Musical instruments of the indigenous people of South Africa / Percival R. Kirby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indigenous peoples--South Africa--Music.

Indigenous peoples.

Black people--South Africa--Music.

Black people.

San (African people)--Music.

San (African people).

Musical instruments--South Africa.

Musical instruments.

Musical instruments--South Africa--Pictorial works.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxxv, 395 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

Third edition.

Place of Publication:

Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Percival Kirby was a musician and ethnomusicologist and for many years head of the music department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Between 1923 and 1933 he undertook more than nine expeditions as well as many shorter excursions around South Africa. He was hosted by local chiefs and taught to play the instruments he encountered. He managed to purchase many of them, and this collection, now known as the Kirby Collection, is housed at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town. First published as Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa in 1934, the book was the culmination of research trips undertaken by Percival Kirby. It became the standard reference on indigenous South African musical instruments. The bulk of the material is concerned with detailed information on the making and playing of each instrument, and is accompanied by a large number of musical examples. This third edition contains an introduction by Mike Nixon, Head of the Ethnomusicology and African Music at the South African College of Music, and new reproductions of the valuable historic photographs, but leaves Kirby's original text unchanged.

Contents:

Rattles and clappers

Drums

Xylophones and 'sansas'

Bill-roarers and spinning-disks

Horns and trumpets

Whistles, flutes and vibrating reeds

Reed-flute ensembles

The 'gora', a stringed-wind instrument

Stringed instruments

Bushman and hottentot violins and the 'ramkie'

Some European instruments played by natives.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 May 2018).

ISBN:

9781868146062

1868146065

OCLC:

951036431