Universal across all languages and cultures and accessible to all developing children, their foundation must be deep-going. Poetry, music and narrative are the three aesthetic genres based on uniquely human verbal and vocal capabilities. Phylogenetic analysis of timelines provides no clear Pygmy/Bushmen ancestral timeline, although it is possible that foundational rhythms such as the 3:2 pattern may have featured in the music of a common ancestral group. Timelines are also multi-purpose musical devices used in various different social contexts and their structure appears to be resilient to radical change. Generative theory suggests that commonly used rhythmic cells, in particular the 3:2 pattern, form the structural basis of many Pygmy/Bushmen timelines as well as many other timelines featured in African and African-derived musics. The findings suggest that Pygmy and Bushmen timelines are interrelated and that most are organised according to the principles of 'rhythmic oddity' and maximal evenness. To do this, the comparative analyses focus on timelines: foundational rhythmic features that provide the structural basis of the music. But as all words of this song – as of all other songs of the contrapuntal repertoires – are contained in a single sentence which is repeated over and over – and with very few variations within a performance or from one performance to another –, the comprehensibility is finally a minor concern and cedes importance to musical variation.Ĭombining theories of African rhythm from ethno/musicology and findings from anthropological research and population genetics with musical analyses based on transcriptions and computational phylogenetic techniques, this article compares rhythms used in Pygmy and Bushmen music in an attempt to provide new perspectives on an old debate that these musical cultures may share a common heritage. This kind of variation may bear on the comprehension of words since it modifies their tonal scheme. So, if is the musical representative of the low speech tone, it is that, in this position, is in fact the neigbouring variant above. The tonal scheme of the words, – dìkòbò dámù dá sòmbé, three low-tone syllables followed by a high tone –, might suggest a melodic pattern such as that found in variants d and e. The realization of instead of on b.1 calls for further explanation. Much work has still to be done in order to establish true general rules of interval combinations in Aka polyphony. These are the operational principles in the song we study here. There is also commutation of neighbouring degrees – instead of on b.1, 2 and 8 instead of on b.1. According to the structure of the scale, some degrees in a variant can be substituted by another one a fifth below or a fourth above – here instead of on b.7 and 10. Variants of mòtángòlè sung by Mokenzo The melodic variations can be made according to a principle of equivalence between or commutation of fifths. The analysis will illustrate the phenomenon that in Aka music, every melody - may it be integrated in a group song or in an individually performed solo - is generated by the concern of diversity that has its origine in a general vertical, contrapuntal conception of music.
A second chapter will treat the lively musical practice: 1) the free movement of a singer within the whole stock of parts and variations in a collective singing context, and 2) the treatment of the material in a context of solo and duo performance. As one of the parts is based on yodelling, I will analyse this special singing technique and its implications in the melodic structure. The analysis will be based on a paradigmatic transcription of the separate parts, taking in account melody and rhythm within a stable metric framework. Different versions of the same song will be analysed in order to line out the characteristics and the complementarity of the parts, as well as the variation processes. In the first chapter, I will describe the system of Aka polyphony following the autochtone conception.
This pattern is the reference to a large number of variations that evolve within the regular periodic structure. The contrapuntal polyphony is based on four constitutive parts, each of which has its own melodic pattern. Impregnation and imitation are the main principles, as the musical theory is completely immanent. Aka music is characterized by an orally transmitted polyphony.