Vol 6(1), March 1, 2006
mi40006000199

African Music Creativity and Performance: The Science of the Sound

By Meki Nzewi |Author bio & contact info|

What we believe we see or hear is often far from the truth of what we are seeing or hearing. What we know we feel is often merely a sign of what we do not know is happening to us. Without cognitive understanding, what we do with extant indigenous knowledge manifestations will be abstracted misrepresentations and misimpressions that problematize contemporary advancement and re-deployment in initiatives.

Positioning Spirituality

Published literature as well as other contemporary representations and applications of the tangible products of the African indigenous knowledge systems, sometimes well intentioned, have been fraught with ignorant representations and interpretations of the nature, meanings and virtues. Hence flippant initiatives at continuing or advancing the human and societal interests of African indigenous knowledge genius abound.

Exogenous mind-set, theories and research intentions or methods disable perceptions of the deep intentions, nature, virtues and potencies implicated in the traditional musical arts, and makes a farce of the study or contemporary advancement of its human sense and cultural meaning. Systematic research and experimental as well as evaluative procedures have fashioned the human and social science products of the indigenous knowledge systems of Africa. The musical arts was a composite thought system that was created and experienced in holistic terms as integration of music, dance, metaphysical/mythical/social drama and the symbolic/significant costumes.

The musical sound component computes and structures elements and qualities of sound to generate intangible but affective-effective energy that resonates with spiritual and tissue health. The dance component choreographs movement qualities, gestured texts and use of body in space that enrich the benevolent spirituality of participants. The drama component physically represents and interacts the immaterial worldview in elevated activities that endured spiritual security in religious and secular living.

Inducing a healthy mind is then a primary intention as well as capability of an African musical arts creation or performance practice. Peculiar musical structures and instrumental ambience are rationalized to produce desired effects on the mind and, and thereby the body as well, of human persons, and sometimes animals. The particular or general about the healing capacity of a musical experience then depends on the calculated permutations of sound elements as much as the ambience of sound materials and the environment of musical arts experiencing.

Repetition of sonic or movement theme, starts with entrapping attention, and proceeds to anaesthetize the mind, producing sleep, calmness or composure as may be desired. Cyclicity of a motif/theme, which implies consistently re-creating or re-ordering the inside of a significant thematic completeness, engages the mind in a type of creative or perceptual expedition that eliminates consciousness of immediate perturbations. Deep tones on melorhythmic instruments pull down excitation and tension; high tones pull up down-tuned minds and bodies into psychical or physical excitation.

The primacy of promoting mass spiritual health, which live musical arts promotes, suffused African societal and human engagements with life and death, and livingness thereafter. Live musical arts is scientifically conformed in tradition to generate tangible spirit energies, and thereby regenerate human spirituality. Some structural formulae are calculatedly rationalized for mind-body health at personal and group levels.

Diabolic or diseased spirituality is probably the most devastating epidemic inflicting the human world, and yet it has received scarce attention as a global health hazard. Diabolic spirituality disorients the common pulse of a relationship, a group or a society with disastrous consequences for all concerned. The manifestations of the disease are witnessed in human decisions, actions and products that display warped consciousness of what is humanly and humanning, that is, acts or products that deliberately relegate or distort common good or humane practices in the pursuits of self, group and societal/national interests. As much as a few privileged perpetrators achieve self-centered objectives their obsessions impact adversely on the life, mental/emotional security and physical health of others, particularly the masses of a population.

Acts of legalized criminality, mass deception and official destruction of lives and values are, therefore, manifestations of syndromes of diabolic spirituality. When such overwhelming inhuman legislations/actions/decisions are perceived, diagnosed and discussed in the modern global milieu, diabolic spiritual disposition is not detected as the root cause. This is because the most afflicted are the most visible, privileged, acclaimed and sophisticated members of any world nation. Diabolic spirituality then marks a clinically sane person burdened with a perjured soul - an evil-disposed genius who is adept at contriving, inventing and/or promoting anti-human products, morality, regulations and practices that discretely endanger humane living, human health (psychical and physiological) as well as mental and social-cultural security generally anywhere in the world. The irony of modern civilization is that the manifestations of the schemes and actions of diabolic spirituality are elegantly rationalized, justified, legitimatized and mass disseminated as the brilliant, the fantastic or the enchanting, also endorsed with flippant tributes to the rule of law or as consonant with conventions that in real human experiences demonize and control the trusting populace. There is no concerted attempt to recognize and control the disease or heal the afflicted simply because diabolic spirituality is commonly a disease of sophisticated persons ensconced in the privileged structures of modern politics, religions, businesses and other high profile professions of modern world societies. The diabolic spirituality pandemic has overrun the world because the curative agency, the indigenous models of applied live musical arts, has become much purified of its healing capacity, again by diabolic spirited practitioners who pursue flippant creative theories and practices.

