Explain the seven “Generalizations About African Music-Culture.” Refer to “Postal Workers Canceling Stamps,” as appropriate

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Music-Making Events (1). African music often happens in social situations where people's primary goals are not artistic" (not art for art's sake). Postal Workers Canceling Stamps," is an example of work music, that is, not a musical performance as such, but rather music that helps coordinate the efforts of the workers and lifts their spirits.

• Expression in Many Media (2). African music may also be associated with other expressive media (drama, dance, poetry, etc). "Music . . . is also enjoyed at other times for its own sake."

• Musical Style (3). Postal Workers Canceling Stamps" illustrates European musical qualities—duple-metered melodies based on a seven-note major scale (G A B C D E F# G) and related Western harmony, as well as African stylistic features—polyrhythm, repetition, and improvisation.

• History (4). "The music-cultures of Europe, Asia and the Americas have strongly affected those in Africa." This cultural interaction is seen, for example, in the incorporation of European musical features into the sounds of "Postal Workers Cancelling Stamps."

• Participation (5). Musicians in Africa often welcome participation in the music-making process. The postal workers feel free to join in with simple musical parts to create a sophisticated and satisfying music.

• Training (also define enculturation) (6). Music education or learning how to perform music in Africa depends on a "society-wide process of enculturation—that is, the process of learning one's own culture gradually during childhood." The music being so casually created by the postal clerks seems effortlessly "beautiful."

• Beliefs and Values (7). "Often Africans conceive of music as a necessary and normal part of life . . . music fuses with other life processes." The music of the postal workers accompanied and coordinated their work, but they didn't quite think of themselves as musicians performing "music" in a "musical show." Also, a musician who was asked to sell his instrument looked upon his instrument as a person and did not want to deliver it into bondage.

• Intercultural Misunderstanding (8). Explain how the beliefs and attitudes of Africans about their music can result in "intercultural misunderstanding" for a "scientifically minded person" from a "concert-music-culture." A person from a concert-music-culture (most Westerners) is used to thinking of music as an event separate from daily life and often created as art for art's sake. Such a person might plan to attend concerts of art music performed by musicians who may have had years of specialized conservatory training. An African going about his daily life, on the other hand, may make musical sounds with his community that are the voices of his ancestors. [See also answer to question 9. --Beliefs and Values (7) above.]