744 music and musical instruments: Africa portant expression of national identity On the other hand, in China music was often regarded as perhaps the highest of arts Confusing the issue in China, the Islamic world, and other cultures was the ancient practice of combining stories with music for oral presentation Stories often were written in verse, and storytellers would use music as a way to help them remember the verses with the appropriate beat Was that literature or music? That is a question about which people could argue without reaching a conclusion, but for many medieval listeners what they heard was a combination of sounds and ideas designed to stir their emotions Medieval musical theorists frequently ascribe certain emotions to specific kinds of sounds Even the notion that music has patterns that define it has its challenges In medieval India and China musical forms were usually supposed to duplicate traditional patterns established in ancient times A composer could rearrange the patterns for a particular tune but was not supposed to innovate The sounds were meant to be familiar to audiences and to evoke connections to a golden past, yet in medieval Europe singers and musicians typically improvised A musical composition was learned by listening to it, but it was possible for a musician never to play a piece exactly the same way twice, because he or she might vary the sounds to suit the interests of an individual audience Even religious chants may have been varied by singers In literate societies musical theorists debated what the sounds and forms of music were supposed to mean, but it would an error to believe that only cultures such as those of the Islamic world and India, where music was sometimes analyzed as mathematical constructs, had enough subtlety for complex combinations of sound For instance, African drumming had a rich arrangement of sounds that held great meaning for listeners Different pacing of drumming, different tones, and different pitches could evoke such emotions as fear, anger, or compassion and could even convey words and sentences Among medieval Americans chants in which certain sounds are repeated, seemingly without linguistic meaning, nonetheless conveyed ideas about humanity’s relationship to nature or with the supernatural world and transported audiences into states of consciousness in which they saw extra dimensions to the world or felt profound emotions connecting them to their families, tribes, and cultures Africa by Amy Hackney Blackwell Music was essential to many events in African life The people of precolonial Africa produced and listened to a wide variety of music People traveling from North Africa, from the Mid- dle East, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa picked up musical instruments and techniques on their travels and brought them back to their homes Arabic musical styles were incorporated into the music of much of eastern and western Africa above the Congo The people of East Africa picked up styles and instruments from trade with Arabia and India Throughout medieval Africa people sang People sang work songs every day to wile away their time spent doing ordinary tasks Festivals were occasions for a great deal of music and singing, often performed to accompany dancing People sang and performed particular songs to mark marriages, births, and deaths The courts of kings and chiefs might have their own courtly music that would be performed only there African peoples had special music to accompany dances of love, dances to welcome visitors, war dances, rites of passage, and dances used to communicate with spirits The music would set the pace of the dance, whether slow and stately or fast and frightening Skillful musicians could tell dancers how to perform Different African groups had their own singing styles For example, the small people who lived in the rain forests of the Congo sang morning songs known as yelli Many of their songs used several voices that quickly traded off notes of the melody People in southern Africa often sang a cappella, without instrumental accompaniment The call-andresponse method, in which a lead singer would call out single lines to a song and the rest of the group would either repeat those lines or sing their responses, was a common singing technique in much of Africa Improvisation was essential to African music While people knew basic rhythmic motifs and tunes, they rarely wrote down their pieces in any sort of musical notation and thus performed entirely from memory They would often play and sing music for hours, spinning variations of tune, rhythm, and lyrics as the mood struck them Griots—professional singers, poets, and bards—performed throughout the savanna belt of western Africa Griots were also known as jail, jeli, or guewel Griots functioned as local historians, memorizing the lineage of the families in their area and reciting these lists when called upon They also could tell folktales, sing folk songs, recount battles, and spin exciting stories from other historical events Each village in the region had its own griot, who studied for years to master the historical knowledge and musical techniques Griots traditionally played a drum called the talking drum The griot would hold the drum under his arm and squeeze it to raise or lower the pitch while hitting the drum with a stick held in his free hand The heads of talking drums could be made of various skins, including lizard skin and fish skin