Il()w

Jolrn

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Ii l,r r. k irr1l

cultunr, rdd ()l s(r

,rrthnlr)L,,gisl rn(l.1hf ()!,1 r,,,,l1,riL,.l.,l \'Vcsntf nrusl.i.d ln)n]tln rrr(r:i i,l Ltl,','.\'

//,,/ rUrsnrl /r,\1,r,,' , \t,lL, ,,. lli, i,', ,'l , , , , ell ,irrll , L' l"', 'r "' , ll, ,,, ,

',

\,,l,r "No nriit r holv rcsp.etrrl thr'rrLtl,Lr i., 1,, liL,., L", rl' ' l, r rcse.t.h, h.ls lirsi ifd .:,t r hL,,i,r,iirl I it t,l, ,, ,t'l'\ L s,)nrs l(), th rs licil l\ hcrc.s m ,!l t r (,,,,! 1,,,iil',1 ,/ i,
imgif
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jon /\lwr)!lu.i(1i,irl l,rq,,.,ill! idlo rr,,.ljl.i,I i,r nro!.s through i.!lrniq!csoirri,,si.rrrlr,siJl()rtslli( 1,,,,i r,,, ind ltrrnr thrrc thr)ugh thi s(r'1,,1 s( i(n,.s... l his sl.,,!L(1 \,i11,,,!' sh,,!lil ( i,, t,, id \ bc r{oircd rciding lor c!.rv r.i(lenr riLlv oricft(l f,usi(.1(igi5t irLl fen;rnd 'l he nrusic criDlplls wrLl b, no Lrrr i.r tu th(isii tr,ho nre .ot .rdsi. rcaders, bul th.v irc .s p(^ ().iti!. is th. t.xt " Crdi..
" liJ!.h.s rpon sonrc importrnt issucs rrkl in!o ves.r !iriety of (lis( iplin.! fi usl.olog)', cthnonrusi.ol.,g!, mu.i.nl !f .lysis, .rcs(hcti.:,, f f llr opologr., trusl. cdu.itlr)n ind th. so.lology oi nr!:,i. Stim,,l,ill,,g im i vrri.tv of points of vi.w." -,'ltr.,,r

.rLlv h()l(1 rLrout tlx.

trolou.dly to revise the nothrs wc Bcncr (il.: {if mosic in societ!l lt.ontains obs.n iti,,ns ,n !!.nl idh.( !t il)out the fli.e of musi.al pr.ris in thc gcncrrL .!lu..rtion oi nrinkind .^passion.tc an.l comb.ti!i h{,1" lit,.:i I itt,trt StN!ltlt. l
" lhis b,n,k lrvinrs !s

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MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE
33

&Msrrtw
3ocwty and

may turn another man on, not bccause of any absolute quality h th music itself but because of {rhat th music has come

e,fu,.(
f||HA\l Dls( RlBl Dmus:, as hu.-"nlv orsrni/ed.ounJ j/ ha'e "rsrr"a rh,t {e ouBl- Lo lool ro, rela,;on-hip. bei recn pntterns of hurnan organization and ihe patterns of soLrnd produccd as a result of organized interaction. I rein
I

perform ii and, second, on the way the nmbers o{ those sroups relate to cach othr. In order to find out whit music is ind how nusical mnn is, ned to ask i,ho listens and who plays and sings nr any siven socjety, and why. This is a sociological quesrion, and situations in different societies can be compared w hort any referencc to the surface forms of music because cemed onty rlith its function in social tife. In tlis respecr, there may be no sisnificant differcnces between Black Music, Couniry and Wesicrn Music, Itock and Pop Muslc, Operas, Symphonic Muslc, or Plainchant. What turns one man otr
32

forced this general slatement by refcrrinS to rhe concepts of rnusic shared by the Venda of the Northcrn Transvaal. The Venda also share the erperience of music and with 'rnlcing, out ihis cxpedence there would be vcry little nusic. The production of th patterns of sound which the Venda call nusic dpends, Iirsi, on the continuity of ihe social groups who

"'c

to man to him as a member of a particulnr culiure or social group. We must also remember Lhai, while 'e nay have our o*'n personal prefcrences, we .annot judse the effectiveness of music or the feelings of musicians by whai seems to hap pen to people. If an old, blind master of Venda initiation llstens in silcnce to a recording of th dor?bd injuation song, r\, cannot rate the music more or less effective than a recording of Spokes Mashiyanet penny whistle band from Jo hannesburg, which bores him but excites his grandson. Wc cannot say that the Kwakiutl are more emotional ihan the Hopi because their style of dancing look. m.....(t,ti. t^ our eyes. ln some cultures, or in ccrtain iypes of music and dancing within a culture, emotions nay bc deliberately inter nalizcd, but they are not neccssadly less intensc. A man's mystical or psychedelic eaperienccs may not b seen or fclt try his neighbors, but lhey cannot be dismisscd as irrelevant lo his life in society. The sam crlrc a of judgment should be applid to apparnt diferences in the surfac complexity of nusic, which we tcnd Lo see in the same rerms as thai of other cultural products- Becarse the srowing .omplexity of cars, airpl;nes, .nd many other machins can be related to ihcir efficiency as me,ns of .omhunl.ation. it is often assuned that tcchnical developmcnl nl music and the arts rnust likewise be a sign of deeper or better cxpression. I slggest that ihe populadty of some Indian music in Europc and America is not unrelaied to thc fact that it seens to be technically brilliant as rvel1 as pleasing to thc car, and that it is accompanicd by profound philosophizing. Whcn I iry to interest my students in the sounds of Africdn !sic, I know that I too tend to draw thcir attention to icchnical feats in performance, becausc these are more immediatcly appreciated. And yet the simplicity or complexity oI the music is ultimalcly irrelevant: the equation

-T
I

ril
T

IIOW MUSICAI- IS MAN ?

or MoRE = BErrR, but uorr or DTTFERENT. lt is the fi,'nan content of the humanly ort.rnized sound that "sends" people. Even if ihis emerses as .rn cxquisite turr of melody or harmony, as a "sonic object" if yo! like, ii Etill began as the thought of a sensitive human beinA, and it is this sensitivity that may ouse (or not) the feelinSs of anolher human being, in much the same way ihat magnctic inpulses .onvey r telephone conversation from one
speaker to anothr.

MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE

35

lli

,ilrrrld not br

mav be like sinale musical system greaier surface complexiiy

The issue of musical complexity becomes important only whcr we try to;ssess human musicality. Supposc I argue thnt, because there are some socieiics whose members are as .ompprer in ru'r' r. all peoplc rre in langrrrge. rnr,i, m.ry be a species-Epccific trait of man. Someone will almost certainly retort that evidence of a widesprad distdbution of listening and performing ability among ihe Vencla and other apparently musical so.ieiies should not be comparcd with th limited distribution of musical ability in, say, England becausc the complexity of English music i, such that only a few could master it. In other words, if Enslish music were as elementary as Venda nusic, ihn oF .ourse the EnslGh would seen to be as universally mlsical as the Venda! The broader implication of this argument is that technological developrnnt br.ng' dboul a J"gr"e oi sor.al e',lrrrion: being ,) pa-.i\e rudiencc is the price that some must pay for membership in a superior so.icty whose superiority is sustained by the exceptional ability of a chosen few. The techni.al level of nhat is defined as musicality is therefore raised, and somc people must be brandd as unmusical. It is on such assumptions that musical ability is fostered or mesthetized in many modern industrial socjeties- These assumption, are diametrically opposcd to the Venda idea that all normal human beings are capable oI musical performance. The issue of musicrl .omplcxity is irrelevant in my considerrtion of universal musical compctence. First, within a

'

the basic an extension of vocabularv, which does not alter priniciples of a srammar and is meaninSless aPart from thcm assume Second, in comparins dilferent svstems we cannot more coSnitivelv or that s /face complexity is either musicallv more complex- In any case, the mind of ma is infinitelv bv parti'ular rnen or cul-.pf"* ,ft". mything Produced of music seems ef{ectiveness u,.".. ebou" all, the funciional complexity its su'face to be more importani to listeners than in or simplicity What i5 the use of being the grcatesl pianist wants th world, or of wdting the .leverest music, if nobodv u'5ing ol oI inventing usc to lisien to it? What iE ihe human mean new sounds new souncls just for their own sake? Do invthins in Vcnda trrlture, lor instance in terms of new gro'p. I'a ,o.irt ch.rnge? Whv sing or dancc or plav rt all2 pcrirvr'y f,.tl* to improvc nrsi'al rcchnique if the ain of formance is to shar a socidl experience? The flnctions of music in societv mav be the decisive facas tors promoting or inhibiting latent musical abilitv' as well wilh mJreri'Jl' of culr''ol 'onccpr' ard 'r'ii"" 'he '\ol " We 'hall nor b" able to e'plr:n rhe mujic whi.h lo.ompoce principles of composition alld the cffects of music until we huunderstand better ihe rel;tionship between musical and of music man experience. If I dcscribe some of the tnciions in Venja society, perhaps the new knowledge mav stimulAte a better understanding of similar Processes in other socicties' This has certainty bcen mv own experien(e Since mv initial strv oI lwo vedr n the sib#a dislri' betwcen ro5o 1nd Ie58 ,nd r5 ' t"(ull of _rrb eqJent r'cldworl' in orher Frrt' of Airica, I hav come to understand mv own societv more clearlv and I have learncd to appreciate mv own music better. I do not know whether or not mv analvses of Venda music are correctr I have benfited greatlv bv the criticisms of Venda who have been good enough to discuss mv evidence and conclusions, but there mav be other interpretations that

tl

t
36
HOW MUSICAL IS MAN? MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND

