Zambian music

Zambian music is the music from Zambia in southern Africa. The country has a rich musical heritage that can be grouped into three broad categories: traditional, popular, and Christian music.

Traditional music

The traditional music of Zambia has its roots in the rites and beliefs of the various ethnic groups. It has been dwindling noticeably since the country gained independence. Traditional music in Zambia clearly served ritual purposes and was an expression of the social contexts of the culture. Songs were used to teach, heal, conjure, and delight. Although this music is becoming less and less important, it can still be found in many musical forms of Zambia. The call and response form found everywhere in African music can be found in almost every Zambian song, regardless of its style. Traditional drum rhythms and meters are of traditional origin in many ways. Contemporary popular music like the Zambian Kalindula takes on elements of traditional music through the playing technique of the guitarist.

Traditional Zambian musical instruments include several different membranophones that are struck with the hand or a stick. Drums are essential to most traditional dances. Ngoma is the original Central African term for drum, but the Zambian drums have different sizes, shapes and uses and have specific names depending on their tribal origin and function. The tumbler drum budima of the Tongatal , for example, is only used at funerals. Budimas can be any size. One of the most interesting drums is the so-called lion drum , in Tonga namalwa , which is used at traditional funerals. It is a rubbing drum that is not beaten but rubbed against a stick that runs through the drum. String and wind instruments are rare in traditional Zambian music, but do exist. In the Tongatal, instruments made of animal horn are blown, called nyele . Nyele are blown alternately, with each blower blowing a horn with a certain note and taking turns blowing with the others to create a melody. A musical bow struck with a stick is called a kalumbu . It is traditionally played by men who want to get married. Like many other African countries, Zambia once had a living tradition of lamellophones , which, depending on the ethnic group, had a different name, a different size and a different number of lamellae. Similar to the mbira in Zimbabwe, the Tonga kankobela is such a lamellophone. Although such traditional instruments have become rare, they can still be found in rural areas of Zambia.

Recordings of traditional Zambian music were made by the ethnomusicologists Hugh Tracey and Arthur Morris Jones in the 1920s . Tracey took his pictures in the Zambezi Valley before the Kariba Dam was built and Jones did his at Mapanza in the southern province of Zambia. The Catholic missionaries JJ Corbeil and Frank Wafer also contributed to our knowledge of traditional Zambian music today. Corbeil collected and documented the instrumental tradition of the Bemba in northeastern Zambia. Wafer, a Jesuit on the Chikuni Mission, collected and handed down music from the Batonga . A community radio station dedicated to preserving the music and culture of the Batonga is also based in Chikuni Mission and organizes the annual Batonga Music Festival, which always attracts over 10,000 visitors. More recent music-ethnological work has been done by Zambians, including Mwesa Isaiah Mapoma and Joseph Ng'andu.

Popular music

After independence in 1964, the Zambian Radio Service became one of the main sources of popular music by tying groups like the Lusaka Radio Band to it. The Zambian radio was dominated by the Congolese rumba . Recording studios were soon established. The first were the DB Studios by Peter Msungilo in Lusaka. He was soon followed by the Teal Record Company , also in Lusaka. The third recording studio was then founded in Ndola .

The music of the Copperbelt became known through interpreters such as John Lushi , William Mapulanga and Stephen Tsotsi Kasumali . Their guitar-based music gradually developed into Zamrock , which combined English song lyrics with rock such as Machine-Gunners and Musi-o-tunya . Popular groups like Jaggari Chanda and Great Witch soon dominated the field.

In the late 1970s, President Kenneth Kaunda ordered that 95 percent of the music on the radio should be Zambian. He hoped that this would support national identity. But instead of going back to their traditional roots, the Zambians preferred to become pop stars. In the mid-1980s, the Kalindula style developed. Groups like Masasa Band , Serenje Kalindula and Junior Mulemena Boys are considered its best performers. Amayenge is still considered to be the best Kalindula group since the 1990s. A festival of traditional kalindula music has been started by Radio Chikuni in the southern province. The most popular groups there were Green Mamba and Mashombe Blue Jeans .

In the 1990s, economic problems caused the Zambian music industry to collapse. Unprotected by Zambian law, it had to leave the field to imported ragga and reggae from Jamaica , as well as hip-hop and rhythm and blues from the United States.

The most successful record company in Zambia today is Mondo Music Corporation in Lusaka . Her artists include JK, Danny, Shatel, and Black Muntu. Sound clips from these groups can be found at the bottom of the page. The Zambian music industry presents the Ngoma Music Award every year , which corresponds to the African Kora Award at national level.

