On polyphonic construction: An analysis of Ju|’hoan vocal music (Namibia)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v8i1.1713Abstract
The Ju|’hoansi people are one of the few contemporary populations in sub-Saharan Africa who use vocal counterpoint, superposition of voices each with divergent melodic movements and rhythmic articulation. However their music remains largely unknown; only a few isolated articles and recordings have been published, some of these drawing from secondary sources. This article aims at bringing to light the procedures used by the Ju|’hoansi in their construction of vocal counterpoint. Beyond the analysis proper, the question is about conception, intention and realisation of polyphony. In other words, how to characterize Ju|’hoan music: by its polyphonic techniques or by the procedures followed to reach the counterpoint? It will become clear that Ju|’hoan counterpoint is not at the root of every song, as is the case with most of other African polyphonic music, but is the result of complex compositional and performing processes.References
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Arom, Simha, Nathalie Fernando, Susanne Furniss, Sylvie Le Bomin, Fabrice Marandola,
Emmanuelle Olivier, Herve Riviere & Olivier Tourny 2005 “Typologie des techniques polyphoniques dans les musiques de tradition oraleâ€, in Jean-Jacques Nattiez (ed.) Enciclopedia Einaudi della music Vol. V: L ’unita delle musica, pp.1065-1068, Torino: Einaudi
Barnard, Alan 1992 Hunters and herders of Southern Africa; a comparative ethnography of the Khoisan
people, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Biesele, Megan 1993 Women like meat: the folklore and foraging ideology o f the Kalahari Ju\’hoan, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Witwatersrand University Press/Indiana University Press.
Dickens, Patrick 1994 English-Ju\’hoan, Ju\’hoan-English Dictionar,. Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
England, Nicholas 1967 “Bushman counterpointâ€, in Journal of the International Folk Music Council XIX: 58-66
1995 Music among the Zu’/ ’wa-si and related peoples of Namibia, Botswana and Angola,
New York: Garland
Frisbie, Charlotte 1971 “Anthropological and ethnomusicological implications of a comparative analysis of Bushmen and Pygmy musicâ€, in Ethnology X(3): 265-290.
Grimaud, Yvette 1960 “Note sur la musique vocale des Bochimans !Kung et des Pygmees Babingaâ€, in Les Colloques de Wegimont III: Ethnomusicologie II:105-126
Honegger, Marc (ed.) 1976 Science de la musique, Paris: Bordas
Katz, Richard 1982 Boiling energy: community healing among the Kalahari !Kun, Cambridge (Mass.) &London: Harvard University Press
Katz, Richard, Megan Biesele & Marjorie Shostak 1982 Healing dance music o f the Kalahari San, 12" LP 33a FE 4316, Washington: Folkways Records
Katz, Richard, Megan Biesele &Vera St. Denis 1997 Healing Makes our Hearts Happy. Spirituality & Cultural Transformation among the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi, Rochester (Vermont): Inner Traditions
Lee, Richard
1968 “The sociology of !Kung Bushman trance performancesâ€, in R. Prince (ed.) Trance and possession states, pp.35-54, Montreal: R.M. Bucke Memorial Society
1979 The !Kung San: men, women and work in a foraging society, Cambridge, London, New York: Cambridge University press
1984 The Dobe !Kung, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Lewis-Williams, David & Megan Biesele
1978 “Eland hunting rituals among northern and southern San groups: striking similaritiesâ€, in Africa, 48:117-134
