycm5
which they brought with them on their migration from the south
(Congo) to their present settling area. (On the migration of the Mpycm5
see map in Djenda 1966/67:40).
The appreciation of such chordal patterns often derives from the
experience of musical bow harmonies, although not always and not
necessarily so. Practice of other musical instruments and even certain
vocal techniques alone may also have led in the past to the discovery and
selective use of natural harmonies. The latter is probably the case with
the Wagogo of Central Tanzania (resp. their predecessors) who do not
use musical bows. Philip Donner, Helsinki, possesses a crucial recording
of a Gogo mouth-resonated vocal technique, which instantly generates
the harmonics-based Gogo tone-system I first described in 1967 and 1968
(see also below).
In societies where musical bows are used, the experience gathered from
the use of variable resonators is usually a determinant that largely
predestines a musical culture. If a mouth-bow is tuned to two fundamentals, either a whole-tone or a semi-tone apart, as is the case in many
cultures of the Congo, Gabon and Central African Republic, the result is
a blow-derived harmony based on two tonal centres. (See my discussion
of the bet mouth-bow of the Fang' and its polyphony, in Kubik 1968).
If the harmonic series from the 3rd to the 5th partial is used the result is
the characteristic 2nd inversion triad we have mentioned. Major chords
in this inversion in fact play a great role in several kinds of multi-part
music especially of central and southern Africa. On top of the alternating
fundamentals the low voices (of the men) sing at the level of the 3rd
partial, the middle voices at the level of the 4th and the high voices
(women and children) at the level of the 5th. The consequence is
hexatonic parallel movement, with predominantly step-moving melody
in which the parallel thirds occur characteristically in the treble and the
parallel fourths below. Though this pattern may be obscured by the
simultaneous presence of equidistant ideas of tone relations, it can
clearly be recognized in several multi-part forms in Angola and Zambia.
In what seems to be a heptatonic extension it is also present in the multipart concepts of the music of the Kachamba Brothers of Malawi, in
whose style the following chordal progressions have become established
practice (Kubik 1974:21). I have been able to discuss these chords with
Daniel Kachamba on many occasions. Although he does not write them
down, he has a clear theoretical concept about how each voice should
go.
Chordal sequence in Kachamba's multi-part singing style

Vocal parts:
bo
Guitar chords:
[C7 F(6) C
~,
8
G7]
"
^-^=-
[C7 F(6) C
G7]
This harmonic pattern was introduced to Malawi in the 1950s and

1960s with South-African kwela and later, simanje-manje music. The
accompanying guitar chords form a harmonic cycle which has roots in
South African musical styles. It is a re-interpretation and adaptation for
the guitar of a traditional harmonic cycle. The Kachamba Brothers do
have knowledge of musical bows, and Lidiya Malamusi, a member of the
group performs on the nkangala (mouth-bow). But there is no connection between the nkangala (usually pentatonic) bow harmonies and the
heptatonic multi-part style described above. The latter was adopted from
South African simanje-manje and its origin may be multi-lateral. Its
structural characteristics point to areas in southern Africa where progressions between four "chords"or harmonic segments have been present in
some of the older traditions.
There are several tone-systems in Africa based on the recognition and
selective arrangement of harmonics. However, two fundamentally
different procedures have to be distinguished: Is the tonal material
derived from one or two fundamentals? So far, it seems that African
tone-systems based on partials over a single fundamental, are not usually
derived from musical bow harmonies, while those over two fundamentals usually are. A case for the first is the tone system of the Wagogo
and Wakisi (old style) of Tanzania, the Ashirima of Mocambique and
some other East African peoples. A case for the second is the tetratonic
system of the !Kung' (Khoisan) people of southern Angola and Namibia,
and the hexatonic system of several Bantu-language peoples of Central
Africa, such as the Fang' (Gabon), the -Nkhumbi and -Handa of southwestern Angola and others. The -Nkhumbi and -Handa have several
types of musical bows (cf. Kubik 1975/76).
The next distinguishing feature is how high up the series of partials is
used, i.e. what section of the natural harmonic series is selected to form
the tone-system. Depending on these two variables completely different
tonal-harmonic systems may be encountered among those African
peoples whose music is partly or entirely preconditioned by recognition
and use of harmonics. This can best be shown by a comparison of the
tonal-harmonic resources of a few well-known peoples in Africa. In the
following summary I am drawing extensively on my earlier research
whose results were discussed in detail in various contexts.
KUBIK
A) Tone-systems based on the use of harmonics of a single fundamental

Example 1: The tone-system of the Wagogo (Central Tanzania)
(-)
partials
No.
Cents
4
0
5
386
6
702
7
969
8
0
204
Resulting -Gogo harmonies

(obtained by a skipping process, i.e.
always skipping one note in the
scale)
Tonal melodic material of

-Gogo music
The -Gogo tone-system is basically tetratonic (within one octave) with

a pentatonic extension. It is based on selective use of the sequence of
natural harmonics from partials 4 to 9, over a single fundamental.
(Recordings: Exp. Kubik 11/1962, Phonogrammarchiv Vienna B
7253-7266. For a theoretical discussion and tuning measurements, see
Kubik 1967b; and 1968:31-38).
Example 2: The old tone-system of the Wakisi (Lake Malawi area,

Tanzania)
partials
Nos.
Cents
10
11
702
969
204
386
551
Tonal-melodic material of
old -Kisi music
+A
Resulting -Kisi harmonies
The old -Kisi tone-systems (now obsolete) was hexatonic. It was based
on the selective exploitation of the sequence of natural harmonies from
partials 6-11 over a single fundamental. The resulting tonal-harmonic
system may easily be mistaken for a "gapped equiheptatonic" scale, if
conclusions are based on Stroboconn measurements alone, without
considering tone-system and harmonic system simultaneously. (Recordings: Exp. Kubik I and 11/1960, 1962, Ph. A. Vienna, B 4851, B
7321-7324).
B) Tone-systems based on the use of harmonics of two fundamentals

These tone-systems are frequently encountered in areas where the
musical bow, particularly the mouth-bow in its varieties, is or was an
important instrument. West-Central Africa and the whole of southern
Africa are the most prominent distribution areas for mouth bows, but
also some spots in West Africa. (For the distribution of musical bows in
southern Africa see: Camp and Nettl 1955, Rycroft 1981).
KUBIK
(Recordings Kubik Exp. IV, 1965, Ph. A. B 10663-10671, B

