Nguni Vocal Polyphony Author(s): David Rycroft Source: Journal of the International Folk Music Council, Vol.

19 (1967), pp. 88-103 Published by: International Council for Traditional Music Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/942193 Accessed: 04/04/2010 18:26
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II. Where common usage allows alternatives in non-final positions, such alternatives may be used at the same time by different singers, giving rise to sporadic three-part structures. 12. The Gogo concept of music does not preclude simultaneous occurrences of otherwise unrelated sounds made purposely to heighten dramatic tension, to animate a performance,to add to the texture of a piece of music or to provide signals. Sounds such as those made by a dancer, or the sounds of aerophones played here and there may be heard in the course of a performance. That is why it is important that our analytical approach be guided not only by what we hear but also by what we are able to observe, so that as far as possible we can interpret the multi-part organization of Gogo music in terms of Gogo practice.

NGUNI VOCAL POLYPHONY

DAVID RYCROFT (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) THENguni Group comprises principally the Zulu, Xhosa and Swazi-speaking peoples of South Eastern Africa whose languages and cultures are closely related. Through European contact and conquest during the past century and a half, their way of life has been considerably affected. Musically, many non-indigenous forms and features have been adopted by certain sections of each community,1 but we shall here be concerned only with what still survives of their truly indigenous music. For individual music-making, instruments of several varieties-particularly musical bows-were formerly used by all Nguni peoples.2 But their communal music seems always to have been exclusively vocal, apart from the occasional use of ankle-rattles in dance-songs. Divided according to function-which is their primary criterion-the choral repertoire of each of these people ranges from serious ceremonial music and formal dance-songs for mixed male and female voices, to numerous occupational and recreational forms which make up the differentiated repertoiresof the different age-gradesof each sex. Rhythm is always expressedthrough simultaneous action, by the singers themselves. Depending on the type of item, this may take the form of gestures, postures, dance-steps or other organized body movements, or the wielding of real or symbolic weapons or implements. Stamping, or equal-spaced hand-clapping may supply audible emphasis. These actions are normally considered inseparable from the music: music and action are blended in the production of a larger artistic whole. Beyond this, the combined musicomuscular performance may itself in some cases be felt to be inseparable from the context of a particular ceremony-and the ceremony to be essentially related to some social, seasonal or sacred event. Ideally, it seems that musical sound ought here to be regarded as only one among many other constituents whose interaction allows the embodiment of more complex, higher forms of expression. Our present attention, however, will be restricted to musical structure and texture alone.
GENERAL FEATURES

Multi-part organization of voices is common in the traditional music of all the Nguni peoples. In any choral song there are at least two voice-parts, singing

BOT S W A N A

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FIG. I.

Distribution of the principal Nguni peoples (Zulu, Xhosa and

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non-identical texts. The temporal relationship between these parts observes the principle of non-simultaneousentry. In a few songs this is realized through simple 'call and (then) response' antiphony. But overlapping phrases are more common, and this technique gives rise to some fairly complex forms of polyphony. In music with more than two parts, additional voices are either dependent or independent of the two main parts, in their temporal relationship, as will be demonstrated later. But we shall be dealing first with two-part songs. The majority of these suggest antiphony, with deliberate overlap, as their form. Basically, an initiatory or 'call' phrase, generally by solo voice and in a relatively higher pitch range, is balanced by a choral 'response,' in a lower pitch range. In most songs, a fixed sequence of phrase-pairs-usually between two and seven pairs-makes up the single overall strophe, and this is repeated ad infinitum-though variations may occur in the upper part, depending on the inventiveness of the soloist. Although, in each song, the length of its strophe remains fixed throughout, there is no standard lengtheven for items from the same category within a single repertoire. Among songs examined so far, strophe length varies, between items, from two to eighteen measures -either of duple, triple, hemiolic or additive metre. Although the strophe always commences with at least one solo and one chorus phrase, this exact pairing of phrases is not always maintained throughout the whole strophe. In some songs, one part contains more phrases than the other, and may be more complex. Nevertheless, bothparts are always regarded as essential. An isolated singer, if asked to demonstrate a song, will usually not first complete one part and then the other, but will attempt to present the essentials of both parts, by jumping from one to the other whenever a new phrase-entry occurs. Start

I Solo
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FIG. 2.