Marshall, Lorna
1969 “The medicine dance of the !Kung Bushmenâ€, Africa, 39:347-381
1999 Nyae Nyae !Kung: beliefs and rites, Peabody Museum Monographs 8, Cambridge (Mass): Harvard University.
Olivier, Emmanuelle
1995 “A propos du re-recordingâ€, in Dehoux, Vincent, Susanne Furniss, Sylvie Le Bomin, Emmanuelle Olivier, Herve Riviere & Frederic Voisin (eds) Ndroje Balendro: musiques, terrains et disciplines: textes offerts a Simha Arom, pp. 111-118, Paris: PeetersSELAF
1997 Namibie: chants des Bushmen J u ’hoansi, CD C560117, Paris: Ocora-Radio France
1998 “Bushman music; the illusion of polyphonyâ€, in Mathias Schladt (ed.) Language, identity and conceptualization among the Khoisan, pp.359-371, Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
1998 “Nommer, narrer, commenter: manieres de dire la musique selon les Bochimans Ju|’hoansiâ€, Cahiers de musique traditionelle, 11:13-27
1999 “‘Seuls les humains chantent’: ce que disent les Ju|’hoan sur leur pratique musicaleâ€,
Journal des Africanistes, 69(2):169-181
2001 “Categorizing the Ju|’hoan Musical Heritageâ€, African Study Monographs, 27:11-27
2002 “Ju|’hoan Music, Shamanism and Conception of Timeâ€, paper given at Ninth International
Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, Edinburgh, September 2002
2003 Namibie. Bushmen Ju\’hoansi. Musiques instrumentales, CD C560179/HM, Paris: Ocora-Radio
2004 “Performance musicale et situation sociale. Deux mises en forme d’un chantju|’hoanâ€, in Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, 17:65-88
2005 “La musique ju|’hoan: de la creation a la consumationâ€, in (eds) Les Bushmen dans l ’Histoire, Olivier, Emmanuelle & Manuel Valentin pp.171-201, Paris: CNRS Editions
2005 “The Art of Metamorphosis - Or the Ju|’hoan Conception of Plurivocalityâ€, in Lucia, (ed.) The World of South African Music. A Reader, pp.249-257, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press
2005 “Body Practices and Musical Practices among the Ju|’hoansi (Namibia)â€, in Sugawara, Kazugoshi (ed.) Construction and Distribution of Body Resources. Correlations between Ecological, Symbolic and Medical Systems, pp.138-151, Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
2006 “Archives khoisan. L’histoire comme champs de la musiqueâ€, Afrique et histoire, 6: 193-222
Olivier, Emmanuelle and Susanne Furniss 1999 “Pygmy and Bushman music: a new comparative studyâ€, in Biesbrouck, Karen, Stefan Elders & Georges Rossel (eds) Challenging elusiveness: Central African huntergatherers in a multidisciplinary perspective, pp.117-132, Leiden: Research School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies
Olivier, Emmanuelle & Manuel Valentin 2005 Les Bushmen dans l ’Histoire, Paris: CNRS Editions
Rouget, Gilbert 1980 La musique et la transe, Paris: Gallimard
Rouget, Gilbert, Yvette Grimaud, & Lorna Marshall 1956 Bushman music and Pygmy music, LP 33a LD9. Paris and New York: Peabody Museum, Harvard Univ and Musee de l’Homme
Ruwet, Nicholas 1972 Langage, musique, poesie, Paris: Seuil
Sadie, Stanley (ed.) 1980 The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan
Shostak, Marjorie, Megan Biesele & Nicholas England 1982 Instrumental music of the Kalahari San, LP 33a FE4315, Washington: Folkways Records
Wilmsen, Edwin N. 1989 Land Filled with Flies. A Political Economy of the Kalahari, Chicago and London:University of Chicago Press
Wilmsen, Edwin N. (ed.) 1997 The Kalahari Ethnographies (1896-1898) of Siegfried Passarge: Nineteenth Century Khoisan and Bantu-speaking Peoples, Cologne: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
Arom, Simha, Nathalie Fernando, Susanne Furniss, Sylvie Le Bomin, Fabrice Marandola,
Emmanuelle Olivier, Herve Riviere & Olivier Tourny 2005 “Typologie des techniques polyphoniques dans les musiques de tradition oraleâ€, in Jean-Jacques Nattiez (ed.) Enciclopedia Einaudi della music Vol. V: L ’unita delle musica, pp.1065-1068, Torino: Einaudi
Barnard, Alan 1992 Hunters and herders of Southern Africa; a comparative ethnography of the Khoisan
people, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Biesele, Megan 1993 Women like meat: the folklore and foraging ideology o f the Kalahari Ju\’hoan, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Witwatersrand University Press/Indiana University Press.
Dickens, Patrick 1994 English-Ju\’hoan, Ju\’hoan-English Dictionar,. Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
England, Nicholas 1967 “Bushman counterpointâ€, in Journal of the International Folk Music Council XIX: 58-66
1995 Music among the Zu’/ ’wa-si and related peoples of Namibia, Botswana and Angola,
New York: Garland
Frisbie, Charlotte 1971 “Anthropological and ethnomusicological implications of a comparative analysis of Bushmen and Pygmy musicâ€, in Ethnology X(3): 265-290.
Grimaud, Yvette 1960 “Note sur la musique vocale des Bochimans !Kung et des Pygmees Babingaâ€, in Les Colloques de Wegimont III: Ethnomusicologie II:105-126
Honegger, Marc (ed.) 1976 Science de la musique, Paris: Bordas
Katz, Richard 1982 Boiling energy: community healing among the Kalahari !Kun, Cambridge (Mass.) &London: Harvard University Press
Katz, Richard, Megan Biesele & Marjorie Shostak 1982 Healing dance music o f the Kalahari San, 12" LP 33a FE 4316, Washington: Folkways Records
Katz, Richard, Megan Biesele &Vera St. Denis 1997 Healing Makes our Hearts Happy. Spirituality & Cultural Transformation among the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi, Rochester (Vermont): Inner Traditions
Lee, Richard
1968 “The sociology of !Kung Bushman trance performancesâ€, in R. Prince (ed.) Trance and possession states, pp.35-54, Montreal: R.M. Bucke Memorial Society
1979 The !Kung San: men, women and work in a foraging society, Cambridge, London, New York: Cambridge University press
1984 The Dobe !Kung, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Lewis-Williams, David & Megan Biesele
1978 “Eland hunting rituals among northern and southern San groups: striking similaritiesâ€, in Africa, 48:117-134
