How can one show appreciation of African songs and chants?
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Like the music of Asia, India and the Middle East, it is a highly rhythmic music. The complex rhythmic patterns often involving one rhythm played against another to create a polyrhythm.
In Africa, music is a social activity in which almost everyone participates. Music highlights African values, with various traditions accompanied by a melody. Many events of importance are celebrated with music, whether it is a marriage, a birth, or a ceremonial rite of passage. There are work songs that accompany digging, chopping and harvesting. There are songs of praise and criticism, and songs recounting history. As a result, music is often performed outdoors, in the streets, courtyards or village squares.
African singers use a wide variety of sounds. Within a single performance, a singer may shift from an open, relaxed tone to one that is tighter and more constricted. Singers will sometimes whisper, hum, grunt, yodel, shout and even imitate animal noises. Traditional African music is often collaborative and requires coordinated cooperation, in which participants belong to “constituencies” that are not similar but complementary.
The pitch level of the sound determines significance in many African languages, while the melodies and rhythms of the music usually form the song texts. Rhythm and percussive sounds are highly emphasised in African music. Several different patterns are played at the same time and repeated over and over.