Gerhard Kubik
Biographic Data
| ID | 171806 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gerhard Kubik |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gerhard |
| FAMILY NAME | Kubik |
| SIGNATURE | KUBIK G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Vienna |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 61 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 61 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1960 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Andrew Tracey
Archaeology of instruments
Blue note
Central Africa: An Introduction
Since the mid-1800s, perceptions about the identity and location of the central part of the African continent have changed repeatedly. Thus, “Central Africa” is not an observational fact but a geographical concept, with social and cultural implications. In Central Africa, people do not merely conceptualize sounds but often verbalize them. Instrumental patterns produced on the Azande harp and box-resonated lamellophone evoke verbal associations, w…
Theory of African Music, Volume I
Theory of African Music, Volume II
Small Voices Doomed-A Keynote
Small Voices Doomed" is the symbolic title of my presentation. I could have said "Soft Voices Doomed" to express the fact that we are living in an era in which loud and persistent voices tend to prevail. Technologies for the amplification and multiplication of messages were, of course, developed by "soft voices," i.e., by a few individuals with extraordinary scientific talents. But their inventions have been hijacked by others who neither match u…
Pesquisa musical africana dos dois lados do Atlântico: Algumas Experiências E Reflexões Pessoais
Pierre Gwa - MpyemÃμ Guitarist: His Songs and Their Sources Central African Republic, 1966
Early acoustic guitar styles in central Africa. As far as we can reconstruct, the acoustic guitar styles of central Africa sprang up and gained momentum shortly after World War II, first only in a few areas that can be pinpointed on a map (Kubik 1965). These were places of colonial economic activity; mining centres, urban areas, trading posts and so on. people from various parts of the region were attracted to these centres in search of work. The…
Inherent patterns: Musiques de l’ancien royaume de Buganda: étude de psychologie cognitive
Une connaissance approfondie et une pratique de la musique de xylophone de l'ancien royaume de Buganda permettent à l'auteur de dégager certains principes de composition du «battement encrené», procédant par addition de pulsations rapides exécutées par (au moins) deux musiciens en une stricte alternance, chacun d'entre eux jouant, en décalage, sa propre série mélodico-rythmique. De cette technique découlent des «inherent patterns»: figures mélodi…
Musiques de l'ancien royaume de Buganda: Étude de psychologie cognitive
Une connaissance approfondie et une pratique de la musique de xylophone de l’ancien royaume de Buganda permettent a l’auteur de degager certains principes de composition du « battement encrene », procedant par addition de pulsations rapides executees par (au moins) deux musiciens en une stricte alternance, chacun d’entre eux jouant, en decalage, sa propre serie melodico-rythmique. De cette technique decoulent des « inherent patterns » : figures m…
Formulas of Defense: A Psychoanalytic Investigation in Southeast Africa
American Imago - Volume 59, Number 2, Summer 2002
Cameroon, Republic of
Kwela
Angola
Africa
Accordion
Tanzania
Marimba
Guitar
Namibia
Blue note (i)
Malawi, Republic of
Africa and the Blues
Les Maitres du Balafon: Fetes funeraires. (Masters of the Balafon: Funeral Festivities)
Neo-traditional popular music in East Africa since 1945
Since 1945 the musical scene in East Africa has been characterised by a series of important developments which ran parallel to an extensive political-cultural change of consciousness. All the musical forms which arose in this connection were 'popular' in the sense that they were appreciated by broad sections of society
Movements Toward Understanding Humans Through the Anthropological Study of Dance [and Comments and Reply]
An attempt is made to identify the study of dance as a specialization and peripheral interest within each of the four fields of anthropology, in order to suggest how our understanding of Homo sapiens may be enhanced by dance study. The neglect, gestation, and emergence of the anthropological study of dance, its theoretical and methodological areas of consensus and disagreement, and some specific approaches and their strengths and limitations are …
Theory of African Music
Taken together, these comprehensive volumes offer an authoritative account of the music of Africa. One of the most prominent experts on the subject, Gerhard Kubik draws on his extensive travels and three decades of study in many parts of the continent to compare and contrast a wealth of musical traditions from a range of cultures. In the first volume, Kubik describes and examines xylophone playing in southern Uganda and harp music from the Centra…
