RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND SONG TEXTS

Abstract

Man, no doubt, is a musical creature because he was found to derive great pleasure in using different parts of his body in producing artistic or musical sounds. As time went on in the history of his development, he began to explore his environment by fashioning some sound producing objects to substitute for his body parts. These objects, now referred to as musical instruments are used for producing a variety of musical sounds. In every culture, they differ in many dimensions which include concept, design and size, material of make, technology and function. In the African context, they have some remote or established connections with verbalized musical sounds commonly known as song texts. This paper identifies these significant connections and brings to limelight how musical instruments and song texts affect each other for the benefit of the African musicologists.