sound archives?
2. Second level: diachronic analysis between change and persistence
In oral traditions, beyond individual modifications, fieldwork in archives allows identification of general changes and persistence.
2.1. What seems to be constant?
Photos and descriptions in archive sources show that the morphology of each kind of xylophone is the same as at the beginning of the twentieth century. The context of playing these instruments has also been maintained since that time.
The tuning of the portable xylophone stays stable in time and places. The scale of the Ntumu instrument recorded in 1966 by Sallée is the same as one recorded in 2000 by Le Bomin in two distant villages.
Finally, stability could be observed despite space through comparison of the Fang and the Beti-Eton. The way of organising their portable xylophone orchestras is similar (the lowest xylophone plays a rhythmic role, two medium xylophones play an accompaniment and the highest one is the soloist).
2.2. What has changed?
The most important modification is the disappearance of the log xylophone in Gabon. With the disappearance of its context of playing, the instrument is no longer played. In 1908, Tessmann recorded only log xylophone. In 1966, Sallée collected more portable xylophones than log ones. In 2000, Le Bomin did not manage to find one log xylophone. This instrument was used in a particular context linked with the ancestor’s cult, the Byéri. The log xylophone was played during the three days of initiation (Melane) into this cult (Laburthe-Tolra 1991: 282). The arrival of Christianity at the beginning of the twentieth century forced the Fang people to give up the Byéri. This comparison of archive sources reveals an important modification of the Fang society, not only a musical modification but also more generally a spiritual one.
Conclusion
Far from the bearers of tradition, archives give the opportunity to learn about music and society. The diachronic analysis between archive sources enters into dialogue with the history of music itself.
Each recording should be considered a complex individual memory: the memory of musicians, the memory of the place of recording and the memory of the collector. Three levels of memories are gathered in one recording. A diachronic analysis makes conversation between these memories and the memory of each recording studied. Thus, this confrontation of individual memories gives information about the
collective memory of the Fang people and about their history and historical changing over a hundred years.
Notes
1 Each subgroup has some musical particularities that allow the distinguishing
between them.
2 See http://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/ethnologisches-museum/
collection-research/about-the-collection.html. Information on the wax cylinder collection of Tessmann can be found in Ziegler 2006.
3 http://archives.crem-cnrs.fr/
4 http://music.africamuseum.be/french/index.html
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