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Music of Africa >> Content Detail



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Readings

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This page presents a complete reading list for the course, followed by a table listing the particular assigned readings for each lecture session.



Readings List


Amazon logo Agawu, V. Kofi. Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. ISBN: 9780415943895.

Amazon logo ———. African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780521480840.

Amazon logo Barz, Gregory. Music in East Africa. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780195141528.

Amazon logo Berliner, Paul. Soul of Mbira. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226043791.

Blacking, John. "Some Notes on a Theory of Rhythm Advanced by Erich von Hornbostel." African Music 1 (1955): 12-20.

Amazon logo Charry, Eric. Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226101620.

Amazon logo Chernoff, John Miller. African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780226103440.

Amazon logo Collins, John. West African Pop Roots. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780877229162.

Herson, Benjamin. Fat Beats Dope Rhymes and Thug Lives: Youth, Politics and Hip-Hop in Dakar. Undergraduate Thesis, Hampshire College, 2000.

Knight, Roderic. "Music Out of Africa: Mande Jaliya in Paris." The World of Music 33, no. 1 (1991): 52-69.

Amazon logo Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780252009860.

Merriam, Alan P. "African Musical Rhythm and Concepts of Time-reckoning." In African Music in Perspective. New York, NY: Garland Publishers, 1982. 443-461.

Amazon logo Nketia, J. H. Kwabena. The Music of Africa. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1974. ISBN: 9780393092493.

Sachs, Curt. The History of Musical Instruments [by] Curt Sachs. New York, NY: Norton, 1940.

Amazon logo Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2000. ISBN: 9780393975369.

Amazon logo Stewart, Gary. Breakout: Profiles in African Rhythm. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780226774060.

Amazon logo ———. Rumba on the River. New York, NY: Verso Books, 2004. ISBN: 9781859843680.

Tang, Patricia J. Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griots in Contemporary Senegal. Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 2000.

Amazon logo ———. "Senegal." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 6, Africa and Middle East, edited by John Shepherd, et al. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN: 9780826474360.

Amazon logo Titon, Jeff Todd, ed. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Schirmer Books, 1996. ISBN: 9780028726120.

Amazon logo Turino, Thomas. Nationalists, Cosmopolitans and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226817026.

Waterman, Christopher Alan. "'Our Tradition is a Very Modern Tradition': Popular Music and the Construction of Pan-Yoruba Identity." Ethnomusicology 34, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 48-53.

Amazon logo ———. Jùjú: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780226874654.



Assigned Readings



LEC #TOPICSReadings
Unit 1: Introduction: Ethnomusicological Approaches to African Music
1Preliminaries; Overview of Course
2The Field of Ethnomusicology, the concept of "Soundscapes" and its Application to the Study of World Music

Building a Cross-Cultural Musical Vocabulary
Nettl. pp. 1-11.

Shelemay. pp. 1-20.
3Organology and Instruments: The Sachs-Hornbostel System of Instrument ClassificationSachs. pp. 454-467.
4African Music: A Review of Ethnomusicological LiteratureMerriam, Nketia. 1974, pp. 3-20.

Agawu. 2003.
Unit 2: Senegal
5Senegalese History, Culture, and Music

Focus on Wolof Griots, Masters of the Sabar Drum
Tang. 2000, pp. 31-122.

Tang. 2005.
6Popular Music in Senegal: mbalax and Hip-hopHerson.
7Sabar Drumming: An Introduction to Basic Hand Techniques, Rhythms, and bàkksTang. 2000, pp. 158-204.

Sabar Terms (PDF)
8Sabar Drum Workshop with Artist-in-Residence, Lamine Touré
9Interlude: Southern AfricaBerliner, Paul (1993). Excerpts.

Turino, Thomas (2000). Excerpts.
Unit 3: Mali
10Music of the Mande: The jali and his InstrumentsCharry. pp. 1-27 and 90-145.
11Guest Lecture - Demonstration by Balla Kouyate, A Balafon Player from New York City
Knight.
12Malian Superstars: Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, and Ali Farke Touré
13Midterm Exam
Evening Performance by Lamine Touré and Group Saloum
Unit 4: Ghana
14Music Cultures of the Ewe and DagbambaAgawu. pp. 8-30.

Worlds of Music. 1996, pp. 78-101 and 111-118.
15Case Study: Agbekor (Ewe)Chernoff. pp. 39-88.
16Urban Music Roots: Highlife and Palm-wine MusicCollins. pp. 17-41.
17Interlude: Central AfricaStewart (2004). Excerpts.
Unit 5: Nigeria
18Music and Identity: jùjú and fúji BandsWaterman.
19Music and Politics: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's Afro-BeatStewart (1992). pp. 114-123.

Collins. pp. 69-84.
20Music and Ritual: Hausa Music and the bori Ceremony
21Interlude: East AfricaBarz, Gregory (2004). Excerpts.
Unit 6: Conclusions
22-24Final Presentations
25Conclusions

 








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