Musical Meaning
This study treats each court song “as a form of speech utterance,” drawing on J. H. Kwabena Nketia’s idea that song and speech are nearly the same phenomenon, given their analogous qualities and functions in social communication in African societies. As a result, the themes of these songs tend to reflect and elaborate on the concerns of “a community or the social groups within it,” which are then equally disseminated through both simple and complex social rituals.
1Nketia 1975, 189. As mentioned previously, the songs examined here are living works, constantly blooming and being reborn each time they are performed, heard, and interpreted. Each song is ripe with hidden meanings that can be assigned, drawn out, expanded, revitalized, and applied by performers, listeners, and interpreters.
My interpretive approach considers a wide range of perspectives on meaning in African music. These include Tony Langlois’s idea that music serves as a stage for the actualization of meanings, which in turn transform the political and social dynamics in which that music is being performed.
2Langlois 2009, 224–225. This is related to the way I draw on Greg Barz’s observation that experiencing musical performance begets the formation of new meanings.
3Barz 2001, 107. I also follow Kwasi Ampene’s discussion of how lyrical meanings might be part of a broader network of meanings, including those associated with musical instruments, performance regalia, and other “verbal art forms.”
4Ampene 2020, 13. Ampene further stresses that meanings depend on the contexts in which musical arts are performed and the rhetorical devices employed.
5Ampene 2021, 534. These observations are pertinent to my discussion of the role context plays in the complex meaning-making process.
Meaning in African music, according to Nketia, exists as a series of modes and perspectives rather than as one static and unitary concept. Accordingly, one must examine the multitude of statements, interpretations, and relationships associated with musical performance and practice.
6Nketia 1962, 5. Moreover, one must treat these elements as fundamental aspects of the way musical meanings take shape rather than as tangential details.
7Ibid. Nketia further emphasizes the primacy of context in meaning-making, noting that many African societies define their song repertoires by their “contextual function” and by the ways the content of those songs might apply to specific social purposes. He reiterates that Africans select songs for a variety of vocations and social situations (recreation, work, war, rites), which are themselves variable depending on the mood or content of the occasion. In this regard, choosing themes and lyrics simultaneously depends on the feeling of the moment and any preheld expectations that precede the event. But again, these moods, expectations, and social needs can change, and performers will be flexible to use songs with specific themes that happen to feel appropriate for their given contexts. For example, songs about death may not be restricted to funeral rites; in fact, they might inevitably be appropriate for recreational contexts. Thus, “the themes of songs are not rigidly compartmentalized.”
8Nketia 1975, 203. As already established, the court songs explored in this book, which belong to the larger genre of Kiganda songs, feature lyrics that contain multiple meanings, at times layered into a single repeated utterance. David Pier points out that the full extent of lyrical meaning in Kiganda songs is often only discernable to those who have a deep knowledge of Kiganda idioms, history, and mythology, a phenomenon he describes as “deep Luganda.”
9Pier 2017, 13. This notion aligns with Omojola’s conclusion that the semantic ambiguity of songs has a loosening effect on meanings which have been cemented in social and political spheres.
10Omojola 2012, 9. Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza reminds us that some Kiganda songs are rich with ambiguity and the possibility of multiple meanings because the Baganda tend to use innuendo and “hidden language” to discuss scandalous topics.
11Nannyonga-Tamusuza 2002, 138.Another factor that may account for the multiplicity of meanings in Kiganda songs is the singers’ tendency to draw on the personal experiences and attitudes of the audience.
12Ibid. In fact, performers sometimes choose to structure songs in ways that allow listeners greater interpretive freedom by, for example, ending them without a clear resolution.
13Ibid., 136. These instances, among others, highlight the heterogeneity that may be at the heart of a given song. They further imply the primacy of interpretation in musical performance, not only to draw out a song’s core meaning but also to creatively actualize new potentials for understanding it.