He describes how people have misrepresented African rhythms as inherently more complex and incompatible with any sort of western notation system.The misrepresentation he describes has many problems. Though it helps in simplifying the discourse, it simplifies it to the point that it fails to address the huge amount of musical, linguistic, and political diversity on the African continent. In that respect, I see very little difference in saying "African music" as opposed to "the African," the latter being a political incorrect term but functioning the same way in the former. Most importantly, it marks "Africans" as inherently different, which is really what racism is. In the Waterman article, "the American Negro" is referred to as having different musical sensibilities by virtue of his/her race.
I wonder, though, if we misrepresent European music in the same way. In all the discussions where European music was compared and contrasted to African music, many people seemed to make similar generalizations like "more complex harmonies" and "less complex rhythm."
The Waterman article was interesting in that it helped contain the "otherness" concept within the United States. Continentalizing Africa in the colonial period was largely the product of the clash of unequal powers. In the United States, the same thing occurred (and still occurs) except on a smaller scale.
I found his discussion about the shortcomings of western notation interesting. He says that even in our own musical systems, the way we notate things do not ever really take into account things like timbre. When I play a melodic line on the cello, I was taught that I had to phrase a line with small breaks, going slower and some portions, faster in others. I see none of this notated on the page, yet we call this ability to interpret "musicianship."
Agawu then makes the argument that it is okay to try and notate other musics with notation familiar to scholars. Though some of the notation systems he discusses were interesting, I fail to see how they could be helpful to anyone.
The only solutions to the myriad problems Agawu presents that he offers is a relatively weak one. He suggests that African musicians make their own notation systems and hopes that they can one day represent themselves to the world. Though it is a weak conclusion, a system developed by the performers would make the most sense to the performers, which is really the only reason a notation system should exist anyway--to be read and understood.
What was interesting about the Waterman article was how it had a disclaimer at the opening which made clear that the music of Africa was very diverse, and that he was oversimplifying it throughout his article. It was written in the 50's and still addressed what Agawu criticized. Cool!
Can a discussion about musical sophistication ever occur? I feel like different cultures value very different things in their music, and you will always be appraising another musical culture's music through comparison with your own. If your own musical values differ, how "sophisticated" can anything be?
How much of the language of race and colonialism play in the discussion of non-Western music by western authors? I found some great examples in the two articles.
And now a somewhat personal experience with musical representation::
Samulnori is a Korean drumming style that serves as a blanket term for Korean folk music. I learned the four basic instruments and was trained as a vocalist during my childhood. When I learned Samulnori, I learned from repetition and vocal instruction. When notation was presented to us, it was similar to the way western percussion instruments are notated. It was helpful, but we were told to only use it for basic learning because there were things we could only learn from our instructors.
Samulnori music can be broken down into units, each unit with its own time signature, dances, and transitions. Within each unit each instrument has their own sub-rhythms. However, they all share the same downbeat at the beginning of each sub-unit. At the "heart" of the music is the breath, which everyone is expected to share.
More on this later!
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