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CULTTJRE

l[,
37

have so far escaped us_ Whatever rhe uttimate iudsment on nr1 an.rly-e,.oI V"nd.r mJ-ic, I hope rhar my d -cove.ic" mJy

when while,olonicr- loot,he rF,r or Lhrir.Jrd tor Jrrm;n8 dnd Compared wjth ovcr Iwet\p million 'nininB. blacl 50urh Afn.aa.,.tivid.d rtmo,r equr[y among rhe Zutu, qorho .rnd Trh.rn.r languagc Sroups, rt-e VendJ DrJy ^t,on. sem in$iAnificanr. And yet the white South African govern'_ nenr hAs shown gredt interest in Lhem ancl has hld an iln_ portant mililary exercise in their so_called hometind. For rhe Vendd l:vc in.Jnd Jround rhc Zoutpan-bcrg MounrJin.. JL.l .ou,h oF lhF Iirrpopo Ri\er, rhL nor hern bourdary of rhe wfiite Republic of Sourh Afri.a_ Since I was rherc in 19ss, more and more whites have been ,crtting on land that was once reserved for btacks.
1899 ihe Venda became the last of ihe Souih Africans io suLmit ro Boer rue. Th"y rre hcll pt,.ed ro beromc rl,e I'rt to .rhicvc their tu f,eedom. The .rnic.,o,r ot come Vc,,C,, ,1J,,. ,iveLl in Vcnd,r torrg Lerore wh re- trnd,d in rhe LJpp. .rnd rhe\ man,:ged to rerarn thcir rJentiry evcn Jflcr they had accepted rh rule of bt:ck invadcrs from thc north .ibu . Lwo l nd.ed ycar. 16o. l\e V,ndr arp pr,iti.ls Jr Itcrrr, .rnd fhcv have a.ry,n8 "Mntli u..t "6-,1 p u,,,. '.t.,1i, (1,1 ,\chom"sr".,dof J_, c"h",,l rh":e is:,o neep Whe" thei. country was larer invaded f.o,n rhe souih ln8.l. by blacks who werc Rein8 from itrc advance oF the whires, th Venda pretuued io rerreat ro the safely of iheir rr,l. ."id w1,i for rl-em ro p:s,. rhey w"re ,,n\v,t.n8moun o r, .,,11,',r. inrov,,.ion. or ro ncorporirc ,,r,rn8er. inro ::pl lhcir ruLtnrl {y\tem on terms lhJt were litclv to Jim,D,sh, rather than incrcase, coopration and ,,hunanness,, (1,/r,rrr) in their sociery. On the othcr hand, .luring ihe lattcr hilf of

"n; I'ecdom iD whi,h rheir mu\.(rl rrJdrrion orisrnr,,v dcvr,ope.l TheLe are about rhree hundred thousand Venda, and nost of thcm live in rhe undeveioped rurJt rrea lhJt was lefr ro

pld\,r <mdll.p.,rt in rn-rorine rhc.ondition, or.jjBn.ly

the ninetenth century, the Venda adopted and ac.epted as "songs of Lhe Venda spcakins pople" several foreisn sonss and styles of nusic from the;r neishbors in the north and surpdsing thal such musical people should havc shown little interest in, and comparatively little ability for, the sounds and iechniques of European music. The reasons are partly techni.al, but chiefly political. First, the sori of music that has been dissminated in missions and schools has often been the dullcst type oI European insiitutional musi., and even the best music has invariably been distorted by the Way in which it was taught by the whiies. Thcre has bcen no real contact with the origin:tl of the unfamiliar idiom; non of the Europans who have passed on the i.adition hav been accomplished musicians, and so both they and thc Africans they have t.ained have often been as unsure about the correct reading of the scores as those they have tau8ht. White "experts" have assured them that sentiment and expression (which ofien amotrnt io weaiing bright uniforms at inierschool sinsing competitions) are more important than accuracy- This is a notion quite foreign to traditional Venda mllsic, in lthich accuracy is always expected.nd sentiment generally assumed, but it is one strong enough to have had disastrous results in thc process of assimilatins European music, and so it is not surprising that ihe apparently musjcal Venda have generally failed to xcel in performins European music, even rvhen they have wantcd to do so. Political factors were probably even morc significant than the technical barriers I have dcscribed. Althoush thc gospel and the educatior the mirsionarics brousht wcre ai first well received by the Venda, th white administration and ih commercial xploitaiion that came in iheir wake were not. Sin.e 1900 the Venda have not been abl to retreat to their mouniain fastnesges, as they did with earlier invaders- Thcy havc been compelled by superior physical force to put up

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It may seem

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HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?
MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE
39

with an authoritarinn system that contradicts traditional African dmocracy. Is ii suryrising, therefore, that inditrerto Euopean music should go along with their resistance to white domination? The general reaction to European music is in keepinS with the lunctiol of music in thei society, and it must be seen as a sociological
ence and even hostility
as well as a musicnl phenomenon.

Much Venda music is occasional, and its performance is a sign of the activity of social groups. Most adult Venda know what is happening nerely by listening to its sounds. Dudng girls' iniiiation, whnever a novice is being taken down to the river or back to her initiation hut, the women and girls who accompany hcr warn people of their approach with a spcial sons, in which the lower lip is flapped with thc fore, fingcr.

r- t J =flFf -=:

I r1r

(nNd,r B,,ir!,1br n{Dirs rh. \rs)

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Bi ib-4i mn si n

The followins sons, with its unusual prelude, indicares rhat

a novice is being taken from her home lor initiaiion. The melody will be recosnized even by women who cannot hear

During the vadous staSes of the girls' schools, instruction is siven both direcily and indirectly by means of svmbolic dances, which are olten very strenuous physical exrcises, perlormed to a variety of comptex rhythms. One song tells
girls not to gossip-

IT
MUS]C IN SOC]ETY AND CULTURE
4t

'il
40

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

The Venda learn to und.rsrind the sounds of nusic as they undcrsiand spcech. No fe ,cr than sixrcen clifferent
stylcs are distinguished, wirh different rhythms and combina tions of sineers and instruments; and within thcse sryles a.e furthr subdivisions of sty1e, as wcll as differcnr sonss wiihin each division. For example, at the ir,rsoi initiation schoot for sirls, therc are foul main types of song;

1. Nyb ba dzd, i.ljl]etha

(sonss

for d.ncins round)

are

sung by thc sirls as ihcy dance countrclo.kwisc in a circle round the druns. The tempo of rhe sonas is r;pid, and ihey arc sung morc often than any other type of sons ai rhe school. Cl,rssed with them are two songs wiih speclal rhyihms, a "song of clisnlssal" (luinba laa a cdela, literalty, song for slecping), urhich aLv,rys tcrminates a scssion; and a recruftlng sons lLuinbo lwa ,edz,, literally, sons lor helpins a person across i river), which is sung when senior menbers go round

2. Nyimllo dza Tlhrhujn

are ng when

(sott1s oi the masked dancrs) the rnasked dancers perform in froni of rhe

girls. The tempo varies, wiih fast and slow ePisodes to accompnny .liffereni phases of ihe dancc and disiinctive rhythms to mark ihe vadous stePs. 3. Nyir/'ba dza ilzinsoni (sonss for special riies) accompany cedain ordeals thai ihe novices musi underso when ihcy are ln ihe second stage of initiation. Each one has a disthciive rhythmic Pnttern. a. Nyimbo dza milayo (songs of the laws of the school) are sung by the novics and any graduates present Thev kneel on the sround by the drums while m l,ohe, the girl appointed to be in charge of the novices,leads the singhg' Figure 5 summarizes the dilJereni tvpes of communal music recognized by the Venda and indicates thc tnnes of year when they may or may not be perlormed Althotgh the Venda geneLally classifv their music according to iis social furctior, and the name for lhe funciion and its music is often the sarnc, ihe critcria of disc mindtion are iormal and musical. It is b), its sound, and particolarlv bv iis rhythm and the make up of its vocal and/or instrumental en semble, that the f nction of music is recosnired. The contexts in which songs are sung a.e not xclusive, but thc wav in which they are sung is gencrally detcmined bv contert Thus, a beer sons may be adapted as a play song for ihe girls' dombd initiation, in which case a drul1r accompaniment will be addcd and the call response form nav be elaborated inio a sequence of interlocking melodic phrascs Sir1]ilarlv, a nunr ber of dilferent iransformations of the national dance, ts,i koaa, may be petiormed on Vcnda musical instruments. Thev sound diffcrent, but they are all ca11ed tslikond and are con ccived as variaLions on a thenre in the "languases" of the .lilTerent instrum.nls. When rhc Venda discuss or classify differcnt tvpes of song, thcy senerally distingtish between songs that are Proper io the function and those which have been adopted and adapted As I belicve that this is a comnon phenomenon in ccnlral

HOW MIJSICA I, IS MAN?

COMMUNAL MUSIC OF THE VENDA
x'lrol ',",.*""3,.-,. ?i.'.. v'/"..,1:!

MUSIC ]N SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Tonga of Zambia. I recorded what was described to me as "a srinding song," and the contexl left me in little doubi about its function. In a different context, the same melody was described io me as a ndnktntu dance song for young people, and the new context also left me in litile doubi about its funciion. The only di(rences between the two performances were in their rhythm, iempo, and social conieri. The song was not, in faci, a grindnrs song, but a sons sung while ginding. It happend to be t nankmtu dance song that was currenily populnr, and the womant usc of it while grinding was comparable to a performance of "Hark, the Herald Angels Singl" over the washina-up at Christmas time. People's classifications of songs by form and by function may provide important evidence of musical and extramusical transformaiion processes thai are acceptable in a culture They may also be relevani in assessing the effcts of music For exanple, there is a Venda sons about loneliness and death which I heard sung t'ith grent gusto at a party, and with no trace oI so ow. On anoiher occasion, I was ralking one day ro an old, bljnd master of initiation, and he suddenly began to sing this same song. He t{as about io stand up and dance when lis son stopped hin, sayins, "Don't dar'ce, o1d manl" Since his faiher as singing a sad song, he must be full of sorrow nnd so ther was no point in inlcnsih,ing the emotlon by dancing, especially as there was a risk thai he might fall and hurt hhself. The son was deeply moved, but whn I asked him about the song he replied simply ihat it was a beer song. He could hale described it as a "sons of sorrow," but he prefelled to Bive ii its formal classification. The value oI music in socieiy and iis differential elTects on people may be esseniial factors in the growth or airophy of musical abilities, and people's interest may be less in the music iiself than in its associatd social activities. On the other hand, musical ability may never develop without some extramusical motivaiion. For very infant prodigy whose in

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ftcuRE 5. Diasrcm shouing tlLe Llifrerckt types af cbmmunal nusi. recagnize.l l)y th Vendn, and inilicatins th. rbnes af y.at whelL they n v ar shy not b. petfotmed.

