[o] other: Class Materials
Music 80Q: Survey of African Music
Music of Protest Films
Please be prepared to describe situations or answer
questions related to events you will see in the films below (on your Final
Exam).
1. RHYTHMS OF RESISTANCE: BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC (1979)
This film takes you across forbidden boundaries of apartheid to experience the joy and sorrow of Black South African music. Describe the performances (in terms of dynamics, style, instrumentation, rhythm, texture, timbre, and meter) interview comments and intimate moments with the following artists:
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Malombo, Johnny Clegg/Sipho Mchunu of Juluka, The Mahotella Queens, and Abafana Baseqhudeni.
2. FELA IN CONCERT (All compositions by Fela Anikulapo Kuti)
Fela Anikulapo Kuti was (is) Nigeria's most famous and influential musician and composer. He was the most celebrated African musician of his era. He was also a revolutionary, a cultural and political symbol "often ambiguous to the Western mind."
His African rhythms that fuel his AFRO-BEAT melodies were influenced by the music of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear. His music was akin to Jazz-Rock grounded in African roots. He performed on stage with 15 of his 27 wives (all of whom were dancers and singers). People wondered if Fela was a musician, politician, a religious leader, an agitator, a liberator . . . Listen to his music and lyrics. What do you think. (Filmed in Paris, June 30, 1981). Describe the performances (in terms of dynamics, style, instrumentation, rhythm, texture, timbre, and meter) of the following compositions:
Instrumental Solo
Army Arrangement
Original Suffer Head
Living Encyclopedia
of Global African Music
Received 05/28/2003
Posted 05/29/2003