The African Imagination in Music

Description

In ‘The African Imagination in Music’, noted music scholar Kofi Agawu offers a fresh introduction to the vast, immensely rich and diverse set of repertoires that comprise the sound worlds of Sub-Saharan African music. Agawu introduces readers to the basic elements of African music and to the values upon which they are built. He then explores the key dimensions and resources of African music, including the place of music in society, musical instruments, the relationship between language and music, rhythm, melody, form, harmony and finally, appropriations of African music by musicians around the world. Written in an accessible style, ‘The African Imagination in Music’ is poised to renew interest in Black African music, and to engender discussion of its creative underpinnings by Africanists, ethnomusicologists, music theorists and musicologists. KOFI AGAWU was born in Ghana, West Africa where he received his initial education before studying in the UK and the US. He has taught and lectured at numerous universities in Africa, Europe and the United States. Agawu is a wide-ranging scholar and author of numerous articles and books, including ‘Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music’ (Princeton University Press, 1991), ‘African Rhythm: A Northern Ewe Perspective’ (Cambridge University Press, 1995), ‘Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions’ (Routledge, 2003) and ‘Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music’ (Oxford University Press, 2008). A Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is also Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. Dr. Agawu is currently a professor of music at Princeton University.