and southern Airican music, and one that needs carelul inves-

tigation by ileldworkers,
example that

I will

mntion a particularly good

encountered rvhen workins with the Gwembe

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44

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND

CULTURE

45

terest and abiliry ilzzled out because le couid not relate his music ro life with his fe ows, rhre must be thousandi of p"ople rro nor lore rnu<i, a- parr of the c\pefiFnce or titc and deeply regr"r thar thcy negleded lo pra.trce or were ror propcrly taughr an instrument. This conllict has been sraily alleviared by some music education programs, but the combination of social, physical, and musical activity is not as total. as in Venda sociery. When I warched young Vendr developing rhcrr bod,.r, rhei, triendshipc, and rhe:r.ens;riviry in corrn:rrl ddn.inB. I .outd nor hetp resreling .hc hun_ d'edj o' afternoons I had waqrcd on tho ru8by ticld and in borrrrg rings. Bur th.n I was broughr up not ro (ooperJre, bur ro.ompere. fven nusi, wa5 ortcred more d\ d comoeL,_ live thrn rs d sh.,red e\pcrien, e. Althoush the srructure of most Venda music demands a high degree of cooperarion for performance, ii wourd be wrong to susgest thar nll musicil and associated social e!DFri are cqualty shrred. for insran(c, on lhc trsr dry of lhe "nce< tshikafi,ld Enls' initiation, rhe sullen, silenr demeanor of rhe novices conrrasrs strongly with the excired singing and danc_ in8 of the old ladies in charse and fte othr sraduates pres_ enl. fv.n.rhoush lhe Eirls hrve ro pl'l on a show or h,rmiliry rnd dcrr,hmrnt. ir.- hJrd ro bc.ieve rh,,r they J.F (on(ed.ing anythinS but rerignation and indifference to the music they are required ro perfom. When I asked rhem abour rheir rcac_ tions, I detected a siSnificanr diFference between the girts, "It's the custom,,,and ihe adults,,,tr,s the cusiom. tt,s nice!,, the excitiDg rhythms of the Venda possession .similarl, dance (ngonn dzd midz,ni) do not send everv Venda inro , ..d,,cc. lh"v scnd onty nronber< oI rhe,utr. rnd rt-en onty when they are dancing ar their own homcs, with which ihe spirils ol the an,esrors who possess rhpm are tr.rihar. Tle ehati\ene - of rl-. -1usic depends on rhe conrp\r in !1h!h it is boih perforhed and heard. Bur ultimarely it depends on the music, as I found out once when I nas playins one of rhe

drurns. Dancers take turns coming out into the "arena," and at first there were no complaints about my efforts. Very soon, however, a senior lady besan dancine, and she was expected

to go into a trance because the music was being played for her cult group. However, after a few minutes she stopped and insisted that anothd drumrner should replace mel She claimed that I was ruinins the effect of the music by "hurrying" the tempriust enough, I suppose, to inhibit the onset
The way in which ihe m(sic of the possession dance becomes effective su8gests that kinship i, as important a factoi as the rhythm of music in having etrects on pcople. But it is

not blood relationships so much as their social implications that arc the decisive factors, and not the music so much as its social environment and the attitudes developcd toward it. After all, if the possession dance music has the power to "send" a woman on one occasion, why should it noi do so on another? Is it thc social situation that inhibits the otherwise powrful effects of the rnusic? Ot is the music powc 1ss without the rcinforcement of a special set of social cir cumsiances? It is eviden.e such as this that makes me skcptical of music association tcsts whi.h hav been administered to subjects in artificial and unsocial scttings ncver envisaged by ihe creators of the music. Under such conditions, ihe music cannot help beinS meaningless, or at least its meaninSs are hopelessly diverse. Ii also r;rises anothcr issu: granted that music cannot express anything extramusical unless ihe experience to which it rcfers alrcady exists in the rnind of the lis tener/ can ii communicate anything at all to unprepared or unreceptive minds? Cannot even a powerfLrl rhythm excite an unprepared person? Or irc the Venda women unmoved because thcy are unwilling? I cannot answo this, but my own love of nusic and'my conviction that it is more than learned behavior make me hope that it is thc social inhibitions which are powerful and not the music which is powerlcss.

il
HOW MUSICAL IS MANI
Let us return to the matier of kinship in the developmenr o( musical ability. The Venda may not consider the possibilfty of unmusical hunan beings, but they do recognize rhar some people perform better than others. ludsment is based on th performer's dlsplay of technical brilliance and originaliry, and the vigor and confidence oI his excution. Anyone who troubls to perfect his techni.tue is considered ro do so bcause he is deeply commiited to music as a means of sharins som cxperience with his fellows. A sincere desir lo express feeling is noi accepted as an e)icuse for inaccuraie or incom petent performance, as it ofien is in the coniused 1rorld of modcn Pop and so-cailed Folk music. IF n person wanis ro

MTJSIC

IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE

do his thing, he is expected ro do it well. The abiliry of a master drumnrer (:mntsise) at a possession dince is assessed by the sounds he produces, and not by the extenr io which he ,o hi. FJe. .,nd 'hror. h - body abo,:. The Venda nay susscst that exceprional musical abiliiy is biologically inheritcd, but in praciice they recognize that social factors play the most important parr in realizhs or supprssin8 it. l-or hstance, a boy of noble birth mi8ht show Sreat ialent, but as hc grolvs up he wili be expected ro aban don regular musicat performance for the more sedous (for him) Lrusiness of sovernmenr. This would not man rhat he *'ould cease lo listcn crjtically and inteuigenrly ro music: in fact, inrportant suidance to successful government mighr b given to him in song. Conversely a sirl of noble birrh has very en.ourdgemcnt to develop hr musical capacfties, so thnt is a woman she can play an a.tive role in supervising the girls'initiation schools which are held in the homs oi rulers, an{l for }lhich m!si. is an indispensable adjlncr of thcir did;ctic and ritual functions. During two months of darly rehearsals of the youns sirls' dance, tshiso lbelo, I ,atched the young rclatives oI a hcadm.n enersc as out standing performers, although at first they did nor seem to be nor nusical than their asc-mates. I am sure that the Ley

to thir development as dancers was ihe Praise and the inter esi shown in them by the women in the audience, who were mostly from ihe headman's family, and who therfore knew the girls by name because they were rlatives- It was surely the ,ocial conscquences oi blood relationship ihat alTected ihe grol,vth of their musicality, rather than special, senetically inherited musical capacities. Again, it is not surprising that masters of initiation tend to "inhedt" the craft from iheir fathrs. A master must know nany songs and rituals, and so hls son is in a favored position whcn he assists his father on the job. In Venda soclety, exceptional musical ability is theiefore expected of people who ar born into certain families or social groups in which musical perlormancc is essentjnl for main

t
I

taining their sroup solidariiy. lust as nuslcal perforrnance is the cenLral factor that justifies thc continued existnce of an orchestra as a social group, so a Vendn possession cult 8roup, or a don&d initlation school, or a srnglri girls' school, would disintesraie if there wcre no muslc. Only a few of those who are born into the dght group actually emcrs as eaceptional musicians, and what seems to distinguish them from others is that they perform bctter beca se they have devotcd more time and encrsy to it. In applauc{ing the nasiery of excePtional muslcinns, the Venda applaud human effort, ancl in beinq able to recognizc mastery in the musical medium, listen ers reveal that their general nusical competence is no less rhan that oi the musicians whom they applaud W should remcnber ihat the existence of Bach and Beethoven depends on .liscriminating audienccs as much is on performers, iusi as some Venda ancestors canot return to ihelr homes excePt bv the sood offices of their descendants. Althoush co'nmunal music dominates ihe Venda musical scne, and so.ial factors influence the developmcnt of musical abiliiy, there is individual music naling, and sood solo instrumntalists can cnerse without any of ihe incntives I

48

HOW MUS]CAL IS MAN?

MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE

49

havc described. Youns srowins sirls .onfide in rhe quiet, intimate iones of a lrg!&e musical bow or iis modrn equivalent, the jaw's harp. Youihs sins of thc joys and panss of love whlle accompanying thmselves wfth an l]irira or an other kind of bow, called tshihaons. A rhird rype o{ bow (denile) is nost commonly played by semiprofessional musi, cians who are noioriously popularuith women. The name siven to such minsirels tshilonbe is rclated to words thar refer to spirii possession, such as tshilonbo and The Venda acknowledse that nanifesratjons of 'flrlorrbo. musical abiliLy cnn emerge in unexpected quarrers and amons unlikely subjects, but insist ihat thcy be normalized by losicnl explanaiions. The tml rsn,lom&e should be regarded as not so nuch an acclamation of genius or of excep tional taleni ns an occupaiional descriprion. An outstandins individual musician is one who puts himself in iou.h with spidtual forccs, like a docior or the membcr of a possession rult, and so js able Lo express a wider range oI experiences ihan most people. li may seem paradoxical thar his creative abilities should be erpressed in the ori8nralfty and thoushrfulness of the words hc composes, rarhcr rhan in the music. But there is a rcason for tlis io be found in rhe balance of iwo basic principles oI Venda nusic. As I emphasizd in the first chapier, Venda music is dis tinsuished lrom nonlnusic by lhe crearion of a special world of time. Thc chlef function of music is to involve pople nr shared cxperiences within the framework of rheir culi ral expcrience. The form the music takes musi serve this funciion, ancl so in the nomlal couise oI evcnrs Venda music benllsical and ]ess culturc-bound whenevr pos, sible, and the resirictions of woLds are abandoned for the frecr murical .xpression of lndividuals h community. To nsure that the folm does not lose iis cssentinl function, ihe process is inverted in the compositions of certiin individuals. Thc function of such compositions is to jolt and expand the

consciousness of Venda audiences by borh reflectins and con-

tradiciin8 the spirit of ihe time. They reflect the political in terests of the maximurn number of people bv contrndiciing the musical tendencies to which those people are accustomed The sane kind of analysis of musical effeciiveness misht be applied in other conteats: I {'ould not consider it an exasgera tion to say that Beeihoven achieved his ertraordnrarv nusical power by bing dnfimuslcal and shocking the complacencv of his contmporary society- His contemPoraries mav have been more rnusical in their treatmcnt of melodv, for instance, but their kind of conventional musicaliiv was lss relevani to contemporary problems although it was n logical consequence of iemporary cognitive processes To analyze the composition and apPreciation of nusic in terms of iis social function and of cognitive processes thai may be applicd in other {ields of human activiiv does not in any way diminish ihe importance oi the music itself, and ii is in line with ihe common custom of intcrrlating a sries of hrman activitics and calling them The Arts However, at this early stage of investigation we should be careful noi to assume thai music is always created bv the same Processes/ or that its processes are specinlly related to ihose emploved in the other arts. The processes that in one culture are applied to languase or music m;y in another be applied to kinship or economic organization. It will be usefui to distinsuish different knlds of nurica] communication, which misht broadly be described as ihe uiilitarian and nrtistlc uses of music in Venda societv. lt is clcar from thc way ihe Venda talk about it that not all music has th same vatue. A11 their music sroNs otlt of human experiences and has a clircct function in socjal life, bui onlv some ol it is resarded as whai lohn Dewev has called "an instrument indispensable to the transformation of man and his world." As ny examples have shown, much Venda nusic is nerelv

v
50

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

a signal or sign of social events and no less utilitarian rhan commeicial jingles, radio station identifications, some inci dental music, and the hymns or sonss that are essentially the "badges" of dilTerent social groups. Many songs of initiaiion are more important as markers of siages in ritual or as rein, forcements or mnemonics oI lessons than as musical experi ences; work songs coordinate and ease labor; and a special group of beei songs can be used to voic complaints and make requests when parties of women take Bifrs of beer to the homes of their in-laws. As in women's pounding sonss, cei tain children's songs, and songs oI protst, a musical frame work can ritu;rlize communication h such a way that messages nay be conveyed but no counLeraction is takn. You do not "go io prison" if you say it in music, and something may be done abollt youl complaini becaus it may be a rlarning of srowing public feeling. It is temptins to define the utilitarian tunctions of Venda rnusic as tho5e in which the effects of music are incidntal io the impact of th social situation, and ihe artistic as those in which the music itseu is the crucial factor in ihe experience. Th testimony of ihe high value atrached ta tshikond, theit national dance, and the apparently antnnusical performance by acknowledged experts does not coniradicr this argumenr when we see lhat it is the process of music making ihat is vahed as much as, and sometims more ihan, the finished product. The value of music is, I believe, io be found in terms oI ihe hrman experiences involved in its creation. There is a dif{erence between music thai is occasional and music rhar
enhances hurnan consciousness, music rhat is simply for having and music that is for beinS- I submit ihat ihe former may be good craftsmanship, but that the latter is art, no matier how simple or complex ii sounds, ind no matir under h'hat circumstances it is producd. The music of isftllconr expresses the value of rhe largst social sroup to which a Venda can really fcel he belongs. Its

I
r.,rt.crrote
kalimba mbira ol the Nsensa af Znlnbid.

if ct

':;

A hP??tui"k at a hedihrln's homestead.

