African Music, Essay Example

As we discussed in this course, the development of jazz music was strongly influenced by the traditional music forms in Africa that were brought to the U.S. through the slave trade (Kernan & Tomlinson, 2012). While jazz music utilizes elements of Western music such as melody and harmony based on similar musical notes and scales, it also combines contains elements like syncopation and improvisation that are not closely associated with Western music. These non-traditional elements are rooted in the polyrhythms and polyrhythmic counterpoint found in African music, as well as the call-and-response vocal elements that are reflected in the way jazz musicians interact with and respond to each other with their instruments (Kernan & Tomlinson). Going back through history from jazz music it can be seen where these elements of jazz are found in African traditions where music is used to accompany the most important and the most common events, from marriages to simple gatherings and spontaneous celebrations (infoplease.com/African Music, n.d.). The use polyrhythmic counterpoint, where two distinct and separate rhythms are played at the same time to create a larger pattern, is not usually heard in traditional Western music, but it is common in African music (infoplease.com/syncopation, n.d.). The instruments used to create African music include carved wooden drums, flutes made of wood or plant material, or even ivory, simple stringed instruments like the ground gourd, and other percussive and musical instruments (infoplease.com/African music). The wood, brass, and stringed instruments of Western music have often been incorporated into African music; in a sense this is the mirror image of what happened in the U.S. with jazz music, where it was the African instruments and musical ideas that were blended into Western music.

References

Infoplease.com,. ‘African Music | Infoplease.Com’. N. p., 2014. Web. 16 Jul. 2014.

Infoplease.com,. ‘Syncopation | Infoplease.Com’. N. p., 2014. Web. 16 Jul. 2014.

Kerman, J., and G. Tomlinson. Listen. 7th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.