Venda Children`s Songs

Venda Children’s Songs
A presentation by David Bandy,
based upon the book of the same title, by John Blacking
©
Venda Children’s Songs
A Study in Ethnomusicological Analysis ©
John Blacking
Witwatersrand University Press
Johannesburg, South Africa
1967
•  “Knowledge of the children’s songs is a social asset,
and in some cases a social necessity for any child
who wishes to be an accepted member of his own
age group . . .”
- Blacking, 1967:31
Music is essentially a
social activity
•  “Songs of the Venda” include all tunes that are sung
or played on instruments, as well as patterns of
words that are recited to a regular meter – Its
rhythm is what distinguishes it from singing vs.
talking vs. narrating, etc.
•  Venda music is concerned with virtual time, not
actual time
•  Repetitive basic patterns used – Melodic variations
change in the speech-tones
•  Rhythmic variations depend upon changes in dance
steps
VENDA
MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
A herdboy playing a three-holed
transverse flute, the tshițiringo
Two females playing the murumba
(alto drums) during the domba
initiation dance
•  Senior initiates are seen
here with longer hair
•  When a girl enters the
school, her hair is cut short
•  The hair is not cut again until
they pass out
Girls dancing the tshigombela
around the tenor drum
Youth playing a mbila tshipai (hand
piano) at a boxing tournament
Children playing with drums
during a possession dance
Little girl plays a bass drum – notice
two tenor drums off to the side also
Early Childhood:
“Leg Counting Game”
“Ļa vha gambe-kambe”
•  One of the chief’s wives in
a local village teaching
the game
1.  This one is a child who is just
beginning to stagger about,
2.  This one is the sound of small
reed-pipes,
3.  The reed-pipe of
Mangayengaye,
4.  [Masulu kuņwa-kuņwa], the
calabash,
5.  Carried the chief’s phala,
6.  And it became bewitched, it is
the guilty one.
“Ļa vha gambe-kambe”
“Leg Counting Game”
•  Numerous word variations: all are a mix of Venda &
other languages, with nonsense syllables
•  Words not the priority,
but the counting
“formula” is important
•  Song used for counting
legs in a social learning
setting
The Variety and Meaning of
Venda Communal Music
  Venda music varies according to social function
  Metrical patterns:
 work songs (regular) vs. beer-songs (irregular)
  Drums are used in hierarchy of musical/social
importance
 tshigombela (girls’ dance) & boys’ reed-pipe
dances not important enough for use of bass drum
“Music is therefore an audible and visible sign of social
and political groupings in Venda society . . .”
- Blacking 1967:23
Music for Young People
in Venda Society
1.  Children’s songs
2.  Play-dances for boys and girls
3.  “Amusements” for boys and girls
4.  The Venda national dance (tshikona)
The Social Function of the
Children’s Songs
•  Children’s songs are only for children, and so
any attempt to unravel what is not
immediately obvious strikes many as being a
waste of time
•  Many songs, therefore, add to the meaning of a
social event: they crystallize and confirm
certain norms of behavior . . .
The Social Function of the
Children’s Songs
Nyaludeze, play with a big snuff-box.
Sung in a boys’ game when a round ball is thrown
along the ground, and the boys try to hit it with light javelins
cut from a small tree or shrub and pointed at the end.
The Social Function of the
Children’s Songs
Children sing this song in the daytime, when they see a
crow.
FUNGUVHU, ȚANZWA MULOMO!
Crow, wash your mouth!
Wash your mouth, so that we can eat together;
We eat together. Where has your mother gone?
Where has she gone? She has gone to help a bachelor
hoe his land.
(At) the bachelor’s work-party, how many rows did they
hoe?
How many rows? They hoed three rows.
There are three rows, and the fourth was the last.
It was the last, They hoed the fourth row.
The Social
Function of
the
Children’s
Songs
The Importance of the Words
of the Children’s Songs
  In almost every song, there is some phrase or expression
which refers to a custom or belief
  This gives a deeper insight into Venda culture, and their
past history
  Some songs refer to past historical events
  Most Venda songs have a meaning at some level of
analysis
Transcriptions and texts of
fifty-six children’s songs
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Action songs for boys
Action songs for girls
Songs for nursing babies
Action songs for girls and boys
Counting songs for boys and girls
Songs of mockery for girls
Songs of mockery for boys and girls
Songs for boys and girls
Songs for the evening
Songs that are passed on
Structure of the Songs
Patterns of Rhythm
1.  Metrical distinction between speech and song
2.  Poetic license
3.  Metrical patterns: no concept of “rests”
4.  Tempo
5.  Correspondence between the rhythm of words
spoken and sung
Senior initiates dance during the last
night of the tshikanda initiation
The domba initiation dance
The domba initiation dance
Structure of the Songs
Patterns of Melody and Tonality
1.  Speech-tone and melody
2.  Principles which affect the setting of words to music
3.  Pitch and melodic range
4.  Melodic intervals
5.  Additional considerations: tone rows, scales, and
patterns
•  Song differs from speech because its words are
arranged in a strict metrical framework
•  Most songs have limited pitch ranges
•  The Venda have no word for “scale”
Cultural Analysis of Music
1.  Summary of the Argument
2. Problems of method in
ethnomusicological analysis
all pau . . .