International Library of African Music

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International Library of African Music
ILAM.jpg
International Library of African Music
33°18′39″S26°31′08″E / 33.310801°S 26.518761°E / -33.310801; 26.518761
Location Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa
ScopeAfrican music
Established1954
Other information
DirectorDr Lee Watkins
Website www.ru.ac.za/ilam/

The International Library of African Music (ILAM) is an organization dedicated to the preservation and study of African music. Seated in Grahamstown, South Africa, ILAM is attached to the Music Department at Rhodes University and coordinates its Ethnomusicology Programme which offers undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Ethnomusicology that include training in performance of African music. [1] ILAM, as the largest repository of indigenous African music, [2] is particularly known for its study of the lamellophone mbira of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as the Chopi people's Timbila, a variant of the marimba from southern Mozambique.

Contents

Some of the instruments inside ILAM. ILAMinstruments.jpg
Some of the instruments inside ILAM.
The akadinda (large xylophone), kalimbas on the wall, and a photo of Hugh Tracey. ILAMinstruments2.jpg
The akadinda (large xylophone), kalimbas on the wall, and a photo of Hugh Tracey.

Publications and recordings

History

ILAM was founded by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey in 1954, made possible through grants received from the Nuffield Foundation and the South African Department of Education. [5]

ILAM published the African Music Society Journal , now known as the African Music. ILAM was initially located in Msaho (near Roodepoort, Gauteng). When Hugh Tracey died in 1977, his son Andrew took over as director. Private funding had dried up, but Rhodes University agreed to host ILAM, and both ILAM and AMI moved to Grahamstown in 1978. Andrew Tracey served as director until 2005, after which Diane Thram served as the director. [6] The current director is Dr. Lee Watkins.

Notable collections

The following collections are available online:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xylophone</span> Wooden keyboard percussion instrument

The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mbira</span> African musical instrument of the lamellophone family

Mbira are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs, the right forefinger, and sometimes the left forefinger. Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe" was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Zimbabwe</span>

Zimbabwean music is heavily reliant on the use of instruments such as the mbira, Ngoma drums and hosho. Their music symbolizes much more than a simple rhythm, as the folk and pop style styled music was used as a symbol of hope for Zimbabweans looking to gain independence from Rhodesia. Music has played a significant role in the history of Zimbabwe, from a vital role in the traditional Bira ceremony used to call on ancestral spirits, to protest songs during the struggle for independence. The community in Zimbabwe used music to voice their resistance to their oppression, as one of the only weapons they had available to fight back with. In the eighties, the Music of Zimbabwe was at the center of the African Music scene thanks to genres such as Sungura and Jit. However, several performers were banned by state TV and radio leading to the closing of several music venues.

Shona music is the music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. There are several different types of traditional Shona music including mbira, singing, hosho and drumming. Very often, this music will be accompanied by dancing, and participation by the audience. In the Shona style of music, there is little distinction between the performer and the audience. Both are often actively involved in the music-making and both are important in the Shona religious ceremonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makhanda, South Africa</span> Town in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about 125 kilometres (80 mi) northeast of Gqeberha and 160 kilometres (100 mi) southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Municipality, and the seat of the municipal council. It also hosts Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, the South African Library for the Blind (SALB), a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and 6 South African Infantry Battalion. Furthermore, located approximately 3 km south-east of the town lies the world renowned Waterloo Farm, the only estuarine fossil site in the world from 360 million years ago with exceptional soft-tissue preservation.

Abraham Dumisani Maraire, known to friends as "Dumi", was a Zimbabwean musician. He was a master performer of the mbira, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. He specialized in the form of mbira called nyunga nyunga, as well as the Zimbabwean marimba. He introduced Zimbabwean music to North America, initiating a flourishing of Zimbabwean music in the Pacific Northwest that continues into the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shona people</span> Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa

The Shona people are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily living in Zimbabwe where they form the majority of the population, as well as Mozambique, South Africa, and a worldwide diaspora. There are five major Shona language/dialect clusters: Manyika, Karanga, Zezuru, Korekore, and Ndau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stella Chiweshe</span> Zimbabwean musician (1946–2023)

Stella Chiweshe was a Zimbabwean musician. She was known internationally for her singing and playing of the mbira dzavadzimu, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. She was one of few female players, and learned to play from 1966 to 1969, when other women did not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngoma drums</span> Bantu drum

