American Musical Traditions Research Articles

Voiced noise: The ‘‘heterogeneous sound ideal’’ as preferred acoustic environment in selective sub-Saharan African instruments and ensembles

This paper draws on the African–American composer Olly Wilson’s notion of a ‘‘heterogeneous sound ideal’’ in which the author discusses the common preference for certain sound combinations and timbres in African and African–American musical traditions. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate, in detail, specific aspects of this concept by drawing on a variety of instrumental and ensemble traditions from sub-Saharan Africa with focus on the manipulation and intentional modulation of timbres that characterize much of the musical traditions of sub-Saharan Africa and which are often overlooked by analysts. The paper argues that this common emphasis on ‘‘unusual’’ timbres constitutes one of the major parameters distinguishing sub-Saharan African musical traditions from those of European art music traditions. A ‘‘heterogeneous sound ideal’’ suggests new approaches to the identification, measurement, evaluation, and appreciation of acoustic phenomena in the contexts of sub-Saharan African musical traditions. Additional demonstrations involving spectral–timbral projections of individual and ensemble instruments will be presented.

Leon Forrest, the AACM and The Legacy of the Chicago Renaissance

and high art traditions of European and African American culture. Like Gwendolyn Brooks whose life and work represent crucial links between the Chicago Renaissance and the generation of black Chicago artists who began working in the 1960s and 1970s Forrest and contemporaries such as Clarence Major draw much of their power from the juxtaposition of European American modernist and African American musical traditions.

Developments in Black Gospel Performance and Scholarship

Gospel is one of the most vital of all American musical traditions and stands as a pivotal musical style that has influenced such other musical genres as jazz, soul, blues, and popular music. As a musical tradition that celebrates the contemporary black religious experience, gospel music is deeply rooted in black life and culture. The history of gospel music is a history of the struggle to be accepted as the black liturgical music. During the 1920s when gospel had its formal beginning, it met with resistance in most black denominations. However, by the forties gospel had revolutionized music in most black churches. Significantly, within the last few years gospel music has entered into the liturgies of black congregations of Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. In several publications by the National Office for Black Catholics, This Far by Faith (1977) and Soulfull Worship (1974) by Clarence Jos. Rivers, such questions are addressed as: Is authentic black Catholic worship either possible or desirable? What is black music and what particular music problems do black Catholics face? The possibilities for the incorporation of gospel music into the Roman Catholic liturgy are exemplified in the recording Hymns of a Soulfull People by Grayson Warren Brown with the Howard Gospel Choir, produced by North American Liturgy Resources. Brown, who conducts choirs and workshops throughout the United States, is committed to bringing the black musical tradition to Roman Catholic worship. Black congregations of Episcopalians are beginning to incorporate gospel music and spirituals into their liturgy. A major effort is underway to achieve this end, and a hymnal is forthcoming from the Episcopal church which will include gospels, spirituals, and hymns that have been popular among blacks (see Jackson 1980).1 During the last three decades, gospel has experienced a period of phenomenal growth and development and has moved from use in a solely

H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, 4 vols., London: Macmillan, and New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music Inc., 1986 Gilbert Chase. America's Music: from the Pilgrims to the present, revised third edition, Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987 H. Wiley Hitchcock. Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction, third

H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, 4 vols., London: Macmillan, and New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music Inc., 1986 / Gilbert Chase. America's Music: from the Pilgrims to the present, revised third edition, Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987 / H. Wiley Hitchcock. Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction, third edition, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988. Un article de la revue Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes (Volume 9, numéro 2, 1989, p. 1-161) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.