10507-10515). From the comparison of my sample of !Kung' bow music
recordings in Angola (Kubik 1970:62-62) and the measurements of the
fundamentals (see Kubik, in press) it became apparent that the three bow
tunings are also related in their absolute pitches with each other. From
this arises the theoretical possibility of simultaneous application leading
to an "anchorage" between the three, a kind of merger which is
hexatonic. (See my discussion elsewhere, in press). The basic tuning
of all the three !Kung' tunings, and perhaps the historically oldest seems
to be the one at an interval of approximately 400 Cents. The melodic and
harmonic results are so characteristic that they may be considered as
diagnostic of a Khoisan heritage in any music of southern Africa where
they occur.
Theory of tuning patterns
One can conceptualize the process of tuning a musical instrument as a
kind of "focussing". An inner tuning model once learned and gradually
internalized by the carrier of a tradition- and which may be either
relative or absolute in its pitches- is projected on the "chaotic stimuli"
emerging from an untuned instrument. The manipulations of the
musician who is attempting to tune his instrument gradually bring these
orderless tones into congruence with the internal tuning pattern. Now
the instrument is tuned correctly. The methods employed by the
musician for checking the tuning often reveal the nature of his inner
tuning model.
According to the evidence available so far, inner tuning models are
transmitted culturally at an early age, depending on the musical environment in which the child grows up i.e., to what kind of tone-system it is
exposed through daily experience in his culture or sub-culture. In some
parts of the world physical-acoustic factors, such as vibration ratios,
harmonics, etc. played an important role in the evolution of a culturespecific order of acoustic phenomena. "Deep listening" into the sound
spectrum (timbre) of various sounding objects and/or the experience of
the sound spectrum of the human voice must have triggered the rise of
such systems. Certain sectors of the acoustic world became attractive to
humans depending on the environment in which they lived and how they
had learned to shape it.
Other musical systems are based on different forms of order, resulting
from a different set of experiences. Only the 2:1 ratio (octave) seems to
be universally recognized and known even in musical cultures whose
tuning systems show no regular ratios at all. Many tone systems, in fact,
are determined by a combination of formative factors resulting from
more than one dimension of human experience.
In several African cultures, for instance, tone systems are influenced
and even preformed by patterns in the tonal languages. In some other
cultures a principle of proceeding through a span of notes by identical
steps became attractive. It may occur in combination with consonantal
ideas and compromise solutions may be the result. Usually this span is
the "octave", but it can also be another interval. Although the language
background may simultaneously play an important role in such musical
cultures, if it is the octave, it is usually divided into either five or seven
identical (equidistant)steps. In which direction it is, i.e., from high to low
frequencies or the reverse (or from the "smallest" to the "biggest" or
"fattest" tone as it is expressed in many African languages) may again
depend on various factors. An idea about how widespread the principle
of equidistance is in Africa may be gathered from the studies of
individual societies by A.M. Jones 1964, Kubik 1982, Kyagambiddwa
1955, Rouget 1969, Hugh Tracey 1958a, Wachsmann 1950, 1957, 1967,
Wim van Zanten 1980.
Tone systems as a basis for the tuning of instruments and as determinants of musical perception are extremely resistant to alien cultural
influences. Innovations or changes in the tone system at the level of a
culture as a whole only occur at the pace of generations. In Africa, as
probably elsewhere, it is youths and children who pick up a new tone
system (often of foreign introduction) relatively quickly and then carry it
on as a novel tradition.
The enculturated tone system is so deeply engraved on an individual's
mind that it is unavoidably projected onto external stimuli in the manner
of conditioned reflexes. One constantly interprets the acoustic world
outside from the angle of one's enculturated tone system, straightening
out or "correcting" the incoming stimuli to conform with the expected
patterns. Listening habits in the realm of tone systems and scales are
probably irreversible, or at least difficult to modify at an age later than
adolescent.
It is possible to show experimentally that people educated in Western
musical traditions inevitably hear African equiheptatonic tunings in
approximation to one of the Western diatonic modes. A good test
example which I have often used with various audiences is the music for
the large ulimba xylophones, or the bangwe zithers of the Sena group of
peoples in southern Malaw,i and the Zambezi valley of Mocambique.
This is one of the likely equiheptatonic strongholds in Africa. Test
person with a Western musical background- and this included a
majority of Western-educated Africans- regularly hear the ulimba
pieces in a major or minor mode, often more in minor, though modality
is alien to this music.
They react in a similar way to equipentatonic systems. Usually one of
the following note series from piano tuning, either C, D, E, G, A or C, D,
E, G, Bb or C, D, F, G, A are projected onto these tunings. It is not
possible to alter such perceptual reflexes with an effort of will-power.
What can happen, however, is that the listener, after some time,
becomes conscious of his own reaction. He discovers that the notes of the
other tone system are not entirely identical with the familiar ones of his
own musical culture. Some may come very close, others are more
different. But even then, he will continue to hear the non-conforming
elements as deviations from his own internalized tonal patterns. In
contrast to people from the musical culture concerned, he will not
KUBIK
perceive them as an integral part of the system itself. Thus, an intraculturally correct perception actually transcends the possible experience
