Hugh Tracey

Hugh Tracey (1960)

Hugh Travers Tracey (born January 29, 1903 in Willand (Devon) , † October 23, 1977 in Krugersdorp ) was a British ethnomusicologist . Together with his wife Peggy, he collected and archived music from South and Central Africa. From 1929 through the 1970s, Tracey made more than 35,000 recordings of traditional African music in the field. He also derived and popularized the kalimba from the traditional instrument mbira .

Live and act

Tracey first worked as a farmer in rural Devon before deciding to migrate to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe , in 1921 . There he worked in Gutu on his older brother's tobacco farm; soon he began to learn from the Karanga workers employed on the farm the songs they sang while working in the fields and to be interested in the music of the local people. In 1934 he left farming to work for the South African Broadcasting Corporation . In 1947 he founded the African Music Society together with Winifred Hoernlé (1865-1960) . In 1954 he founded the still on South Africa's Rhodes University is moved International Library of African Music and became its leader. For the International Library of African Music Tracey made recordings from the border of Sudan to the Cape, which he published from 1954 in the series The Sound of Africa in 210 albums, but also on commercial record labels such as Decca , London and Gallo. The International Library published the African Music Society Journal from 1957 , in which Tracey also reported on his recording tours in the field. Excursions to be mentioned as examples are:

• 1957 - recording tour in the Zambezi Valley (ethnic group of the Tonga )
• 1958 - Nyasaland recording tour
• 1958 - Swaziland - recording tour
• 1959 - West Transvaal and Bechuanaland recording tour
• 1959 - Basutoland recording tour

For the recordings with the magnetic tape , Tracey needed electricity from a generator she had brought with her (double noise insulation) , which was parked at least 100 meters away. He recorded his recordings with a portable microphone (without a tripod) so that he could change the recording location during a piece (depending on the main soloist). He also edited the Wild Life series, which includes wildlife and nature images from Africa.

In 1954 Tracey also founded the instrument manufacturer African Musical Instruments , through which his adapted form of the Mbira of the Shona people is sold as the treble kalimba . In order to make the instrument accessible to people all over the world, Tracey modified it for the diatonic scale . This hybrid musical instrument, which tonally follows Western music, while the design and tone setting remained African, is still successfully sold internationally today.

Hugh and Peggy Tracey's sons, Andrew and Paul, also became noted ethnomusicologists and musicians. Andrew took over the International Library of African Music as director after his father's death.

Fonts

• Hugh Tracey: Zulu Paradox . Silver Leaf Books, Johannesburg 1948.
• Hugh Tracey: The Evolution of African Music and its Function in the Present . Institute for the Study of Man in Africa, Johannesburg 1969.
• Hugh Tracey: The Mbira class of African Instruments in Rhodesia (1932) . In: African Music Society Journal . 4, No. 3, 1969, pp. 78-95.
• Hugh Tracey: Chopi musicians: their music, poetry, and instruments . Oxford University Press, London 1970.
• Hugh Tracey: African music research: transcription library of gramophone records: handbook for librarians . Gallo (Africa), 1961.
• Hugh Tracey: Towards an Assessment of African Scales . In: International Library of African Music (Ed.): African Music . 2, No. 1, 1958, pp. 15-20.
• Hugh Tracey: A Case for the Name Mbira . In: International Library of African Music (Ed.): African Music . 2, No. 4, 1961b, pp. 17-25.
• Hugh Tracey: The state of folk music in Bantu Africa . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 1, No. 1, 1954, ISSN  0065-4019 , pp. 8-11.
• Hugh Tracey: The future of music in Basutoland . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 2, No. 2, 1954, ISSN  0065-4019 , pp. 10-14.
• Hugh Tracey: The International Library of African Music . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 1, No. 1, 1954, ISSN  0065-4019 , pp. 71-73.
• Hugh Tracey: Recording African music in the field . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 1, No. 2, 1955, ISSN  0065-4019 , pp. 8-11.

Web links

• Web presence of the International Library of African Music
• African Musical Instruments (AMI)
• Hugh Tracey at Allmusic (English)
• Hugh Tracey at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} A. M. Jones : Hugh Travers Tracey (1903-1977) . Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 9 (1977), pp. 96-99.
2. ^ ^{A b} Andrew Tracey: Hugh Tracey's Recordings . In the booklet to: Royal Court Music from Uganda: 1952 & 1954 Sharp Wood Productions 1998
3. ^ Hugh Tracey: Recording in the lost valley . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 1, No. 4, 1957, pp. 45-47. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
4. ^ Hugh Tracey: Report on the ILAM Nyasaland recording tour (May 7th to June, 1958) . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 2, No. 1, 1958, pp. 65-68. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
5. ↑ Hugh Tracey: ILAM recording in Swaziland (May 24th to April 3rd) . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 2, No. 1, 1958, p. 64. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
6. ^ Hugh Tracey: Recording tour of the Tswana tribe: Western Transvaal and Bechuanaland Protectorate, October - November, 1959 . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 2, No. 2, 1959, pp. 62-68. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
7. ^ Hugh Tracey: Basutoland recording tour, November 19th to December 3rd, 1959 . In: African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music . 2, No. 2, 1959, pp. 69-76. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
8. ↑ Kalimbas (Dan Moi)