Cool Stuff: Native American and Sub Saharan African Music
- Hannah Cheatham
- Jan 14, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 27, 2020
Hello all! Hope you guys had a fantastic weekend! This blog post is supposed to sorta kinda somewhat wrap up these two geographical/musical areas with cool facts what we learned or connected to our own experiences and research.
1. The Black Panther Score
Oh my gosh guys, I LOVE this score! After seeing Black Panther for the first time I was struck by the amazing score (course the movie was great too :D). I loved how it personified the movie like any good film score should, but it did it using real African instruments. The score also incorporates 8o8 patterns and bass lines synonymous with hip hop interwoven with a western/European orchestra and weds the two really well. With the underlying, pulsing beat of hip hop reunited with it's West African polyrhythmic* roots, it provides a happy blending of all three major genres that make up the film score and it just makes me so happy!!!! Each moment is filled with what musicians call leitmotifs, which is a musical phrase or motive that represents or describes a person or situation (by the way, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings is rampant with leitmotifs, if you're interested). So much thought and care had gone into every aspect of this film and score and it shows. But talking about all these aspects of Sub-Saharan African music sparked my memory of a couple videos I came across when researching the score, which I did because it interested me so much (#nerd). These are linked here, breaking down the score, showing the different aspects and what they mean to the film and the score. And they explain it much better than I could, so I highly recommend checking them out. There are also several other videos as well as a podcast I came across while researching for this post. These will be linked below because they're longer/extras and I didn't want to overload the page with videos like I did last time. The fact that the score is a piece of art interwoven with a great movie, makes this one of my favorites! Heck, I'm watching it now!
*Polyrhythms/Polyrhythmic- a fancy term Ethnomusicologists use to try and explain the very complex, layered rhythms of places like West Africa and Arabia beacuse as my music history professor always says: "Music happens, and we try and explain it through imperfect speech." -Dr. Kelly Vaneman
Other videos/sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmP1aHJjJ-U (doesn't have anything to do with music, but shows the care put into the film)
2. The Swahili Language
My first direct experience with African music that I can remember being involved in the music making was in middle school. We performed Jenga imani yako in the Swahili language. I really enjoyed it and it peaked my interest in African music. If you look up world music on any type of music publishing site, you'll find that a lot of them are from Africa and in my experience, feature the Swahili language. The reason I think Swahili is so prominently featured in these choral arrangements is also the same reason the music itself is popular: it's relatively easy to pick up (if you don't think about it too much), and both elements have a definite, infectious rhythm that takes hold of you and makes the experience memorable. So naturally, I've sung a few African/Swahili songs in my time, but I was actually interested in the language itself. So after doing some reading, I found it very interesting that despite the popularity of the language in choral arrangements, the language is mostly spoken by a small part of Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa: Tanzania, Kenya, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo, with some surrounding areas speaking closely related languages. Kiswahili, as it's know in it's native tongue meaning "language of the coasts", is a native African Bantu language that borrows words/aspects from Arabic, Persian, and Portuguese. When the area was colonized by Germany, the Germans encouraged Swahili as a way to unite the diverse population. In 1928, the standardization of Swahili began with the Zanzibar dialect used as the basis for standard Swahili. With this standardization, a very Latin spelling prevailed as the way the language would be written as opposed to the Arabic symbols that had been used earlier for the language. This Latinized spelling makes it easy for us to read it phonetically, therefore making it a staple for the average American school choir. But even if you're not as steeped in choir nerdom as I am, you've definitely heard Swahili, as it is the language used in Disney's The Lion King. Does Hakuna Matata ring any bells? Sadly, the "Circle of Life" intro is actually in Zulu, not Kiswahili, BUT I still want to fulfill my dream of actually singing the real language along with the track. NAAAAAAAAAAAANTS INGOOOOOONYAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Other sources:
3. The Music of the Cherokee
Buried behind this very German exterior, you might be surprised to learn that I'm Cherokee as well (and Italian, but that's not what we're talking about today). So when talking about the music of the Native Americans, I thought it might be interesting to search for any specific differences when it comes to the music of the Cherokee tribe.
Cherokee music is mostly in the same vein as the most of the eastern woodland tribes, which spans all the way up the eastern U.S. and into Canada (which I realize is very broad, so some refer to the more narrow subgroup, Southeastern woodlands. Just depends on which source you read). There might've been more differences early on in history, but because it was orally passed down and relatively undocumented, it often was and has been viewed through very European glasses. The specifics that now distinguishes Cherokee music from other Native American music of the same subgroup, has to do with how it has since evolved to incorporate other genres. The traditional music is kept very much the same: singable lines, heartbeat drum, call and response, vocables, sometimes flutes, but in order to keep traditions alive outside of tribal events like stomp dances and healing chants, many Cherokee blended the genres they heard the most into their own music. Because of their location, Cherokees have since adapted largely from Southern Protestants, musically and spiritually, reshaping hymns and spirituals to sound more like their music. The strophic nature of both hymns and tribal songs lends themselves well to each other, as well as the diatonic, conjunct melodies. They also adapted the country music of the mountaineers living close by, borrowing instruments like the banjo, guitar and fiddle (similar to a violin, but instead of strings it has strangs :D). This mountain music also borrows from the European folk songs of England and Scotland, so Cherokee music adapted elements of those too, by extension.
Not exactly what I was expecting in terms of specific differences, but interesting nonetheless to see how Cherokee music has adapted to incorporate different genres.
Sources:
Well, you're nothing if not enthusiastic! It's been really interesting for me to watch the American choir scene begin to incorporate so much music from South Africa over the last few decades. One of my dearest friends (and a Converse alumna from many years ago) did her doctoral thesis on some particular aspects of the South African choral tradition, and so got to spend several months living and researching there. Life goals, maybe?
Hi! :) With me also being a huge choir nerd (no shame), I have also experienced singing the swahili language so I enjoyed reading about the language and how it came to be. I have never seen Black Panther, although, I have heard it is a really good movie, but I had no idea about the music having a connection with Africa. That's so cool! Great read.
I really enjoyed reading this, Hannah. I have not actually seen Black Panther yet; I would like to though. I opened another window as I was typing this to listen to the soundtrack. The leitmotifs sound like they are fascinating. I would like to learn more about those.