SOURCES FOR GENERAL READING

Listing of Journal Articles on African music in MERC (Music Education Resources Base) database

• Access the MERB search page, enter "Africa" in the subject box at the bottom of the page and press "Go" to bring up the list of journal articles on African music in education.

SOURCES FOR GENERAL READING

Amoaku, Komla
  1995 Preparatory exercises in African rhythms. Reference??

Bebey
  1975 African music, a people's art. Harrap. Subjective, perceptive look by an African musician at music of mostly Francophone Africa

Berliner, Paul
  1978 The soul of mbira, University of California. The standard work on the 'mbira dza vadzimu' of the Shona of Zimbabwe, its aesthetics and social setting.

Chernoff, John Miller
  1979 African rhythm and African sensibility. Chicago. The inside view of an American drummer who learned to play in West Africa. Acute and perceptive observation of African musical values. Highly recommended.

Clegg, Johnny
  1981  "Towards an understanding of African dance: the Zulu isishameni style". ILAM, 3rd Symposium on Ethnomusicology. Insider's view of the dance by dancing academic.
  1982  "An examination of the Umzansi dance style". ILAM, 4th Symposium on Ethnomusicology. Insider's view of the dance by dancing academic.

Hansen, Deirdre
  1993  "Structural relationhips between music and social life (Xhosa)", ILAM, 11th Symposium on Ethnomusicology. Good article on the social bases of Xhosa music.

Kirby, P.R.
  1953 Musical instruments of the native races of South Africa, Univ of Witwatersrand Press. The unsurpassed standard work on African musical instruments in South Africa.

Kubik, Gerhard
  1983 "Emica del ritmo musicale Africano", offprint from Culture musicali qauderni di etnomusicologia, year 11

Malan, J. (ed)
1982 South African Music Encyclopedia, Oxford, Vol 2, under 'Indigenous musics of South Africa', pp 265-508. Collection of essays on South African music by well-known names: John Blacking, P.R.Kirby, David Rycroft, Yvonne Huskisson, Thomas Johnston.

Nketia, Kwabena
  1975 The music of Africa, Gollancz. Thorough, analytical description of African styles by the foremost African ethnomusicologist. Strongest on West Africa and Tanzania.

Roberts, John Storm
  1972 Black music of two worlds, with cassette. Praeger. The only work which attempts to describe the Black musics of both sides of the Atlantic.

Rycroft, David
  1957 "Zulu male traditional singing", African Music 1/4. Essential reading for Zulu music.
  1967 "Nguni vocal polyphony", Journal of the International Folk Music Council 19. Essential reading on Nguni singing by the foremost ethnomusicologist in the Nguni area.
  1970 Zulu, Swazi and Xhosa instrumental and vocal music, monograph with LP disc, Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium. Good selection and analysis of Nguni music.
  1975/6  "The Zulu bow songs of Princess Constance Magogo", African Music 5/4. Analysis of a well--   known singer of an earlier generation, the mother of Prime Minister of KwaZulu/Natal Gatsha Buthelezi.

Tracey, Andrew
  1994  "African values in music", ILAM. Observations from a lifetime in African music, relating  musical and social values.

Tracey, Hugh
  1963  "The development of music", African Music, 3/2.
  1970 Chopi musicians, Int. African Inst. The standard musical ethnography of the famous Chopi xylophone orchestras, with focus on the lyrics and the society.

Wells, Robin
  1994  An introduction to the music of the Basotho, Morija Museum and Archives, Morija, Lesotho, ISBN  99911 793 7 2. Up to date description and analysis of present-day practice in Lesotho.