The lillase af aV.ndd clLief at Thensbe The houses are occupied b! his tuiaes, reldtires, and cotscilors. The bi. trce slitlnly tu the left ol .entet shodes th. khota, neetias Place ol the calncil and rene ol mrsic ntu1doncilry.

.
Tuo Vendd

# -"qi,

gitLs play aho dtuns (nj.unba) ar rne domba initidti.n. TheV su,dV th.t bodies lftn side to side, keeping d *eddv thythm sa that the *Lnbedt is patt ol a tatnl bady nloument.

I
5lIL

ffi

iI
t(

lI
.,:r'.r.r:'1,..

:il.r.

./\Ve,da nori.e perlarns n specidl ndalo norcment nt het tshikanda inilintior Nate thc contnst in rcsPa se betroee
Nsonra dza

her t@a

canpanions n"d the tnatried wamen tuftkikg the prcc..dings zimu, V?rdd d"nceaf sPirit posserriar. The gm who is Aan.itth the arena tuiLl not be Passessed huachbacked be.n"se she does nat belanE to this pntricular cult
been posscssed uear d speci|L

Mastcd da,.cr (muhwi.a) at

the V.nda

xnk' s\n(\!i initiolion.

uho hdxe

rfli{onn

{aulJ

anC,

Those shnke

Venia gnls pmctice the [i/sr pdlr ol tlie trhigombe]a drr.e.

Vcnda sitls dancntg "solo" (D Eaya) duting th! second patL af

A ttia an the lart. mbias (mbila dza nadeza).

A boy p)ays the smtll nbira (nblla tshipaj).

Dende nasical boo.

A duet on two mauth bous (zwihwana, sinA"l,r tshihwana).

A *ia bl ttuee-holetl ttd srerse flutes (zwitiringo, sitsrl4l !rhitiringo). Boyt 4ilitlli flute, nade al an oPet trbe ot tirer rced bith nflatched
stoPPed @ith the enbauchtue ^fld at the distal.ni. fitst fuEet

7oo ,1cr play tlr. mbila nta\.]o rylaphan.; a thiftl alds

f.d,i ol tsfil.on a iPe ddrccte n rwal nt.a drtitl!, Erstlt rncotion

,4 Vc'rd,

lt'n

I'h1nncs&'rE lisirs

A V.nd, ,rnFtlel (lshiloFbeJ s'nss nnd lntetLains !)ilh Ptu?ets at

d The da$e al the Venda Aomba i"iriation sclool.

b.e|d.ink otsr iz.d

bY d tut,lLins

(lshiiokofel.t)

itlat nl 't.a

r
MUS]C IN SOCIETY AND

CULTURE

51

.I'l
$*

Solo Vendd idncet lenputg

drtiris perfarmarl.e af pcntn laak reel'pi\ ntsic (tshikansansa or visa). Tiis rltrle al ddn.nry ts .allei ! Eaya, ns in the snond uaft al khisomb]a, ,,,d is lGtnr
s"ishetl

lrcn tlLe cotnnwLdl ,l,,.ina (r telina) i" rlrc

perlormance involves the lar8est number of people, and its music incorporates the largest number of tones in any single piccc of Vcnda music involving more than one or two players. From what I havc said about sharcd crpcriences in Venda mrsic- it shoul.l be.leai thnt rs,;ko,d is valuabl nnd beautiful to the Vencla, not only ber:arse of the quantity of people and toncs involvcd, bul because of the quality of the rela iionships that must be csiablishcd bciwcen pcople and tones whenver it is performed. Tsftlkoaa music can be produccd only when twenty or more men blow dilferently tuned pipes with a precision thai depends on holcling on', ol\rn part as well as blending with others, and at least four womcn play dilTerent dr!ms in polyrhythmic harmony. Furthernorc, is,i ton, is rloi complt ulless the men also perform in unison thc differcni stcps which rhe dance masier direcis from tnne

rt, V.n,i, don b a init idlioa, with thei hnn t.c.ntly .uI, rte led i, .ont b! the nnster al initiation, urhil. his nssisttr..! di.cts th.nt ta the iossbean Df thc cau cil hul, ltont whtch they tuill hi * rpsltle doutn, likc bats, ds pnrl af d lessan nba t .hinbnth. Note the baby o1i the boch al tlLe l othet playrq th.
Ndri.cs

The effecriveness oI tshika

r is not i

case

oI

MoRE

;\

I
1

BrrrrR: it is an cxample of lhe production of the maxinum of avallable human energy jn a siiuation thai generates the high err degree of nldiviclu.rlity h the hrgest possible community of individuals. l-shikon.] prov e, an experien(e of the best of all possible worlds, and the Vcnda arc fu11y awarc of its value. Tslrilrord, they say, i.s lui lLr mash khsli i tshi ohila, "t\e time when people rush io ihe scene of the dance and leave thcir pots to boll ovcr." Tsltkonr "makcs sick people feel betier, and old men throw away their sticks and dance-" TsliiLofld "bdnss pace to the countryside." OI all shared experi ences nr Venda socieiy, a pcrfoNance oi rsr;Lo,' is said to bc ihc nost highly valued: the dance is connected with an ccstor worship and state occasions, incorporates the living and the de;d. and is the mosi unilersa1 of Venda nusic. It is because music can creaie a world of virtual time that Cusiav Mahlcr said thai it may lead to "the'other world' ihe world in which things are no longer subject to time an.l space." The Balinese speak of "the other mind" a5 a staie oI

'\

I
lt
H

l'
l;

HOlv MUSICAL IS MAN?

beina that can be reached through dancins and music. They refer to states in which people become L.eenly aware of the true nature of theh being, of ihe "other self" within themselves and other human beinss, and of thei. rlationship with the world around them. OId age, death, sdef, ihirst, hunger, ad other amiciions of this world are seen as traniitory vents. Thre is freedom from the resldctions of actual time and complete absorption in rhe "Timeless Now of the Divine Spirit," the loss of self in beins. We often expedence sreater intnsity of living when our nornal time values are upst, and appreciat the quality rather than the lenath of time spent doing someihing. The virtual time of music may help
to generate such experinces.

MUSIC IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE

in the same musical iradirion, he may be describing a similar, if not identical, emorional experiene. Musical rerminoloSy can be a language with which ro descdbe human emorional experience, just as membership in th Venda possession crlt offers both a ceriain rype of experience and a way of ra[ing about it. Thus, under certain conditions, the souna of m".ic may recall a state of consciousness that has been acouiied through procerse, of co.rdt e\perienle. Whether Lhe etfe.Live agent is the right social situarion, as in th Venda possession cult, or ihe right musicnl situarion, as in the responses of ino similarly trained musicians, ft is effedive oniy because of associations berwen certain individual and cultural experi_
am sure that many of the funcrions of music in Venda society which I have described will recall to you similar situa_ tions in other societies. My general argumnt has been rhar, if ihe value of music in socieiy and culture is to be assessd, it must be described in terms of the attitudes and cognftive processes involved in its crearion, and the functions and ef_ fecis of the musical product in society. Ir follows frorn this that there should be close structural relationships among rhe function, conient, and form of muric. Roberr Kautrma; has drawn my attntion to a passage in LeRoi Jones,s Bl,es People (New York, Wiltiam Morrow,1e63), in which h savs rhar the ba"ic hlporhe,i" of his bool depcndr on understod_ in8 that "music can be seen ro be rhe resutr of certain atritudes, certain specific ways oI thinking about tle world, and

There is excitement in rhythm and in the prcgression of orsanized sound, in the tension and rlaxations of harmony or melody, in thc cumulative evolution of a fugue, or in the infinite variations on the theme of movement from and back to a tone center. The motion of musi alon seems to awaken in our bodies all kinds of responses. And yet people's responses to music cannot be fully explained without some refercnce to their experiences in the culture of which the notes
a piece of music moves a vadety of listenrs, it is probably not because of its outward form but because of what the form means to ach lisiener in terms of human experience. Th same piece of music may move differ ent people in the same sort of way, blrt for different reasons. You can enjoy a pjece of plalnchant becaus you are a Roman

are signs and symbols.

If

Catholic, or because you Iike the sound of the music: you ned not have a "good ear" to enjoy ii as a Catholic, nor need you be a believer to enjoy it as music. ln both cases the enjoym"nt d"perd5 on a br, ksround of human p\perience. Even if a person describes musical experiences jn ihe tcch nical language of music, he is in fact describing emotional xpednces which h has learned to associate wiih particular patterns of sound. If anothe. person dscribes his experience

only ultimately about the,ways,in which music can be made" (p. 1s3). It is enough that rhis should be said and a.cppled. But I think it is uqfut if the argumenr can be rein. forced with demon.lrrtions of how ir worlc our:n Dra.r:.e Thir is someihing thar ethnomucicolo8rrts,Jn do, and most of my work durinS the pasr fffteen years has been direcred toward the discovery of sriuctural relationships berween
music and social
li

fe.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN

MUSIC

55

0riltve,n

d,

tocwty ur Ofusic

not less than current politics. This may have ben partly a response io my own bias, but I think ii also reflectd the Venda concern for life as a process oI becomins, rather than
as a sta8e in evolutionary progress.

/n fl usrc ldn e\preiq so.id. a.rirudec and .o8n:rive pro Wtt ,"""- Our ir '-,-.rut dnd etre{ iiv" only (hen it ia
heard by the pr"prred rnd re.pplive par5 or peopie who ha\e shared, or can share in some way, the cultural and individual expednces of its creaiors.

We shall do to look at music in the same way. And so, '\,eU before I work back to the surfac pattems of music from ihe cultural and social processes to which I have reduced them, before I discuss the oriSins of music in culture and society, I want to dispose of two kinds of evolutionary approach to music history which are of no use in seekin8 an answer to the question, How musical is nan? They are useless chiefly be cause they can never be proved. The first approach seks to ''understand the meanins and Iorms of music by speculaiins about its historical origins in bird song, mating calls, and a host of oihs reactions of some mythical "primitive" man to his environment. Since the chief sources of inlormation Ior this guesswork have been, and can only be, the musical practices of livins people, and a knowledge of music's orisins is useful only for understanding these practics betier, the exercir is c1arly fuiile.