Marshall, Lorna
1969 “The medicine dance of the !Kung Bushmenâ€, Africa, 39:347-381
1999 Nyae Nyae !Kung: beliefs and rites, Peabody Museum Monographs 8, Cambridge (Mass): Harvard University.
Olivier, Emmanuelle
1995 “A propos du re-recordingâ€, in Dehoux, Vincent, Susanne Furniss, Sylvie Le Bomin, Emmanuelle Olivier, Herve Riviere & Frederic Voisin (eds) Ndroje Balendro: musiques, terrains et disciplines: textes offerts a Simha Arom, pp. 111-118, Paris: PeetersSELAF
1997 Namibie: chants des Bushmen J u ’hoansi, CD C560117, Paris: Ocora-Radio France
1998 “Bushman music; the illusion of polyphonyâ€, in Mathias Schladt (ed.) Language, identity and conceptualization among the Khoisan, pp.359-371, Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
1998 “Nommer, narrer, commenter: manieres de dire la musique selon les Bochimans Ju|’hoansiâ€, Cahiers de musique traditionelle, 11:13-27
1999 “‘Seuls les humains chantent’: ce que disent les Ju|’hoan sur leur pratique musicaleâ€,
Journal des Africanistes, 69(2):169-181
2001 “Categorizing the Ju|’hoan Musical Heritageâ€, African Study Monographs, 27:11-27
2002 “Ju|’hoan Music, Shamanism and Conception of Timeâ€, paper given at Ninth International
Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, Edinburgh, September 2002
2003 Namibie. Bushmen Ju\’hoansi. Musiques instrumentales, CD C560179/HM, Paris: Ocora-Radio
2004 “Performance musicale et situation sociale. Deux mises en forme d’un chantju|’hoanâ€, in Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, 17:65-88
2005 “La musique ju|’hoan: de la creation a la consumationâ€, in (eds) Les Bushmen dans l ’Histoire, Olivier, Emmanuelle & Manuel Valentin pp.171-201, Paris: CNRS Editions
2005 “The Art of Metamorphosis - Or the Ju|’hoan Conception of Plurivocalityâ€, in Lucia, (ed.) The World of South African Music. A Reader, pp.249-257, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press
2005 “Body Practices and Musical Practices among the Ju|’hoansi (Namibia)â€, in Sugawara, Kazugoshi (ed.) Construction and Distribution of Body Resources. Correlations between Ecological, Symbolic and Medical Systems, pp.138-151, Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
2006 “Archives khoisan. L’histoire comme champs de la musiqueâ€, Afrique et histoire, 6: 193-222
Olivier, Emmanuelle and Susanne Furniss 1999 “Pygmy and Bushman music: a new comparative studyâ€, in Biesbrouck, Karen, Stefan Elders & Georges Rossel (eds) Challenging elusiveness: Central African huntergatherers in a multidisciplinary perspective, pp.117-132, Leiden: Research School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies
Olivier, Emmanuelle & Manuel Valentin 2005 Les Bushmen dans l ’Histoire, Paris: CNRS Editions
Rouget, Gilbert 1980 La musique et la transe, Paris: Gallimard
Rouget, Gilbert, Yvette Grimaud, & Lorna Marshall 1956 Bushman music and Pygmy music, LP 33a LD9. Paris and New York: Peabody Museum, Harvard Univ and Musee de l’Homme
Ruwet, Nicholas 1972 Langage, musique, poesie, Paris: Seuil
Sadie, Stanley (ed.) 1980 The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan
Shostak, Marjorie, Megan Biesele & Nicholas England 1982 Instrumental music of the Kalahari San, LP 33a FE4315, Washington: Folkways Records
Wilmsen, Edwin N. 1989 Land Filled with Flies. A Political Economy of the Kalahari, Chicago and London:University of Chicago Press
Wilmsen, Edwin N. (ed.) 1997 The Kalahari Ethnographies (1896-1898) of Siegfried Passarge: Nineteenth Century Khoisan and Bantu-speaking Peoples, Cologne: Rudiger Koppe Verlag
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Published
2007-11-30
How to Cite
Olivier, Emmanuelle. 2007. “On Polyphonic Construction: An Analysis of Ju|’hoan Vocal Music (Namibia)”. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 8 (1):82-111. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v8i1.1713.
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