Photo by: www.musicethiopia.com
Photo by: musicinafrica.net
Cultural Panorama : Art and Literature
Ethiopia is a home for many diverse nations and nationalities each with their own culture, language and music. These different ethnic groups use their own traditional musical instruments which makes their melody unique from one another. But these days listeners and experts are complaining that Ethiopian traditional music is losing its flavor as traditional instruments are being replaced by modern ones. On the other hand, musicians claim that traditional instruments are inconvenient and this is causing the replacement. The Eminence’s contributor KALEAB HAILU, explores and presents the debate after interviewing musicians, experts and other stakeholders.
Ethiopian Traditional Instruments on the Verge of being Replaced by Modern ones
Ethiopia is a melting pot of culture having over 90 nations, nationalities and peoples with their own unique culture and language including indigenous traditional music. All of these traditional music tunes make up a collective genre that has come to be known as Ethiopian traditional music. This includes the mainstream Amharic traditional dance that Ethiopians and foreigners roll their shoulder blades, bounce their shoulders, and jilt their chest to, along with Tigrigna, Oromigna, Agewegna, Guragigna, Wolaytigna, Afarigna and Somaligna musics just to mention few.
The regular listener base of Ethiopian traditional songs has been mainly rooted in the rural areas of the country but not to forget mentioning listeners from urban areas. Ethiopian urbanites especially the youth, however, were more reserved from listening to Ethiopian traditional music. But in recent times, there seems to be a new leaf in the books. The youth are becoming more accustomed to listening to traditional songs. The change in attitude and listenership can be attributed to various factors including the integration of contemporary Ethiopian and foreign music elements with the traditional ones to make the songs more ‘hip’.
Ethiopian traditional music has a unique flavor compared to various countries of the world. Ethiopian traditional scales are pentatonic and have a modal tone system, that has been the essence and distinct factor of Ethiopian traditional songs. These traditional tunes have gone through different stages of growth in their respective cultures and the mainstream music industry as well.
One of the crucial elements that define Ethiopian traditional music is the use of Ethiopian traditional musical instruments including Massinko, Kirar, Washint and Kebero. Ethiopian traditional music is known to echo local drums, Kebero with the traditional Kirar playing out the string keys resulting in a true Ethiopian masterpiece. However, the actual traditional music instruments are being replaced these days by foreign instruments and computer
30 | The Eminence - Issue 18 -April 2016