The drum cafe's traditional South African music by Levine, Laurie

ISBN: 9781770090460 

Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd, 28 Sep 2005

Book 286 pages

Description

The title explores the traditional music of black South Africans, with a strong focus on the musical activities in relation to ceremonies and rituals. It also incorporates neo-traditional styles of music that are widespread in South Africa, that characterise South African music and are internationally recognised. Detailed descriptions of musical instruments form a large part of each chapter, giving the reader a solid understanding of how they are played and for what purposes. To give the overview a comprehensive structure, the title is divided along the main black language groups of South Africa. This title allows the reader to grasp the core aspects of black South African cultures as well as a broad history and breakdown of each language group so that each group is contextualised before the reader approaches each section. The overview of ceremonies and rituals describes features of the most prominent rites of passage, such as initiation and divination. Chapters have been standardised so that the reader can jump between chapters and compare aspects of the musical traditions.

Chapters have been broken down into the following sections: Location description and map; tribes/clans;