The Science of the Mind – The Metaphysical Science of Spiritual Health

The traditional African mind and society recognized the force of intangible reality in the management of human and communal health. Collective African ancestry researched the operation of active spirits and effective-affective spirit energies that impact the physical and metaphysical spheres of existence, including the potent energies of objects that have been metaphysically impregnated with spiritual force. The nature of such intangible energy sphere is harnessed and managed in interactive musical arts sites. Recognition of intangible realities necessitated theatrical communion marshaled by live musical arts with the intention of achieving a rapport with their potent essences, particularly those that impact the psyche traumatically. Inspired musical arts was the primary medium for human-spirit interactions because music is a spirit force generated and deployed by human genius. The intrinsic super-ordinary energy of live musical arts makes it a potent force for managing the co-existence between humans and extraordinary forces or affects in the cosmos, physical or immaterial.

The science of spirituality, as a science of customizing the human mind for individual and societal good, permeates African indigenous knowledge systems and practices. A mind jaundiced by, or preoccupied with the methods, procedures, materiality and precision measurements of modern school science, which, most of the time is driven by diabolic spirituality, cannot easily perceive or appreciate the nature, manifestations and effects of both the benevolent and the diabolic spirituality. Live musical arts, in all its ramifications is central to African preventive and curative medical practices.

African indigenous medical science recognizes that body or physiological sickness invariably triggers spiritual indisposition, and thereby soul suffering. Hence indigenous curative science and procedures often commence with the healing of the mind, that is, the restoration of spiritual health, which in turn tunes the mind and body for physiological cure as the case may be. On the other hand a sick mind or disabled spirituality could trigger or exacerbate sickness of the physical body. A healed mind is a revitalized benevolent spirituality that wills the body to marshal the appropriate antibodies that combat the foreign agents causing a particular sickness. Mind and body energy boost the efficacy of material, herbal cure as need be. Psycho-physiological healing, a medical function of live musical arts, is then a forte in African indigenous medical science. The musical sound component could be nominal as in the healing potency of incantations, overtone singing and formulaic poetry found in indigenous diagnostic and healing procedures. It could be any formulation of full-blown therapeutic musical arts theatre.

The motto in African medical practice then is: Heal the spirit to heal the body. Live musical sound evokes or summons empathetic community force. Experiencing spiritual bonding with the community, which live musical arts marshals, instills the disposition to overcome adversity or the will to overcome impaired health. Hence African healing theatre often involves active community participation mobilized by live musical arts. The somatic energy generated in particularly mass medley dancing is also a healing force. The intangible energies of live musical sound and theatre formulated for healing purposes produces palpable effects and affects on the sick in particular. The conception and production of music intended for healing purposes is not at all random. The process is rather grounded on theoretical principles and systematic creative-performance procedure, even when spontaneous. The form, structures, texture, vocal intonation, instrumental ambience and performance conventions are rationalized to engender or effect spiritual, and thereby psycho-physiological wellness.

The Science of Musical Structures

Human as well as contextual intentions inform the theoretical premise that frames creative logic in any African musical arts style and type. The creative theory of indigenous music is thus humanly oriented. As much as entertainment underscores the purpose of the musical arts, the compositional grammar scarcely courts flippant entertainment objectives as a primary creative aspiration even in personal music types. The musicological features as well as the instrumentation are sonic translations/transformations of other humanly and community ideas, structures and relationships that are in themselves not musical. Generally the musical arts idioms, ensemble rationalizations and performance norms aim to humanize the individual and bond humanity.

The example of the musical bow, or the mbira or a song of solace is a personal music type, which invariably invokes a virtual community in the thematic structures. In such personal music the performer normally incorporates a chorus section, which means self-administered community energy, an imagined community participation, while also creating and developing spontaneous elaborations of the solo section of the theme. The human meaning of the chorus part is that the individual needs the emotional and spiritual solidarity of the community as a base for negotiating self-expression. The human meaning embodied in other African melodic or harmonic constructs is that an individual must take cognizance of the community, real or imagined, in exploring creative originality or self-affirmation. Thus the performer of personal music type may be physically alone but interacts with an imaginary community at the spiritual level of expressing self-emotion, thereby gaining the spiritual wellness that accrues from group empathy and support. It is for the same reason that traditional performance convention coerces everybody to share the psychophysical wellness afforded by indigenous musical arts by partaking at various degrees of active participation.

How the musical arts science in traditional Africa accomplishes psychiatric and psychological functions, by managing psychological conditions and anomalous personality traits easily become apparent in certain ensemble performance schemes. Cases of non-congenital madness and psychosis were very rare in traditional Africa because traditional health practices as well as the practical measures that afford social/emotional security prioritized preventive, rather than curative medical science, and are rationalized into live musical arts practices. It must be noted that the African conceptualization of the musical arts generally helps to form a mental disposition conducive to humane living, inter-personal relationships and sound societal living. The sound of humanly music is a spiritual force that energizes and enriches the mind. Dance, deriving from the conformation of musical structures en-spirits the dancer, thereby imbuing benevolent spirituality and affording psychotherapeutic healing. Spirit manifest drama, which embodies abstract ideas as well as supernatural or nature forces/beings in costumes, masks, objects and actions, interacts humans with ultra-mundane manifestations in order to coerce mental discipline and socio-spiritual conditioning.

