Fifth Critical Review

Agawu, Chapter 3, "The Invention of African Rhythm"

Agawu begins the chapter by stating the commonly held perception of African music as primarily rhythm-based, which he asserts to be false. He quotes and critiques interpretations of African music throughout history, especially focusing on the erroneous ideas of ethnomusicologists. Agawu claims that rhythm is not predominant in many African music-cultures, and makes the extremely interesting point that many African languages have no word for rhythm that corresponds to Western concepts. He also addresses two other problems in the representation of African music: the difficulty of transcribing African music and the invention of African music by Africans.

Discussion Question: Agawu addresses the "invention" of African music by Western scholarship in part by suggesting that ethnomusicologists need an area for imagination and play. What does this mean? Can you think of instances where this need for imagination and play has shown up in other disciplines?