African Musical Symbolism in Contemporary Perspective : Roots, Rhythms and Relativity. By John Collins 2004 (ISBN 3-938262-15-X)
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AFRICAN MUSICAL SYMBOLISM IN CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE (ROOTS RHYTHMS AND RELATIVITY) : BACK-COVER OF BOOK INFO
Since the turn of the century the world has been swept by a succession of Black American dance beats, from Ragtime to Rap - followed in recent years by the popular ‘world’ music of Africa itself. This book examines why all this Black ‘roots’ and ethnic music has become the dominant sound of our global age.
The book’s first section, deals with the symbolic knowledge of Sub-Saharan Africa embedded in its music and traditional world-views. Its musical polarism, rhythmic relativism and metaphysical pluralism. Its offbeat breaks hidden inside rhythmic and ritual order. Its multi-rhythmic gestalts, cyclical modes and audience participation. Its master performers who coolly orchestrate sound and silence, free improvisation and ritualized order.
The book’s second section examines how some areas of recent scientific research have moved away from the mechanistic and deterministic ethos of industrialism towards relativistic, holistic, circular, and participatory ideas that are, surprisingly, in tune with the old African symbols discussed in the first section. Indeed these traditional African symbols are metaphorically used to examine and re-appraise recent scientific and philosophical discoveries as far removed as curved space-time, ecosystems, holograms, mathematical incompleteness, the subconscious, quantum gaps, existential freedom, Chaos Theory, atomic uncertainty and the various ‘observer effects’ that have proven that everybody, including supposedly detached scientists, are inseparable from nature.
In short, the old insights and musical wisdom and of Africa and its Diaspora are helping provide the contemporary age with the means of harmonizing our heads and feet, mind and matter, inner and outer and generally putting breathing-space, play and ‘swing’ into a materialist world. Far from African music being the music of the past it is rather the music of the future
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JOHN COLLINS GOETHE INSTITUTE 20 JAN 05 BOOK LAUNCH NOTES ON
‘AFRICAN MUSICAL SYMBOLISM IN CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE’
( ROOTS, RHYTHMS & RELATIVITY)
MY BOOK IS DIFFICULT BOOK TO CATEGORIZE AS IT DWELLS ON AFRICAN MUSICOLOGY, HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY - AS WELL AS THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE NEW DISCOVERIES IN THE WESTERN SCIENCES MATHEMATICS, PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY FOR INSTANCE THE BOOK MAKES METAPHORICAL LINKS BETWEEN QUANTUM PHYSICS AND THE OLD RHYTHMIC WISDOM OF AFRICA, IN MUCH THE SAME WAY AS THESE RECENT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES HAVE BEEN SYMBOLICALLY RELATED TO ANCIENT EASTERN PHILOSOPHY IN SUCH BOOKS AS FRITJOF CAPRA'S 'THE TAO OF PHYSICS'
HOW I CAME TO WRITE THE BOOK
