Country in West Africa. Located on the coast of the Atlantic, bordering Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, it has an area of 99,067 km2 and a population of 3·26 million (2000 estimate). The population consists of the indigenous peoples and the descendants of English-speaking repatriated Africans who settled on the coast during the 19th century. The country owes its national political structure to the latter groups.
1. Ethnic groups and languages.
RUTH M. STONE
Indigenous peoples include the Belle (Kuwaa), Gbande (Bandi), Gio (Dan), Kpelle (Guerzé), Loma (Toma), Mandingo (Malinke or Manya), Mano, Mende and Vai of the Mande language subfamily; the Bassa, Dei (Dewoin), Grebo, Jabo, Krahn and Kru of the Kwa language subfamily; and the Gola and Kissi (Kisi) of the west Atlantic language subfamily. These subfamilies are part of the Niger–Congo language family. Certain peoples, including the Gio, Kissi, Kpelle, Loma, Mandingo and Vai, are also in adjoining countries, so the music of Liberia shares some features with that of neighbouring territories and should be considered in relation to the music of Guinea, Côte d’ivoire and Sierra leone.
While Liberian music is created by peoples of diverse language backgrounds, it is often performed by and for individuals who are multi-lingual and have interacted extensively with those in other groups. This interaction goes back at least to the 15th century, when the Mande migrations from the grasslands of Mali towards the coast began, continuing on a smaller scale into the 19th century. Throughout these migration periods and into the 20th century, shifting political alliances facilitated contact. There has also been interaction through trade between peoples within Liberia and those living beyond its borders, as well as intergroup interaction promoted by the Poro secret societies acting as pan-group institutions of authority.
The music of Liberia can tentatively be categorized as that performed by indigenous peoples, that performed by descendants of repatriated Africans, and urban popular music performed by both. Yet such distinctions are difficult to maintain as interaction provides a mixture of elements between all types of music. Herzog has noted that a large number of the Jabo signalling texts are in the languages of the more powerful neighbouring peoples, the Grebo and Kru. Radio programmes and recordings also promote this interchange, and the national dance troupe incorporates elements of various types of Liberian music.
Most Liberian peoples seem to incorporate ‘music’ within a broader term that describes an event involving music sound, dancing and celebration. The Kpelle term for this type of event is pęlee. When narration and drama are also included, it is called meni-pęlee (chantefable). Related terms are măla for dance and wule for song. Music sound for the Gio, Gola and Kpelle is the voice or speech of instruments and singers. The voice is termed míé by the Gola and wóo by the Kpelle and Gio. Wóo for the Kpelle may mean the voice of a group of performers, of an individual singer or instrument, or of an individual part of an instrument, such as a string.
There are professional musicians who are socially accepted and publicly recognized for their special skill among the various Liberian peoples, though most of them work part of their time as subsistence rice farmers or wage labourers. Singers are called ayun gbembe among the Gola and ngulei-sîyge-nuu (‘the song-raising person’) among the Kpelle. Gola professional singers are thought to be endowed by their neme, or guardian spirit, and given the ability to invent new songs. Indeed, it is widely believed among the Gola that singers are unfaithful to their spouses and lovers because their true lovers are their spiritual guardians. Throughout Liberia, singers are in demand to perform at festivals, funerals and receptions. Virtuoso performance is intensely appreciated, and ensembles spend much time touring. Solo singers are often women, but male professional storytellers and instrumentalists playing the pluriarc, lamellophone and triangular frame zither are also singers.
Kpelle performing ensembles show parallels to the Kpelle political organization. For instance, the drum-dominated ensembles are usually headed by the pęlee-kalong (‘chief of the play’), who is the group’s liaison with the town chief and the manager who negotiates playing engagements. The posîa, as master of ceremonies, calls for pauses in the music, interprets speeches of praise to the players and keeps the crowd from pressing too close to the players. The musical leader of the group, the master drummer (fęli-ygále-nuu), plays the single-headed goblet drum (see illustration); he plays the most varied and complex part and knows all other parts and how they fit together. Also in the ensemble are the gbůng-gbůng drummer, who gives the ensemble a steady background beat, vocal soloists, dancers and the audience, which may also act as a chorus. A performance incorporates not only music sound, but also intermittent pauses during which the performance is explained or commented on, and token gifts are presented to performers with elaborate speeches.
