Beyond Song Texts--The Lingual Fundamentals of African Drum Music

I kotala ihe nkwa m di ika?
Do you understand what my drum is saying?

--Israel Anyahuru, 1976

Increasingly, all over the world, people listen more and understand less what music is saying. More and more, the music available to the modern world audience in particular has increasingly no human-music sense or meaning to offer. Perhaps the world no longer needs to make human sense. After all, technological fantasy and barrenness in humane attributes are in vogue and generating the alarmingly robotic human sensing of the arts. Frustrated and atrophied intellects are striving obsessively, to re-invent musical meaning, driven by analytical meningitis, creative anemia, and faked presentational emotions. Listening dispositions are increasingly autohyped, less edifying, and lacking in psychical therapy. As such, people no longer understand or experience what music means, or how and what music contributes to human essence. That is, the world is no longer appreciating why music is an essential of beatific living, and not an accessory in mechanized living.

In paraphrase, Israel Anyahuru interprets his music's human mission in the following drum-texts:

"I cry" on behalf of those whose tears of pain (psychic therapy) are not shed. Hence my drum weeps:
La la lu lu; la la lu lu! (Oh dear; oh pity!)
"I excite sublime emotions," and thereby rally communal empathy as well as the appropriate, imperative support-action that makes communal, the sorrows or misfortunes of members of a community. "Hence my drum announces":
Ebelebe egbuola ni o; ebelebe egbuola ni o! (A shocking occurrence has befallen!)
"I ignite" the fire of self-activation in those whose driving spirit have become dulled by doldrums. "Hence my drum incites aspiration":
I mere ngini eme, I mere ngini eme-e? (What have you achieved yet, what have you achieved in life?)
"I make love," metaphysically, to persons whose sensual instincts appear dormant. "Hence my drum sensualizes":
Nyenu m otu/amu, nyeenu m otu/amu. (Gratify me, sensual urge, gratify my sensual urge.)
"I respire" the conscience of persons whose soul-essence has expired. "Hence my drum queries":
O wu onye mere ihela? O wu onye mere ihela e? (Who has committed this terrible deed? Who has caused this great sadness?)
"I acknowledge" the essence of aspiring to be a worthy person. "Hence my drum publicly recognizes any worthy arrivee in an event-context":
Enyi m nwoke lei (Or the known, actual name of the person is encoded on the drum), I biala? I biala? I biala? (My good friend, you are welcome, you are welcome; you are welcome!)

The model for this study of the drum-speaking phenomenon in Africa is the Ese drum cum music of the Ngwa group of the Igbo in Nigeria. The approach is to discuss the elusive, ancient African wisdom about music living (beatific music experiencing), that is, probing the humanistic foundations of African musical thoughts and practices. We will de-emphasize exudations about the apparent contents and contexts of living with music (music meaning). Also, the purpose here is not to indulge in elaborate transcription and analysis of texts; rather we will attempt an overview of the need, nature, and technique of drum-speaking, a making-human concept of music, which will be exemplified with a specific Igbo example.

Whereas the rest of the world may have conceived lingual text in music as song lyrics or recitative, and may have used musical codes as significant signals in societal action, Africa's mental civilization has an extradimensional musical conceptualization of lingual-texting. This is the metaspeech concept of instrumental music, which has been popularly discussed as drum-talking as well as the less encountered drummed dialogue, i.e., spontaneous drum versus vocal discourse. Drum-speaking presupposes an enlightened cultural audience if it has to transact any prescribed or spontaneous societal/contextual/musical action.

Text in African music is, therefore, encountered...