I WAS ABLE TO COMBINE ALL THESE DIFFERENT IDEAS AS I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE QUITE A WIDE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND. I DID A B.A. DEGREE IN SOCIOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA - BUT BEFORE COMING HERE I HAD ALSO OBTAINED A SCIENCE DEGREE IN BRITAIN - WHICH IS WHY DURING THE MID-SEVENTIES I WAS TEACHING CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS AT THE KOFORIDUA GATECO SCHOOL AND THE GHANA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
I WAS FIRST EXPOSED TO GHANAIAN MUSIC AS A CHILD WHEN I FIRST CAME TO GHANA IN 1952 FOR MY FATHER HELPED ESTABLISH THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA . I BEGAN ACTIVELY PLAYING MUSIC IN GHANA IN 1969 AND FORMED MY BOKOOR BAND IN THE MID-SEVENTIES - AND THEN TOOK SOME OF ITS MEMBERS TO THE UK IN 1980 TO TEACH WEST INDIAN YOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC AND BLACK STUDIES. IN THE EARLY 199O’S I COMPLETED A PH D IN ETHNO-MUSICOLOGY AT BUFFALO UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK. THEN FROM 1993-5 I WAS TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF A UNIVERSITY OF MAINZ AND GHANA JOINT PROJECT TO DIGITALLY RE-DOCUMENT THE MUSIC ARCHIVES OF THE INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES AT LEGON. AND IN 1995 I BEGAN TEACHING AT THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT AT LEGON
TURNING NOW TO THE BOOK ITSELF. THE FIRST SECTION OF IT ON ‘ANCIENT AFRICAN WISDOM’ DEALS WITH THE SYMBOLIC KNOWLEDGE AND INTUITIONS OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA EMBEDDED IN ITS MUSIC AND TRADITIONAL WORLD-VIEWS. ITS MUSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL RELATIVISM AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION. ITS OFFBEAT BREAKS THAT PUNCTUATE RHYTHMIC AND RITUAL ORDER. ITS CYCLICAL MODES AND. ITS MASTER PERFORMERS WHO SUCCESSFULLY COMBINE IMPROVISATION AND COLLECTIVE RULES, FREEDOM AND ORDER
THE BOOK’S SECOND SECTION IS ‘THE SPACE AND INFORMATION AGE’ THIS EXAMINES HOW SOME AREAS OF RECENT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH HAVE MOVED AWAY FROM THE MECHANISTIC AND DETERMINISTIC ETHOS OF INDUSTRIALISM TOWARDS RELATIVISTIC, HOLISTIC, CIRCULAR, AND PARTICIPATORY IDEAS THAT ARE, SURPRISINGLY IN TUNE WITH THE OLD AFRICAN SYMBOLS DISCUSSED IN THE FIRST SECTION. I DO THIS BY UTILISING NINE SYMBOLIC THEMES THAT THOUGH NOT USUALLY ARTICULATED BY AFRICAN MUSICIANS ARE NEVERTHELESS EMBEDDED IN THEIR MUSIC AND MUSIC-MAKING - AND INDEED THEIR TRADITIONAL WORLD VIEWS. I THEN USE THESE NINE THEMES TO METAPHORICALLY EXAMINE AND RE-APPRAISE SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES IN WESTERN SCIENCE, PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY
AS TIME IS SHORT I WILL ONLY MENTION THREE OF THESE THEMES IN THIS PRESENTATION : NAMELY RELATIVISM, HIDDEN SPACE AND CIRCULARITY. SOME OF THESE IDEAS MAY BE FAMILIAR TO THOSE OF YOU WHO CAME TO MY PRESENTATION AT THE GOETHE INSTITUTE IN FEBRUARY 2004 ON RHYTHMIC: KINETICS AND CO-ORDINATION
ONE : RELATIVISM