of a foreigner. In the realm of tone systems an individual must have
contact with another musical culture from an early age to become acculturated. It is like learning the correct phonetics of a language. The later
one starts the more difficult it is to attain pronunciation comparable to
that of a native speaker.
Elastic scales?
Observers have quite often been surprised that some African instrumentalists when retuning their instruments, apparently reproduce only
"approximately" the intervals which the same observer had noticed just
shortly before. He finds that it is now a different tuning. But when he
asks the musicians they claim that it is the same tuning and to prove it
they play the same pieces.
This startling observation has been made many times in Africa and it
has also occurred to me. Kufuna Kandonga, the likembe player from
Chisende village (Longa area) in south-eastern Angola, 1965, tuned his
instrument slightly differently to my ear from week to week.
I recall that I found this an uncomfortable experience at the time,
because I had already taken to one particular sequence of c.p.s. which I
perceived in relation to the tone system in which I had grown up. Almost
secretly I had memorized his tuning with the aid of Western notes
corrected by some + or -, and actually oriented myself surprisingly well
in his music with this crutch- until one day my perception of Kufuna's
notes was painfully disturbed when the instrument got out of tune and he
had to retune it. For me, the new tuning was different from the old one,
while for Kufuna it was, without doubt, the same. (For a full account of
this see Kubik 1980:79-80).
Certain measurable deviations from an ideal tuning pattern are, of
course, tolerated in any musical culture. It would be revealing to
measure some Western pianos with a Stroboconn immediately before
they are played in front of a concert audience. And the deviations
tolerated in wind instruments within Western musical cultures are quite
surprising. In all cases, the tolerated deviations from the ideal, their
positions within the tone systems, and the direction (up or down) in the
tuning of individual notes of a scale are culture-dependent and it also
depends on the kind of tone system used. The 14 Cents difference
between the natural major third of 386 Cents and the tempered third of
400 Cents used on a Western piano, similarly the 31 Cents difference
between the natural minor seventh (969 Cents) and the tempered one
(1000 Cents), are accepted by musicians working in the Western tone
system. A first-year conservatoire music student, learning paino, is
normally completely unaware that there is a problem, unless he had been
told in music theory lessons. He naturally believes that the notes found
on a piano constitute a universally valid tone system. On the other hand
in those African tone systems based on the exploitation of the harmonic
series from the 4th to the 9th partial, as is the case with the Wagogo of
Tanzania, thirds of 400 Cents and minor sevenths of 1000 Cents would
be intolerable. The margin of tolerance is not the same in different
musical cultures and depends on the nature of the tonal-harmonic
system. It seems to be wider in tempered scales. In the near-equiheptatonic system of the peoples of eastern Angola (Chokwe, Luvale, Luchazi,
Mbwela, etc.) the tolerable deviations are positioned differently both
from those in the European twelve-note system and from other African
systems such as the tetra/pentatonic system of the Wagogo of Tanzania,
or the equipentatonic system of the Baganda. Intra-culturally acceptable
deviations from ideal tuning may look confusing from the angle of an
alien culture, but may be insignificant in the musical culture concerned.
Slight influctuations in the measurable size of the intervals during the
process of retuning an instrument, or in the vocal intonation of the song,
often lead Western observers in Africa to hear the same song performed
by the same group in different (Western) keys on different days. One day
it sounds minor, the next day they seem to be singing major to the
Western ear. Pechuel-Loesche's description and notation of the songs of
the Bafioti on the Loango Coast in 1907 is a historical example. (PechuelLoesche 1907:111-120). Like other observers in similar situations he
obtained the uncomfortable impression that these people sang the same
songs in a different key every day. Pechuel-Loesche coined the term
"Kautschukmelodie" (rubber melody) to describe what he thought was
the vocal behaviour of the Bafioti (p. 112).
What actually happened, however, was that the Bafioti sang in no
(Western) key at all, that their system did not give comfort to the
Western concept of modality. It is possible today to reinterpret PechuelLoesche's extensive transcriptions from the viewpoint of present-day
understanding of African music. The retranscription of 18th and 19th
century European travellers' notations of African music is an important
future task for African musicology in the attempt to reconstruct the
music history of Africa on the basis of a sequence of all sources, archeological, pictorial, written, etc. Some years ago, I tried to make a start by
attempting to find out what Carl Mauch had actually heard when he
wrote down some pieces from a mbira dze midzimu lamellophone player
near the Zimbabwe ruins in 1872 (Kubik 1971). Pechuel-Loesche is
another promising source for someone with an intimate knowledge of the
music of the Loango coast to evaluate. Most likely what he heard was
singing in a non-modal heptatonic system with harmony in three parts.
In this case the question of "major"and "minor " does not arise.
Theoretical knowledge of the principles governing African tonalharmonic systems may have the advantage of educating listeners in the
sense that they become more self-critical towards perception and learn to
think twice before naively assuming: What I hear is there. But it has little
or no influence on the enculturated auditive habits themselves which
have complex histories in individuals. The actual manner in which the
ear of an observer puts the unfamiliar sounds of another musical culture
into a framework of references with which he is familiar depends on a
variety of factors, not the least on his exact regional background (Anglo
KUBIK
Saxon, Northern German, Southern German, Portuguese, educated in