Temporalrelationshipsof solo and chorusparts: Swazi antiphonal simekezo song

NGUNI VOCAL NGUNI VOCAL POLYPHONY POLYPHONY

9' 9I

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FIG. 3.

Southern

Zulu work-song

In most cases no definite sense of finality attaches to the completion of the strophe. Immediate recommencement is obligatory, apparently in order to maintain the balance between the parts. This can be represented by a circular diagram. Fig. 2 represents the temporal relationships of the two alternating voice-parts in a simple antiphonal song, without overlap. The two phrases rendered by the solo voice are indicated in the outer circle, and those of the chorus in the inner circle. The song is of the Swazi simekezocategory, sung by a bride and her attendants at the end of the marriage ceremony, lamenting the fact that she has left her father's home for ever. The strophe is repeated an indefinite number of times with slight textural and melodic variations in the solo part. But the melody and text of the chorus part remain constant and are reproduced exactly, each time, like an ostinato. This is generally the rule in all Nguni songs. When there is overlapping between the parts-and this is actually far more common than 'simple' antiphony-it usually happens that the initiatory 'call' phrase re-emerges above the final phrase of the chorus so that the song appears to start again before it has ended. It then becomes problematical whether the strophe should be said to commence with the 'call' or, conversely, with the entry of the chorus-the 'call' serving only as an introductory signal. I held the latter view when drawing the diagram for Fig. 3, but several alternative interpretations are possible.

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WORK SONGS FROM SOUTHERN NATAL

Fig. 3 refers to a Zulu work-song in which the solo 'starting' phrase, shown at the left of the outer circle, heralds the entry of the chorus, at the top of the inner circle. The second solo phrase, entering at 'three o'clock' and overlapping the chorus, heralds the impending physical down-beat, marked 'X,' when pick-axes are swung down together into the ground, followed by the delayed entry of the final chorus phrase. (As has been discussed in an earlier paper, it is notable in all Zulu work-songs of this kind, that vocal sound momentarily ceases-due to glottal closure-at the actual moment of maximum exertion. It is, in fact, a physiological necessity.)3 Repetition of the first solo phrase, to rally the chorus voices for their next combined entry, coincides with the finalis of the previous choral phrase, so that the 'head and tail' of the song-like those of the archetypal snake-are interlocked, and it becomes circular and endless. When it was recorded, this song was being sung by a team of Zulus while they were digging a trench across one of the main streets of the city of Durban. The tempo increased slightly during performance, but the average time for the completion of the strophe was about eight seconds. The meaning of the words (unheeded by their white supervisor) was: "Hey you, Majola! Give an account of yourself! Hey you, Majola! What have you been saying about us to the white men?" Despite the amount of overlap, occurrence of actual chording between the two voice-parts is minimal. Only the twelfth, and the octave appear as simultaneously sounding intervals. This song is typical of Southern Natal Zulu-speaking tribes, neighbours of the Xhosa, rather than those of Zululand itself. Work-songs of this kind are basically adaptations of tribal items, often with more topical words.
VARIATIONS

When the musico-muscular cycle of operations is in 'full swing,' the soloist-if he is musically inventive-sometimes departs from his fixed 'call' phrases and improvises variations or 'descants' above the chorus. As well as changes in text and melody, the start and end-points of phrases are moved, in relation to their original position in the strophe. Of course, this idea is not exclusively Nguni, but widespread in Africa. I have referred to it as 'phrase shift' in an earlier paper, dealing with some items from Katanga.4 Fig. 4 refers to another version of the previous work-song, "We, Majola,"in which the 'call' phrase is not fixed, but varied. It was performed by another team working further down the street. The solo part needs to be represented by a spiral in this case, not a fixed circle. It has only been possible here to show the different degrees of 'phrase shift,' without the melody. Anticipatory overlap by the solo phrases, particularly the second one in the strophe, was increased by stretching the first note back, to commence earlier. By the twelfth 'round' (shown nearest the centre) the two solo phrases merge into a single long one-though the start of phrase 2 can be identified as emerging, two measures early, from the end of phrase I.
DOUBLE-ENDED OVERLAP