A completely unique form of Zambian music can be found in the banjo tradition. The Zambian banjo is a homemade guitar based on the tradition of the South African ramkie and the American banjo . There are every shape, size and number of strings. Usually two or three fingers are used to pluck. The instruments are tuned individually. The body is made of wood or tin cans. Kalindula is played on Zambian banjos all over the country .

Christian music

Christian music in Zambia today includes traditional, colonial and popular musical elements. Traditional influences can be found in the call and response form of the liturgy and in the use of drums and percussion instruments in some churches. The vocal timbre reflects traditional aesthetics. Ululation is a common style among women in religious ecstasy. Although most Christian missionaries in Zambia rejected the use of traditional instruments, the use of drums became common practice from the mid-20th century. Dance became an element of Zambian worship.

Popular influence can be found in the newer repertoire, some of which is borrowed from gospel , Christian pop music in the United States and some Zambian idioms. The use of synthesizers and guitars has also become common in some churches. The flowing transitions between church music and pop can be heard in some groups such as The Glorious Band, Zambian Acappella and Glorious Hosanna Band.

The influence of the European-American hymn is evident in numerous Zambian religious communities. Songs from British and American hymn books are still part of the music in many Zambian churches. Many harmonies are derived from them.

literature

Ernest Douglas Brown: Drums of Life: Royal Music and Social Life in Western Zambia. PhD diss. U. of Washington, 1984.
Ronnie Graham, Simon Kandela Tunkanya: Evolution and Expression . 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Eds.): World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East . Rough Guides, Penguin Books 2000, pp. 702-705.
Arthur Morris Jones : African Music in Northern Rhodesia and Some Other Places. The Occasional Papers of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum; New Ser., No. 4; Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia: Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, 1958.
Gerhard Kubik : African Guitar: Solo Fingerstyle Guitar Music, Composers and Performers of Congo / Zaire, Uganda, Central African Republic, Malawi, Namibia, and Zambia: Audio-Visual Field Recordings, 1966–1993, by Gerhard Kubik . video recording. Vestapol Productions; Distributed by Rounder Records, Cambridge, Mass., 1995.
Sara H. Longwe et al .: Woman Know Your Place: The Patriarchal Message in Zambian Popular Song: A Research Report from the Women in Music Project. Lusaka, Zambia: Zambia Association for Research and Development, 1990.
Mwesa Isaiah Mapoma: The Effects of Non-Musical Factors on the Performance of Some Vocal Music of the Bemba of Zambia. Kassel. Bärenreiter, 1981.
Dwight W. Thomas: Inyimbo Zyabakristo: The Chitonga Hymnal of the Zambian Brethren in Christ Church. Brethren in Christ History and Life 28.3 (2005): 502-66.
Hugh Tracey: Ngoma: An Introduction to Music for Southern Africans. London: Longmans, 1948.
Kenichi Tsukada: Kalindula in Mukanda: The Incorporation of Westernized Music into the Boys' Initiation Rites of the Luvale of Zambia. In: Tradition and Its Future in Music Osaka, Japan: Mita 1991. 547-51.

Recordings

Brown, Ernest. Songs of the Spirits: The Royal Music of the Nkoya of Zambia. Lusaka, Zambia: University of Zambia Institute for African Studies, 1976.
Baird, Michael. Batonga across the Waters. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Stichting Sharp Wood Productions, 1997.
---. Zambia Roadside Music from Southern Province. Utrecht, The Netherlands: St. Sharp Wood Productions, 2003.
Daddy, Zemus. Chibaba. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 1999.
Guitar Songs from Tanzania, Zambia & Zaire. Tivoli, NY: Original Music, 1982.
Hosanna Gospel Band. Lesa Tupepa. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 2004.
J, K. JK . Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 2001.
Shoprite Zambia Hit Parade. Lusaka, Zambia: Mondo Music Corp., 2001.
Tracey, Hugh. "Kalimba & Kalumbu Songs, Northern Rhodesia Zambia, 1952 & 1957: Lala, Tonga, Lozi, Mbunda, Bemba, Lunda." Historical recordings / by Hugh Tracey Variation: Tracey, Hugh .; Historical recordings. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Stichting Sharp Wood Productions; Grahamstown, South Africa; International Library of African Music, 1998. 1 sound disc; digital, mono .; 4 3/4 in.
Zambian Acapella. Zambian Acapella. Corsicana, Tex .: Paradox Music, 1993.

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