THE FIRST SYMBOLIC THEME I WILL DISCUSS TODAY IS RELATIVISM -MANIFESTED IN AFRICAN MUSIC AS POLY-RHYTHMS – THAT IS MUSIC MADE UP OF MULTIPLE LAYERS OF OVERLAPPING, INTERSECTING AND CRISS-CROSSING RHYTHMIC PATTERNS, WITH NO SINGLE PATTERN BEING ANYMORE IMPORTANT THAN THE OTHER. UNLIKE MUCH OF WESTERN MUSIC THERE IS NO FUNDAMENTAL RHYTHM THAT ALL THE OTHERS HAVE TO FOLLOW
THIS RELATIVISM IS FOUND IN OTHER AREAS OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN LIFE. TRADITIONAL CARVINGS EXHIBIT MULTIPLE PLANES AND PERSPECTIVES, NOTIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY INVOLVES COMPOUND OR MULTIPLE SOULS - AND THERE IS SOMETIMES THE USE OF AN OVERLAPPING MULTI- CALENDAR: SUCH AS THE AKAN 42 DAY ADAE SYSTEM THAT COMBINES A SIX AND SEVEN DAY WEEK
TO PLAY AFRICAN POLY OR CROSS RHYTHMS INVOLVES THE BALANCING AND JUGGLING DOING MANY THINGS AT ONCE AND AFRICANS ARE MUSICALLY TRAINED FROM CHILDHOOD TO DO THIS
POLYRHYTHMIC RELATIVITY AND DEMOCRACY WHERE ALL RHYTHMS CARRY EQUAL WEIGHT IS EQUIVALENT TO THE COUNTERPOINT MUSIC OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE THAT WAS COMPOSED OF CROSS MELODIES
HOWEVER IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES WESTERN MUSIC WENT MONODIC - THAT IS THE OLDER CROSS MELODIC STYLE WAS REDUCED DOWN TO A SINGLE MELODIC LINE AND METRONOME PULSE - WHAT GHANAIANS SOMETIMES CALL THE ‘ONE-WAY’ STYLE OF WESTERN MUSIC
REDUCTIONISM WAS ALSO TAKING PLACES IN THE SCIENCES OF THOSE EARLY INDUSTRIAL DAYS WHEN EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS WERE BUSILY ANALYZING AND BOILING EVERYTHING DOWN TO A FEW FINAL LAWS, ABSOLUTE AXIOMS AND ULTIMATE ATOMS. WHILST TIME WAS CONCEIVED AS BY THE TICKING OF A SINGLE UNIVERSAL CLOCK
HOWEVER, IN THE 20TH CENTURY ALONG CAME RELATIVITY THEORIES SUCH AS THOSE OF OWEVER EINSTEIN WHICH DEMONSTRATE THAT THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE UNIVERSAL TIME SCALE BUT RATHER A MULTIPLICITY OF LOCAL TIMES AND EVEN ELASTIC FORMS OF TIME THAT CAN BE BENT, WARPED AND TWISTED.
INCIDENTALLY EINSTEIN’S SPACE TIME CONTINUUM OF FOUR INTERSECTING DIMENSIONS HAS BEEN EXPANDED TO ELEVEN BY TODAY’S PHYSICISTS WHO ARE STUDYING THE VIBRATING HARMONICS OF ATOMIC SUPER-STRINGS. A SORT OF SUPER RELATIVITY THEORY THAT IS MORE REMINISCENT OF . THE MULTIPLE CALENDARS AND POLY-RHYTHMS OF TRADITIONAL AFRICA THAN THE MECHANICAL TIME-GRIDS AND TIME-LINES OF OLD EUROPEAN CLASSICAL SCIENCE AND MUSIC.
CONTINUING THIS MUSICAL ANALOGY IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT NEW PHYSICISTS HAVE FOUND NO FINAL ATOMIC BUILDING BLOCKS BUT RATHER SEE ATOMIC ACTIVITY AS A SORT OF PARTICLE DANCE CARRIED OUT BY A WHOLE ARRAY OF SPINNING AND CRISS-CROSSING PARTNERS, POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE, UP AND DOWN, LEFT AND RIGHT
THE SECOND SYMBOLIC : HIDDEN SPACE
RHYTHMS CAN THEREFORE BE TREATED AS EITHER PATTERNS OF SOUNDS OR A COUNTER PATTERN OF SILENCES THAT CAN BE LIKENED THE FAMOUS VASE AND FACE (FIGURE AND GROUND EFFECT) OF GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY – ONE CAN FLIP FROM ONE TO THE OTHER .
THIS HEIGHTENED AWARENESS OF THE GAPS, BREAKS AND SILENCES IS NECESSARY TO PERFORM AFRICAN MUSIC AND SOMETIMES I HAVE HEARD GHANAIANS SPEAK OF THEIR MUSIC BEING FULL OF ‘HIDDEN’ OR ‘INSIDE RHYTHMS’ - OR AS KOFI GHANABA PUTS BEING ‘WELL-VENTILATED’ .