Space

The conformation of musical structures for managing the mental state of performers and actors accord with the dualistic philosophy of African worldview about space: The affective energies of open space (in-placing the mind) and clustered space (displacing the mind or conscious ego). The science of the psychology of space is applied to the metaphysical management of psychological health and inducing stable psyche. In-placing of psychical presence or conscious ego induces a state of self cum other-consciousness, while displacing of psychical presence could produce states of altered consciousness. The life and health objectives of artistically rationalized space afford the desired healing of psychological indispositions to different categories and dispositions of performers as well as socialize. In practice, the potency of space can then be applied to inculcating other-consciousness, formation and reformation of attitudes, liberating inhibited ego and restraining aggressive ego.

Provision of space for the other to insert creative or expressive self in melodic and melorhythmic structures coerces inter-personal sensing, which tempers excessive self-drives while correcting introversion.

The evocation and manifestation of intangible reality is possible when space is virtually eliminated as a result of clustered melorhythmic/rhythmic impulses such as marks Sangoma/Inyanga healing musical arts types - the density of sound and texture does not make allowance for insertion of self or conscious ego. Clustered impulses do not allow the minds of susceptible agents/patients to breathe. Psychical presence is banished as the conscious mind of the ego, primed by autosuggestion, is driven into a trip outside self. Contact with ultra mundane spirit occurs as attaining a state of substituted consciousness. The desired spirit essence or character then arrives to ride the psyche, body and behavior of a human medium for the purposes of transmitting desired communication or effecting a desired psychophysical cure, or performing any other extraordinary service.

The Science of Instrument Technology

Scientific research informed the design, material and construction of peculiar timbres or sonic vibrancies of indigenous music instruments. There was no randomness in the choice of materials as well as the design and construction of traditional music instruments used for specific social/political/health/religious musical intentions. Health objectives are commonly implicit in the human-science of African musical sound and practice, irrespective of other social-political-religious purposes. Music instruments science, including vocal intonation, generally research raw harmonics or rough timbres. The healing resonances of the rough vibrancy that characterizes the raw harmonics of traditional music instrument massage tissues, senses and organs whether of the mind or the body, human or animal. Spirit energy rides on raw or rough terrains in the environment as well as in the body to act upon human life and nature. Purification, refinement and sophistication in appearance, substance, quality, tastes or behavior contain sparse virtue, health essence or spirit quality. In this regard the materials for making even personal instruments such as the rough fiber for the musical bow, or cast iron for the mbira (finger/thumb piano) produce raw harmonics. Raw resonance evokes intangible realities, which complement thematic/harmonic structures in musical sound used for therapeutic purposes. Natural healing is a gradual or discreet process of attaining wellness, which becomes holistic and lasting.

Objects, musical or otherwise, that are ritually imbued, become impregnated with potencies that impact the human mind and thereby general health. They transmit energies, which are intangible realities that are effective in indigenous healing practices, from diagnostic or metaphysical discernment of cause and effect (prescriptive divination) to treatments.

Concluding Note

This preliminary discourse has set out to outline briefly the human and societal foundations of musical arts creativity, production and utilization in indigenous Africa, with particular bearing on indigenous medical science. The procedure in healing is scientific, and incorporates the metaphysical science of spirituality. The peculiar structures of form, texture, performance dynamics and music instrument technology are grounded on theoretical formulations that are systematic, and can be advanced into modern relevance if properly understood. This discourse has focused on the rationalization of live musical arts in medicure and medicare practices. African cultures share common musical arts conceptualizations, human/societal/contextual intentions, theoretical principles, structural-textural formulations, and performance practices at the substructure level.

In negotiating modernity, it is important, therefore, to recognize that the indigenous scientific research attitude and methods – physical (material) and metaphysical (intangible materiality) – marked African autochthonous human practices and mental civilizations for millennia before any contact with other human cultures outside the continent. The genius of traditional practices endures, and remains viable. They have been undergoing consistent advancement in pace with every stage of societal history. Grounded knowledge of the core philosophical, theoretical and humanistic foundations of indigenous musical arts heritage is critical for informed contemporary representation, advancement initiatives, research studies and human/societal practices in order not to compromise the humanly commitments entrenched. The indigenous science and practice of human medicine ensured human survival in Africa for millennia. Live musical arts was critical in indigenous medical practice because it evokes the affective-effective spirit forces as well as generates and maintains the spiritual dimension of being human.