The

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

is an African nation with close musical ties to its neighbor, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. The Democratic Republic of the Congo's homegrown pop music,

soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar impro ...

, is popular across the border, and musicians from both countries have fluidly travelled throughout the region playing similarly styled music, including Nino Malapet and

Jean Serge Essous Jean Serge Essous (born 1935 Brazzaville - died November 25, 2009 in Brazzaville ) was a Congolese saxophonist, clarinetist, and cofounder of the Afrika Team in Paris, France, the band Bantous de la Capital in Brazzaville, Congo, OK Jazz, and O ...

. Brazzaville had a major music scene until unrest in the late 1990s, and produced popular bands like Extra Musica and Bantous de la Capitale that played an integral role in the development of soukous and other styles of Congolese popular musi

The Hip-Hop group " Bisso na bisso, Bisso na Bisso" also hails from Congo-Brazzaville.

National music

The

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

of the Republic of the Congo is '. It was adopted upon independence in 1959, replaced in 1969 by ' but reinstated in 1991. The words were written by Jacques Tondra and Georges Kibanghi, the music was composed by Jean Royer and Joseph Spadilière.''La Semaine africaine'' 378, 29 November 1959, cited by Silvère NGOUNDOS IDOURAH and Nicole DOCKES-LALLEMENT, ''Justice et pouvoir au Congo-Brazzaville, 1958-1992, la confusion des rôles'', L'Harmattan, Paris, 2001, , 9782747513197

Traditional music

Folk instruments in the Republic of the Congo include the

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

and '' mvet''. The mvet is a kind of

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...

, similar to styles found elsewhere in both

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. The mvet is made of a long tube with one or two

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the ear ...

s acting as

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...

Soukous

Though soukous has become much more closely associated with the popular

music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Congolese music is one of the most influential music forms of the African continent since the 1930s. Congolese musicians had a huge impact on the African musical scene and outside. Many contemporary genres of music were created or heavily influe ...

, early in the style's evolution both the local scenes of

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

and

Brazzaville Brazzaville (, kg, Kintamo, Nkuna, Kintambo, Ntamo, Mavula, Tandala, Mfwa, Mfua; Teke: ''M'fa'', ''Mfaa'', ''Mfa'', ''Mfoa''Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, ''Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture'', ABC-CL ...

played a very important role. In these cities, American style orchestras (called ''soukous'', or ''kirikiri'' or ''kasongo'') played

rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba. ...

(a kind of

Cuban music The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European (especially Spanish) music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban mu ...

) influenced by traditional music and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. Soukous arose from this fusion of styles, popularized as

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

by a number of different orchestras in the 1950s and 60s.

References

Sources

* Kubik, Gerhard: "Mvet", in: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (Ed. by Stanley Sadie). macmillan Publishers, London 1981 * Bender, Wolfgang: "Sweet Mother - Moderne afrikanische Musik", 1985, Trickster Verlag, München. (in German language)

External links

*
Audio clips: Traditional music of the Republic of the Congo.

Musée d'ethnographie de Genève The ' ("Geneva Ethnography Museum") is one of the most important ethnographic museums in Switzerland. History The MEG, or Geneva Museum of Ethnography, was founded on 25 September 1901, on the initiative of Professor Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), ...

. Accessed 25 November 2010.
Afropop Country - Congo musicLiving Encyclopedia of Global African Music
{{Music of Africa *