The Buzz Aesthetic and Mande Music: Acoustic Masks and the Technology of Enchantment
This article concerns the widespread preference for ‘buzzy’ timbres in African traditional musics; and, in particular, the ways in which this preference has been borne out in the Mande region of west Africa. The two main types of buzzing mechanisms in Mande music are metal buzzing rattles, which are attached to the neck or bridge of various string instruments, and mirlitons (vibrating membranes), which are placed over small holes on the resonating gourds of wooden xylophones. Over the last seventy to eighty years, an older and rougher ‘buzz aesthetic’ within Mande music has become increasingly endangered, with buzzing largely disappearing from instruments such as the kora and the ngoni in favour of a ‘cleaner’, more ‘Western’ aesthetic. Considered in a wider cultural context, I discuss the possible origins of the Mande buzz aesthetic and attempt to explore how the incorporation of buzzing sounds within Mande music might be connected to forms of ‘esoteric’, ‘supernatural’ and spiritual power.
Based on my Masters dissertation of the same name (SOAS - University of London). Published in African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music. Download PDF.
Vol. 10, no. 3, Nov. 2017, pp. 95-17
Sámi Joik: Music & Imagination in Arctic Norway
This dissertation concerns the entangled relationship between music and imagination in the context of Sámi ‘self-consciousness’ and senses of place. For the Sámi, music has always had a special significance. Their distinct vocal style known as joik has, in particular, been central to social life and Sámi being in the world. Joik can be a highly skilled form of expression and has traditionally functioned to connect people to to each other and to their lands. Throughout history outsiders who wished to change or destroy Sámi society attacked their music. Despite being almost driven to extinction by missionaries and state officials, joik survived. In the contemporary context, imaginative engagement with joik constitutes an important part of the process by which the Sámi come to feel at home within a globalised world.
Undergraduate research-based dissertation (University of St Andrews), 2011. Available on Academia
