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Chemirocha
"Chemirocha" is a series of three field recordings made in 1950 by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey during his visit to the Kipsigis people of the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. The tribe had previously heard the recordings of American country singer Jimmie Rodgers, which they integrated to their musical culture. In 2014, the International Library of African Music returned to Kapkatet, the town where the songs were recorded, to present the digitized version of them to the locals. Recording During World War II, English Christian missionaries visited the Kipsigis tribe of the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. The missionaries took with them a wind-up gramophone and recordings of American singer Jimmie Rodgers. In 1950, ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey moved to the region as he continued to help his brother working on a tobacco farm. On the side, Tracey travelled with a reel-to-reel device and he made field recordings of traditional African songs. In the town of Kapkatet, district chief A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kipsigis People
The Kipsigis or Kipsigiis are a contingent of the Kalenjin ethnic group and speak a dialect of Kalenjin which is classified as a Nilotic language. The dialect they speak is identified by their community eponym, Kipsigis. It is observed that the Kipsigis and another original group native to Kenya known as Ogiek have a merged identity. The Kipsigis are the biggest sub tribe within the Kalenjin community. The latest census population in Kenya put the Kipsigis at 1,972,000 speakers, accounting for 45% of all Kalenjin speaking people. They occupy the highlands of Kericho stretching from Timboroa to the Mara River in the south and the Mau Escarpment in the east to Kebeneti. They also occupy parts of Laikipia, Kitale, Nakuru, Narok, the Trans Mara District, Eldoret and the Nandi Hills. Apart from the Kalenjin, the other tribe is the Tatonga of Western Tanzania. In their expansion southwards, the Kipsigis and the Tatonga people reached the present-day Shinyanga area in Wes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmie Rodgers
James Charles Rodgers ( – ) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Country Music", he is best known for his distinctive yodeling. Rodgers was known as "The Singing Brakeman" and "America's Blue yodeling, Blue Yodeler". He has been cited as an inspiration by many artists, and he has been inducted into multiple halls of fame. Originally from Meridian, Mississippi, Rodgers was the son of railroad worker Aaron Rodgers. During his early childhood the family moved according to the needs of his father's employment, or Rodgers' own poor health. As a teenager he was musically influenced by the diverse vaudeville shows that he often attended. At the age of 13 he won a local singing contest, and then traveled through the Southern United States with a medicine show. After his father took him back home to Meridian, Rodgers dropped out of school and joined the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Tracey
Hugh Travers Tracey was an English ethnomusicologist. He and his wife collected and archived music from Southern and Central Africa. From the 1920s through the 1970s, Tracey made over 35,000 recordings of African folk music. He popularized the mbira (a musical instrument of the Shona people) internationally under the name ''kalimba''. Hugh Tracey saw the importance of music within culture when he worked a tobacco farm in Southern Rhodesia. Here, he experienced music that displayed beliefs and morals, which inspired him to make his field recordings. He wanted to stop the loss of traditional music and culture from modernity and recorded all of his field recordings from rural areas that still held onto traditional culture and ideas. Life and career Tracey was born in Willand, Devon, in 1903. In the late 1920s Tracey was a farmer in rural Devon, when he decided to travel to Southern Rhodesia, current Zimbabwe. There he continued to work as a farmer, but became deeply interested ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Rift Valley, Kenya
The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues northward into Ethiopia. It was formed on the "Kenyan Dome", a geographical upwelling created by the interactions of three major tectonics: the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates. In the past, it was seen as part of a " Great Rift Valley" that runs from Madagascar to Syria. Most of the valley falls within the former Rift Valley Province. The valley contains the Cherangani Hills and a chain of volcanoes, some of which are still active. The climate is mild, with temperatures usually below . Most rain falls during the March–June and October–November periods. The Tugen Hills to the west of Lake Baringo contain fossils preserved in lava flows from the period 14 to 4 million years ago. The relics of many hominids, ancestors of humans, have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. Its second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a major port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest (though much of that border includes the disputed Ilemi Triangle), Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely. In western, rift valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops (such as Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Library Of African Music