Music, therefore, confirms what is aheady present in society and culture, and it adds nothing new except patterns of sound. But it is not a lurury, a spare-time aciivity io be sandwiched between sports and art in the hendmaster's report. Even if I believed that music was, or should be, merely a means of decoraiins social events, I would still have to explain how rhe music of many composers can exciie me although the cavortinss of their patrons are a bore. When E. M. Forster said, "History develops, art stands still," he was referrins to their subjct matier, io the fact that history is about events bur Jrr i. Jbour reelina,. lhrl i, why we.rn Jl\o.dy 'ni'io.y
thar

I The second kind of

with
the, development

althoush art is a reflction of history. I share the Venda view that music is essential for the very survival of man's humanity, and I found it signilicant thai as a subject for discussion they senerally sreeted music more enthusiastically and with nore erudiiion than history, though
54

.iii. 6iit i* i;u"",

evolutionary approach is concerned musical styles as ihings in themselves. It tends to assume that there is a world history of music, in which man began by using one or two tones and then graduaily discovered more and more tones and patterns of sound- It leads to such siatements as: "In the growth of great civilizations, music is the first of the arts to emerSe and ihe last to develop." Such remarks usually ignore the fact that our knowledge of past music i, ofien limited to what literate classes chose to recogrize or record of such activities. Some white missionaries in the Sibasa disirict, for instance, were asionishd that it could take more than six monihs to learn all there was io know about Venda music because their ears were closed to the varity and complexity of its sounds. The absence oF information on musi. in the rcords of the

of

I
a
F

56

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUSIC

57

elite does not mean rhat there wa, no good music in the lives of ordinary people; nor is rhe appareni simplicity oI some coniemporary nusical styles evidence thar rheir music is a suNival fron a stage in the history of world music. In 1s85, Alerander lohn Ellis, the man who is senerally regarded as the Iather of eihnomusicology, dmonsrrated thar musical

CiDiLizatian, Hugo Leichtentitt's Music, HistorV and ldeas, and Alec Harrnan's and Wilfrid Mellers'volumes on Man and His Mrsic, in which the origins of certain aspects of musical

style are sought in the social movemnts and philosophical

conventionE of the time, and studies rhat irac musical development in terms of more tones to the ociave, more thirds to the chord, and more instruments to the orchestra. Where, for insiance, would our speculative music hisiorian

ll
t;
I

.cale' rre rot naturrl bur hiBhlv drtitiLial. dnd rha law. of acousti.s may be irrelevant in rhe human organization of sound. In spite of his timely waining, rhere are srill some ethnomusicologisrs who wdre as if it were thei rask to fill
in the gaps oI nusical history by describing the musical styles oI exotic cultures. Even if they do not say ir in so many Nords, their techniques of analysis betray ajTection for an evolutionary view of music. Musical styles cannot be heard as -lag''n .hF e\olution ot ru5iL. d< judBed in rprmr of onp pa icular civilization's concepts of music. Each style has its own hi,,ory. and t. pre.en- .tJre represerlc orly or" srage in its own dvelopmnr, rhis may have followed a separare and unique course, although its surface parrerns may suSgest contacts with other styles. Moreover, even though people are sometimes mor conservarive about music than about other aspects of culture, it is hard to believe that nr some parrs of the world there has been no musical innovation for thousands
Speculative histories of world music are a complete l{aste of elTort. Even if we knew how musical styles had changed development of music, the knowledge woutd be of only ency-

in the cultures which are ciied as evidence oLiases in the

clopedic ;nterest- It would give us little or no insight into human creativity in music unless we had corresponding evi-

place the Venda in his hisiory oI world music? There are mlirds that have five-, six-, or seven-tone scales, and sets of reed pipe, that use either five or seven tone scales- The nelodies of sonss may use anything from one to seven tones, selected from various heptaionic modes. Songs that use five tones may be based on a pentntonic scale or on selections of five rones Irom a heptatonic mode (like ihe "Ode to loy" in Beethoven's Ninth Synphonyl). If our music historian givs the Venda ihe credit of producing ihe heptatonic scale ihemslves and does not assume thai ihey must hav borrowed ir from a "highr" cL ture, I suspect that he might describe their music as beinS in a stage of transition from pentatonic to heptatonic music a fascinating example of musical evolution in action! The only trouble about such a description is that social and cultural evidence contradicis it. For xarnpl, the Venda used a heptatonic xylophone and heptatonic red pipes long before they adoptd ihe pentatonic red pipes of their souihem neighbors, the Pedi, who in tum sny that they adoptd and adapted the hptatonic reed pipe music of the Venda. According io evolutionary iheodes of
music history, the Venda should be going backward like the Chinere, who selected a pentatonic scal for their music althoush they knew and had used "bigser and btter" scalesl It may be argud that I have used one kind of speculative history in order to thror{ out another, and that ihe staied cultural orisins o{ Venda and Pedi music may be no less ethnoceniric and inaccurate, as ralionalizations of a system, than

d"n.e or rhe.ulru'Jl and so,i,t en\i,onmn,

.r

wh:.h.he

musical developnents took place. On rhe other hand, if cut tural and social history is well documented, srudies of music history are both possible and useful. There is a vast dilTerence between studies such as Paul Henry Lang,s Music in Westen

r
ll:

HOW MUSICAL 15 MAN I

a concept of musical evolution that explains paitems of sound

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

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59

*
lp

dilTerent r!ay. To this objection I would reply that in - udy ng ru.i,d. .\ rpm' I Jm prim.rrily (on.erned !\:h histodcal /./e?nn.e. Even if we knew exactly how the Venda aat tshilrano, dotnba, and a heptatonic scale (and I doubt if we shall ever kno{r, and even if ii were true that the heptaionic music had evolved from the pentatonic, it would not contribute much lo our underslanding of the Venda musical systm or of the development of musicality in Venda socieiy. I am intcrcsted in Venda music nore as the product of human mhds in Venda cultue and sociciy than as a siage in the history of world music. In askins how musical is rnan, I am obviously concrned tith all aspccts oi the origins of muric, but not with spcculative origins, or even with o gins which a forign historlan thinks he can deLecl, but which ;rre not rcognized by the creators of Lhc muslc- The odgins of music that are those s'hich are to be Ioun.{ in ihe psychology and in the cultural and social environmenl of its creators, in the assem b1y oI processcs that generate the patterns of sound. If nusic expresses attiiudes, we should expect correlations beiweer the different attituds and the palterns of sound with which

in a

"which has been much used to express an 'incomins' painful emotion, in a context of finality: acceptance of, or yielding to gdef; discouragemeni and depression; passive sulTering; and th despair connecred wjrh death" (p. 133). Thus he compares a phras of Gibbons' madrisal "What Is Our Life?" wiih the openine of the finale oI Tchaikovsky's Prtfteri4ae Symphony:

they are expressed.

To whal cxicnt is mrsic a "language of emoiions, akin io spccch," as Dcryck cooke has claimed in The Langunge al M'/s;.? The thesis must be considcred in the context in which it is proposdr Europcan tonnl music beineen 14oo and 1953. Cooke has shown that specific musical fisurcs seeem to be used asain and aSain to convey similar feelinss, and that the use of this kind of cod is an essential feature of musical communication. His argumcnt goes a long way toward bridging the gap between formal and xpressive analyses of music, and iorrard showins eractly how music can be described as the xprcssion of ceriain atiitudcs. lor instance, hc describes the descendins pro8ression 5 (4) 3 (2) I (MrNoR) as a fi8ure

Cooke's thesis impressed ne at first because it seemd to nake sense in terms of my own musical experien.e. For in stance, I had noiiced and felt the musical and expressive similaity between the pleadins melody in the "Recordare lesu Pie" of Benjamin Britten's Wat Requiem (see Example 10) and ihe fisure with which Mahler accompanies the nostalsic words, "Ich sehne mich, O Freund, am deiner Se e die Schoenheit dieses Abends zu seniessen," in "Der Abscheid," ihe lasi sons ol Das Lied oon rlet Erde (Universat Edition, sections 23,30, and 53 to the end) Gce Example 11). The fisure 1-3-4-5 (MrNoR) also opens the spiritual, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (see Example 12). Same figure, same kind of feelinS. Deryck Cooke quotes other instances oI this 6gure and describes ii as "an assertion of sorrow, a complaint, a protest against misfortune" (lrnguage of Music, p.122).

60

HOW MUSICAI, ]S MAN?

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Then in the Tenth, there is an ascend;ng scale which is played in descending groups of rising tones (bar 327 oI ihe lasi

Again, although I have delibraiely never read any analyses of Mahler's Ninth and Tenth syrnphonis because I first want to find out what the music says io fle, I react quite definitely to two parallel sequences of intervals in their final movements (in the case of the Tenth, I refer to Deryck Cooket perfoming version). First, in th iwenty+hird bar of the lasi movement of the Ninth, the first violins play the tones of a desce'?dt"s scale, bui in /tsinE pairs of fallins tones.

in words what I feel when I hear this music, because Mahler explicitly staied thai he Ielt the need to express hirnself in music only when "indefinable enoiions make thenselves fe1t," and if they could hive been expressed in lansuase he would have don so. I will merely say that for me they express someihinS about liIe and death and man's sirussle for fulfillment and spiritual peac. The final chords of ihe Tenih sem to express ultimate iesis-

I will nake no aitempr to

express

62

HOW MUS]CAL ]S MAN?

whether ihey were wdtien by Mahler or by Deryck

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUS]C

63

nation

l"

Now, have I received the aititudes that prompted Mahler io compose those notes, or have I reinterpreted them in the lisht of my own experience? And does anyone else feel about them in ihe same way? Am I out on a limb, like the novices i^ the tshikaflda Sirl's initiaiion, listening to Mahler bui not harins him? Cr'r anyone else heai those notes as I do, or as Mahler did? Is the purpose of musical experience to be alone in company? Is there no hope of establishins common rela tionships ihrough music except where there js a fairly specific extramusical program? Could "soul" nusic a(feci Black Amcricans if its lorms were not associated wiih a whole set oi eatramusical experiences wlich Black Americins share? In spite of the beautifully stated antiwar message of Bdtten's War llequien, can all ihose who share his sentiments share the jntense message of his music? Does it renlly mean the sane to the Russian, Enslish, and Cerman solo singers who mnde the first recordins of th work? To those who share aspects of Brittent cultural, social, and musical background, th music may enhance the pity of Wilfrd Owen's poeiry and creat a greater horror of r{ar than could the poeiry on its own. For oihers, the poetry may be a stirring experience, but the music a bore. We cannot say that they shar the experr encc of the poetry more than that oI the music, because they, like Bdtten and most of his listeners, did not share Owen's ultimately fatal expedence of trench warfare. We can only say that they share the expelience of th convention of the poetry morc asily than th convention of the music. Althoush "'nusic can rel,eal the nature of feelinss wiih a .letail and iruth thaL language cannot approach/'(to quote Susanne Langer, Ph;/osaphy h a Neu) Key lNew York: Mntor Books, 19481, p. 191), ii is also tied ro the culture in a way in rlhich the descriptive capacitics of languag are not. Consider the elements of British and European cuhure in the

music of Bdtien's Wat Requiem and, again, in ihis description I shall speak oI ih work as it strikes me: I have not read any commentaries on it. The vry first two bars oI the ,ork set the stase for death, with the tollins of a bell and the intoning of the opening words of th Requiem Mnsssi;u
otr,l

sol",r I

i:

!6

Later, the sounds of boys' voices and an orsan recall the hope and innocence of childhood,

',8:ii;l:,,,8,4
ji.l

HOW MUS]CAL IS MAN?

and brass insiruments and busle-call

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUSIC

65

notifs recnll warfare.