Classical music? or "folk" music? Jazz musician? 19th century, 20th
century observer, etc.)
The perception of scale patterns is also affected by the timbre structure
of individual notes of an instrument. Timbre is not uniform on African
musical instruments such as xylophones, lamellophones, etc.
Wachsmann noted in 1967:589-590, "In Western music it is precisely this
variation in timbre from note to note that singers, pianists and violinists
in particular strive to eliminate . . . Do the timbres of xylophone of
sansa notes then differ so much from each other that they introduce a
structural element of their own into the pattern of the music?"
My answer is decisively yes! Sometimes the timbre structure of specific
notes is manipulated deliberately. For instance, Kufuna Kandonga used
to attach the little metal buzzing rings only to the four lowest lamellae of
his likembe, in order to amplify inherent patterns emerging from these
notes. Also on a xylophone differences in the timbre of individual notes
have an accidental influence on the appearance of inherent note patterns
and the accentual structure of the music. For this reason the same
xylophone pieces may sound slightly different when performed on
different instruments. Musicians exploit these opportunities by adjusting
their phrasings and accentuations to the timbre structure of the instruments they are playing.
The perception of scale patterns is further influenced by the direction
in which a series of notes is played. A different impression can be gained,
according to whether the "scale" is played from low to high or the
reverse. My own initial reaction to the equipentatonic Kiganda scale in
1960 will give an example.
In my first article written in 1960 I reported my experience with one of
the xylophones in Uganda which I had learned to play: the amadinda
kept in the Uganda Museum and reproduced in the photograph there.
"There is another strange phenomenon with the sound of the amadinda
and akadinda keys, and this even has an effet on the rhythmic structure
of the music. As we pointed out above, the sound of each note is very
complex. The three greatest notes (keys X, XI and XII) often sound a
third smaller to the ear of a listener. .. When I was playing the
amadinda in Kampala the three keys always sounded to my ears as C, D
and E+. But listening to the tape-recording of the scale now, most
people, including myself, seem to hear instead of these pitches, E, F and
G. I have tested a number of persons: when the scale was played
upwards the majority heard E, F, G; when it was played downwards
most of them heard the basic notes C, D and E. (This is musically and
psychologically very interesting). The musicians- as far as I could find
out- consider the notes as C, D and E. They have a term for octave:
myanjo. The two musicians called Omunazi and Omwawuzi play in
myanjo (visually, the spacing apart of the two sticks by five keys, in the
two hands of each musician) over the whole range of both xylophones,
completely disregarding this thirds effect. Striking for example key VI
and XI together, this interval was still called myanjo (octave). And the
most interesting thing is the number of listeners who had heard the thirds
before and then said, "This is an octave now!" (Kubik 1960:8-9).
What had actually happened became clear later. As I could see in
sonagrams which were kindly made on my request by the late Professor
Dr. Walter Graf in the Phonogrammarchiv, Vienna, the deep notes of
this amadinda were not tuned to the fundamentals. The "C", "D" and
"E+" in my 1960 description actually corresponded with the 4th partials
of the non-appearing fundamentals. They were so dominant that the
maker must have taken them as his tuning note. All three notes were
tuned to the 4th partials. Like others, Baganda musicians focus their
recognition of the tuning pattern to the tone within a sound spectrum
which is the loudest: it may be the 1st, 2nd or 4th partial.
The "thirdseffect" reported by me arose from the fact, that besides the
4th partial, the 5th was also rather loud on the lowest key. This was an
accidental product, without any tonal-harmonic functions in the
Kiganda musical system itself. The sound of such a key played in
isolation can easily lead one to perceive the extremely strong 5th partial
as the representative note.
When the scale was played from bottom to top I first "heard"the 5th
partials. From the 4th key onwards I switched back to perceiving the
"basic" notes. I and other test persons reacted differently, however,
when the scale was played from top to bottom. The "basic"notes which
are expected to constitute the equipentatonic scale then developed such
strong coherence, that we all heard the pentatonic gestalt to its end,
irrespective of the obtrusive "thirds" on the three lowest keys. The
"basic" notes also become predominant if one plays in parallel octaves,
as is the usual procedure in amadinda music.
The obtrusiveness of the 5th partials in the deep register was even
more pronounced on the 22-key akadinda which I used to play with the
blind musicians at the Agricultural Training Centre of Salama (1959/60).
Their recording of "Omusalaba"(The cross), Ph.A. B 4888, as well as the
untitled piece following (B 4889) show the "thirds effect" very clearly.
The margin of tolerance
Persons from African musical cultures also reinterpret and "straighten
out" the European diatonic or chromatic tone material according to their
respective cultural backgrounds. From the perceptual viewpoint of
someone raised in a musical culture which uses a near-equiheptatonic
system the Western diatonic scale do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si may just fall
within the margin of tolerance of his system. Such seems to be the case
among the Mvele, Bulu and Eton of southern Cameroon, although EnoBelinga pointed out to me in a conversation in December 1969 in
Yaounde that he was quite conscious of the nature of the "fa"in the Bulu
scale which was raised towards a "fa diese" (F sharp). He was actually
aware of this difference between the Bulu system and the Western
diatonic scale. It was because of the nature of this tone, he said, that
European missionaries in Cameroon often gave their Bulu disciples a
KUBIK
hard time during church music practice, saying that their intonation of
that note was 'wrong'.
The European seven-note scale sounds less strange to people in areas
where a diatonic system (i.e. a heptatonic system with two semi-tone
steps and a major/minor modality) was traditionally present, such as
seems to be the case among the Bongili and Bakota (see recordings Kubik
1964, Ph.A. Vienna) in the north of the Peoples' Republic of Congo. In
such areas the Western diatonic scale may even have been perceived as
one of the possible, or just acceptable variants of a traditional heptatonic
system, especially where ideas of euphony were at work at the same
time.
For these reasons the European tone system was apparently assimilated with great ease, especially in the heptatonic areas of Africa, and
was quickly adjusted to indigenous conceptions. Accordingly, it was also
in the heptatonic areas where the new forms of popular music emerged
first, such as Highlife in the coastal areas of Ghana and Nigeria, the neotraditional xylophone music of Richard Band de Zoe Tele and similar
groups in southern Cameroon, the Congo guitar music (in the hexa- and
heptatonic areas of Congo/Zaire) and the modern Kenyan guitar music
(in the area of the heptatonic Luo of western Kenya). Only southernmost
Africa seems to be an exception to this rule. South African musical
cultures are penta- or hexatonic, but in this important region the Western
tone-system was creatively assimilated at an early stage, i.e., already in
the late nineteenth century.
Most other pentatonic areas of Africa, however, have creatively
processed a stronger impact from Western (or rather Afro-American)
music only from the sixties and seventies onwards, because the more
recent Pop and Soul music has often renounced the use of the "three
common chords" of the seven-note major scale. It increasingly uses Blues
scales and pentatonic systems which are very reminiscent of tone systems
found in the Sudanic belt from Dakar (Senegal) to Khartoum. Therefore
I was not surprised to find during my visit to the Sudan in 1977 how
easily local soul groups had assimilated Blues traits.
In some areas of Africa the adjustment to the European scale is so total
that contemporary members of the respective societies do not conceive of
any differences between the Western diatonic scale and their "own" tone
system. At the climax of efforts towards authenticity in Zaire I discussed
this problem with students of the Institut National des Arts in Kinshasa,
when I gave a seminar there in December 1974. The young ethnomusicologist Kishilo w'Itunga and others were of the opinion that the
"scale"of the Bakongo was identical with the Western diatonic scale. To
demonstrate this the students sang me a song in Kikongo which, to the
applause of the class, I transcribed "live" on the blackboard. The song
had a heptatonic melody with clear subdominant and dominant
functions, and before the finalis there was even a leading note. I
proposed that the students investigate whether this was perhaps a
relatively recent song or an old song whose tonal structure might have
been adjusted to the Western tone system now current in the area,
because of the Western-type school education of the majority of people

