Recording the Vitamins of African Music

Abstract

In this article I examine the contemporary relevance of the field recordings of sub-Saharan African music made by Hugh Tracey and stored at the International Library of African Music. I consider how ethnomusicological recordings from previous eras can be used to circulate knowledge and further understanding about African music and societies today. The current archival practice of digital preservation brings recordings to new and broader audiences, but can also further divorce sound recordings from their source communities. I consider the validity of “sound elicitation” work where recordings of Xhosa music from the 1950s were circulated among Xhosa communities in South Africa today in order to generate novel ethical approaches to the curation of archival sound recordings.

Keywords:

• Field Recording
• Hugh Tracey
• Xhosa
• Sound Archiving
• Ethnomusicology

Notes

The Series currently numbers 218 long-playing records (LPs). Tracey's son, Andrew, added a further eight LPs in the years following his father's death in 1977.

The vast majority of the recordings are of songs and instruments, but the series includes some examples of praise poetry, speeches, and a few ambient or soundscape recordings.

Tracey made nineteen recording tours in total between 1948 and 1970, but the series does not include material from his last two tours in 1966 and 1970.

These tours visited Angola, Bechuanaland (Botswana), Republic of Congo [Kinshasa] (Democratic Republic of Congo), Kenya, Basutoland (Lesotho), Nyasaland (Malawi), Moçambique (Mozambique), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi), South Africa, Swaziland, Tanganyika (Tanzania), Uganda, and Zanzibar. The names of countries are given as used by Tracey (see Tracey 1973: 16) with contemporary names in parenthesis.

An ethnic subgroup of the Shona.

Referred to in the Minutes of the Preliminary Meeting of the Proposed African Music Society, convened by Mrs Hoernlé and Tracey, 2nd April 1947.

From a draft of an article called “The codification of African music”, written for Race Relations, dated June 19th 1968, (available at ILAM).

Between 1936 and 1947 Tracey was Director of the Natal Studios of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

ILAM has re-issued the original twenty-five LPs in CD format. Additions to the series mean that thirty-four albums became available.

Letter from Tracey to H.C. Finkel, Esq., Director of African Education, Salisbury, 11th December 1959 (pp. 1–2).

Minutes of a meeting of the administrative sub-committee of ILAM held at Msaho at 10am, Tuesday 24th March 1959.

Cover letter attached to a report by Miss Azor-Smith, Lecturer in Music at the Umtali Teacher Training School, Sakubva, sent to Mr Gibb, Education Officer, 18th August 1960.

Letter to Tracey from H.R. Finn, of the Rhodesian Selection Trust Limited, 14th May 1959 (p. 1).

Letter from Kubik to Tracey, sent from Vienna, May 8th 1971. The Amadinda is an instrument that was related to important chiefs of Buganda.

See Tracey et al. (1969).

Letter from Kubik to Tracey, sent from Vienna, 8th May 1971.

Elijah Madiba, in conversation with myself and South African musicians Louis Mhlanga and Themba Mkize, Saturday 28th June 2008.

Interview of Andrew Tracey by the author at ILAM, 18th July 2008.