who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

47‣ West Africa is the only region in sub-Saharan Africa where dronepolyphony is found (possibly the result of the influence of the Tuaregethnic and cultural element);‣ Madagascar polyphonic traditions show the features of continentalAfrican, as well as Austronesian polyphonic traditions;‣ North African music is based on vocal monophonic tradition, with theremarkably developed professionalism, virtuoso singing style andmusical instruments;‣ I suggest distinguishing Sahara as a separate region of Africa, on theground of the specific polyphonic traditions of the Berber-Tuaregpeoples. Tuareg tradition of drone polyphony is unique within theAfrican continent. Sahara musical traditions do not show links neitherwith the sub-Saharan polyphonic traditions, nor the monophonictraditions of the North Africa.Vocal Polyphony in EuropeIt would be quite safe to say the Europe is the second most polyphonic continentof our planet. Although in most of the cases European traditional cultures did not retainthe vitality of African polyphonic traditions, the number of polyphonic regions and thesheer diversity of polyphonic traditions create the unique European “polyphonictapestry”.Few remarks will give the reader some general idea about the peculiarities of theEuropean traditions of vocal polyphony:‣ Unlike the sub-Saharan Africa, where the distribution of the polyphonictraditions is represented mostly as an unbroken geographic region thatcovers thousands of the square kilometers, most of European traditionsof vocal polyphony represent certain isolated “islands”;‣ Also unlike Africa, where we have polyphonic sub-Sahara and mostlymonophonic North Africa, there is hardly a major part of Europe wherethe monophonic traditions would be as prevalent as in the North Africa.Pockets of polyphony are scattered all across the European continent insouthern, northern, central, and eastern regions of Europe. Traditions ofthe vocal polyphony are better survived in southern (Mediterranean) andeastern regions of the Europe;‣ Many European polyphonic traditions show the obvious signs of the lateinfluence of European professional polyphony. Of course, musicprofessionalism existed in many different regions of the World as well(including North Africa), and some of these traditions had much longertradition of professionalism, than Europe (for example, few regions fromNorth Africa to East Asia, labeled by Lomax as “Old High Cultures”.Lomax, 1968). But, unlike European classical (professional) tradition,non-European professional vocal traditions were mostly orientated onsolo performer, or at least, on monophonic music (or variant