in Kinshasa.
In the case of the Bakongo the adjustment to Western music may go
back far into history, perhaps even as far as the era of the first missionaries in the Kingdom of Congo. The presence of a leading note in this
particular case, however, would suggest a more recent process of acculturation based on 19th-20th century influences.
Historically southern Cameroon seems to represent a similar situation.
Here, however, the adjustment of regional tone systems to the Western
scale started only with the presence of the Germans during the last
decades of the 19th century.
From as early as 1960 at least it has been possible to document on tape
various stages of adaptation of the old southern Cameroonian tone
system with its neutral thirds to the diatonic scale of Western introduction. One may compare my recordings of the mendzaj xylophone
ensemble of Gregoire Nang of Yaounde in 1960- which seem to
represent a transitional stage- with the group I recorded in the Miami
bar, Douala, in 1970 which played a kind of music heavily based on
records of Cuban music and Zairean guitar bands. As is evident from my
conversations with the leader of the group, he was aiming at the do-remi-fa-sol scale.
However, older tuning traditions still persist in the rural and more
remote areas, as is exemplified by my recordings of Daniel Mbeng of
Minkolong, east of Nanga-Eboko in 1964 and of Bayiege Gaston from
Nguelemendouka in 1970 [See Ph.A. Vienna, Nos. B 5103-5107 (Nang),
B 17122-17137 (Miami bar), B 8859-8862 (Mbeng) and B 17264-17271
(Bayiege)].
Pie-Claude Ngumu has taken the following stance as to acculturation
in the xylophone tunings of southern Cameroon: ". . . Pour le moment
je pense que l'essentiel des mendzari beti est qu'ils soient construits sur
une echelle de 7 tons differents.-Je me suis permis de tirer profit de cette
marge de tolerance. J'ai regle les 7 tons des mendzaj de la maitrise4 au
diapason, selon le systeme diatonique de la gamme europeenne . . .
Evidemment, ce reglage du diapason ternit de beaucoup la methode
traditionnelle. Cette methode n'etait nullement influencee par un son
preetabli. Son echelle d'accordement etait bien plus large, quant a la
hauteur du ton fondamental." (Ngumu 1976:65).
Ngumu might feel that the traditional southern Cameroonian tuning
pattern has a margin of tolerance which is wide enough to accommodate
even the Western seven-note diatonic scale. Apparently the traditional
scale has had a larger margin of tolerance in Ngumu's area than the
Western scale has in its own, with its absolute present-day tuning
standard of 440 c.p.s. and fixed semitone and whole tone steps. On the
other hand one cannot help suspecting that Ngumu's love for the tuning
fork A = 440 might simply be a colonial hangover. After all, before
becoming a musicologist Ngumu was a composer of church music and
the reign of the "tuning fork" was more than autoritarian in the Yaounde
Seminary for young Catholic priests. The late Reverend Arthur M. Jones
KUBIK
must have had a similar impression when he wrote in a review of PieClaude Ngumu's book:
Fascinating is the only appropriate word to describe the first half
of this modest book . . . The author from boyhood has been a keen
xylophone player, and when appointed as parish priest at Yaounde
met a first-class xylophone maker and decided to make a set of
xylophones for the Cathedral School there . . . He gives both
frequency and cents figures for the traditional Beti tuning of the
xylophone (which he does not appear to realise is equiheptatonic),
and then springs a great surprise on us. He decided to tune the whole
orchestra- xylophones included- not to the traditional equiheptatonic scale but to the Western Diatonic Major scale! . . . Of course,
if Africans want to adopt our Western scale they are at liberty to do
so, but such a volte-face from their traditional tuning will come as a
shock to ethnomusicologists, for obviously this changes the whole
character of the melodic sound, even though Fr. Ngumu is most
careful to preserve the traditional rhythmic structure. (Jones
1978:23-24).
Internalization of colonial norms in music has been the fate of a great
number of Western-educated African musicians of the middle generation. During my first stay in Uganda in 1959/60 I was once the guest of
George Kakoma. When we began to discuss the "Kiganda scale" he
suddenly played me the amadinda version of the famous harp song
"Olutali olw'e Nsinsi" (The battle of Nsinsi) with crossing hands on the
black keys of his piano. With the right hand he played the okunaga part
in parallel octaves, and with his left the interlocking okwawula part.
Then he said to me that the "Kiganda scale" was just the same as the
black notes of the piano. I was very surprised at the time, because it
contradicted all my experience with the instruments of my teacher,
Evaristo Muyinda. I do not know how George Kakoma would react
today regarding this matter. Although there is a wide margin of tolerance
in tuning- due to the presence of consonantal concepts based on
fourths- the Kiganda tone-system is based on the use of a standard
average interval of approximately 240 Cents. Can it be that the
difference of 60 Cents between this equi-pentatonic interval and a
European minor third (300 Cents) was tolerated in Kakoma's time by
Baganda educated in Western music?
There are indications that he would probably not hold without reservations to his views of 1960. In a paper on "Musical Traditions of East
Africa" which he presented at the UNESCO conference on African music
in Yaounde, 23-27 February 1970, there is an extensive section on
"Scales". Unfortunately his paper was published considerably shortened.
(See Kakoma 1972). Some of the most interesting parts are missing. In
thie printed version it reads (page 78): "Most tribes in East Africa use a
five-note scale, although the arrangement of the intervals may differ . ..
In Madi (north west Uganda), lyres and harps are tuned approximately
to a five-note scale as follows:
Is f r d
(going from the highest to the lowest strings)
The solfa approximations are mine. The intervals are sometimes larger
or smaller than implied above."
Among the sections deleted from Kakoma's original, which he distributed among us in Yaounde, there is the following paragraph about
transposition of amadinda patterns (pp. 6-7 of the manuscript): "Likein
the flute ensemble of the Ganda, each key-note of the amadinda set,
beginning with the lowest, may serve as the principal note or the tonic in
its own right, to an entirely new scale of five notes. This is called the
"Emyanjo"(plural) or "Omwanjo" (singular). Therefore it is possible to
play a given song in five different tonal systems. The differences in so
doing can bring greater tonal effects than in playing the same Western
piece of music on a key-board instrument in more than five different
keys."
As to this effect of transposition within the tone system of the Baganda
one may also compare Kyagambiddwa (1955) and Wachsmann's discussion of the same subject in a review of Kyagambiddwa's book
(Wachsmann 1956:80-81), my discussion of the emiko system in 1960
and 1969, and Lois Anderson's thesis (1968).
What the margin of tolerance actually is in the Kiganda tuning system
can be assessed. Evaristo Muyinda, who was my tutor in Uganda in
1959/60, 1961-63 and 1967/68, was tuning his harps (ennanga) with the
infallible precision of his inner tuning model. The tunings of his two
harps which I recorded in his home in December 1967 in the course of an
inspired recording session may be compared to tunings by other
musicians and thus illustrate the stability of the Kiganda tone system. It
is remarkable that Muyinda's tuning of his big harp in 1967 is congruent
within a margin of tolerance of max. -2.82 Hertz and an average of only
about ? 1 Hertz in its absolute pitch with the tuning recorded by Klaus
Wachsmann eighteen years earlier from Muyinda's teacher, the eminent
harpist and court musician Temusewo Mukasa. One of the court songs
performed by Evaristo Muyinda, "Olutalo ol'we Nsinsi" has been transcribed in cipher notation in Kubik 1982:218. The three tunings are
compared in the following table. Muyinda's harp tunings were kindly
measured from my tape recordings by the Reverend Dr. A.M. Jones with
a Stroboconn at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Kufuna Kandonga of Angola (1965) was also quite certain about his
inner tuning pattern. In spite of a relatively broad margin of tolerance
within his hexatonic tunings, he did not accept the intervals of the
European diatonic scale. When I once deliberately tuned his likembe so
that Western tempered major thirds appeared in place of the neutral
thirds he preferred, he took his instrument out of my hand and said that
it was wrong. Then he began a lengthy process of retuning.
Under continuous exposure to foreign influence through school songs,
mission songs, "national" songs and the bombardment of radio and
television programmes oriented towards "international" music, the
margin of tolerance is first stretched and then slackened. At this stage the
KUBIK
Evaristo Muyinda,
Recording Kubik,
big harp, B 12363,
Ph.A. Vienna
String
No.
Hertz
(c.p.s.)
406
Evaristo Muyinda,
Recording Kubik,
small harp, B 12362
Ph.A. Vienna
Cents
String
intervals No.
1
Hertz
(c.p.s.)
350
306
262
233
201
174
152
Cents
String
intervals No.
417
257
2
Temusewo Mukasa,
Recording Wachsmann,
(1950:41)
Hertz
(c.p.s.)
405.82
351.25
304.90
264.82
231.20
201.51
175.83
153.16
261
2
359
314
275
240
207
176
157
233
250
234
270
245
225
196
244
240
257
235
255
252
238
275
236
Cents
intervals
236
201
239
alien notes are still perceived from the viewpoint of the indigenous tone
system and interpreted in that context. If the exposure, however, is
persistent in the next stage, alien and indigenous notes are then felt to be
equivalent. They become, if we use linguistic terminology (see Bright
1963:31), variants of a singular toneme. In the final phase of adjustment
the indigenous tone system is repressed in favour of the foreign system. It
lingers on, however, as a constituent element of a counter-culture.
Transcription examples
I. Notation of a xylophone piece with equi-pentatonic tuning
scale (average):
Luganda note names:
Cents values:
Cipher notation symbols:
Note: underlined ciphers
plain ciphers
top-lined ciphers
BA
FE
240
2
2
2
1
1
I
= lower octave
= middle octave
= higher octave
KI
480
3
3
JO
720
4
4
VU
960
5
5
BA
1200
56 , 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
Title of song: "Sematimba ne Kikwabanga"-the