Bul drums and trumpeis may also take us to heaven

Musical imitations of ih sounds of shrapnel accompany the oI Owen's jaunty soldiers sinsins, "Out there we've 'vords walked quite friendly up to Death." Now it is the shrapnel that sings aloft, but a few momenis before, in ihe "Rex tre mendae, majestatis," it was heaven. The military associations of druns are reinforced rhen they are used to refer to the firins of artillery.

and

divine iudSment in ih "Dies Irae," and Britten makes a powerlul contrast between "Tuba mitum spargens sonum" and "Busles sans, saddenins the evenlns air"

rl'5
ju,r

66

HOW MUS]CAL IS MAN?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN MUSIC

67

aARITONtr

so]-o pl

r'!?r

the slorious trumpets of God, and then ihe bloody busles To someone who has been imnersed in the cufture of rhe composer/ ihe sounds Bdtten uses and the contrasis he makes
between ihm cnn be hearFrcnding and poisnant. For one whose school friends have been killed in actlon, it has the same kind oI effect as the contrasting phorographs of cricket fields, choirboys, rockets, and war which Peter Brook showed at the beginnins of his lilm of Lard af lhe Flies. In rhis case,

my reactions to the music may be closer to the leelings Britien had when he wrote ii than they were in the case of Mahler's Ninih and Tenth synphonies. Bui have Bdtten and Mahler really usd a lan8uase thai is in any way akin to speech? Composers acquire characteristics of style by listening to the music of the past and preseni. Britten acknowledges a debt to Mahler, and boih Bdtten and Mahler speni some time in the United States. But is there really a common factor in their use of the same fisure in the War Re4 iem a d Dns Lied wn der Erde? And is it likely that the creators oI "Nobody Knows" would have used the same musical lansoa8e as Bditen and Mahler, when it is clear (to me, at any rate) ihat spirituals are a development of African principles of music making rather than an imitation of the European? (For insrance, the basic merer of "Nobody Knows" is 3+3+2, and the apparenily un Airican melody may have begun as the lower part of a charactedstically African "falling" melody, which was given the harmonic treaiment that is iypical of African music and not necessarily borrowed from Europe.) Just as Britten assiSns differeni meanings to the same timbre in the coniexi of a single work, so the same pattern of melody may have a variety of expressive meaninss, and in fact it is ihis variety in the contexi of unlty which may add to the e)(pressive power oI music. In Vivaldi's The Fa r Seasons (Op. 8), snnilar scales and arpeggios depict different subiects //Autranging from the staggering oI drunken peasants in umn" to icy winds in "Winter." Even withoui a knowledge of the sonnets that inspired the music, the meanings of the simi lar mu'i.rl figure, rr" ' l"a,l\ d,ffFren' whPn heard in rh".ontext of the work. Asain, the marchiike melodies of Mahlels Third and Sixth synphonies, and ihe March in Act 1, scene 3 of Beq's Wazzeck, when Marie is admidng th sergeani

major, have nothins to do with feelinss nboui war' Their musical and dramatic coniexis suggest entirely different

68

HOW MUSICAL IS MA N?

C1]T,TT]RE AND SOCIETY

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69

None of these musical meanings is absolute even vr'ithin rhe same European musical tradition, in which the rules are clearly stated and the system of leamins them has been similar for centuries. They depend noi only on the context oI the work, but also on th musical convenrions of the time. Much ha. bpen wri.ten dbout Lhe use ot musicJi tigure- lo illu. rJte ideas, espcially in the nusic of J. S. Bach. But ihe music of Bach and Handel cannot be lully understood without referen.c io lhe eighteenlhlenlurv riew ot the world. in hhi, h ae"rl^criL theo'ie in.luded d ,ompli.ated docfline ot emo tional expression going back to certain corelaiions of rhythm and melodic line with various emotions" (Hugo reichGnrriti, Music, History an.1 ldeas [Cambtiaie, Mass.; Harvard University Press, 1e461, p. u2). For instance, F mrjor was the key of the pastoral idyll, and F-shary major was a transcendental key: "Handel's enine harmonic system and style of modulations is based on rhe underlyins meanins of the various keys" (ibid., p. 1sa). Similarly, if northrn Indian music claims to be able to bring out /'a nuance of sadness, or of love . . . by careful and impermanent use of the intervals that correspond with these emotions" (Alain Dani6lou, Northetn Indian Mlsic [London: Halcyon Press, aes4], 2:9), it is bcause the music is heard and perforned in the contexr of Hindu culture and of a rnusical sysrem rhat is intricaiely

The musical conventions of the eightenth cenrury siand between the Gibbons madrigal and the Tchaikovsky symphony io which I referred earlier. And so I Iind ir hard to accept that there has been a continuous musical rradftion be tween England in 1612 and Russia in 1893, in which certain musical figures have had correspondine emorional connotations. The only jusrification for such an argument would be thai the emotional siSnificance of certain intervals arises from Iundamental features oI human physiology and psychology. If this is so, some relarionships btwen musical intervals and

human feelings ought to be universal. An example from Africa will be suf{icient to question such a theory. It is not sufficient to dismGs the theory altosether, because it is possible that Venda musical conventions have suppressed an innate desire in Venda people to express theii emoiion3 in a specific, universal way. Fisure 6a shows a Venda childrent sons in which small variations in ihe melody are seneraied by changes of speech tone. When I first learned io sing it, the Venda iold me that I was doing wetl, but that I sans 1ik a Tsonga (their neighbors to ihe south). I sang all word phrases to the melody of ihe first, and I thought thai my fault lay in ihe pitch of my intervals. Eventually, when I realized that the melody should vnry, they accepted my performance as truly Venda even if I deliberaiely sang oui of iune. The pattrn of intervals is considered more importani than their exact pitch, because in certain parts of a melody they are expected to refleci changes in speech ione. Fisure 6b shows a childrent song in which the speech tone patiems of the firsi phrase generate the basic melody, and subsequent vadations in words bins about rhythmic, as well as melodic, vaiations. Such rhythmic changes,are someiimes catled asogic accent, in orthodox nusical analysis. Valiations in melody and rhythm may therefore lndicate not musical preferenceE, but the incidental consequences of changes in speech tone, which are ihemselves snerated by the use oI diffrnt words whose sequence is Seneratd by the "story" of the song. Essential generative factors in the music of ihese and other Venda songs are therefore extramusical. Pa s of the melodies are formal repreEentaiions of paiterns of speech tone, which are also formal and not necessarily relaied to the meanins and expressive purpose o{ the words. Relationships betwen the specific emotional .ontent of the words and the shape of iis associated melody may exisi, but ihey would be coincidenial.

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

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71

:L

11

J-

combinations of phonens s.uch, as ee, ahee, huuelele wee' yawee, and. so forth, they giv ihemselve greater freedom of musical xpression. This is important, because it is ihe pari of the shared expedence o{ musical activity which may becone transcendental in its el{ect on individuals. In the development oI a tshigombela sons durins a performance that may last from ten io more than thirty minures, the straightforward call
and response is elaboraied into a quasicontrapuntal sequence,

and words are abandoned. Durins the course of freer musical //on top" because expression, a variety of melodies come out in ihe excitement of the dance the pitch of the girls' voices rises, and when they cannot reach a tone they transpose it

down a

fiith or an octave. Thus, falling intervals nav

some-

times express the feeling,

!i , r! i n_ r"i ri
= high srcelb

r.;;"( ,r.il*: riim u

ri-r":,rr

br

i=toltrsrcclosoftgi1drpblrcrodv

6. Parts ol t@o Vehda .h Arcfl's sangs, illustrdtins sone efects ol chdnsins speech tanes aa the pdfietus ol nelodv.
FrcqRE

This does noi mean that the Venda are unmoved by music, or that they regard it as a mere extension o language. The treatment of a Aitls' tEhigombela dance song illusrrares this very clearly. The tendency is for rhe music to become more musical as the peraormance proceeds. Even in solo vocal music like the children's sonss, ihe form of melodies can be divided into call and response sections, reflectinS a sociai situation in which someone "so\\s" ( sit11a) a song, and others "thunder in response"( baunela) a metaphor derived from horiicul ture. Ir is only in the call section of rhe songs thar melodis follow the speech-tone patterns of words, and also the seneral rule that each syllable of a word may be accompanied by

"I can't reach the next tone"! There are also relationships between variations in the social and enotional content of a tshisombela dance and the form of the muslc, so that a formal analysis of different performances is also an xpressive analysis. But unless the forrnal analysis begins as an analysis of the social siiuation that senerates the music, it is meaningless One has only to listen io perlormances on an aftemoon when ihe girls are Iew in aumber and bored, and on another occasion when ihere is a good turnout, an appreciative audience, and an atmosphere of excitemenr and concem, to realize how and {,hy two performances of the same song can be eniirelv diffeint in expressive power and in forrn The number and quality of vadations in rhythm depend on ihe ability of ihe drumners and dancers, bui it is not simply a matter of running throush the gamut of siandard paiterns which ihev
know. When and how these variations are introduced is what gives ihe musj. iis expressive power; and this dePends on

the commitment of those present and ihe quality of the shared experience that comes into being among performers,
and between performers and audience.

only one tone. If performers substiiute for words various

iniroduced Deryck Cooket theory

of the

language of

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

music because, although I cannot accept it/ it is undeniably thought-provoking. I have concluded my criticism with examples from Venda music in order to show ,hy an eihnomusicological approach is necessary even in the study of European music btween 14oo and 1953. Cooke cannot be faulied for choosins a particular arei of music, but, because his theory is not general enough to appiy io ffiy culiure or socieiy, it is auiomalically inadequate for European music. It is not suf{icienlly context sensitive- Tonal music between 14oo and 1953 cinnot b isolaied as a thing in itslf, especially il it is to b related to human emotions. The aesthetic conventions of the eighteenih century cannot be considered apart from the erperience of lhe social groups who were or were not involved in ihem. lf music serves as a sign or synbol of dii{erent kinds of human experience, iis performance may help to channel the felings oI listeners in certain directions. A composer who hopes to communicate anyihing more than pretty sounds nust be aware oI the associarions that dilTer eni sounds conjure up in ihe mhds of di(erent social sroups. Ii is not simply a maiter of expressing feelnrs by relaiing sounds in the context of a sin8le piece of music, as in Bditen's Wat Requien. The principles of musicnl orSanization musi be related to social experimces,- of which listeninS to an-d performing music form one aspect. The minuei is not simply a musical fom borrowed from dancing: it has entirely different social and emotional associations before and after the French Revolution. From a distance, th forms, iechniques, and building rna terials of music may seem to be cumulative, like a technological tradition. But music is not a branch of technology, thoush it is affected by technolosical developnents. It is more like philosophy, which may also give a superficial impression oI being evolutionary. Each apparently new idea in music, like a new idea in philosophy, does not really grow out of previously expressed idas, thoush it may well be limited by them.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

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73

emphasis which grows out of a composer's a realizaiion oI certain aspects his environment, experience o{ of ihe experiences common to all human beinss which seem io him io be particularly relel'ant in the light of contmporary
events and personal expedences.

