After a while, however, they are replaced by new, even more powerful healing compositions. And musical forms fall in and out of fashion certain powerful songs become very popular (like "hits") and are frequently played for healing rituals as well as for entertainment. New rituals-such as collective male initiation-appear along with new songs and dances, while others-like some rituals tied to hunting-disappear, their music gradually falling to disuse. Vocal songs that fall into disuse are transposed into the instrumental repertory ritual songs may pass into the realm of the profane and become diversions. The San musical heritage may thus be recomposed. And their neighbors’ music can be transformed and integrated into the San musical system and esthetic. San musicians borrow instruments from other cultures, a testimony to their ongoing relations with neighboring peoples. From one generation to the next, songs and instrumental pieces are abandoned and others are created. Music is, for the San, a living art encompassing the processes of creation, disappearance, transformation, and recomposition. But this rigor is in no way synonymous with rigidity. The San musical heritage is thus organized in a rigorous manner according to both social and musical criteria. Each of these ensembles refers to one or more categories determined by distinctive musical features. The songs are organized in ensembles connected to specific social circumstances like healing, initiation, hunting rituals, and the melon toss game or other diversions. Most common are the stringed instruments, the bow, the single-stringed zither, and the four- and five-stringed pluriarcs the thumb piano and sometimes the drum, borrowed in recent decades from neighboring Bantu-speaking peoples. The song is created step by step through the interaction of diverse participants. It is up to each performer to adjust his or her voice in real time and in relation to the others. They have thus developed an elaborate system of variations whereby each singer varies his/her voice in a unique way so that no two voices are identical. To produce a sound that they would call "delicious"-a performance corresponding to the San musical esthetic-the singers must constantly renew their voices to create complexity and variety. The voices are accompanied by hand clapping and rattles, which mark the beat as well as many superimposed rhythmic figures for a strongly polyrhythmic effect. From these multiple voices emerges the yodelling procedure, which alternates between chest voice and head voice. Their music is characterized by complex contrapuntic polyphonies based on the superposition of different voices, each with divergent melody and rhythm. There exist as many different musical legacies as there are different populations of San people nevertheless, they share many traits.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |