Pygmy music refers to the

sub-Saharan African music traditions In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the use of music is not limited to entertainment: it serves a purpose to the local community and helps in the conduct of daily routines. Traditional African music supplies appropriate music and dance for work ...

of the Central African foragers (or "Pygmies"), predominantly in the Congo, the Central African Republic and Cameroon. Pygmy groups include the Bayaka, the

Mbuti The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages. Subgroups Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest ...

, and the Batwa. Music is an important part of Pygmy life, and casual performances take place during many of the day's events. Music comes in many forms, including the spiritual likanos stories,

vocable In the broadest sense of the word, a vocable is any meaningful sound uttered by people, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture. Use of the words in the broad sense is archaic and the term is instead used for utterances ...

singing and music played from a variety of instruments including the bow harp (''ieta''), '' ngombi'' (

harp zither The guitar zither (also chord zither, fretless zither, mandolin zither or harp zither) is a musical instrument consisting of a sound-box with two sets of unstopped strings. One set of strings is tuned to the diatonic, chromatic, or partially chr ...

) and '' limbindi'' (a string bow). Researchers who have studied Pygmy music include

Simha Arom Simha Arom (born 1930) is a French-Israeli ethnomusicologist who is recognized as a world expert on the music of central Africa, especially that of the Central African Republic. His books include '' African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Struc ...

, Louis Sarno, Colin Turnbull and

Jean-Pierre Hallet Jean-Pierre Hallet (1927 – 1 January 2004) was a Belgian (born in DR Congo) ethnologist, naturalist, and humanitarian known best for his extensive work with the Efé (Bambuti) pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest. He wrote the 1964 autobiographic ...

Polyphonic song

The Mbenga ( Aka/Benzele) and Baka peoples in the west and the

(Efé) in the east are particularly known for their dense contrapuntal communal

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

says that the level of

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...

complexity of Mbenga–Mbuti music was reached in Europe only in the 14th century. The polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies was relisted on the

Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.Compare: This list is published by the Intergover ...

in 2008. Mbenga–Mbuti Pygmy music consists of up to four parts and can be described as an "

ostinato In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces includ ...

with

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

" similar to a

passacaglia The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre. Origin The t ...

in that it is cyclical. It is based on repetition of periods of equal length that each singer divides using different rhythmic figures specific to different repertoires and songs. This creates a detailed surface and endless variations not only of the same period repeated but of various performances of the same piece of music. As in some

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and N ...

nese

gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

music these patterns are based on a super-pattern which is never heard. The Pygmies themselves do not learn or think of their music in this theoretical framework, but learn the music growing up. Polyphonic music is only characteristic of the Mbenga and Mbuti. The Gyele/Kola,

Great Lakes Twa The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa (singular Mutwa), Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region on the border of Central and East Africa. As an indigenous pygmy people, the Twa are generally ass ...

and Southern Twa have very different musical styles.

Liquindi

Liquindi is water drumming, typically practiced by

Pygmy In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...

women and girls. The

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

is produced by persons standing in water, and hitting the surface of the water with their hands, such as to trap air in the hands and produce a

percussive A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

effect that arises by sudden change in air pressure of the trapped air. The sound cannot exist entirely in water, since it requires the air-water boundary as a surface to be struck, so the sound is not hydraulophonic.

Hindewhu

Hindewhu is a style of singing/whistle-playing of the BaBenzélé

pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...

of the Central African Republic. The word is an onomatopoeia of the sound of a performer alternately singing pitched syllables and blowing into a single-pitch

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus ''Carica'' of the family Caricaceae. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within modern-day southern Mexico and C ...

-stem whistle. Hindewhu announces the return from a hunt and is performed solo, duo or in groups.

Western popularization

Colin M. Turnbull, an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and v ...

, wrote a book about the Efé Pygmies, ''

The Forest People ''The Forest People'' (1961) is Colin Turnbull's ethnographic study of the Mbuti pygmies of the Uturi Forest in then-Belgian Congo. In this book, the British-American anthropologist detailed his three years spent with the community in the lat ...

'', in 1965. This introduced Mbuti culture to Western countries. Turnbull claimed that the Mbuti viewed the forest as a parental spirit with which they could communicate via song. Some of Turnbull's recordings of Efé music were commercially released and inspired more ethnomusicological study such as by

, a French-Israeli who recorded hindewhu, and Luis Devin, an Italian ethnomusicologist who studied in depth the musical rituals and instruments of Baka Pygmies. Some popular musicians have used hindewhu in their music: *"Hunting", a song by

Deep Forest Deep Forest is a French musical group originally consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance ...

from their album '' Made in Japan''. *"Ba-Benzélé", a song by

Jon Hassell Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various ...

and

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

from the album '' Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics'' (1980). *"Fabulous" (1983), a tune by John Oswald and

Dick Hyman Richard Hyman (born March 8, 1927) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Ar ...

from the album ''

plunderphonics Plunderphonics is a music genre in which tracks are constructed by sampling recognizable musical works. The term was coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative", and even ...

'' (1989). *Percussionist

Bill Summers Bill Summers may refer to: * Bill Summers (car builder) (1935–2011), American car builder and longtime speed record holder *Bill Summers (musician) (born 1948), American jazz percussionist *Bill Summers (umpire) William Reed Summers (November 1 ...

imitates hindewhu in the track " Watermelon Man" by

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helpe ...

from the 1973 album ''

Head Hunters ''Head Hunters'' is the twelfth studio album by American pianist and composer Herbie Hancock, released October 26, 1973, on Columbia Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in the evening at Wally Heider Studios and Different Fur ...