The phases of a Kpelle performance are coordinated by many cues. The master drummer plays specific rhythmic patterns that cue dancers to execute particular choreographic movements and gives other players cues for tempo, coordination or dynamics. The vocal soloist may also signal to the ensemble that she wants a pause in the music, by inserting certain verbal phrases in her melodic line. Herzog has reported that among the Jabo a musical phrase is played to mock a dancer who stumbles or falls, and another phrase to indicate the end of a musical segment.
Music is performed on various occasions. Those connected with the life-cycle include the initiation of young people into the Poro and Sande secret societies. The extent and elaboration of music for a death depends on the age and status of the deceased. But birth and marriage are relatively minor musical occasions among most Liberian peoples. Music-making may also relate to the annual cycle. It is especially prominent after the rice harvest and on such holidays as Liberian Independence Day, 26 July. Music is performed for cooperatives working on clearing the bush, planting and harvesting. The full moon often coincides with musical entertainment. Social occasions such as games may incorporate music. In the games played by Jabo men, gossip, anecdotes and nicknames are communicated by xylophone playing, with the meaning veiled so that only a few understand the signalling.
Masked dancers appear at various musical occasions. The Kpelle have a masked dancer who is the public manifestation of the Poro and is known as gbetű. The Mano and Gio have a masked dancer on stilts whose face is covered with a black net and who dances for entertainment or in honour of distinguished guests. The Mano also have a masked clown dancer (domia) who carries a rope and pretends to beat those who cannot sing; he tries to show them how to sing, but is himself incompetent.
The Kpelle and Gio divide instruments into two categories: blown (Kpelle fée) and struck (Kpelle ygále). Instrument names within Kpelle ensembles sometimes reflect their social organization. For instance, in an ensemble of three hand-held slit idiophones, the largest and therefore lowest pitched is kóno-lee (‘mother kóno’), the medium-sized kóno-sama (‘middle kóno’) and the smallest kóno-long (‘child kóno’).
The Liberian peoples also have names for the various pitch registers of the instruments. The Jabo use the terms ke (a small bird with a high-pitched voice) and dolo (a larger bird) to distinguish higher from lower pitches. By compounding these terms with the words for ‘large’ and ‘small’, the Jabo designate four pitch registers for a variety of instruments. The Kpelle, with some variation in terminology, designate strings or other individual parts of instruments by the sound they produce. On one pluriarc the strings, in ascending pitch order, are named as follows: mee, ‘the mother’; mee móng, ‘the mother’s child’; mee móng mgo móng, ‘the mother’s child’s child’; nęyge, ‘the younger sibling’ (of the third string); móng, ‘the child’ (of the fourth string); móng, ‘the child’ (of the fifth string); gbe-ngâ, ‘end’. Many Liberian instruments have, in addition to the timbre of the basic instrument, a metallic rattle consisting of loose metal pieces often attached to drums, lamellophones, struck idiophones and chordophones.
Membranophones include goblet and conical single-headed drums, hourglass and cylindrical double-headed drums and footed drums. Master drummers beat the goblet drum (Kpelle fęli) or the conical drum (Vai samgba) with the hands, both drums having laced skins and attached metal rattles. The Hourglass drum (Kpelle danîng; Mano tama; Gio dama) is also widespread in Liberia. The player uses a hooked stick and can produce a wide range of glides. A cylindrical, stick-beaten drum (Vai gbemgbem; Kpelle gbůng-gbůng) usually provides the ensemble with a steady rhythmic background. Large footed drums, 2 to 4·5 metres long, have been reported among the Gio, Jabo and Mano. When the drums are exceptionally large, platforms may be built in order to play them. Among the Jabo, the large footed drum has the honorary title of ‘God’s wife’ and is the official signalling instrument of the village.
Idiophones are struck, plucked and shaken. Struck idiophones include slit-drums, xylophones, pieces of iron and the glass bottles that have occasionally replaced the iron percussion idiophones. Slit-drums are of two types. The first is a relatively large wooden drum played horizontally (Kpelle kéleng). Among the Jabo such drums have single slits, the lips of varying thicknesses producing different pitches; among the Mano and Gio they have one or two longitudinal slits. Where there are two slits, the tone produced in the area between them is known as the ‘son’s piping voice’; the lower tone of the outer lip is the ‘mother’s resonant response’. A drum with a single slit has a ‘man’s voice only’. The Jabo use these instruments for dance performances, to send messages and to organize meetings of local policing groups. Praise titles may be incorporated into these performances. The second type of slit-drum is a smaller bamboo or wooden idiophone (Kpelle kóno) held vertically and played in ensembles when the bush is being cleared for rice farms. Among the Kpelle, tortoise-shells are also played as slit idiophones in the Sande women’s secret society.