INCIDENTALLY , IT WAS THIS OFFBEATING SENSIBILITY OF AFRICAN SLAVES IN THE AMERICAS THIS BECAME CREATIVELY TRANSLATED INTO THE ‘RAGGING’’ JAZZING’, ’SWINGING’ AND ‘SKANKING’ OF THEIR AFRICAN AMERICAN AND AFRO-CARIBBEAN MUSIC.
WE CAN TURN TO THE AFRICAN WOOD CARVER FOR ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THIS HEIGHTENED SENSE OF OFFBEAT SPACE, FOR JUST AS A RHYTHMIC PATTERNS ARE SHAPED BY SOUNDS AND SILENCES THE MASK OR FIGURINE OF A CARVER EXISTS AT THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN WOOD AND EMPTY SPACE THUS BY CLEVERLY WHITTLING AWAY WOOD THE CARVER IS JUST AS MUCH WHITTLING, ADDING AND HANDLING SPACE. THE AFRICAN CARVER THEREFORE CREATIVELY MOVES OR SWINGS BETWEEN FORM AND EMPTINESS JUST AS DRUMMERS SWING INSIDE THE GAPS IN PERCUSSIVE MUSIC
SCIENTISTS HAVE ALSO DISCOVERED SWINGING GAPS AND BREAKS WITHIN MATERIAL AND MENTAL STRUCTURES. AT THE HEART OF SUB ATOMIC MATTER THERE ARE QUANTUM GAPS, QUANTUM LEAPS AND A SHADOWY VIRTUAL LEVEL OF EXISTENCE. AT THE OTHER END OF THE SCALE THERE ARE THE GALACTIC BLACK HOLES THAT DOT THE COSMOS.
LIKEWISE PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE DISCOVERED SUB-CONSCIOUS SPACES WITHIN ORDERED CONSCIOUSNESS WHILST WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS LIKE HUSSERL AND SARTRE HAVE DISCOVERED EXISTENTIAL EMPTINESS WITHIN THE CONCRETE CATEGORIES AND FIGURATIONS OF THE MIND
THE THIRD SYMBOLIC THEME : CIRCULARITY
CIRCULARITY IS AN OLD AFRICAN PARADIGM THAT OCCURS FROM LIFE CYCLES AND TWIRLING DANCES TO ROUND DWELLINGS AND THE BELIEF IN REINCARNATION
AFRICA’S POLYRHYTHMIC DANCE MUSIC ALSO MOVES IN A CYCLES AND THE BASIC ONE IS BASED AROUND REPEATED PATTERN PLAYED ON A METAL BELL OR WOODEN CLAVE THAT THE ENSEMBLE USES AS AN IMPORTANT REFERENCE POINT. - BUT NOT AS AN ABSOLUTE TIME-KEEPER AS WITH WESTERN BAR-LINES OR A CONDUCTOR’S BATON.
AS A CIRCLE HAS NO STARTING POINT THERE CAN BE A MULTIPLICITY OF POSSIBLE ENTRY POINTS, ORIENTATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES FOR THE ARTISTS TO CREATIVELY UTILIZE.
THIS CIRCULAR MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT IS SIMILAR TO A MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN CATCH OR FUGUE, WHERE EVEN THOUGH EACH SINGERS VOICE HAS A STAGGERED ENTRY - THEY ARE ALL WOVEN HARMONIOUSLY INTO THE MUSICAL ROUND
FOUR OR FIVE HUNDRED YEARS THERE WERE MANY OTHER CIRCULAR NOTIONS IN EUROPE. ASTROLOGICAL ZODIACS, THE HARMONY OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERES , THE CYCLE OF OCTAVES AND AGRICULTURAL ROUNDS. HOWEVER AS EUROPE BECAME INDUSTRIALIZED ITS SCIENTISTS BECAME MORE FASCINATED WITH STRAIGHT LINES AND ARROWS OF TIME
CLASSICAL SCIENCE BASED ITSELF ON THE FLAT PLANES OF EUCLID AND THE SPACE AND TIME GRIDS OF DESCARTES AND NEWTON. EVEN WESTERN MUSIC BECAME REGULATED BY CHORD PROGRESSIONS AND RHYTHMIC BAR-LINES. LIKEWISE PAINTERS BEGAN TO FOLLOW THE SCIENTIFIC LINES OF STRICT PERSPECTIVE .