story of two princes.
Language: Luganda.-Origin:
Royal court music of Buganda.for 12-key amadinda to
Composed probably soon after 1800.-Version
be performed by three musicians, two of them playing in parallel
octaves. Transcribed from a live performance by Evaristo Muyinda and
his team in Kampala, December 1959. Cycle number: 36.
/
\
r
Okukoonera:
. 1.2
Okunaga:
4 . 5 2 3 3 5.
2 4 I 2 5
Okun4.5.2.3.3.5.2.1.2.5.2.2.1.4.4.2.1.1.
Okwawula:
2.
. 1.22.22.2.1.
.2.
2
. 2 .
11
4 . 2 . I . I .
.1.4.3.1.2.3.4.3.2
2.5.4.3.2.4.4.4.1
11.4.3.1.2.3.4.3.2.2.5.4.3.2.4.4.4.1
. 4 . 3 . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 3 . 2 . 2 . 5 . 4 . 3 . 2 . 4 . 4 . 4 . 1
\
/
= entrance point for the okwawula-part
= entrance point for the okukoonera-part
r
= beater of the right hand
= beater of the left hand
II. Notation of a song sung in a near-equiheptatonic system

Title: "Samba papelo"-performed
in a mukanda (boys' circumcision
school) in southeastern Angola. The performers are men and youths
from the village and the initiates (tundanda) in the lodge. Language:
Mbwela. Transcribed from recording No. 63/II/3a, at Sakateke, north
of Kwitu-Kwanavale, southeastern Angola, Kubik/August 1965.
The nocturnal songs of the mukanda are accompanied with mingongi
(concussion sticks) transcribed with symbols A and B for different types
of strokes (see also Kubik 1981 for a full discussion of the accompaniment). The vocal part is transcribed on a seven-line stave, each horizontal line representing one pitch-level. The vertical lines indicateas
the elementary
they do in all modern notations of African musicpulses, i.e., the smallest time-units carried by the percussion. In this
particular case, the human voices create their own pulse lines by dividing
a stretch of six elementary pulses into four.
The notation system used here is based on non-durational symbols. A
pitch (represented by a dot) is to be held as long as its validity is not
cancelled by another pitch (another dot) or the sign for interrupting a
sound: /
In the transcription below only the theme of the chorus is reproduced
starting about 22 seconds from the beginning of the tape-recording, at
the end of a long stretch of parlando-style solo singing. In spite of the
reference to tape-recordings given above, this is not strictly a "transcription from tape", because I shared in live performances of this song on
several occasions.
''~~~~~~~~
' 1
KUBIK
Elementary pulses: 430 M.M.
Cycle number: 24
Leader:
haa
.....
I
L
t T
Voices:
I ...
I I II
ha
we
,L
ii
- wel
vi
II
- 1i
--
, ,i .
,
I I I I I I
Minlongi
Mingongi:
A .
(sticks)
.B
B .
. A .
.A
I J~
pa-pa
B..
.A
.
.B
pa -pe
.
.B.A.
A
A
..
B.
..
- lo
A
B
.
-lo
ya - ya
.
..
1--
I.
1*_A m
_
--
I
E
I .
.. .
.
.
---
I II I I
wol
Chorus:
. B
.
.
A
.B
.
A
I l
B
.
.
B
vyo
A..
.A.B.A.
-ya
A
B
B
.
vyp
B..
I 111
I
A.
vyo
.A
vi - ya
B..
A.B.A.
1
'
vi - ya -ya
B..
1'e
I iI
A
.
111
--ay
B.
A .
II
pa - p
..
.
.A
vi
.B.A
II
Sa-aba
.
B
- lo
.B.
8a-aba
.A
+1 ~ i
8a-mba
ku-mba-
A.
..
B.A.
B.
1 1
11
vyo vyo
A.
...B.B.
A.B.A.
B.
B.

Ha -we
-wel
I
+ 1 I
..
Wo
..
1'1 I'll' 1
vi
A
A
- 11
.
yj-a ya - ya
A
I
i.
:
i
I,l!
1
B
.
A
.
.
.
B .A
A
B
.
.
.B.
A .
pa .
.
.
.
.
B..
.
I1 T i
pe -lo
.B
B.
A.B
1l1
na-na
A
A.
I1
A
A
ya - y
yo
B.
.B
III
vyo vyo
B
.
1i
Sa-mba
A..
B
. .
.A.
B
B.
ku - mba-la
B
.B
B..A..
..
-1
II-11
yol
B
..A
. A
A.
tI
Wo
A
I I;
.
A.B.A
viB..
B
I
.
B.
. B
NOTES
1.
2.
3.
4.
There is an interesting testimony to the popularity of German harmonicas such as

"Junker Kai Mundharmonica" in Mission schools of southern Cameroon before
World War I, to be found in a letter by a schoolboy published in the Mission
magazine Stern von Afrika, No. 6/XVI, 1909:95.
In 1981 I was able to visit Ambasa's village under the guidance of Pie-Claude Ngumu,
and film the music, besides making snatches of tuning adjustments and tuning check
phrases. (Cinefilm 40, Nov. 1, 1981, Collection Kubik/Aliya, Vienna).
See LP records:
a) The Kachamba Brothers' Band, Chichewa, Malawui 1972. AEL Series Phonographica 1, Vienna 1972. (Available from the Institute of African Studies, University
of Zambia, P.O. Box 30900, Lusaka).
b) Donald Kachamba's Kwela Band 1978, Austromechana 0120240, Jazzclub Wiesen
(Austria), 1978. (Available from: Peter Posch, Eisenstatterstrasse 40, A-7202
Sauerbrunn, Austria).
c) Donald Kachamba's Band. Simanje-manje and Kwela from Malawhi, A.I.T.
Records, Kenya Ltd., Nairobi, GKA 01, 1979. (Available from A.I.T. Records, P.O.
Box 41152, Nairobi).
d) Video-Film of Donald Kachamba's solo guitar playing June 1983, at the Musikethnologische Abteilung, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin-West.
Maitrise des Chanteurs a la Croix d'ebene de la Cathedral de Yaounde, Ngumu's own
church music ensemble.
KUBIK

SELECTEDBIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Lois A.
1968
The miko modal system in Kiganda xylophone music. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
1977
"The entenga tuned drum ensemble." Essays for a Humanist: An offering
to Klaus Wachsmann. New York, pp. 1-71.
Arom, Simha
"Le langage tambourine des Banda-Linda (Republique Centrafricaine)"
1976
Theorie et methodes en linguistique africaine, Biblioth6que de la SELAF
54-55, pp. 113-169, Paris. (en collaboration avec France Colarec-Heiss).
Berliner, Paul
1975
"The vocal styles accompanying the Mbira DzaVadzimu." Zambezia.
1978
The soul of Mbira: music and traditions of the Shona people of
Zimbabwe. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Blacking, John
1955
"Eightflute tunes from Butembo, Eastern Belgian Congo- an analysis in
two parts, musical and physical." African Music 1:24-52.
1959
"Problems of pitch, pattern and harmony in the Ocarina music of the
Venda." African Music 2:15-23.
1961
"Patterns of Nsenga kalimba music." African Music 2:26-43.
1970
"Tonal organization in the music of two Venda initiation schools." Ethnomusicology 14:1-56.
1973
How musical is man? Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Brandl, Rudolf Maria
1969
Marchenlieder aus dem Ituri-Wald: Die Lieder aus den Erziihlungen der
Waldneger und Pygmaen von der Kongo-Expedition P.DDr. Anton
Vorbichler S. V.D. in den Jahren 1958/59. Dissertation, Wien.
Bright, William
1963
"Language and music: areas of cooperation." Ethnomusicology 7:26-32.
Camp, Charles M. and Bruno Nettl
1955
"The musical bow in southern Africa." Anthropos 50:65-80.
Cooke, Peter
1970
The Ganda "Ndere":An examination of the notched flute of the Ganda
people of Uganda. M.A. Dissertation, Edinburgh University.
Dauer, Alfons M.
1955
"Grundlagen und Entwicklung des Jazz."Jazz Podium, Jahrgang 4:(4-10).
1967
"Liederder Gonja: Musik- und Textanalyse. Nebst einigen methodischen
Bemerkungen." Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 92:200-238.
1985
Tradition afrikanischer Blasorchester und Entstehung des Jazz. Graz:
Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.
Djenda, Maurice
1966/67
"Les anciennes danses des Mpyemo." African Music 4:38-46.
1968a
"Lespygmees de la Haute Sangha." Geographica. Revista da Sociedade de
Geografia de Lisboa 4:27-43.
1968b
"L'arc-en-terredes Gbaya-Bokoto." African Music 4:44-46.
Donner, Philip (Ed.)
1984
Nipe nikupe-perustietoa Tansanian musiikista ja kultuurista. Musiikin
Suunta 3, Helsinki.
Ekwueme, Laz E.N.
1974
"Linguistic determinants of some Igbo musical properties." Journal of
African Studies 1:335-53.
1980
"Analysis and analytic techniques in African music: A theory of melodic
scales." African Music 6:89-106.
England, Nicholas
1964
"Symposium on transcription and analysis: A Hukwe song with musical
bow." Ethnomusicology 8:223-77.
1967
"Bushman Counterpoint." Journal of the International Folk Music
Council 19:58-66.