Xylophones (Gio blande; Kpelle bala; Mano balau) are found throughout Liberia and often consist of free logs resting on banana stalks. They are played by boys on rice farms to drive away birds, and are used for signalling. Lamellophones appear in several varieties. One has seven to nine lamellae with a hemispherical gourd or enamel bowl resonator (Kpelle gbelee). It is played as a solo instrument, the player also singing. A larger two- or three-tongued instrument with a box resonator is known as a kónggoma or kongoma (see Sierra leone, §1 and fig.3) among the Vai and Kpelle, as a bonduma among the Gola. It usually accompanies a vocal ensemble that may also include other instruments. Shaken idiophones, which include basket rattles and gourd rattles with external networks of beads, are played chiefly by women. Dancers often wear leg rattles of seed-pods or bells.
Chordophones include the triangular frame zither, the pluriarc and the musical bow. The triangular frame zither (Kpelle konîng) consists of eight or nine strings spanning the triangular wooden frame. The strings are tuned by moving them up or down the frame to change their tension. An attached half-gourd resting on the player’s chest acts as a resonator. Melodic motifs played by this instrument may illustrate an implied text depicting, for instance, a leopard stalking prey or women sowing rice seed. The pluriarc (Kpelle gbegbetele) has piassava bows attached to a round gourd resonator. Metal or rattan strings are stretched across each bow, which has metal rattles attached to its underside. The musical bow (Kpelle gbong-kpala) is played by striking the string with a stick held in one hand, while the other hand stops the lower end of the string at various points. The mouth encircles the string at the upper end, without touching it, to amplify the sound.
Side-blown horns (Kpelle túru) made of wood, ivory or horn are the most common aerophones. They are played in ensembles of four to six horns using hocket technique and voice disguise. Horns are also used in signalling. Globular pottery flutes are used in the secret society for creating the Poro spirit’s voice.
Melody is generally syllabic and percussive. Ostinato is common, appearing as short, repeated melodic patterns either to accompany a more extended melody or in combination to form a complex ostinato, the patterns of which may be simultaneous, alternating or overlapping. In the latter case, for instance in bush-cleaning songs, hocketing sometimes also occurs. A striking example of hocket occurs in the music of side-blown horn ensembles: in a typical group of four to six horns, each instrument plays only one or two notes of the melody. Melody sometimes approaches a type of recitative that reflects the rhythm, pitches and nuances of speech. The storyteller of a chantefable uses recitative during the musical sections of the story. Vocal glissandos and other melodic devices suggest subtleties of speech. Phonemic pitches in these tone languages do not completely govern melodic pitches, or even melodic direction, although speech tone is clearly reflected in the music, especially at semantically crucial points.
The range of pitches used in Liberian music varies and may include five, six, seven or more notes. Performance is frequently focussed within a pentachord, the voice or instrument shifting from one pentachord to another. The Kpelle have songs that use a pentatonic scale within an octave. This includes a minor 3rd, which is often closer to a major 2nd, implying a tendency towards isotonicism. However, there also appear to be 3rds and 2nds of various sizes, including neutral ones.
Both instrumental and vocal polyphony are important in Liberian music. Of the various harmonic intervals used, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths and 6ths are prominent. Parallel 4ths may form opening or closing patterns on the lamellophone or triangular frame zither. Contrapuntal motion is prominent in songs with an overlapping complex ostinato. Herzog described canonic xylophone songs, performed by two men, with the form built on repetition, imitation and transposition.
Much of the music is based on rhythms of unequal beats, as in ex.1, and thus belongs to a broad stylistic area extending through parts of Africa, the Middle East, Mediterranean Europe and India. An idiophonic accompaniment to a pluriarc entertainment song has a 12/8 pattern shown in ex.2, also composed of unequal beats. This rhythmic pattern appears in a fęli (goblet drum) signal pattern of the Kpelle, where the mnemonic syllables name a bird by imitating its voice.
Performances are typically by ensembles rich in contrasting timbres: voices, drums, rattles and metal idiophones. Entries are usually staggered, giving an accumulation of textures. The metal rattles attached to many instruments add variety to the timbre. Horn players and singers delight in voice disguise to produce animal and bird imitations. Master drummers playing membranophones imitate the sound of a slit-drum or other drums to demonstrate their skill. They even imitate the sound of side-blown horns with their voices, placing their mouths close to the drumhead for resonance.