The International Library of African Music (ILAM) is an organization dedicated to the preservation and study of African music. Seated in Grahamstown, South Africa, ILAM is attached to the Music Department at Rhodes University and coordinates its Ethnomusicology Programme which offers undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Ethnomusicology that include training in performance of African music. ILAM, as the largest repository of indigenous African music, is particularly known for its study of the lamellophone mbira of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as the Chopi people's Timbila, a variant of the marimba from southern Mozambique. Publications and recordings * ''Journal of the International Library of African Music'' albums are available for digital download at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings' website. * As part of the Rhodes University's support for Open Access to research output and primary research materials, the journal ''African Music'' in being made accessible freely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investigate the act of music-making through various immersive, observational, and analytical approaches. This discipline emerged from comparative musicology, initially focusing on non-Western music, but later expanded to embrace the study of all different music. The practice of ethnomusicology relies on direct engagement and performance, as well as academic work. Fieldwork takes place among those who make the music, engaging local languages and culture as well as music. Ethnomusicologists can become participant observers, learning to perform the music they are studying. Fieldworkers also collect recordings and contextual data. Definition Ethnomusicology combines perspectives from folklore, psychology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, compara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reel-to-reel Audio Tape Recording
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is Magnetic tape#Audio, magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is placed on a spindle or hub. The end of the tape is manually pulled from the reel, threaded through mechanical guides and over a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of the second, initially empty ''takeup reel''. Reel-to-reel systems use tape that is wide, which normally moves at . Domestic consumer machines almost always used or narrower tape and many offered slower speeds such as . All standard tape speeds are derived as a binary submultiple of 30 inches per second. Reel-to-reel preceded the development of the compact cassette with tape wide moving at . By writing the same audio signal across more tape, reel-to-reel systems give much greater High fidelity, fidelity at the cost of much larger tapes. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faun
The faun (, ; , ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts ( genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before their conflation with Greek satyrs, they and Faunus were represented as naked men (e.g. the Barberini Faun). Later fauns became copies of the satyrs of Greek mythology, who themselves were originally shown as part-horse rather than part-goat. By the Renaissance, fauns were depicted as two-footed creatures with the horns, legs, and tail of a goat and the head, torso, and arms of a human; they are often depicted with pointed ears. These late-form mythological creatures borrowed their look from the satyrs, who in turn borrowed their look from the god Pan of the Greek pantheon. They were symbols of peace and fertility, and their Greek chieftain, Silenus, was a minor deity of Greek mythology. Origins Romans believed fauns stirred fear in m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cargo Cult
Cargo cults were diverse spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. Typically (but not universally) cargo cults included: charismatic prophet figures foretelling an imminent cataclysm and/or a coming utopia for followers—a worldview known as millenarianism; predictions by these prophets of the return of dead ancestors bringing an abundance of food and goods (the "cargo"), typically including a bounty of Western goods or money, often under the belief that Veneration of the dead, ancestral spirits were responsible for their creation; and the instruction by these prophets to followers to appease "ancestral spirits or other powerful beings" to fulfill the prophecy and receive the cargo by either reviving ancestral traditions or adopting new rituals, such as Ecstatic dance, ecstatic dancing or imitating the actions of colonists and military personnel, like Flag-raising ceremony, fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Tracey
Andrew Tracey (5 May 1936 – 2024) was a South African ethnomusicologist, musician, composer, and educator, widely known for his pioneering research on African musical instruments, particularly the mbira and karimba, and for his advocacy of applied ethnomusicology. He served as director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM) from 1977 until 2005 and was influential in the global understanding of African music systems. Early life and education Tracey was born in Durban, South Africa, the eldest son of the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey and Ursula Campbell. His early exposure to African music began in childhood through his father’s broadcasting work and field recordings. Following his parents' divorce, he moved to England at age ten, where he continued his education, later attending Charterhouse School. After completing national service in Kenya, during which he learned Swahili and encountered East African musical traditions, Tracey enrolled at Oxford Universit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
