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The African Imagination in Music
In The African Imagination in Music, noted music scholar Kofi Agawy offers a fresh introduction to the vast, immensely rich and diverse set of repertoires that comprise the sound worlds of Sub-Saharan African music. Agawu introduces readers to the basic elements of African music and to the values upon which they are built. He then explores the key dimensions and resources of African music, including the place of music in society, musical instruments, the relationship between language and music, rhythm, melody, form, harmony and finally, appropriations of African music by musicians around the world. Written in an accessible styles, The African Imagination in Music is poised to renew interest in Black African music, and to engender discussion of its creative underpinnings by Africanists, ethnomusicologists, music theorists and musicologists. -- from back cover.
Representing African Music
The aim of this book is to stimulate debate by offering a critique of discourse about African music. Who writes about African music, how, and why? What assumptions and prejudices influence the presentation of ethnographic data? Even the term "African music" suggests there is an agreed-upon meaning, but African music signifies differently to different people. This book also poses the question then, "What is African music?" Agawu offers a new and provocative look at the history of African music scholarship that will resonate with students of ethnomusicology and post-colonial studies. He offers an alternative "Afro-centric" means of understanding African music, and in doing so, illuminates a different mode of creativity beyond the usual provenance of Western criticism. This book will undoubtedly inspire heated debate--and new thinking--among musicologists, cultural theorists, and post-colonial thinkers. Also includes 15 musical examples.
Playing with Signs
An award-winning account of the importance of semiotic play in Classic instrumental music, including that of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven Of all the repertories of Western Art music, none is as explicitly listener-oriented as that of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Yet few attempts to analyze the so-called Classic Style have embraced the semiotic implications of this fact. In Playing with Signs, Kofi Agawu proposes a listener-oriented theory of Classic instrumental music that encompasses its two most fundamental communicative dimensions: expression and structure. Units of expression, defined in reference to topoi, are shown here to interact with, confront, and merge into units of structure, defined in terms of the rhetorical conventions of beginning, continuing, and ending. The book draws on examples from works by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven to show that the explicitly referential, even theatrical, surface of Classic music derives from a play with signs. Although addressed primarily to readers interested in musical analysis, the book opens fruitful avenues for further research into musical semiotics, aesthetics, and Classicism.
Music as Discourse
The question of whether music has meaning has been the subject of sustained debate ever since music became a subject of academic inquiry. This book presents a synthetic and innovative approach to musical meaning which argues deftly for the thinking of music as a discourse in itself.
African Rhythm
. An accompanying compact disk enables the reader to work closely with the sound of African speech and song discussed in the book.
On African Music
Written by one of the best-known academic writers on African music, On African Music is a collection of seven essays addressing various techniques, influences, and scholarly approaches to African music. After a concise introduction spelling out the rationale for the book, successive chapters develop answers to questions such as: How does a "minimalist impulse" animate creativity in Africa, and does "Western minimalism" differ from "African minimalism"? How do we explain the prevalence of iconic effects in African expressive forms? How has (European) tonality functioned as a "colonizing force" in African music? Why is the (written) art music of the continent talked about so little when it has...
The Dawn of Music Semiology
The dawn of music semiology showcases the work of ten leading musicologists inspired by the work of Jean-Jacques Nattiez. Reflecting the energy and diversity of the young field of music semiology, chapters in this volume discuss music and gesture, the psychology of music, and the role of ethnotheory, and offer new research on topics as diverse as modeling folk polyphony, spatialization in the Darmstadt repertoire, Schenker's theory of musical content, and modernism from Wagner to Boulez.
The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory
Consolidates the research field of topic theory by clarifying its basic concepts and exploring its historical foundations.
On African Music
"Composed over a decade and a half and originally delivered to audiences in Europe, Africa and the US, these lectures celebrate African musical creativity by illuminating selected compositional techniques, key influences, and dominant scholarly themes. Chapters on minimalism, iconicity, tonality as a colonizing force, and African pianism are supplemented by a critique of ethnotheory, a capsule history of African rhythm studies. and an invitation to music theorists to consider whether greater encounter with African music might not enhance the work that they do. Framed as an exercise in postcolonial criticism, the work refers to a large body of recorded music from various parts of Africa, provides close readings of a handful of compositions to supplement the more general appreciative commentary, and engages recurring and controversial talking points in contemporary discourses on African music. Written in clear and accessible prose, these self-standing essays are designed to enhance admiration for the animating structures of African music"--
The Cultural Study of Music
The Cultural Study of Music is an anthology of new writings that serves as a basic textbook on music and culture. Increasingly, music is being studied as it relates to specific cultures--not only by ethnomusicologists, but by traditional musicologists as well. Drawing on writers from music, anthropology, sociology, and the related fields, the book both defines the field--i.e., "What is the relation between music and culture?"--and then presents case studies of particular issues in world musics.
