 Tonality accompanied Europe’s ostensibly civilizing mission to Africa. Christian hymns, choral anthems and light orchestral music for ballroom dancing were introduced in various locales. These and other accoutrements of modernity were built on tonal scaffoldings. Although recent postcolonial criticism has continued to interrogate aspects of Europe’s legacy in Africa—in matters broadly cultural, in language, and in political and educational systems—the pervasive and lasting impact of functional tonality and the consequent suppression of the richness and potency of indigenous or precolonial African tonal resources have not received adequate attention. This paper begins a critical assessment of the African reception of European functional tonality. I argue that a program for decolonization that ignores the transformation in African musical consciousness wrought by tonality, or overlooks the fact that many modern Africans remain trapped in a prison-house of tonality, cannot achieve its ultimate emancipatory goals. Please Note: Professor Agawu will give an additional lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 3:30 p.m. in M267: Music Theory Colloquium - “A Topical Analysis of the first movement of Mozart’s String Quintet in E-flat major, K.614.”
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