Ngoma are musical instruments used by certain Bantu populations of Africa. Ngoma is derived from the Kongo word for "drum". Different Bantu-inhabited regions have their own traditions of percussion, with different names for their instruments. In Kikongo, "ngoma" is used by extension to signify specific dances, social occasions, and rhythms. In Swahili, Ngoma music is used to describe music, dance, instruments including the drums, and events together as a joint cultural practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deze</span>

In Zimbabwean Shona music, a deze is a halved calabash gourd that an mbira is placed into to amplify its sound. It is typically round and has bottle caps, shells or other objects strung around its perimeter to vibrate with the mbira, creating a buzzing sound. Cracked deze frequently are repaired by wire stitching. Because of the size of the deze, audience members cannot see the mbira players' hands. Because of this, it is not uncommon for those who want to learn the mbira to play the hosho first, so that they can stand behind the players to see into deze and learn by observation. Modern deze are often constructed out of fiberglass and epoxy for increased durability. However, some mbira players, like Chartwell Dutiro, critique the use of fiberglass dezes in live performance. Dutiro says it compromises the resonance of the mbira and thus hinders communication with dza vadzimu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Tracey</span> English Ethnomusicologist

Hugh Travers Tracey was an English ethnomusicologist. He and his wife collected and archived music from Southern and Central Africa. From the 1920s through the 1970s, Tracey made over 35,000 recordings of African folk music. He popularized the mbira internationally under the name kalimba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Tracey</span>

Andrew Tracey is a South African ethnomusicologist, promoter of African music, composer, folk singer, band leader, and actor. His father, Hugh Tracey (1903–1977), pioneered the study of traditional African music in the 1920s–1970s, created the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in 1954, and started the company African Musical Instruments (AMI) which manufactured the first commercial kalimbas in the 1950s.

Willard Rhodes was an American ethnomusicologist. He is known for his extensive recording of American Indian music between 1939 and 1952.

John Anthony Randoll Blacking was a British ethnomusicologist and social anthropologist.

Queen Marimba is a folk hero whose accomplishments have become part of the folklore of Africa. As is customary in most African cultures she is considered to be a god and was one of the immortals. She led the Akamba tribe in East Africa in very ancient times across the Ukambani plains in present day Kenya, stretching across the Kilimanjaro plains in present day Tanzania. There has been scant research done on her and presently the most notable source for information on her life comes from the writings of Vusa'mazulu Credo Mutwa. He asserts in his book; Indaba My Children, that she was the mother of the Akamba people at the time when they were getting to know their Maasai neighbours. Various renditions of his book have been published since the late 60's, including "My People, My Africa", "Indaba My Children" and "Africa Is My Witness."

The malimbe is a type of xylophone from the Congo which is described as having both male and female counterparts; the former has 15 wooden bars, the latter has nine. "Malimbe" also refers to a lamellaphone or mbira type instrument amongst the Nyamwezi of Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ikembe</span> Type of musical instrument, lamellophone

Ikembe, is a type of musical instrument of the lamellaphone group, common amongst the people of Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo. The instrument consists of several iron lamellae, fixed to a rectangular wooden soundbox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matepe</span> Type of lamellophone played in North-Eastern Zimbabwe

The matepe is a type of lamellophone played in North-Eastern Zimbabwe. It is primarily played by the Sena Tonga and the Kore-Kore peoples which are subgroups of the Shona people.

<i>African Music</i> (journal) Academic journal

African Music is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal published by the International Library of African Music. It covers contextualized studies of African music and related arts. Articles are made freely accessible after a two-year embargo period.

References

  1. "About ILAM". The International Library of African Music (ILAM). Rhodes University. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  2. Allen, Siemon (29 June 2016). "Photographing at the International Library of African Music". The Con Magazine. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  3. "International Library of African Music (I.L.A.M.)". Smithsonian Folkways. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  4. "African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music". Rhodes Digital Commons. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  5. Tracey, Hugh (1954). "The International Library of African Music". African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music. 1 (1): 71–73. doi:10.21504/amj.v1i1.232 . Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  6. Diane Thram, For Future Generations: Hugh Tracey and the International Library of African Music. International Library of African Music, 2010
  7. "Hugh Tracey Broadcast Series". Rhodes Digital Commons. Retrieved 2016-05-07.[ permanent dead link ]
  8. "Hugh Tracey Music of Africa Series". Rhodes Digital Commons. Archived from the original on 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  9. "ILAM Jaco Kruger Cassettes". Rhodes Digital Commons. Archived from the original on 2015-07-11. Retrieved 2016-05-07.