Museum of African Art - Musical instruments

Instrumental music and dance are very important in the life of African peoples. Present in daily life, religious rites and the ritual of all ceremonies, they will usually involve the entire community. There are highly developed forms of musical, collective or group, accompaniments for different rites, rituals and festivities. The melodic lines and rhythms of this music is distinctly African, and rhythm may be said to be more explicit in African music than in any other.

All levels of development of musical instruments will be found in Africa, from the simplest to the most complex. Hence, the wide range for every type of instrument. There are drums of wood, clay, gourds, turtle shells, or metal; xylophones of wooden or reed bars; wing instruments of reed, bamboo, or wood, and animal or wood horns - to single out only some in the immense variety. Animal skins, and often those of various reptiles, are stretched on drums or are part of the decorative elements or joinings of other instruments. Animal tendons are used as strings for the wide variety of string instruments; gourds, dried seeds, beans or fruit peels, shells and pebbles are used for the many different rattles. It all amounts to a large variety of materials for a large variety of instruments.

Aside from their use in association with cults or religious ritual and for entertainment, musical instruments are often a communication medium in Africa. There are parts of Africa where sound, or musical systems exist based on language equivalents. This is most often the case in areas where local tribes do not have their own written language and exchange messages by “talking drums” or pipes, trumpets or bells. There is one other important form of “communication” in Africa by musical instruments and that is communication with ancestors and other spirits. Here the mask is an essential element because it is the mask which sings and dances. The type of instrument used depends on the mask and ritual. The instrument will usually depend also on whether the wearer of the mask is male or female and one mask may, in addition, require the accompaniment of one or more musicians.