Critical Review #5: Waterman 1952

I find it interesting that Africans at one point considered not “culturally developed” enough to have harmony. To me, music seems to be something so inherently human that I would think even the most underdeveloped culture could potentially have a sophisticated and innovative musical system. I also find it fascinating that while transcribing African music an ethnomusicologist might neglect to transcribe harmony that was actually present, simply because they weren’t expecting to hear it. Understand that apparently something to do with the recording that made it difficult to hear, but I still find that difficult to imagine.

The article discusses the compatibility of Western and African musical styles, and the syncretism that has thus resulted. Apparently some Negro spirituals are even thought to have come solely from Europe due to the Western music style, which I find to be very interesting. Something that many Westerners would attribute to being an authentic African tradition in fact might have been born next to traditional European music.

I also find it interesting that people so often consider Western music to be more sophisticated and complex than African music, when in reality the elements of complexity seem to more or less even out. European songs are typically much more harmonically complex than those from Africa, including the use of modulation, which is virtually non-existent in African music. On the other hand, African music is much more rhythmically complex than European music. Then both of them have similar melodic complexity. Wouldn’t this ultimately put the two on pretty even playing fields in terms of overall musical sophistication?

This article is pretty old. How much has the syncretism of these two music types progressed since it was written? Will there ever be a point in which the syncretism of African and European music reaches a level to which the origin of certain songs won’t be able to be determined? That perhaps someday there will be such a fusion between the two music cultures to include all the varying musical complexities they contribute equally. Rather than being African influenced Western music, or Western influenced African music, there would just be African-Western music. Do examples of this already exist?