However, from our study of comparative music elsewhere, we may make one statement with certainty, namely, that _an_ African music does not exist. There must be almost as many styles of native music in Africa as in Europe--varieties differing not only broadly in general form and structure, but also more minutely in the intervals and rhythms which are employed.
I have been informed by travellers in West Africa that surprising differences occur in the degree of development of musical art even in closely neighbouring regions. In one district hardly any music is to be heard at all; in another the music is most uncouth; in a third it is highly agreeable to the European ear; while some parts of West Africa have advanced to the stage of part-singing.
The most erroneous notions have been expressed as to the nature of African music. I have seen it stated that African songs consist in a gradual descent from a higher to a lower pitched note. That this is far from being usually the case is shown in the following specimens, which I have gathered from various narratives of African travel.
Songs I. and II. from _La route du Tchad_. Jean Dybowski. Paris. 1893. pp. 198-9.
Songs III.-VII. from _Aus West-Afrika_. Hermann Soyaux. Leipzig. 1879.
Song VIII. from _Einige Notizen über Bonny_. Göttingen. 1848.
Song IX. from _A Narrative of the Expedition ... to the River Niger_. London. 1848.
A great deal might be said about the general character of these songs, _e.g._ the simplicity and brevity of the phrases, and the fondness for triple measure.
But I pass on to consider three very interesting examples of Jamaican music which, thanks to my friend Mr. N.W. Thomas, I have found recorded in 1688 in Sir Hans Sloane's _Voyage to Jamaica_. "Upon one of the Festivals where a great many of the Negro Musicians were gathered together," he writes, "I desired Mr. Baptiste, the best musician there, to take the words they sung and set them to Musick which follows."
Hobaognion Hobaognion Hoba Hobaognion ognion.]
From _A Voyage to ... Jamaica ..._ by Hans Sloane, M.D. London. 1707. Vol. i. pp. l, li.
The words of these songs are _Hobaognion, ognion_ and _Meri Bonbo mich langa meri wá langa._ Sir Hans Sloane observes that the Jamaican negroes of that time had their native instruments: (i) gourds with necks and strung with horsehair, (ii) a "hollow'd Timber covered with Parchment," having a bow for its neck, the strings tied longer or shorter.