Even within songs in the same repertoire, overlapping varies in its extent. In the previous example, overlap could be called 'single-ended' (apart from 'round

NGUNI VOCAL POLYPHONY

93

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strike FIG. 4. Southern Zulu work-song: solo variations

twelve'): it was mainly the beginning of the solo which overlapped the end of the chorus, rather than the reverse. (N.B. In the diagrams, the head of an arrow denotes the end, not the start of a phrase.) In many Zulu songs, however, the overlap is 'double-ended.' Solo phrases begin at about the middle of one chorus phrase, and end and restart midway through the next one, so that the phrases are completely interlinked. Fig. 5 refers to a song from an old Zulu folk-tale. In the performanceI witnessed, the song began with the chorus entry (shown at the top of the inner circle) and the solo voice entered midway through the second chorus phrase (as indicated). The dotted line represents a variant of the first solo phrase. Strophe duration is six seconds, and each segment denotes one measure of 8 metre (varying with ). Figures in the diagram indicate chording intervals at various points. The fact that unison occurs at each chorus entry may be significant. This happens in some other songs, but not in all. Fig. 5a shows a fuller transcription of this item. Much of the text comprises non-lexical onomatopoeic syllables. The sound "jh" (like that occurring centrally in "measure") is frequently found in songs, but does not occur at all in spoken Zulu. Notes employed in the folk-tale song correspond with those of the 'common pentatonic' scale. But this is only one of several used by the Nguni. The score of a three-tone Zulu song, using two conjunct fourths, and a major second to complete the octave, appears in a previous paper.5 But some other songs, equally old, employ hexa scales. The example represented in Fig. 6 employs a hexa scale with two semitone-intervals. The song is known as 'King Shaka's Royal Dance-Song' and

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Chorus

start

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sta rt

FIG.

5.

Temporal relationships of solo and chorus parts: song from a Zulu folk-tale

-= 216

Chorus entry\

FIG. 5a.

Song from a Zulu folk-tale

POLYPHONY NGUNI NGUNI VOCAL VOCAL POLYPHONY

95

it is said to date from the early nineteenth century. Temporal phrase-relationships are almost exactly the same as in the previous item. Another point of similarity was the fact that the performance began, not with the variable solo part, but with the fixed chorus ostinato. The soloist joined in with a few notes of the second chorus phrase before jumping across to her solo entry. The fact that these two, and a number of other old Zulu songs, tend to start with the fixed chorus part-also noted by Kirby in I9266-should possibly be taken as a hint that not all Nguni music derives directly from 'simple' antiphony. Furthermore, the relative completeness of the chorus part by itself, in these and many other songs-with very little break between the chorus phrases-suggests that the solo parts have possibly been added later, originally as improvized descants. This point will be pursued later.
die= 88

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FIG.6. "IngomakaShaka": King Shaka's Royal dance-song(Zulu) Chording between voices is more frequent in these songs than in examples like the work-song of Fig. 3, which seem more clearly antiphony-derived. Intervals between simultaneously sounded notes in the dance-song of Fig. 6 are: fourths (42 per cent.), fifths (33 per cent.), octaves (Io per cent.), major sixths (Io per cent.), and major third (5 per cent.).7 Implied 'harmonic roots' are as follows: principal root: C (39 per cent); subsidiaries: F (34 per cent.), E (I5 per cent.), G (5 per cent.). Theoretical justification for deducing the 'harmonic roots' of two-note chords on the basis of their differential tones has been propounded by Hindemith and recently applied analytically by List.8 It is this method that has been followed here-in preference to that of Kolinski, which does not seem applicable.9 The question of root progression will be resumed at a later point.
THREE-PART SONGS

In considering Nguni songs with more than two voice-parts it appears that extra parts, beyond the basic two, may be added in either of two ways. Additional