The structure of Kiganda xylophone music
There are two main types of xylophone in Buganda, the most important of the kingdoms north of Lake Victoria in Uganda. One instrument with twelve keys is called amadinda, another with twenty two keys is called Akadinda. “Dinda” means “xylophone key” and the word probably arose from the sound which the keys give when they are struck. The prefix “ama”, as I was told by my teacher, means “big” and “aka” means “small”. This is rather strange, for the…
Transcription of Mangwilo xylophone music from film strips
The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly to explain a method of transcribing African instrumental music, and secondly to give information on the structure of the Mangwilo xylophone music of the Alomwe and Ashirima in Northern Mozambique
Drum Patterns in the "Batuque" of Benedito Caxias
African Tone-Systems: A Reassessment
Theory of African Music, Volume I
Emics and Etics Re-examined, Part 1: Emics and ethics: theoretical considerations
There is indeed plenty of evidence that musicologists have been aware of the emics/etics model and related theoretical issues inherited from anthropology and linguistics all along since the 1950s, and that they have discussed them, if sometimes only indirectly or in the context of factual field reports. On many occasions emics was also discussed under other names. For example, from the early 1970s on I have used the term "intracultural approach" …
African space/time concepts and the Tusona ideographs in Luchazi culture
Tusona ideographs and amadinda compositions are not merely †̃artâ€TM or †̃musicâ€TM in the Western sense. They are little closed systems of functional and causal relationships, little universes without exits. The minds who created them must have been researchers in the basic sense of the word. By creating the self-contained mini-universes of these configurations they also created mini-replicas of what our macro-universe may ultimately be like. Th…
Theory of African Music, Volume II
Pierre Gwa - MpyemÃμ Guitarist: His Songs and Their Sources Central African Republic, 1966
Early acoustic guitar styles in central Africa. As far as we can reconstruct, the acoustic guitar styles of central Africa sprang up and gained momentum shortly after World War II, first only in a few areas that can be pinpointed on a map (Kubik 1965). These were places of colonial economic activity; mining centres, urban areas, trading posts and so on. people from various parts of the region were attracted to these centres in search of work. The…
Inherent patterns: Musiques de l’ancien royaume de Buganda: étude de psychologie cognitive
Une connaissance approfondie et une pratique de la musique de xylophone de l'ancien royaume de Buganda permettent à l'auteur de dégager certains principes de composition du «battement encrené», procédant par addition de pulsations rapides exécutées par (au moins) deux musiciens en une stricte alternance, chacun d'entre eux jouant, en décalage, sa propre série mélodico-rythmique. De cette technique découlent des «inherent patterns»: figures mélodi…
Visimu vya mukatikati —dilemma tales and ‘arithmetical puzzles’ collected among the Valuchazi
Dilemma tales are among some of the lesser known genres of oral literature in Africa. Working with taxonomies elicited from Luchazi—one of the languages of the so-called Ngangela cluster—dilemma tales are discussed on the basis of recordings and cinematographic documentation of narrative performances from eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia. In the oral literature of the Valuchazi use is sometimes made of explanatory visual symbols, or ideogra…
Nsenga/Shona Harmonic Patterns and the San Heritage in Southern Africa
Codification of African Music and Textbook Project: A Primer of Practical Suggestions for Field Research
Composition techniques in Kiganda xylophone music: With an introduction into some Kiganda musical concepts
The impression that distinct and sophisticated composition rules are at work in Kiganda music is sustained by a number of observations. The field researcher in Uganda may be struck by the fact that an expert amadinda player can usually reconstruct the second part (okwawula) of a tune, if he is given the first part (okunaga), provided he knows the melody of the vocal theme inherent in the instrumental pattern. Though traditional musicians in Ugand…
Mehrstimmigkeit und Tonsysteme in Zentral-und Ostafrika
Xylophone Playing in Southern Uganda
The structure of Kiganda xylophone music