Eno-Belinga, Samuel M.
1966
Litt6ratureet musique populaire en Afrique noire. Paris: Cujas.
Euba, Akin
1967
"Multiple pitch lines in Yoruba Choral Music." Journal of the International Folk Music Council 19:66-71.
Fodermayr, Franz
"Zur Ololyge in Afrika." In: Musik als Gestalt und Erlebnis: Festschrift
1970
Walter Graf zum 65. Geburtstag. Wien. pp. 57-65.
Zur gesanglichen stimmgebung in der aussereuropiiischen Musik: Ein
1971
Beitrag zur Methodik der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft. Wien.
Graf, Walter
1980
Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft. Ausgewahlte Aufsatze, herausgegeben
von Franz F6dermayr. Acta Ethnologica et Linguistica 50. WienFohrenau.
Hansen, Deirdre Doris
The music of the Xhosa speaking people. Ph. Dissertation. Faculty of
1981
Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Hood, Mantle
1966
"Slendro and Pelog redifined." Selected Reports 1:28-48.
Johnston, Thomas
1970
"Xizambi friction-bow music of the Shangana-Tsonga." African Music
4:81-95.
Jones, Arthur M.
1949
African Music in Northern Rhodesia and some other places. The Occasional Papers of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, No. 4, Livingstone.
"The Kalimba of the Lala tribe, N. Rhodesia." Africa: Journal of the Inter1950
national African Institute 20:324-34.
s.d.
"Blue notes and Hot rhythm: Some notes on Africanism in Jazz, both
melodic and rhythmic." African Music Society Newsletter 1:9-12.
1954
"East and West, North and South- the homogeneity of African music
south of the Sahara." African Music 1:57-62.
"A simple tonometer." Nature 177:242.
1956
"On transcribing African Music." African Music 2:11-14.
1958
1959a
Studies in African Music, Vol. 1 and 2, London, 4th ed. 1971.
"Indonesia and Africa: The xylophone as a culture indicator." Journal of
1959b
the Royal Anthropolopical Institute, 89, reprinted in African Music
2:36-47, 1960.
"Venda note names." African Music 3:49-53.
1962
1963
"Experimentwith a xylophone key." African Music 3:6-10.
1964
Africa and Indonesia: The evidence of the xylophone and other musical
and cultural factors. Leiden, 2nd ed., 1971.
"On using the Stroboconn." African Music 4:122-24.
1970
"The singing of a Swahili epic." Review of Ethnology 4,(3).
1974
"Unusual music for a Swahili Epic." Afrika und Ubersee 55, Heft 4.
1978a
Review of Pie-Claude Ngumu: "Lesmendzan des chanteurs de Yaounde."
1978b
Review of Ethnology 5, no. 2-3.
"Stretched octaves in xylophone tuning." Review of Ethnology 6(8).
1978c
Kako'ma, George
"Les Traditions Musicales de l'Afrique Orientale." La Revue Musicale,
1972
no. 288-289: 75-86.
Kauffman, Robert
1970
Multi-part relationships in the Shona music of Rhodesia. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
King, Anthony
"The construction and tuning of the Kora." African Language Studies
1972
13:113-36.
Kirby, Percival R.
"A study of Negro harmony," Musical Quarterly 16:404-14.
1930
"The recognition and practical use of the harmonics of stretched strings
1932
by the Bantu of South Africa." Bantu Studies 6:31-46.
KUBIK
"Physical phenomena which appear to have determined the bases and

development of an harmonic sense among Bushmen, Hottentot and
Bantu." African Music 2:6-9.
w'Itunga, Kishilo
"Structuredes chansons des Lega de Mwenga." Revue Zairoise des Arts 1.
1976
Knight, Roderic
"Towards a notation and tablature for the Kora, and its application to
1971
other instruments." African Music 5:23-36.
Kubik, Gerhard
"The structure of Kiganda xylophone music." African Music 2(3):6-30.
1960
(Corrigenda in: African Music 4(4):136. 1970.)
1964a
"Xylophone playing in southern Uganda." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 94, Part II, 138-59.
1964b
"Harp music of the Azande and related peoples in the Central African
Republic." African Music 3(3):37-76.
1965
"Transcription of mangwilo xylophone music from film strips." African
Music 3(4):35-71. (Corrigenda in: African Music 4(4):137. 1970.)
"La musique en Republique Centrafricaine." Afrika (Bonn) 8(1):44-48.
1967a
"The traditional music of Tanzania." Afrika (Bonn) 8(2):29-32.
1967b
1968
Mehrstimmigkeit und Tonsysteme in Zentral- und Ostafrika. Wien:
Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Misica tradicional e aculturada dos !Kung de Angola. Estudos de Antro1970
pologia Cultural No. 4, Junta de Investigacoes do Ultramar, Lisboa.
1971
"Carl Mauch's mbira musical transcriptions of 1872." Review of
Ethnology (10).
1974
The Kachamba Brothers' Band: A study of neo-traditional music in
Malazbi. Zambian papers No. 9. Lusaka: Institute for African Studies,
University of Zambia.
1975/6
"Musical bows in south-western Angola, 1965." African Music
5(4):98-104.
1980
"Cameroon." New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Stanley
Sadie, ed. London: MacMillan, vol. 3:646-649.
1980
"Likembe tunings of Kufuna Kandonga (Angola)." African Music
6:70-88.
Mukanda na makisi- Circumcision school and masks, MC 11, Berlin:
1981
Museum fir Volkerkunde.
1982
Musikgeschichte in Bildern: Ostafrika. Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag fur
Musik.
1984
"EinigeGrundbegriffe und -konzepte der afrikanischen Musikforschung."
Jahrbuch fir Musikalische Volks- und Volkerkunde 11:57-102.
"Das Khoisan-Erbe im Siiden von Angola: Bewegungsformen, Bogeni.p.
harmonik und tonale Ordnung in der Musik der !Kung'und benachbarter
Bantu-Populationen," in: Erich Stockmann (Hrsg.): Sammelband zur
afrikanischen Musik (Arbeitstitel), Berlin.
Kyagambiddwa, Joseph
1955
African music from the Source of the Nile. New York: Praeger.
Lomax, Alan
Folk song style and culture. American Association for the Advancement
1969
of Science Publication No. 88.
Low, John
Shaba Diary. F6hrenau-Vienna: Verlag E. Stiglmayr.
1983
Manima, Sese Kwaku
1976
"Precocite et etapes probables et l'acculturation tonale." Revue Zairoise
des Arts 1.
Mbunga, Stephan
1959
Misa Baba Yetu, Benedictine Mission Peramiho (Tanganyika).
Mensah, Atta Annan
1967
"The polyphony of Gyil-gu, Kudzo and Awutu Sakumo," Journal of the
International Folk Music Council 19:75-79.
1960