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voices may either be dependent or independent of the main parts, in their temporal relationship, and this is closely correlated with the nature of their text. In the first case, when the extra part shares the text of one of the main parts, it moves 'in step' with it and can be considered a dependent, or sub-part. Songs with this kind of organization occur throughout Nguni territory-though possibly less so in Zululandand there are local variations in the strictness of parallel pitch movement. It is notable here that greater complexity of texture is obtained, through added chording, but that the basic twofold temporal contrast principle remains intact. In the second case, however, the number of parts which provide temporal contrast is increased beyond two. The extra part or parts are more independent. They bear new lines of text, different from those of either of the main parts, and they enter separately, introducing a third, or even fourth level of offset temporal contrast -or concurrent 'phrase shift.' This type of multi-part organization is less common than the first variety, but there are some interesting Zulu examples. We shall consider one of these first, before returning to the commoner variety.
INCREASED TEMPORAL CONTRAST

Fig. 7 represents the temporal part-relationships in a light-hearted Zulu song for three voices and Ugubhu musical bow. The bow supplies an ostinato comprising two measures of 3 + 2 + 3 metre, shown in the innermost circle of the diagram, starting at the top. In my recording, Princess Constance Magogo plays this, and takes the first vocal phrase (shown in the outer circle, starting at 'four o'clock'): "I shall go wandering, mother, but where will my quest take me?" Her son, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, takes the second voice entry (near the top): "We choose beautiful lovers; we choose the handsome ones!"; and her young grandchildrenthen take over the Voice I part. After these first two voice parts are well established, Princess Magogo occasionally adds the third part, which has two variant texts: "The girl I would love is the one that cuts preliminaries short!"; and "Take her, boy, she is escaping!" As may be seen from Fig. 8, which refers to the same song, the Ugubhu bow supplies two fundamentals, C and D[, a semitone apart. But besides the fundamental tones, certain harmonics-particularly the third partials, G and Ab, and fourth partials (C and Db again)-are selectively resonated by moving the calabash resonator closer to or further from the breast of the player. Vocal notes consist of these four, and their octaves-always sung above the relevant root on the bowplus Eb which, although not directly related to the bow's notes, is sung above the C fundamental. It is clear that a system of dual tonality, based upon the two 'roots' supplied by the bow, is used in this and all other Ugubhubow songs.10 Their tonal organization could be called 'bi-radical.' In this particular song, C serves as principal root (70 per cent.) and D, as subsidiary (30 per cent.). In some other songs this order is reversed, with the higher note as principal root.
MUSICAL BOW INFLUENCE

The Ugubhu, a large, unbraced gourd-bow, sounded by striking with a grassstalk, is today almost extinct, Princess Magogo being the only remaining player known. Another type of bow, called Umakhweyana,is still used for song accompaniment to a small extent by the Zulu and Swazi. This instrument, which has a divided string, was reputedly borrowed from the Tonga, of Mogambique, in the nineteenth century. It is played in such a way as to yield three fundamentals, and

NGUNI

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FIGS. 7 and 8.

Zulu part-song with ugubhu musical bow

selective resonation of partials takes place as on the Ugubhu. Songs sung with it are generally tri-radical in tonal organization." To return to choral music, bi-radical or tri-radical tonality is observable in much, if not all Nguni items, and it seems likely that bow-playing may at least have encouraged the development of this principle. Some Zulu choral songs, though always sung unaccompanied, are in fact reputed to have been composed by one or another ancestor "to the accompaniment of his Ugubhu bow." An ostinato played on the bow can to some extent fulfil the role of a fixed vocal choral part, above

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which a soloist is inspired to extemporize, and close parallels can be noted between the voice-to-bow relationships in bow-songs, and voice-part interrelations in many choral songs.
AND TEXTUREENRICHMENT PARALLELISM

