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Towards an assessment of African scales

Bibliographic Data

ID8071920
AuthorsHugh Tracey (corresponding author)
Year1958
Volume2
Issue1
Pages15-20
Publication date1958-11-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Music Journal of the International Library of African Music (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0065-4019 • E-ISSN: 2524-2741
PublisherInternational Library of African Music (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.21504/amj.v2i1.522
OpenAlexW2295136513
LanguageEN
Citations received7

It would appear from the evidence of certain writers on African music that there still remains much confusion about the subject of African scales and modes. A tenacious misconception continually occurs, namely that African scales or modal systems are but an imperfect imitation of, or striving towards, the western system. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. It is with the intention of opening the subject for discussion by members of the Society and others interested in this aspect of musicology throughout the African world that this short article is now written. In order to avoid a confusion of terms which would take too long to enumerate here it might be as well for the reader who is interested to refer to the references to Scales and Modes in the Oxford Companion to Music, by Percy Scholes or to Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and elsewhere. Scholes, for example, remarks of scales that “Apparently any combination of notes whatever may be adopted as the material from which a peasantry, or a composer, or a group of composers may make their tunes, and there exists not even one interval common to all the scales of the world

Art · Cartography · Confusion · Epistemology · Geography · Imitation · Imperfect · Linguistics · Literature · Modal · Musicology · Nothing · Order (exchange · Psychoanalysis · Scale (ratio · Subject (documents · Computer Science · Diverse Musicological Studies · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Psychology · History · Philosophy · Social Psychology

  • Musical Scales in Central Africa and Java

    Frédéric Voisin•Leonardo Music Journal•1994

  • Hugh Travers Tracey (1903-1977)

    Open Access•A M Jones•Yearbook of the International…•1977

  • Interrogating the nuances of West African melodies

    Open Access•Joseph Kunnuji, Matildie Thom Wium et al.•Journal of Musical Arts in Africa•2023

  • The role of modern technology in preserving mbira music

    Open Access•Perminus Matiure, Richard Muranda•Cogent Arts and Humanities•2024

  • Theories on African Music

    Samuel Akpabot•African Arts•1972

  • Concepts of African Musical Theory

    Open Access•Laz E N Ekwueme•Journal of Black Studies•1974

  • The anthropology of music

    Alan P Merriam•The anthropology of music•1964

Unique citing works7
Citations per year0,11
Citation span1964 - 2024 (61)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 5

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