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African Music in Johannesburg: African and Non-African Features

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

David Rycroft*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
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Abstract

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Type
Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Conference. Liège, Belgium
Copyright
Copyright © International Council for Traditional Music 1959

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References

Notes

Example 1 has been transcribed from a field recording of songs of the Butelezi clan, Zululand, made in 1955 by Mr. Hugh Tracey. Speech-tones of the spoken text are those used by a Zulu speaker, Mr. S. S. Ngubane. An English translation of the text is as follows:

Leader and women: They set him up one day,

Then they deposed him.

Men: He has grown old!

Father has grown old!

Example 2 is taken from a popular commercial recording (BB records No. 624) entitled “Mphefomlo warn,” sung by the King Cole Boogies, with piano accompaniment. A translation of the extract cited is as follows:

My heart has become tired,

My friends are all gone;

Example 3 is one of several songs in traditional Xhosa style sung to me by Mrs. L. N. Whyman, a Xhosa speaker. She described it as a song she heard sung by an unmarried woman after a wedding. It has the flavour of “sour grapes.”

How fortunate I am not to be married!

I can still follow my own inclinations!