Notating African Music: Issues and Concepts
Gerd Grupe · 2016
Some 100 years ago Carl Stumpf and Erich M. von Hornbostel promoted what they called the phonographic method as the central means for studies of foreign musics. Transcriptions have been regarded as an indispensable prerequisite for any scholarly analysis of orally and aurally transmitted music ever since . In the light of claims that the visual domain might be an unnecessary or even inappropriate way of approaching music , it may be necessary to reassess the issue of why we need to visualize the music we study. By looking at musics from sub-Saharan Africa it can be demonstrated that listening alone is not always effective and reliable in understanding music: in many cases, for instance , there is a difference between played parts and the aural impression. In order to reconstruct this relationship some sort of notation is needed. Another case in point is the exploration of the motional dimension in African music particularly in respect to patterned movement (John Baily) in instrumental playing. If we, therefore, cannot do without the visual representation of sounds, which notation system is suited best to our ends? What has become of Mantle Hood's three possible solutions to this question? Are there specific traits in African musics which require special kinds of notation or is there any universally applicable system? In presenting two case studies, it will be shown that different purposes may call for different ways of representation, that more specialized systems may be more appropriate than Western staff notation in certain cases, and that a combination of notation and tablature may be advisable in order to account for specific structural aspects of some African musi