In the songs we have examined so far, the voice-parts have been relatively independent in text, melody, and temporal relationship. We must now return to consider the large body of three-part songs, mentioned earlier, in which two of the parts move 'in step.' This practice seems more prevalent among the Swazi and Xhosa than the Zulu. As was stated previously, it appears to be the case that, whenever an additional voice-part shares the text of one of the two main parts, it always moves 'in step' with that part. Where note-for-note part-singing is applied to a single line of text in this way, the likelihood of tonal parallelism is very great, as previously noted by Kirby,l2 owing to the influence of the speech-tones of the words-since these people use so-called tone-languages, in which the direction of pitch movement has semantic significance. Figs. 9 and ga refer to a performance, by male voices, of a wedding song of the Hlubi-one of the Xhosa-speaking tribes-in which 'pentatonic parallelism' occurs extensively. In the first chorus phrase, the voices move in parallel, maintaining a distance of two steps of the pentatonic scale-that is: separated by fourths, with an occasional intrusive major third. In the last phrase, the soloist takes the same line of text as the (unison) chorus, and moves in parallel with it at three degrees distanceentailing fifths, and an occasional minor sixth. Root progression is also apparent in this music, with F as principal, and G as subsidiary root. In this connection it is perhaps notable that, in their musical bow playing, the Xhosa appear to favour a whole-tone interval between the fundamentals, rather than the Zulu semitone.l3 Although the Swazi no longer play their classic Ligubhu bow-their counterpart of the Zulu Ugubhu-Kirby, in I934, noted semitone tuning.l4 This interval is just as prevalent in Swazi choral music as among the Zulu, and it provides the main basis of root progression. In a 'Royal Duty Song' or Yemmemo, sung by Swazi women, which is represented in Fig. o1, the note D serves as principal root, and C# as subsidiary. The combined finalis of both voice-parts (an infrequent phenomenon) does not, however, employ either of these roots: it occurs as a unison on F$. Absence of chording seems to serve as a cadential feature in several other Swazi songs too, though not in all. The scale, observable in the Yemmemo, is basically hemitonic penta, which may be represented as F$ D C$ A G$ F: D C$the highest F# being variable with Ft. In view of the frequent chordal contrast of two tonalities-that of D-F#-A, as against C$-G$-it seems very likely that these notes may derive from bow harmonics above D and C#. Rather than employing the Zulu threefold temporal contrast principle in their three-part choral songs, the Swazi retain a twofold temporal contrast. But the texture is enriched by dividing the chorus part. In its simplest form, this involves parallelism somewhat like that of the previous Xhosa example. But some extremely elaborate chording occurs in certain of their ceremonial songs. In their Sibhimbi anthem, sung by Swazi princes and princesses-which is represented in Figs. II and I2-the voices of the multi-part chorus move 'in step,' while the female soloist's phrases are offset in the usual way. The circle in Fig. II represents only one rendering of the strophe: unlike previous songs we have been considering, the repetitions, not only of the solo part, but also of the chorus,are never quite identical -so that a continuous spiral representation for all the parts would be necessary.

NGUNI

VOCAL POLYPHONY

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"Wo, luphelile,

FIGS. 9 & ga. Hlubi (Xhosa) wedding song, mntakabawo!" (Alas! it has ended, O child of our father)

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Swazi women's Yemmemo ('Royal duty song')

The strophe consists of twelve slow measures and has an average duration of twenty seconds. Above the music, the King's official 'spoken praises' are also recited from time to time, but these bear no intentional relation to the music. Despite additional chromaticism, and occasional suggestions of major-minor antithesis, indigenous hemitonal root progression still provides the basis for chordal movement, and there seems to be no trace of Western harmonic schemes. The basic notes employed are G F# E D$ (I) C B G F#, and their sub-octaves. This suggests hexa scaling, resembling the hemitonic penta of the previous item, but with the addition of another variable note. C serves as the principal root, with B, and occasionally G, as subsidiaries. Transposed for comparison, the scales of the two songs could be represented as: Fig. Io (penta): A (b) F E C B; and Fig. 12 (hexa): A G$ F E C B.

NGUNI VOCAL POLYPHONY NGUNI

IOI I0I

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Temporal relationships of solo and chorus parts: Swazi Sibhimbi anthem

To apply Western terms for a 'short-hand' description, chording could be said to consist of complete or incomplete triads, mainly based on the two roots, F and E. A point not mentioned before, concerning all Nguni choral songs, is the tendency for the overall pitch to become progressively sharper. Sometimes, after many repetitions of a strophe, the pitch may be found to have risen by as much as a fourth.
CONCLUSIONS

In considering samples from the full range of Nguni choral music, the principle of 'non-simultaneous entry' by two or more voice-parts appears to be fundamental. This may be realized through 'simple' antiphony, or through overlapping solo and chorus phrases-possibly arising out of antiphony-or through 'offset' parts which are relatively complete in themselves-possibly derived from improvization above a basically monophonic strophe, or the ostinato provided by a musical bow. In the majority of cases a twofold temporal contrast is maintained. Among the Xhosa and Swazi this persists even in their three- or four-part songs, since extra voices share an existing line of text and move 'in step,' often in tonal parallel. In certain old Zulu songs, however, temporal contrast is increased beyond twofold, through separate entry of all parts.