"The Gyilgo- a Gonja sansa," Papers in African Studies, (Ed. J.H.
Kwabena Nketia), No. 3.
1970
"Principles governing the construction of the silimba, a xylophone type
found among the Lozi of Zambia," Review of Ethnology 3(3).
Merriam, Alan P.
"The Bashi mulizi and its music: an end-blown flute from the Belgian
1957a
Congo." Journal of American Folklore 70:143-56.
"Yovu songs from Ruanda," Zaire 11:933-66.
1957b
"The epudi- A Basongye ocarina," Ethnomusicology, 6:175-80.
1962
1964
The anthropology of music, Evanston.
Messomo, Albert Noah
1980
Mendzan: Etude ethno-litteraire du xylophone des Beti. Universite de
Yaounde.
Ngumu, Pie-Claude
1975/6
"Les mendzal des Ewondo du Cameroun," African Music 5(4):6-26.
1976
Les mendzan des chanteurs de Yaounde. Acta Ethnologica et Linguistica,
Fohrenau-Vienna: Verlag E. Stiglmayr.
Nketia, J.H. Kwabena
1962a
African music in Ghana: A survey of traditional forms. London.
1962b
"The hocket technique in African music." Journal of the International
Folk Music Council 19:44-52.
1963
Folk songs of Ghana. Legon.
1967
"Multi-part organization in the music of the Gogo of Tanzania." Journal
of the International Folk Music Council 19:79-88.
1974
The music of Africa. New York; 2London 1975.
Nurse, George T
1970
"Cewa concepts of musical instruments." African Music 4(4):32-36.
Nzewi, Meki
1974
"Melo-rhythmic essence and hot rhythm in Nigerian folk music." The
Black Perspective in Music, 2/I.
Obama, Jean-Baptiste
"Education musicale et modernisation des traditions folkloriques
s.d.
africaines." Yaounde, unpublished manuscript.
Peschuel-Loesche, E.
Die Loango-Expedition. Stuttgart.
1907
Rouget, Gilbert
"Un chromatism africain." L'Homme: Revue francaise d'anthropologie
1961
1(3):32-46 (avec disque).
Tons de la langue en Gun (Dahomey) et tons du tambour." Revue de
1964
musicologie 50:3-29.
1969
"Sur les xylophones 6quiheptaphoniques des Malinke." Revue de
musicologie 55:47-77.
Rycroft, David
"Tribal style and free expression." African Music 1:16-27.
1954
"Zulu male traditional singing." African Music 1:33-35.
1957
"Melodic features in Zulu eulogistic recitation." African Language Studies
1960
1:60-78.
"The guitar improvisations of Mwenda Jean Bosco." African Music
1961/2
2(4):81-98 (Part I) and 3(1):86-101 (Part II).
"Frictionchrodophones in south-eastern Africa." Galpin Society Journal
1966
19:84-100.
1967
"Nguni vocal polyphony." Journal of the International Folk Music
Council 19:88-103.
"The Zulu bow songs of Princess Magogo." African Music 5(4):41-97.
1975/6
1977
"Speech-tone/melody relationships in southern African music." in: The
South African Music Encyclopaedia. Ed. Melan, Pretoria.
1978
"Comments on Bushman and Hottentot music recorded by E.O.J.
Westphal." Review of Ethnology 5, no. 2-3.
1969
KUBIK
"Musical bow." In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians
(Ed. Stanley Sadie), London: Macmillan. Vol. 12:811-14.
"A glimpse of the musical heritage of Black Africa." The International
1982
Magazine of Arab Cluture Vol. 273.
Schneider, Marius
1934
Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit, I. Berlin.
Simon, Artur
1979
"Probleme, Methoden und Ziele der Ethnomusikologie." Jahrbuch fiir
Musikalische Volks- und Volkerkunde 9:8-52.
1980
Musik der Nubier. Nordsudan. Schallplatte MC 9, Berlin: Museum fir
Volkerkunde.
1983
(Ed.) Musik in Afrika. Berlin-West: Museum fur Volkerkunde.
Stone, Ruth
1978
"Motion film as an aid in transcription and analysis of music." in:
Discourse in Ethnomusicology: Essays in Honor of George List. Ed.
C. Car, et al., Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Ethnomusicology
Publications Group.
Tracey, Andrew
1961
"Mbira music of Jege A. Tapera." African Music 2(4):44-63.
1970a
How to play the Mbira dza vadzimu. Roodepoort: International Library
of African Music.
"The Matepe Mbira of Rhodesia." African Music 4(4):37-61.
1970b
1971
"The Nyanga panpipe dance." African Music 5(1):73-89.
1972
"The original African mbira?" African Music 5(2):85-104.
Tracey, Hugh
1948
Chopi musicians: Their music, poetry and instruments. London, 2nd ed.,
1970.
1958a
"Towards an assessment of African scales." African Music 2(1):15-20.
1958b
"A unique set of tuning forks for students of African modality." African
Music 2(1):77-78.
Wachsmann, Klaus P.
1950
"An equal-stepped tuning in Ganda harp." Nature 16:40-41.
1956
Review of J. Kyagambiddwa: "African music from the source of the
Nile." African Music 1(3):80-81.
1957
"A study of norms in the tribal music of Uganda." Ethnomusicology
Newsletter, No. 2:9-16.
1967
"Pen-equidistance and accurate pitch: a problem from the source of the
Nile." In: Festschrift fir Walter Wiora zum 30. Dez. 1966 (ed. Ludwig
Fischer and Christoph-Kelmut Mahling), Kassel. pp. 583-92.
Waterman, Richard A.
1952
"African influences in American Negro music." In: Sol Tax: Acculturation in the Americas, New York, pp. 207-18.
Westphal, E.O.J.
1978
"Observations on Current Bushmen and Hottentot musical practices."
Review of Ethnology. 5(2-3).
van Zanten, Wim
1980
"The equidistant heptatonic scale of the Asena in Malawi," African Music
6:107-25.
Zemp, Hugo
1971
Musique Dan. La Musique dans la pensee et la vie sociale d'une societe
africaine. (Cahier de L'Homme, Nouvelle Serie XI, Paris: Mouton.
Zenker, Georg
1895
"Yaounde." Mitteilungen von Forschungsreisenden und Gelehrten aus
Deutschen Schutzgebieten 8:35-70.
1980

African Tones

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

African Tones

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

African Tone-Systems: A Reassessment

Author(s): Gerhard Kubik

32 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 33

34 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

With this ends the process of tuning the xylophone to a basically

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 35

six descending notes, beginning with the "chef de famille"? Ngumu

36 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 37

38 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

as a pattern proceeding by step. 2. The tuning procedure starts with the

Ku-luo pai sa su-nge.

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 39

40 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 41

42 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Chordal sequence in Kachamba's multi-part singing style

This harmonic pattern was introduced to Malawi in the 1950s and

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 43

A) Tone-systems based on the use of harmonics of a single fundamental

Resulting -Gogo harmonies

Tonal melodic material of

The -Gogo tone-system is basically tetratonic (within one octave) with

Example 2: The old tone-system of the Wakisi (Lake Malawi area,

Resulting -Kisi harmonies

B) Tone-systems based on the use of harmonics of two fundamentals

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 45

(Recordings Kubik Exp. IV, 1965, Ph. A. B 10663-10671, B

46 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 47

48 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 49

Saxon, Northern German, Southern German, Portuguese, educated in

50 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 51

52 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

because of the Western-type school education of the majority of people

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 53

54 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

(going from the highest to the lowest strings)

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 55

56 , 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Title of song: "Sematimba ne Kikwabanga"-the

= beater of the right hand

= beater of the left hand

II. Notation of a song sung in a near-equiheptatonic system

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 57

Elementary pulses: 430 M.M.

58 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

There is an interesting testimony to the popularity of German harmonicas such as

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 59

60 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 61

"Physical phenomena which appear to have determined the bases and

62 / 1985 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

AFRICAN TONE SYSTEMS / 63

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi