Vocal Music I
Call and Response
In spite of the prominence and variety of musical instruments, the human voice plays a very important role in African music. Most performances combine voices and instruments, but many performances are either strictly vocal or strictly instrumental. It is important to stress again that African vocal performances display a remarkable variety in form and organization, and it is impossible to provide an exhaustive account of such features in any single discussion. The discussion here will concentrate on some of the striking features of African vocal performances as illustrated in selected examples.
One important feature of African music that is hard to miss is commonly referred to as call and response pattern. In call and response patterns, a musical phrase is divided into two parts. The first part, the call, is answered by a subsequent phrase, the response. The call part, though usually sung by a single voice, may also be sung by multiple voices. In some cases, a solo call is answered by a solo voice singing the response. While in many cases the call is clearly separated from the response, these two sections often overlap in a manner that generates interesting harmonic results.
The call-response pattern provides an illustration of a key principle of African musical form-the interaction between repetition and variation. The call part, whether taken by a single voice or by multiple voices, changes often, while the response part often remains stable. The leading soloist, who may be narrating a story or teaching a moral lesson, continuously varies his or her part in a manner that is similar to what a master drummer does within instrumental ensembles. The response section often provides a recurring phrase that corroborates the narration both musically and linguistically. Thus, while the call part creates a sense of movement, the repetitive responses create an element of stability. The relationship between a developing call section and a repetitive response is an important structural feature of African vocal performances. To illustrate some of these features, let us now examine a song from Lesotho, a country located in Southern Africa.
The Vai have professional musicians--both men (manja) and women (kengai)--who receive training in the secret societies and provide music for social activities and events.
