什麼是非洲音樂

撒哈拉沙漠以南非洲的音樂。雖然非洲是文化各異的巨大地理區，其音樂卻有若干統一的特徵。包括「藝術音樂」（art music）在內的非洲傳統音樂靠口耳相傳，因此樂曲不以完成作品的形式存在，但被視爲每次演出皆有所不同的再創造。另一個特點是「呼叫與迴應」的普遍使用。除了心靈及慶祝方面和伴舞的角色以外，非洲音樂也有獨特的政治角色。音樂史官（griot）唱出部族的歷史，也創造了讚美領袖的歌曲，或在社區對領袖存有負面觀感時做出嘲諷歌曲。歌詞與音樂的結合，導致演出純粹器樂曲子時令人聯想到歌詞。非洲音樂大致是即興的，僅僅運用有限的對位（包括類似模仿的輪迴，可能是呼叫與迴應重疊的結果）。雖然旋律常伴隨着平行的間隔，創造出一種和絃的質感，而真正的複音音樂由姆勃拉琴（mbira）演奏，在此，由雙手演奏的旋律被視爲個別存在的，節奏在非洲受到高度發展。西方人傾向於把同時的模式視爲共有一個步調，非洲人則把這樣的模式視爲出發點不同的週期。外來的影響在非洲音樂中扮演一定的角色，其中伊斯蘭教尤其重要。近代，西方音樂可以相容的元素已經與本土元素混合起來，雖然在流行音樂中，這些西方的影響比較可能藉着阿拉伯及印度範例而來。北非的音樂代表着另一個分立的傳統（參閱Middle Eastern）。

African music

Music of sub-Saharan Africa. Though a vast geographical area with diverse cultures, Africa's music has a number of unifying traits. Its traditional music, including its “art music,” is orally transmitted; thus, pieces do not exist as finished works, but are conceived of as recreated somewhat differently with each performance. Another general characteristic is the prevalence of “call and response.” Aside from its spiritual and celebratory and dance-accompanying roles, African music has a distinctly political role; the griot sings the tribe's history and creates songs of praise for the leader, or mocking songs when community feeling is running against the leader. The association of words with music extends to the existence of words to be thought while performing purely instrumental pieces. Being largely improvisational, African music employs only limited counterpoint (including roundlike imitation that may be an outgrowth of overlapping calls and responses), though melodies are often accompanied in parallel intervals, creating a chordal texture, and truly polyphonic music is played on the mbira, where the melodies performed by the two hands are conceived as separate. Rhythm is highly developed in Africa. Whereas Westerners tend to perceive simultaneous patterns as sharing a common meter, Africans think of such patterns as cycles with different starting points. Outside influences have played a role in African music, most importantly Islam. In recent times, compatible elements of Western music have mixed with indigenous elements, though in popular music these Western influences more likely arrived via Arabic and Indian examples. The music of North Africa represents a separate tradition (see Middle Eastern music).