There are two main types of xylophone in Buganda, the most important of the kingdoms north of Lake Victoria in Uganda. One instrument with twelve keys is called amadinda, another with twenty two keys is called Akadinda. “Dinda” means “xylophone key” and the word probably arose from the sound which the keys give when they are struck. The prefix “ama”, as I was told by my teacher, means “big” and “aka” means “small”. This is rather strange, for the…
Harp music of the Azande and related peoples in the Central African Republic (Part 1 - Horizontal harp playing)
Since the days of Schweinfurth and other early explorers the Azande have been famous for their beautifully-shaped harps and their fine playing of this instrument. When I came to the Central African Republic I did not know much more than that about them, because it is one of my habits to read the literature about a people after I have studied there for myself first. I met the harp for the first time in the African quarter of the Plantation Molois …
Xylophone Playing in Southern Uganda
Transcription of Mangwilo xylophone music from film strips
The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly to explain a method of transcribing African instrumental music, and secondly to give information on the structure of the Mangwilo xylophone music of the Alomwe and Ashirima in Northern Mozambique
Mehrstimmigkeit und Tonsysteme in Zentral-und Ostafrika
Composition techniques in Kiganda xylophone music: With an introduction into some Kiganda musical concepts
The impression that distinct and sophisticated composition rules are at work in Kiganda music is sustained by a number of observations. The field researcher in Uganda may be struck by the fact that an expert amadinda player can usually reconstruct the second part (okwawula) of a tune, if he is given the first part (okunaga), provided he knows the melody of the vocal theme inherent in the instrumental pattern. Though traditional musicians in Ugand…
Codification of African Music and Textbook Project: A Primer of Practical Suggestions for Field Research
Pattern Perception and Recognition in African Music
Movements Toward Understanding Humans Through the Anthropological Study of Dance [and Comments and Reply]
An attempt is made to identify the study of dance as a specialization and peripheral interest within each of the four fields of anthropology, in order to suggest how our understanding of Homo sapiens may be enhanced by dance study. The neglect, gestation, and emergence of the anthropological study of dance, its theoretical and methodological areas of consensus and disagreement, and some specific approaches and their strengths and limitations are …
Educação tradicional e ensino da música e dança em sociedades tradicionais africanas
Neo-traditional popular music in East Africa since 1945
Since 1945 the musical scene in East Africa has been characterised by a series of important developments which ran parallel to an extensive political-cultural change of consciousness. All the musical forms which arose in this connection were 'popular' in the sense that they were appreciated by broad sections of society
The Kachamba Brothers' Band: A Study of the Neo-Traditional Music in Malawi
Mukanda na makisi
African Tone-Systems: A Reassessment
African space/time concepts and the Tusona ideographs in Luchazi culture
Tusona ideographs and amadinda compositions are not merely †̃artâ€TM or †̃musicâ€TM in the Western sense. They are little closed systems of functional and causal relationships, little universes without exits. The minds who created them must have been researchers in the basic sense of the word. By creating the self-contained mini-universes of these configurations they also created mini-replicas of what our macro-universe may ultimately be like. Th…
Recordings and Films by Daniel Kachamba (1947-1987)
Cuyagua
Nsenga/Shona Harmonic Patterns and the San Heritage in Southern Africa
Nyau: Maskenbunde im sudlichen Malawi
Fumbi Jazz Band
Visimu vya mukatikati —dilemma tales and ‘arithmetical puzzles’ collected among the Valuchazi
Dilemma tales are among some of the lesser known genres of oral literature in Africa. Working with taxonomies elicited from Luchazi—one of the languages of the so-called Ngangela cluster—dilemma tales are discussed on the basis of recordings and cinematographic documentation of narrative performances from eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia. In the oral literature of the Valuchazi use is sometimes made of explanatory visual symbols, or ideogra…
Drum Patterns in the "Batuque" of Benedito Caxias
Westafrika
Opeka nyimbo. Musician-Composers from Southern Malawi
Mateso (Suffering): Master Musicians of Tanzania
Geography (23 works) · Art (20 works) · History (19 works) · Diverse Musicological Studies (17 works) · Music History and Culture (17 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Visual arts (10 works) · African history and culture studies (9 works) · Computer Science (9 works)