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Io3

Owing to the 'circular' form of the music, and the importance attached to recommencement rather than finality, there are in most cases no 'collective cadences' of the Western type. Unison, after chording, may possibly have 'cadential significance' in certain items but, beyond this, no functional hierarchy of discord and concord seems consistently operative. The artistic intention would seem to be that of maintaining an ever-changing balance between all the musical constituentsthrough temporal, chordal and root contrast, in addition to other features of their relationship. Contrastive tonality is widespread It is frequently based on bi-radical or tri-radical root progression, and this practice may possibly owe its origin-or at least its encouragement-to a particular instrumental technique: that of producing close-interval fundamentals on a musical bow, and deliberately selecting certain harmonics by manipulation of the resonator.
NOTES i. Rycroft, David, "African Music in Johannesburg: African and Non-African Features," Journal of the IFMC, Vol. IX, I959, pp. 25-30. 2. Kirby, Percival R., The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa, Oxford, I934. 3. Rycroft, David, "Stylistic Evidence in Nguni Song," Essays in Music and History in Africa and Asia (ed. K. P. Wachsmann), London, Royal Anthropological Institute, I967. 4. Id., "The Guitar Improvizations of Mwenda Jean Bosco," Part I, African Music, Vol. 2, No. 4, I96I, pp. 83-84; and Part 2, op. cit., Vol. 3, No. I, I962, pp. 88-89. 6. Kirby, P. R., "Old-time Chants of the Mpumuza Chiefs," Bantu Studies, Vol. I, I923-26, pp. 23-34. 7. Marius Schneider cites roughly the same intervals for some 'Zulu' examples in his Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit (Berlin, I934, pp. 87-88, and Appendix, p. 36). The items cannot be regarded as representative of truly indigenous Zulu music, however, and Schneider himself suggests Western influence in five out of the seven. He provides no information as to where they were obtained and, from the scores, none of them seems to bear much resemblance to any Zulu music I have encountered in the field. There is a more recognizably Zulu example in the same writer's later publication, "Dtber die Verbreitung afrikanische Chorformen" (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Vol. 69, 1937, p. 84), though it contains features of semi-traditional 'town' music. However, he comments only on the continuous ostinato nature of the chorus, and this fortunately does happen to be fairly common feature in pure Zulu music too. 8. Hindemith, Paul, The Craft of Musical Composition, Vol. I, New York, 1945, pp. 57 ff; List, George, "Transcription of a Hukwe Song with Musical Bow," Ethnomusicology, Vol. 8, No. 3, I964, pp. 258 and 263. 9. Kolinski, M., "Consonance and Dissonance," Ethnomusicology, Vol. 6, No. 2, I962, pp. 66-74. o1. Blacking has previously drawn attention to 'root progression' among the Venda, another Southern African people, of the Northern Transvaal-though not in connection with bow songs. (John Blacking, "Problems of Pitch, Pattern and Harmony ...," African Music,
Vol. 2, No. 2, 1959, p. 23.) 5. Ibid., I959, p. 26.

11.
I2.

I3. I4.

Vol. 19, I966, pp. 91-92.

Rycroft, D., I967. Kirby, P. R., I923-26. Rycroft, D., "Friction Chordophones in South-Eastern Africa," Galpin Society Journal, Kirby, P. R., I934, p. I99.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere thanks are due to Princess Constance Magogo kaDinuzulu and to Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, of Mahlabathini, Zululand, for their generosity and patience in teaching me most of what I know about Zulu music, and to Prince Masitsela of Swaziland for assisting me in Swazi musical research.