African Choral Music Resources


The following are choral-related websites with predominantly English language pages.  This is not meant to be an exhaustive list - just a helpful one!  More sites will be added as they are identified.  Please let us know if you discover any new ones. Click on one of these links to go directly to that section:


AFRICAN MUSIC (general):

 • Index
on Africa: A website of websites on various African musics: www.africaindex.africainfo.no/subjects/music.htm

 • A
frica Online - Music:
        Zanzibar:  wus.africaonline.com/AfricaOnline/music/Zanzibar.html
        Kenya:  www.africaonline.com/AfricaOnline/music/kenya.html or
                   www.mediaport.net/Music/Pays/kenya/index.en.html

• A
frican Music Notation / Tonic Sol-Fa / Curwen
For any choral musician who looks at the score of an African piece and discovers a series of letters, dots and dashes.  This notation system is not an African system, but an English one, developed by Curwen in the 19th century and brought to Africa by missionaries.  See The Teacher’s Manual of the Tonic Sol-Fa Method reprinted by Bernard Rainbow (Boethius Press, c. 1986).

• Keyna - www.africaonline.co.ke/



CHOIRS:

The following is a partial list of African choirs on the internet:

• Uganda
African Children's Choir     www.fitw.com

• South Africa

F# (F-sharp) Choir (Gauteng)  members.tripod.com/~f_sharp/
Potchefstroom University Choir (North West, South Africa) www.puk.ac.za/choir/eindex.html
Stellenbosch University Choir (Western Cape) www.sun.ac.za/local/student/koor/e_index.htm
The Pretoria University “Tuks” Choir www.up.ac.za/asservices/culture/choir/credo.htm
The Rand Afrikaans University Choir  jtuds@rau.rau1.ac.za
The Potchefstroom Serenaders  sbkhpb@puknet.puk.ac.za
The Choir of the University of Port Elizabeth  www.upe.ac.za/cultura/choir.htm
The WITS University Choir  choir@aurnum.chem.wits.ac.za
The Northern Gauteng Youth Choir  www.hixnet.co.za/home/ychoir
The Randburg Male Voice Choir home.global.co.za/~martindj/index.html
The Johannesburg Jewish Male Choir  csmctmto.interpoint.net/jjmc/

CHORAL RECORDINGS:

Lots of the choirs listed above have cd’s.  Contact them via email to inquire about purchase. 
Other commercially available recordings in the U.S. are:

Missa Luba: An African Mass / 10 Kenyan Folk Melodies
Muungano National Choir, Kenya; B. Mganga, cond;  Philips 426-836-2

Alla Massa: Christian Liturgical Chants from Guine
Recorded at Petit Séminaire Jean XXIII by the young seminary students.

• CD’s which come along with some print music collections listed here.


CHORAL PUBLISHERS, COMPOSERS, etc.:

 • Information
Centre for South African Music
The Information Centre for Southern African Music (ISAM) aims to promote South African art music and indigenous South African music as well as initiate research in this field. www.puk.ac.za/musdocs/isam/index.html


LANGUAGE LINKS:  
• Swahili: The Kamusi Project (www.yale.edu/swahili) - An online "living Swahili dictionary."
• This is the site for translating or hearing (yes, hearing) a foreign word or phrase. Go to the main page and then select a country or flag: www.travlang.com/languages/index.html


CHORAL FESTIVALS:


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Foreword / Musical Instructions, in Freedom is Coming: Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa,
A.N. (ed.), Editor. 1984, Utryck: Uppsala. p. 4-6.

Introduction, in Sing Freedom! Songs of South African Life, M. Hamilton, Editor. 1993, Novello: London. p. 1-12.

Hauptfleish, S., Choral Singing in Africa.  International Choral Bulletin, 1992 (Jan.). v.11(n.2): p. 4-8.

Hawn, C.M., Rhythm of Community.  Reformed Worhship, 1999. v.50: p. 33-37.

Kavyu, P.N., The Development of Choral Music in East Africa: The Kenya Case.  International Choral Bulletin,
1997 (Jan.). v.16(n.2): p. 5.

Kazarow, P., Contemporary African Choral Art Music: An Intercultural Perspective.  Choral Journal, 1993 (May).
v.33(n.10): p. 19-26.

Loots, J.J.G., Observations on Choral Music in Africa.  International Choral Bulletin, 1992 (Jan.). v.11(n.2): p. 9.

Mbuyamba, L., The Choral Music of Africa.  International Choral Bulletin, 1992 (Oct.). v.12(n.1): p. 13-15.

Sartiaux, P., Traditional Aspects of vocal Music in Rwanda and Burundi.  International Choral Bulletin, 1997 (Jan.).
v.16(n.2): p. 16-17.

Suttner, K., Music and Dance in the Orthodox Church of Ethopia.  International Choral Bulletin, 1997 (Jan.).
v.16(n.2): p. 15-16.

The writings of Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

Crying in the Wilderness    [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982]
Hope and Suffering   [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983]
The Rainbow People of God     [NY: Doubleday, 1994]
An African Prayer Book     [NY: Doubleday, 1995]
Michael Battle, Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu  [Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1997]

VIDEOS:
Cry, The Beloved Country
The Power of One
Cry Freedom
Missa Luba: An African Mass  -  Philips video

 


©1999-2005, Dr. Marian Dolan

written/posted: June. 1999
last updated: 8. July. 2005