ISSUES FOR MUSIC AND EDUCATION IN WEST AFRICA

Abstract

My published output represents an ongoing engagement with the issues of studying, learning, understanding and transmitting music. More specifically, it has the music of Ghana in West Africa as its primary focus. This music is then considered from a number of points of view:- • as music, where the sonic events can be charted, documented and analysed • as 'ethnic' music where the function and meaning of this music for its culture can be considered • as a cultural artefact where the changing processes of transmission and preservation are observed • as pedagogical material where the nature of learning related to culture and the processes of translation by the teacher and the learner are examined. Music as object for documentation and discussion is a substantial part of Xylophone music from Ghana, the two articles in Composing the Music of Africa and the article in the British journal of Ethnomusicology as well as the COs, 'Bewaare - they are coming' Dagaare songs and dances from Nandom, Ghana and 'In the time of my fourth great-grandfather ... ' Western Sisaala music from Lambussie, Ghana. These same publications also consider the roles and function of the music within its culture. Music as a cultural artefact, its transmission and preservation, particularly in relation to formal education, is the focus of the two articles in the British journal of Music Education, the Music Teacher publication, the article in Cahiers de Musiques Traditionelles, and the ESEM conference paper. Pedagogical issues and materials form the basis for Music of West Africa, Kpatsa, and the symposium papers.