This page presents a complete reading list for the course, followed by a table listing the particular assigned readings for each lecture session.
Readings List
Agawu, V. Kofi. Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. ISBN: 9780415943895.
———. African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780521480840.
Barz, Gregory. Music in East Africa. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780195141528.
Berliner, Paul. Soul of Mbira. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226043791.
Blacking, John. "Some Notes on a Theory of Rhythm Advanced by Erich von Hornbostel." African Music 1 (1955): 12-20.
Charry, Eric. Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226101620.
Chernoff, John Miller. African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780226103440.
Collins, John. West African Pop Roots. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780877229162.
Herson, Benjamin. Fat Beats Dope Rhymes and Thug Lives: Youth, Politics and Hip-Hop in Dakar. Undergraduate Thesis, Hampshire College, 2000.
Knight, Roderic. "Music Out of Africa: Mande Jaliya in Paris." The World of Music 33, no. 1 (1991): 52-69.
Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780252009860.
Merriam, Alan P. "African Musical Rhythm and Concepts of Time-reckoning." In African Music in Perspective. New York, NY: Garland Publishers, 1982. 443-461.
Nketia, J. H. Kwabena. The Music of Africa. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1974. ISBN: 9780393092493.
Sachs, Curt. The History of Musical Instruments [by] Curt Sachs. New York, NY: Norton, 1940.
Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2000. ISBN: 9780393975369.
Stewart, Gary. Breakout: Profiles in African Rhythm. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780226774060.
———. Rumba on the River. New York, NY: Verso Books, 2004. ISBN: 9781859843680.
Tang, Patricia J. Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griots in Contemporary Senegal. Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 2000.
———. "Senegal." In The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 6, Africa and Middle East, edited by John Shepherd, et al. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN: 9780826474360.
Titon, Jeff Todd, ed. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Schirmer Books, 1996. ISBN: 9780028726120.
Turino, Thomas. Nationalists, Cosmopolitans and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226817026.
Waterman, Christopher Alan. "'Our Tradition is a Very Modern Tradition': Popular Music and the Construction of Pan-Yoruba Identity." Ethnomusicology 34, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 48-53.
———. Jùjú: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780226874654.
Assigned Readings
| LEC # | TOPICS | Readings |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1: Introduction: Ethnomusicological Approaches to African Music | ||
| 1 | Preliminaries; Overview of Course | |
| 2 | The Field of Ethnomusicology, the concept of "Soundscapes" and its Application to the Study of World Music Building a Cross-Cultural Musical Vocabulary | Nettl. pp. 1-11. Shelemay. pp. 1-20. |
| 3 | Organology and Instruments: The Sachs-Hornbostel System of Instrument Classification | Sachs. pp. 454-467. |
| 4 | African Music: A Review of Ethnomusicological Literature | Merriam, Nketia. 1974, pp. 3-20. Agawu. 2003. |
| Unit 2: Senegal | ||
| 5 | Senegalese History, Culture, and Music Focus on Wolof Griots, Masters of the Sabar Drum | Tang. 2000, pp. 31-122. Tang. 2005. |
| 6 | Popular Music in Senegal: mbalax and Hip-hop | Herson. |
| 7 | Sabar Drumming: An Introduction to Basic Hand Techniques, Rhythms, and bàkks | Tang. 2000, pp. 158-204. Sabar Terms (PDF) |
| 8 | Sabar Drum Workshop with Artist-in-Residence, Lamine Touré | |
| 9 | Interlude: Southern Africa | Berliner, Paul (1993). Excerpts. Turino, Thomas (2000). Excerpts. |
| Unit 3: Mali | ||
| 10 | Music of the Mande: The jali and his Instruments | Charry. pp. 1-27 and 90-145. |
| 11 | Guest Lecture - Demonstration by Balla Kouyate, A Balafon Player from New York City | Knight. |
| 12 | Malian Superstars: Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, and Ali Farke Touré | |
| 13 | Midterm Exam | |
| Evening Performance by Lamine Touré and Group Saloum | ||
| Unit 4: Ghana | ||
| 14 | Music Cultures of the Ewe and Dagbamba | Agawu. pp. 8-30. Worlds of Music. 1996, pp. 78-101 and 111-118. |
| 15 | Case Study: Agbekor (Ewe) | Chernoff. pp. 39-88. |
| 16 | Urban Music Roots: Highlife and Palm-wine Music | Collins. pp. 17-41. |
| 17 | Interlude: Central Africa | Stewart (2004). Excerpts. |
| Unit 5: Nigeria | ||
| 18 | Music and Identity: jùjú and fúji Bands | Waterman. |
| 19 | Music and Politics: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's Afro-Beat | Stewart (1992). pp. 114-123. Collins. pp. 69-84. |
| 20 | Music and Ritual: Hausa Music and the bori Ceremony | |
| 21 | Interlude: East Africa | Barz, Gregory (2004). Excerpts. |
| Unit 6: Conclusions | ||
| 22-24 | Final Presentations | |
| 25 | Conclusions | |