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[1] Kofi Agawu has designed his introductory study of The African Imagination in Music for “an African readership” as well as for “the usual metropolitan one” (25), and he also hopes to “engender additional theoretical dialogue with colleagues in musicology and music theory, not just the usual suspects in African studies and ethnomusicology” (21). With this diverse readership in mind, he labels some of his generalizations “provocations, invitations” to further reflection and “more nuanced discussion” (53). In this review, I accept a few of these invitations and comment on issues that I consider likely to interest readers of Music Theory Online, particularly those who would like to see more attention paid to African music and musical thought in teaching, research, and music theory broadly conceived.
[2] Such readers are likely to welcome materials for use in classes at various levels, and here the book has much to offer both teachers and students. Agawu presents African music as a unity, recognizably distinct from the musics of other world regions, with “a level of procedural sameness based on certain broad organizational attitudes and propensities” (14).(1) Chapters on “Music and/in Society,” “Musical Instruments,” and “Language and/in Music” are followed by four on rhythm, melody, form, and harmony, and a final chapter addressing issues of appropriation. The chapter on form begins with an outline of twenty-six brief excerpts that Agawu often discusses at the first meeting of an undergraduate survey course (242–49), fifteen of which are from West Africa and six from Central Africa. In general, the book rather neglects the continent’s eastern and southern regions, and North Africa is entirely absent, save for a brief mention of a Tunisian ritual practice, stambeli (308). I do not see this focus on West and Central Africa as a shortcoming: readers can test the book’s generalizations (e.g., “Groove as Essence,” 14–17) against our experiences of music from the neglected regions. Most of the recordings discussed are readily accessible; sixteen that are not can be heard on the book’s companion website.
[3] Agawu urges his readers, including those of us who might teach some of his examples, to “speak words and sentences in indigenous African languages whenever possible” in order to “stimulate an awareness of pitch and rhythm that will...