It is a new

The most importani thing about a cultural iradition at any tnne in its history is the way in which its human components relate io each other. It is in the context of these relaiionships ihat emotional expedences are had and shared. Artistic enjoyment is "based essentiaily upon the reaciion of our minds to form" (Franz Boas, Pimittue Art lNew York: Dover, 1e55 (1e27)1, p. 3ae), but the forns are produced by human minds whore workins habiis are, I believe, a synthesis of given, universal systems of operation and acquired, cultural patterns of expression. Since these patterns are always acquned through and in the context of social relationships and their associaid emotions, rhe decisive style forming facior in any attempt to express feeling in music must be its socinl contnt. If we want io find the basic organizing principles ihat alfect the shapes of patterns of music, we must look beyond the cul tural conventions oI any century or society to the social situations in which ihey are applied and to which ihey refer' The selection and use of scales may be the produci oI social and cultural procsses that are not necessarily related to the acoustical properties of sound. In Venda, the use of pentaionic, hexatonic, and heptatonic scales reflecrs a process of social change, in which diffeient sroups, l\]ith dif{erent musicat styles, hale become incorporated into a lar8er society. It is strange that even a sociologist should ignore similar social processes in the development of the European tonal systen. In his study of The Rational and SociaL Faundatians of Muslc (trans. and ed. Don Martindale, Iohannes Riedel, and Ger trude Neuwnth [Carbondale, Ill.: Southen Illinois University Press, 1e581), Max Weber claimed that the European musical system was rationalized from within the tone systemr it was

74

HOW MUSICAL ]S MAN?

with real distances on instruments, such
as

CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN

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75

concerned not

equidistance between frets oi Rute holes, but wiih harmonic distances. "Th appearance of iheories dealing wirh the dissonances rnarks the beginning of the special musical development of the Oc.ident" (p. z5), because ,dissonaice is rhe basic elment of chordat music, morivating the progression from chord to chord" (p. 6). Weber attribures rhis developmeni to the scientific attitude that emerged al ihe rime of the Renaissance. Although he acknowledges thar theory follows practic and that "modem chordal harmony belonged ro prac tical music lons before Rameau and the encyclopaedists pro-

came from the Netherlands and England, wheie ihe peasanis had become Iree durins the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-

tries, respectively. As the peasants/ political importance Srew/ so their dance music becam incorporated in the music writien for the church by professional composers It is possible thar th predominance of ihirds and sixths in

it with a theoreric basis" (p. 103), he does noi 80 further and show how harmonic music arose out oI poly, phony, and that polyphony was ar first modal and disting uished from monody more by its rhythm ihan by its ronal
vided
The polyphony of early European music is in principle noi unlike the polyrhythm of much African music; in boih cases, performance depends on a number of people holdins separate parts wirhin a framework of meiric unity, bur rhe principle is applied "vertically" to melodis in polyphony, and ,,hodzontally" to rhythmic figures in polyrhyihm. The source of both techniques is surely in cultural concepts and social activity, such as dancins. The change in European musical technique from the monody oI plainchant to polyphony depended on mensuraiion, on the strict organizarion of rhyrhm so that the diffeient singins parts would fit. And mensuration is the chief feature of dance music, which was a vital aciiviry of the peasanis. The mdieval church had allowed onty plain chant, lrhich was intended to express the unity of society within the framework of a church dedicaied ro Cod; its siyle was completely divorced from the regular rhythms of secular dancing and the unsophisticated "roni. dominant,, retarion ships that occur in lively pieces such as "Sumer is icumen in." Ii is not surprising that the early masters of polyphony

th music of Iohn Dunsiable, and of fourths in the music of the Flemish composers, may be explained as a legacv from the popular mtrsic of theil societies (ln Africa todav, socieiies who sing in parallel motion show preferences for certain intervals.) Asain, the remarkabte developmeni oI polvPhonic music in England during the sixteenth century mav have been stimulaled as much by the advent of Wlsh nonarchs nnd thir followers as by the musical invention of individual com-

in the first hau oI the fifieenth ceniury. \Nhen the Tudor King Henry VII cane to the ihrone in 1485, he reposers

eriablished Welsh influence in England; and Welsh popular music had been noted for its polyphonic iechnique since at least the twelfth ceniury A composer's style is "diciated by the kind of human beings and human emotions" he "iries to bring into his afi, using th9 language elements of his iime," savs Sidnev Finkel

stein in A/f and Societv (tNew York: Intelnational Publishers, 1e471, p.2e). The influence of popular culture is strons in the works of nany great composers/ who have stdven to express themselves, and hence their societv, in the
broadest terms. Lutheran chorales were deliberatelv derived from "Iolk songs," and Bach organized nuch of hls music round them. Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert, in particular, orsanized their music round the Austrian "folk" idiom. Bar t6k, Kodily, laniiek, Copland, and numerous other composers of nntional schools have found rhe greatest siimulus in the sounds of their own societies. In ihe third ind fourth votttmes ol Man and LIis Mrsic, and especiallv i^ The Sanattt Principle (fron c. 1750) (London: Rockliff, 1es7), Wilftid

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77

Mellers has shown how dance forms, the tone and stress of the .omposer's own language, and particularly the melodies of "Iolk" music, have all played as vital a part in the process ot assimilation and creation as have conventions of musical style. He has drawn attention to the successive dominmce of vocal and instrumental forms in the development of tech-

I4EURQPEAN
CHU RCHE S

tsscHooL

MUSIC

"art" music, and has linked these developments with chdges in the social oder (Wilfrid Mellers, Music and Saciety [London: Dobson, 1,esof, pp. a1, 1,32). Curt Sachs has likwise discussed the influence of so.ieties' styles of dancins on thir melodies (n Wo d History ol the Datrce [Nw York: W. W. Norton, 1937j, pp. 1a1.-2o3). Changes in musical style have generally been reflections of changes in socity. For example, aftr about A.D. 12oo in Europe, kniShts and other secular powers tumed increasingly "to the people, whose popular Etyle of sin8ing thy adapted to thir more lefined tarte" (Leichtentritt, Mltsic, Histoty and Ideas, p. 60l.In turnina a ,ay from the social dominance of the church, they also rejcted its music. Sirnilarly, the various styles of Venda music reflect the variety of iis social arolrps and the degree of their assimilaiion inio th body politic. Musical performances are audible and visible sisns of rocial and political sroupin8s in Venda society, and Figure 7 shows their pattrn in the social structure. Music in the traditional styl is contained in concentric circles syrnbolic of Venda houses and dance patieins, and nontraditional music is in rectangles, sjmilar to the European house desi8ns that many educated people have adoptd. The initialion schools ohusha, tshiknnda, a d domba are directly controlled by rulers, while muruwiu and s rsrui are privately owned, but under the aurpices of rulers and tradiiionally oriented. Together with the possession dances (nsoma dza midzinu\, which are held by family cult groups with the permission of rulrs, each of these insiitutions is regarded very seriously and, called, ngoma (literally, drum). Other types of music may be referred to as
niques of European

EPARATIS
C HU dC HES

iiii"il ?ijr

musrc wrth nirumbo orn uuryleo

rnirulrto, tiurqwo,ngomo druns

:,ul'"'?l:$..'"^",'-^.,." t..", """,*-*^* "'*,.-*. 2."*,. *^*".- .^-*,*

^",".""',""".,"-"'-'" 4,"..",".", . .*.,,"

""

",."'

' fr tU*;;5'+:i'-*P:':at+S+:t
FtLuAE

;
aqd

7. Diasqa haaiagle dotion-hip brtur"a nusical n Venda societv Conpa'' uith FBurc s ,.,i"t

"u*t,i

T
HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?
CIJLTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUSIC

79

t
I'

an impoftant part of Venda social and politcal tife. Thc European run churches came and scr themselves up in rornl opposition io traditional Venda life, but schoots and separa iisi churchcs have devetoped music thar reflects ihc syncretism oI thcir social life. The variety and vigor of Venda mrsical slyles are rhc pro duct of a political siruaiion similar ro thal in Austria in ihe late eightcenth ceniury, when promineni families and princes "rivallcd each oiher in the ex.ellence of their privare orchestras" (ibid., p. 173). The diversity or musicat sryles reflects a diversity that underlics the apparent homogeneiry of Venda culture and society, .nd hence both the hisrorical process that has brought ihcm at oul, and their mennins in contemporarv lifc. There are onl]' iwo types of potitically regr ated com-

amusements (n,ramro), but this does not mcan they are noi

tial featur of adult life, and thelr resular performance syn bolize the imporiance of narriage, childbirth, and insiitulion
alizcd motherhood.

munal music that can rcally brins rraditionally oriented

Venda togethr. Thy are ishiLond, rhe narionat dance, and ,o,Jln, the premarital initiation dance, which used to be per

formed by youihs and sirls but is now performe.t almost

exclusively by girls because migrant labor and the growth of school education havc changed rhe pattern of Venda rural life. The music and dance of rhe to,rra initiarion schoot providc an astonishing illusiration of rhe wa]' in which formal
and expressive elements may be combined ro portray symbol ically in music thc essential themes of a cult1lle. What makes them all the nore remarkable is rhar the process of crcarion *'as almost .ertainly not self-conscious, but the forms are systematically related to thci expressive prrpose. The Venda

explah thit domLc has been wirh rhem for cenruries, and they have nuch to say on the frnctions oi the inftiation school and the beauty and value of rhe chief ritlal dance. They make no cornment on the form of thc dance and its music, excepi Ia say that ".Lomba is do'rla; ftt an imporrant itc (nso'nd)." And yer rhe music and dance depici an essen_

