Africa and the Blues by Gerhard Kubik

Author:Gerhard Kubik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 1999-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 12. The natural harmonic series from partial 4 to 11.

The inspiration for harmonics-based African tonal systems, however, need not necessarily come from instruments, such as experiments with the stretched string of a hunting bow (like that of the Bushmen of southern Africa). It can also come simply from the formants of human speech. It is vowel formation that provides the key to understanding human discovery of speech-derived harmonics. A vowel is a voiced sound in which the air passes freely through the mouth or (in nasalization) through the nose. The difference between vowels is created by different shaping of the mouth as a resonance chamber, altered by movements of the tongue and shaping of the lips. Thus, each vowel has its own particular sound spectrum, it is defined as a difference in the selective reinforcement of harmonics; i.e., the vowel [a] differs from [u] by its harmonics, if sung to the same pitch. In Africa, not only multipart singing styles, but also unison singing can be based on scalar patterns generated by representations of speech-derived partials (harmonics) over a single fundamental.

Proceeding from this knowledge, I have developed a simple theory of the blues and about how scalar patterns from the west central Sudanic belt were perpetuated in the blues. First, the remote origin of these scales must be sought in speech. They do not derive from experimentation with instruments. Next, if such tonal systems are inspired by partials over a single fundamental, these partials must fall into the comfortable middle range of the natural harmonic series. Both postulates have the advantage also of explaining the presence of a single tonal center in many of the Sudanic styles and in the blues, since all partials-based tones sung by the performer reinforce the idea of their fundamental, and thereby the tonal center. The C in a blues written in the key of C, therefore, represents the fundamental of a harmonics-derived scale.

Pentatonic scales can arise from a number of primary human experiences, such as the transference of the interval of a fifth (originally also inspired by harmonics) through acoustic space, leading to a F-C-G-D-A chain. But some scales simply arise from the melodic use of a selection of the harmonic series that incorporates intervals neither too disjunct nor too narrow. The ideal harmonics-based pentatonic system over a single fundamental incorporates tones representing partials 4 to 9. Characteristically, it extends beyond the scope of a single octave, with its lower component forming a tetratonic pattern. From bottom to top the scale goes like this: C (o cents)—E↓ (386 cents)—G (702 cents)—B↓ (969 cents)—C (1200 cents)—D (1200 + 204 cents) (see also fig. 12). This scale, if sung in descending order, sounds stunningly blues-like, though this is hardly the whole story.

Of course, there can be combinations of several of the basic scale-generating principles, because of age-old contacts between people. My theory then must also explain, in the present context, why pitch ambivalence occurs regularly at certain points of the blues scale. It is the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.