TODAY HOWEVER MANY SCIENTISTS ARE COMING BACK TO CURVED CONCLUSIONS. IN THE HARD SCIENCES THERE IS EINSTEIN’S SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM THAT IS WARPED AND BENT INTO A COSMIC EGG - SO THAT IF ONE WERE TO MOVE FOREVER FORWARD ONE WOULD END UP ASTRONOMICALLY WHERE ONE BEGAN. ANOTHER CURVED EXAMPLE IS THE CURRENT MODEL OF AN OSCILLATING UNIVERSE FOREVER MOVING BETWEEN A BIG BANG AND BIG CRUNCH
BIOLOGICAL CIRCULARITY IS FOUND AS INTERNAL ANIMAL CLOCKS, SLEEP CYCLES, REFLEX ARCS - AND FEED-BACK LOOPS AND THAT MAINTAIN AN ORGANISM’S STEADY-STATE OF HEALTH. ON THE LARGER SCALE, BIOLOGICAL LOOPS HAVE RESURFACED AS ECO-SYSTEMS, THE WHOLE EARTH MOVEMENT AND GAIA HYPOTHESIS. INDEED THE EARTHLY GLOBE ITSELF, SOMETIMES AS SEEN FROM SPACE HAS BECAME THE SYMBOL OF THE CONTEMPORARY AGE
ON A FINAL NOTE I SHOULD ADD THAT MODERN PHYSICISTS HAVE DISCOVERED A CIRCULAR PARADOX LINKED TO THEIR LATE 20TH CENTURY REALIZATION THAT THERE CAN REALLY NEVER BE SUCH A THING AS A TOTALLY DETACHED, ISOLATED OR NEUTRAL OBSERVER. FOR AT THE SUB-ATOMIC LEVEL AT LEAST, THE EXPERIMENTER AND THE EXPERIMENT BECOME INSOLUBLY ENTWINED IN EACH OTHER - A CYCLE OF MUTUAL REFLECTION IN ENDLESS REGRESS.
LET ME DRAW TO A CONCLUSION HERE
SINCE THE 20TH CENTURY THE DANCE MUSIC OF AFRICA HAS BURST ONTO THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE - FROM RAGTIME, THE RUMBA AND JAZZ - RIGHT UP TODAY’S AFRICAN AND WORLD MUSIC EXPLOSION.
THERE ARE MANY EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS. ONE IS THE PRIMITIVIST ARGUMENT - THAT AFRICAN MUSIC IS FULL OF WILD EMOTIONS AND ENERGY THAT IS ATTRACTIVE TO INHIBITED WESTERNERS.
HOWEVER - AND ALTHOUGH THERE ARE PLENTY OF HOT RHYTHMS IN AFRICAN MUSIC - THIS EXPLANATION IS FAR FROM THE WHOLE TRUTH.
RATHER - AND AS I HOPE MY BOOK DEMONSTRATES - AFRICAN MUSIC CONTAINS HIGHLY DEVELOPED SYMBOLS AND INSIGHTS THAT RESONATE WITH THE PARADIGM SHIFTS GOING ON IN THE SCIENCES AS THEY MOVE BEYOND A MECHANISTIC VISION - AND RESONATE WITH CHANGES GOING IN OUR EMERGING GLOBAL SOCIETY AND POST INDUSTRIAL AGE.
AFRICAN MUSIC IS THEREFORE NOT THE MUSIC OF THE PAST IT IS RATHER THE MUSIC OF THE FUTURE.