On the surfice, donrn sounds like a regular picce of Venda rnuslc in callresponse fonn, with polyrhyih ic accompani ment and musical developmeni of the response. The circular form o[ the dance is characterisiically Venda, and with a lot of sirls in relativcly small dancin8 srounds, it is not unreasonable thai thy shoutd holcl each other. The movement has been wronsly called "The I'ython Dancc" in illustraicd jor]r nals and tourist brochures, in which it is cilcd as one oa the most interesting things about the Venda prcsumably beca se ir is perfoined by a chain of alnost naked maidens And yet thc dance movemeni, the kind of musical dcveloP meni which the response is given, and the sisnals for thc begimring and the end of the dance movements are all gen rated bv ihe expressivc functions of lhe music Whai is mor,I could ncver have discovered this ii I had not attended scores of performances of ihe dincc in di(erent parts of Venda, recordcd hunclreds ol the word phrases suns by rhe solo ist, noted thc rlationshlps among words, dance, .nd nusic, and learned the csoteric syrnbolism of the school l had to imneree myself in Venda culture and society in order to understand this pro.lu.t of Vcnda ninds. The analysis of don*r I prescni is derived from a conbination of different kinds of ethnographic hformauon l do noi claim that it G the last nord on the slbject, bui at leasi it is losical and it nrises out of the cthnography- When I began the analysis,I had no idea how lt would turn ott, and I never suspected that the iormal and expressive clements would be so unified. My conclusions wcrc thtusi on m by the regularities and correspondences that emersed lrom the material I h:,1 rollccrcd in the field. Domha \. the last oi a seies of initiation school$ that prepare sirls for marriage. Although there is much emphasis

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HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUSIC

81

on sex and reproduction, the schools are not concerned solely with fertiliiy. They are designed to prepare girls for institu-

stop moving and lean over ioward the centr circl, symbolizins detumescence.

of the dancing

tionalized motherhood, toaether with all rhe rights and obligaiions that go with it. There is evidence rhat the contnt and form of the school have changed over the years, particularly since iis "nationalization" by the ancesrors of the ruling clans. In the past, when dom&a was a ritual of the commoner clans, the emphasis on physical srowth seems to have been stronger. The tulins clans have expanded the political sis nificance of the initiation schools, but the basically physical orie'1rir.on oi rl-e mL-i. rrd dJn.e remains Each performance of the dance symbolizes sexual intercourse, and successive performances symbolize the buildins up of ihe fetus, for which regular intercourse is rhought to be necessary. The music and the dance are not meant to be sexy: they symbolize the mystical act of sexual communion, concepiion/ the growih of the fetus, and childbiith. After three warning drumbeats, the voice of the male soloist, the master of initiation, "pierces the air like an arrow," like a phallus. and the g rl. replv hith d low rnurmuring re:pon\e The man's volce begins on what is functionalty similar to a dominani in Venda tonality, and rhe Sirts' voices take rhe response to ihe "tonic," the point of relaxation. Three diffeiently piiched drums entel in polyrhythm, iwo agninsr three,
and the son8 is under way. repeats

There is a fire in ihe center of the dancins place, which must be kept alight ihroughout the duration of the school.

-:

i Ti',
3 ---

t'

The sirls are beins symbolically roused. After a few of the basic melody, the master sings "the river reed

unwinds," and the girls, who are in a line holding each other,s bodies, begin to step around the drums. The river reed and the line oI girls are both phallic symbols, and the beginning of the dance movement symbolizes the entry oI the phallus. The girls immediately begin quasi orgastic singing which they call khrlo. As in the tslt/cona national dance, hoclet technique is employed. After several minules, when the master sings the word-phrase "grdr has stirred up your entrails," rhe girls

11T I
I

11

1r

I
I I
ll
I

a2

HOW MUSICAL IS MA N?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN MUSIC

83

Mo du

n.-na, ta lhnmu-ko

)))

-Yo-$ce,
yo

l'
- nec, heel-----,-I

64

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUSIC

85

-1=--i--:..+-i+-:

srEPs

or MDA!! (c!dudP,

---:--r--+

_E-Fi_EE-E

The "white" ashes symbolize the semen rhat is considered necessary Ior the srowth of the fetus. The swingins bass drum is called "the head of the child" in the esoteric symbot isrn of the shool. At rhe besinnins of damba, it hes on the ground. After three or four months (thoush somerimes less, it seems), ihere is a ceremony at which the drun is ',cooked,, and then hung from the crossbar. This is like rhe movins of the child in the womb, symbolized by the dance circle. The symbolism is not conclusive about th drums. bur ft seem6 ihat their diFerent beats express the heartbears of farher, On the last night oI rhe initiation school, rhe girls dance with their hands above their heads, symbolizins the pains of

childbirth and a night of labor. On the lollowins mornin8 they are stripped and washed, and dressed in iheir sraduaiion clothes. They are carried, like babies, on th backs of thei "mothers" up to the ruler's courtyard, where ihv dance rlomba for the last iime ns novices- Thncefodh ihev are ready for mardage and {or fuller particlpation in Venda society. One function of ihe music and dance was to create a baby synbolically, and, as if to reinforce this, the bass drum is removed from the crossbar for ihe 6na1 rites There is an important relationship beiween the music of tlomba and of tshlkona, \\hich reflcis the function of the two types of music in Venda society. A complete sei of reed pipes is called mut|ah, The liord refers to the set and not to the number of tones to an octave- The sane word is used io refer to a set of keys on the mbira and the xvlophone. However, names are given io ihe notes in such a wav that iheir relaiionships within the ociave and their musical func tions are recognized. The chief ton of a set of heptatonic reed pipes is ca|Ied phaln, and rhe tone an octave above it is ca11ed, phalana, ot "lirtle phala" The tone above phaln is called thakhula, the "lifter," because ii leads the melodv back down onJo ihe chief tone. (li is functionally like a leadins note in European music.) Every tone has a companion tone/ a litrh belo('. This is not a dvice limiied to tshikana. it is implicit in every Venda melody based on heptatonic modes The companion tones in a pentatonic scale differ because of the spacins of ihe intervals, but the basically social principle that a ione must have a companion tone still applies, and ii may be expressed explicitly in ihe "harmonies" improvised
In instrumenial music the interval of a tdtone is permiited, but in vocal music it is avoided as a chord An interesiing contrast exGts between tshikona and the khulo al domb|, i^ which girls sing with their voices almost the same pattern thai men play on their reed pipes (see lisure 8) The per-

86

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

IN MUSIC

mitted tritone is noi in the same posiiion in the pattem of tshikona (c" /fl" ]n sa) as ii would be in the pattern of f,h,lo (second chord in 8b), if it were not avoided. This is videnc that /rhalo is nof a simple transposirion af lshil@nat ]f it wre, ihe avoided tdtone {'ou1d appear, as in fshikona, in dne

penultimate/ and not in the second chord. Klulo is, raiher, a Lrrn5lormdlion that i5 Seaerdrpd ov lhe differelt lun.lion oi the music. Thus the companion tones of the mea's tshikona \B in sa, sc, ind 8e) have been selected as the chief mode of the gnls' khulo, for which a furiher set of companion tones has been taken (C in sb, 8d, and 8e). It is as ]f tshikana embodies within its mutapha a male and a female mode, and the male mode has been chosen for ihe men's music and the female rnode for ihe girls' music. Both are united by their comron realion\h;p to r -irgle ba"i, hdrmonic ProSrc*ion (8f). Noti.e thai in the harmonic prosrssion there is a shift oI tonal power fron phala (d" in 8c, 8e, and 8f) to thakhula (e" in sc, se, and ef), and then back to pral". The relaiionship between the chords is deiermined by the fact that in the ishilcona patiem every tone has two companion tones the 6rst a filth below and the second a fifth above. Thus d"/g'and e"/a' are functionally "sironser" chords than d" / a' and e" /b'
(se Fisure e).

FrcnnE 8.

Illusttdtioft

khulo is /elaied fo khikona, a,d sutunatv af nodes and

ol the tronslotttation pracess by bhi.h

basic

rId+l e. Dt4s/dfl

r
L

(a) 'lhe pper tones of tshikona, trnnsposed dowh d scmirone. (b) The bosic poftern alkhntalat sitls' oaices. (.) Ttdnspasitia of tshikona to the sdme pit.h as khu1o. Noie rie f natural aulthepositian ol the tritone. (d) Ttu sfarnntiafl of tshikona, /e@/ ins d" as ph^1a isstea.l af a". Nate how the positioa af the ttitane difrerc f/on tshikona in Ec, but ssrees uirh khvlo in 8b . (e) The th/ee nades used i, tshikona aad khulo, /ewtifiefl withaut

FrcuRE

(l)

The harmonic bdsis af khlla.'the settuehce ol choftls alsa fit, the tshikona polletfl, rcsdrdless of the differc"t nlodes used. Note: the fiswes indicnte the number al senitafles ih the inteft@ls

thakhula (e") |\terc as thev chanse thei conpania tanes. The rectansles symbolize shifts aI rDnality, Rnd the chnfl\iflg thickness af the "ued4el' ilh$nates lhe Aecrense dnd lkctease of the tonal poa,er ol phala and thakhula.

tshikona

af th. hdtnonic atLd toBl prosressians of ad khtlo, shoaias hat the pouq of phala \4"'t anrl

88

HOW MUSICAL IS MAN?

ln spite of iheir diFernt iimbre and iempi, the musical affinity of rsliko"l7 and lcftrlo ought to be appareni even to one who has no kno{,ldse of Venda culture. To a certain exteni the music speaks for itrelf. But, although the general nature of ihe relaiionship is clearly audible, ihe precise way in which this musical relationship has been achieved cannot possibly be derived from a study of the notes alone. The anal1.' mr-r begin wrth rhe role ot mLsir in Venda .o(ie.y and culture (see Fisures 5 and 7), so thai we can see how patterns of culture and society have emerSed in the shape of
humanlv oreanized sound.

ULNLW,

WnW
J

Ona,iA

,?x .fUr ltn:r (HAlllR l.irted rhdt,,r wn wdnt ro !1r.""" 1." musicar mdn is. we mLcr be abre ro dec.r:be
irar rlv whar happen\
to an) picce of mu... . In the se(ond and third chapters I have tried to show why we shall never be able to do this until we understand what happens to the human beings who make the music. Music is a synihesis of cognitive processes which are present in culture and in the human body: the forms it takes, and the ef{ecis it has on people, are senerated by the social experiences of human bodies in different cultural environments. Because music is humanly organized sound, it expresses aspects of ihe experi ence o{ individuals in society. Ii follows that any assessmeni of human musicaliry must account for procsses thai are exiramusical, and that these should be included in analyses of nusic. The answers to many imporiant questions aboui musical struciure may not be stricily musical. Why are certain scales, nodes, and inte als preferred? The explanation may be historical, political, philosophical, or rational in terms of acousticat laws. What comes next whn a certain musical pattern has been playedT Is the nexi tone determined by the logic of the melodic pattern,
a9