Music from Africa
"THE music of other countries always attracts me, not because it is better or worse than that which the West has to offer, but because to explore the way another people think and feel is as exciting as climbing a hill to look into a mysterious and unknown valley, Before listenin? to Fela Sowande’s "African Melodies" from 3YA, I, too, thought that rhythm would predominate over melody, but so far as the music of Southern Nigeria is concerned this is a mistake, The first song was a lullaby which, in its final form, resembled "The Waters of Minnetonka." In fact, I did wonder, comparing tthe original song with Sowande’s composition built around it, whether the folk theme had been buried in a European idiom; the more so as the song about the Crucifixion, "The Awful Tragedy Occurred," was far more impressive when sung by seyeral unaccompanied voices than in the Gloria from the larger work ~ which leaned so heavily upon Bach, In view of the size of Africa one would have preferred a series of talks to a single half-hour session on its melodies, and one which dealt also with the dominantly rhythmical African works.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530918.2.19.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 10
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198Music from Africa New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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