SOURCES FOR WRITTEN AFRICAN SONGS

Adzinyah, Abraham Kobena, Maraire, Dumisani, Cook, Judith
  1986 Songs from Ghana and Zimbabwe, Danbury, Ct, World Music Press. Some singable songs, some simplified.

Amoaku, W.K.
  1971 African songs and rhythms for children, a selection from Ghana, Mainz, B. Schott's Söhne. Orff Schulwerk  in the African tradition, songs with instrumental arrangements.

Blacking, John
  1965 Venda children's songs, Jhb, Wits Univ. Trad. songs, accurate, copious, extensive analytical text.. Many of the songs are easy.

Bokwe, John Knox
  1922 Amaculo aseLovedale, Lovedale. Tonic solfa, SATB. Mostly religious and school songs, some composed by Bokwe. Includes the four 'hymns of Ntsikana'.

Brouckaert, Liz
  1990 Songs sung by South African children , Cape Town, Grassroots Educare Trust. Mainly 'school' songs, some semi-trad.

Dargie, David
  1988 Xhosa music: its techniques and instruments with a collection of songs, Cape Town, David Philip, book and audiocassette. Thorough, accurate treatment, most songs difficult, but repay study.

Gibbins, Clarence W.M.
  1946 An African song book, Pietermaritzburg, Tarboton and Mitchell. Tonic solfa and staff. Zulu school songs, some trad.

Gunzburg, Claudine
  n.d.  Kusasa sivuka = In the morning we wake up, Cape Town, Saayman and Weber. Children's songs, some semi-trad.

Jones, A.M.
  1959 Studies in African Music, London, Oxford Univ Press, 2 vols. Major work on African music. Several songs (from Ghana and Zambia) transcribed in both vols, along with extensive pages of drum music.

Jones, A.M. and Kombe, L.
  1952  The Icila dance, old style: a study in African music and dance of the Lala tribe of Northern Rhodesia, Cape Town, Longmans Green, for African Music Society, Roodepoort. An early and accurate description of an African drum dance, with its song and drum patterns. *

Kazadi, P.C.
  1972 The characteristic criteria in the vocal music of the Luba-Shankadi children, Tervuren, Belgium: Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale.

Low, John
  1982 Shaba diary: a trip to rediscover the 'Katanga' guitar styles and songs of the 1950s and '60s, Vienna, Föhrenau. Acta Ethnologica et Linguistica, No. 54. Transcriptions of  finger-style guitar songs of the period, some partial. Good for guitarists, along with David Rycroft's two articles on Jean Bosco Mwenda in African Music, 2/4 1961 & 3/1 1962.

Makeba, Miriam
  1971 The world of African song, Chicago, Quadrangle Books. Many of Makeba's well-known songs, transcribed in 'Tin pan alley' style, i.e. rhythm over-simplified, African words spelled in American style.

Mohapeloa, J.
  n.d.  Unpublished 4-part songs, SATB, transcribed into staff c.1983 by Jonathan Edwards, Waterford-Kamhlaba School, Mbabane. Hand-written. Fifty seven songs in the South African 'choral' style by possibly the best-known Sotho composer. (In photocopy)

Nketia, Kwabena
  1962 African music in Ghana, Accra, Longmans. One of the first books by the leading African ethnomusicologist, contains several songs.

Nompula, Yolisa
  1989 Xhosa indigenous children's songs in the Transkei, M.A. thesis, Univ of Transkei. Music transcriptions?

Rycroft, David
  1976 Say it in SiSwati, London, School of Oriental and AfricanStudies, London University. A language course, with appendix giving a useful collection of trad. songs.

Rycroft, David, Ngcobo, A.B.
  1979 Say it in Zulu, London,School of Oriental and AfricanStudies, London University.  A language course, with appendix giving a useful collection of trad. songs.

Seeger, Pete
  ?  Bantu choral folksongs, transcribed into staff from Williams and Maselwa African folk songs. Xhosa songs, some S. Sotho, mostly trad and well-known. Book is missing.

Ter-Morshuizen  and Weinberg, P.
  1984 Singa linga longa, Cape Town, Maskew Miller. Eclectic collection of children's songs, a few of them trad.

Tracey, Andrew
I.L.A.M., unpubl mss., from Zimbabwe, S. Africa etc.   (on request only)

Tracey, Hugh
  1967  The lion on the path, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. 23 trad. stories from Zimbabwe, 2 from

S. Africa. Many have songs , which are transcribed, and have been performed frequently in school, etc. Not difficult.
Weinberg, Pessa

  1984 Hlabelela mntwanami: sing my child, Johannesburg, Ravan. Good collection of the actual songs sung by Zulu children near Pietermaritzburg, some in trad. Zulu style, some in 'school' style.
  n.d.  Zulu children's songs, M.A. thesis, UNISA. Same as above.

Wells, Robin
  1994  An introduction to the music of the Basotho, Lesotho, Morija. Many songs/instrumental pieces    transcribed in extenso, with emphasis on analysis rather than performance.

Williams, Michael
  1995 The orphans of Qumbu and other South African operas for young people , Isando, Heinemann. Book and audiocassette. The songs are to be learned from the cassette and are not transcribed in the book.

Williams, H-C. & Maselwa, J.N.
  n.d. African folk songs, St. Matthews College. Tonic solfa. A ground-breaking early   
(c.1947) collection of Xhosa songs, some S. Sotho, mostly trad. and well-known.   (photocopy)

See also:
AFRICAN MUSIC, Journal of the International Library of African Music, 1954 to date. Numerous articles, some with usable transcriptions. Index available from ILAM, R5.00

'SOUND OF AFRICA' Series, catalogue of LP records/cassettes, 2 vols., listing the 213 records of traditional African music in this series recorded in the field by Hugh Tracey. Each record focuses  on the music of one language group for specialist interest. 2-vol catalogue, pp 182, 479 available from ILAM, R185.00

'MUSIC OF AFRICA' Series, 25 LP records/cassettes of trad. African music in this series, recorded in the field by Hugh Tracey. The records consist of varied selections for general interest. List available from ILAM.