Dried Millet Breaking
- Author: Stone, Ruth M.
Dried Millet Breaking
- Author: Stone, Ruth M.
Purchase product
About
"Dried millet breaking," sung by the bard at the end of one episode of this Woi epic of the Kpelle people of Liberia, represents a formula that breaks the flow of events and introduces the epic's complex temporal scaffolding. Examining the singing, narration, dramatic performance, instrumental accompaniment, and timing of the Woi epic, Ruth M. Stone reveals that the Kpelle show time flux through changing timbres, motion, and spatial metaphors in ways fundamentally different from those of much Western art music. In this illuminating study Stone moves beyond typical genre studies of African music to shed light on broader questions of music's relationship to areas of culture often ignored.
Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments Music Transcription Symbols and Kpelle Orthography
- Chapter 1 Battles That Never End
- Chapter 2 The Woi Epic
- Chapter 3 Dried Millet Breaking
- Chapter 4 Exchanges That Keep the Epic Going
- Chapter 5 The Textured Moment in Epic
- Chapter 6 The Person in Epic
- Chapter 7 The Epic in Local Life
- Chapter 8 Our Old People, Their Old People: The Epic and the Past
- Chapter 9 Epic and Time in Perspective
- Glossary of Kpelle Terms and Names
- References Cited
- Index