'' (see

hocket In music, hocket is the rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords. In medieval practice of hocket, a single melody is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds whi ...

). *"Sanctuary", a song by

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

from the album '' Bedtime Stories'' (1994) samples the Herbie Hancock recording. *In 1992 the popularization of Pygmy music spread with the release of Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez's ''

''. A percentage of the proceeds from each album were donated to the

Pygmy Fund Jean-Pierre Hallet (1927 – 1 January 2004) was a Belgian (born in DR Congo) ethnologist, naturalist, and humanitarian known best for his extensive work with the Efé ( Bambuti) pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest. He wrote the 1964 autobiograph ...

set up to aid

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was ...

's Pygmies. The album was nevertheless subject to controversy, as the project used samples recorded by ethnomusicologist

Hugo Zemp Hugo Zemp (born 14 May 1937, Basle, Switzerland) is a Swiss-French ethnomusicologist. A prolific recorder of ethnic music and a writer on the subject, he has also shot a number of films about music of various regions, including 1988 film ''Voix de ...

without permission; further controversy was stirred by the lack of consideration given to the original performer - a Northern Malaitian woman named Afunakwa - by either party during the resultant legal battle. *Also in 1992 Martin Cradick and Su Hart spent three months living with and recording Baka in Cameroon. result was the creation of the band Baka Beyond and the release of their collaboration with the Baka musicians, "Spirit of the Forest" alongside the album "Heart of the Forest", and a musical relationship that has lasted over twenty years. Proceeds from both these albums have returned to the Baka musicians through the charity ''Global Music Exchange'' which continues to work with the Baka helping them in their rapidly changing environment. *pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard programmed recordings of Pygmy songs (performed by the Aka Pygmies) with works of contemporary composers

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

and Steve Reich on his ''African Rhythms'' (2003)

References

Sources and further reading

* Abram, Dave. "Sounds From the African Rainforest". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), ''World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East'', pp. 601–607. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. * Lotte Hughes, ''The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples'' (Verso, 2003) , p 109 * Born, Georgina & Hesmondhalgh, David d.(2000). ''Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music''.

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. pp. 156–159. * Plantenga, Bart. ''Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World''. (Routledge, 2004) . * Plantenga, bart. ''Yodel in Hi-Fi: From Kitsch Folk to Contemporary Electronica''. (University of Wisconsin Press / Autonomedia 2013-2017) .

Discography

* ''Aka Pygmy Music''. Recorded by

. Philips 6586 016. Part of the

UNESCO Collection UNESCO Collection is a world music record label, under the aegis of UNESCO. The full title of the series was ''UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World''. Starting in 1961, the label, created in collaboration with Alain Daniélou, has r ...

(

Musical Sources ''Musical Sources'' is a series of recordings of traditional music that was made for the International Music Council by the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation (Berlin/Venice) and released on the Philips label. M ...

I-2); reissued as Auvidis D 8054. * ''Ba-Benzélé Pygmies''. Bärenreiter BM 30 L 2303. Part of the

(third in the Anthology of African Music); reissued as Rounder CD 5107. * ''Cameroon: Baka Pygmy Music'' (1977). EMI/Odeon 3C 064-18265. Part of the

( Musical Atlas, #18); reissued as Auvidis D 8029 (1990). *''African Rhythms'' (2003). Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies,

and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann. *''Music of the Rainforest Pygmies''. Historic recordings made by Colin M. Turnbull. Lyrichord: LYRCD 7157. *''Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies''. Recordings by Colin M. Turnbull,

and Louis Sarno. Ellipsis Arts: Musical Expeditions CD 4020 *''Heart of the Forest: Music of the Baka Forest People of South-East Cameroon''(1993). Recordings by Martin Cradick and Jeremy Avis. Hannibal Records: HNCD1378. *''Baka in the Forest: traditional songs of the Baka women recorded live in the Cameroon rainforest.''(2009). Recordings by Su Hart. March Hare: MAHA CD29. * "Voice of the Rainforest' (2013).Traditional Baka music recorded by Martin Cradick. March Hare Music: MAHA CD32. * 'Gati Bongo'.(2006). Music by Orchestre Baka Gbiné, an entirely Baka band from S E Cameroon. March Hare Music. MAHA CD23. * 'Kopolo'.(2012) The second album by Orchestre Baka Gbiné. March Hare Music: MAHA CD30.

External links

Water Drumming (Liquindi) Frantovy stránky - O nástrojích - Liquindi / Water drumsAfrican Pygmies
Pygmy music and culture, with audio recordings and soundscapes
Philadelphia CityPaper.net: 20 questions
Louis Sarno an interview by Deni Kasrel, June 13–20, 1996 regarding BaBenzl Pygmies
Deep Forest music site
- with music samples
Baka Forest People
- many music samples, photos and videos of Baka music
Baka Beyond site
- with links to access Baka recordings * http://www.hangblog.org/hang-sound-models/#firstgenerationsoundmodels2002 {{UNESCO Oral and Intangible music Central African music (region) African Pygmies Pentatonic scales