Men sing primarily in the upper vocal register, women in the lower. Both mostly use mouth resonance. There is some tightness in vocal production, which is pronounced in the men’s voices when they sing bush-clearing songs. Tempo in all music is quite fast. Responsorial singing is widespread. The Kpelle call the soloist ngulei-sîyge-nuu (‘song raiser’) and the chorus the faama-nuai (‘answering people’). Litany and strophic forms are both prominent, a variation being the narrative chantefable with recurring musical chorus and narrated story verses.
In every aspect of Liberian musical style, there appears to be logic and consistency amid variety and richness. But further detailed research is needed to understand this logic more fully as it is perceived and ordered by Liberian musicians and audiences.
In addition to the music of the indigenous peoples, mention must be made of the two other types of music, neither of which has been studied extensively. The music of settler descendants has been explored by Agnes von Ballmoos, who studied the Johnsonville Singers, a group organized in the early 1950s. They perform chiefly religious music, and their songs bear some relationship to spirituals. She has also discussed the Greenwood Singers, a group with a mainly secular repertory; it was founded in 1949 and recorded that year by Alberts, but no longer exists. The music of both the Johnsonville and Greenwood Singers draws heavily on Western rhythmic, melodic and harmonic styles. The urban popular music reflects aspects of Highlife, jazz and American popular music, as well as indigenous music. It is important in Monrovia and is increasingly widespread elsewhere. Kru sailors introduced the palm wine guitar style in ports from Sierra Leone to Fernando Po. This guitar style featured a two-finger picking style and flourished particularly up to the 1950s.
The civil war that began in late 1988 brought major disruption in everyday life and musical performance. Nevertheless, as the tension leading up to the war built throughout the country, powerful songs of protest provided opposition to the repression and abuse that was experienced by the Liberian people. Veiled song texts expressed the feelings of the people on many occasions.
The earliest written accounts of music in Liberia are contained in the observations of 19th-century explorers, missionaries and scholars. On a journey in 1868, Benjamin Anderson observed a chief travelling from Totaquella to Boporu accompanied by an entourage of praise-singing musicians playing drums, horns and an iron percussion idiophone. Johann Büttikofer, who began his travels in 1879, described music and dance performances and included drawings of drums, rattles, a sanza (lamellophone) and a triangular frame zither. The first detailed ethnomusicological work was George Herzog’s study of Jabo music in south-east Liberia (1930, published 1934), which focussed on signalling music and the relationships between language and music. In later literature, Warren d’Azevedo has been concerned with the behaviour of musicians, dancers and other artists in Gola society, and with Gola aesthetic concepts. Bai T. Moore has described categories of songs in Liberian music, and Agnes von Ballmoos has examined music of the descendants of the 19th-century settlers.
Films and recordings of musical performances date from the 1920s. In 1923 H. Schomburgk made a silent film of dance in women’s secret society rituals; Paul Germann filmed Gbande masked and stilt dances (1928, 1929). Early recordings include Herzog’s 226 cylinder recordings of Jabo music (1930) and Robert Morey’s recordings (1935) of Loma, Gbande and Mandingo music. Packard L. Okie, an Episcopalian missionary, collected music in various places (1947–54). Arthur Alberts, on his 1949 West African recording trip, collected music of the Loma and Mano, of the Fanti community on Marshall Island and songs in Monrovia from the community descended from settlers.
Hans G. Himmelheber made six extended ethnographic research trips to Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire (1949–65), during which he recorded Gio, Krahn and Mano music; many of his short research films include sound recordings of musical performances. Leo Sarkisian and Bai T. Moore (under-secretary of information and cultural affairs for Liberia) travelled extensively throughout Liberia in 1965–6 and collected a wide variety of music.
Detailed ethnographic studies of musical practices among the Kpelle, Kru, and Vai were carried out in the 1980s and 90s. Lester Monts documented the changes in musical practice brought about by Islamic influences in a Vai village, and Cynthia Schmidt explored the music of Kru mariners living in Liberia and other West African countries. Ruth Stone studied aspects of music events, particularly rhythm and temporal considerations among the Kpelle.
Many field recordings made in Liberia have been deposited at the Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington. Films incorporating music and dance performance are available in the Institut für den Wissenschaftlichen Film, Göttingen.
GEWM, ii (‘Kru Mariners and Migrants of the West African Cost’, C. Schmidt; ‘Islam in Liberia’, L. Monts)
B.J.K. Anderson: Narrative of a Journey to Musardu, the Capital of the Western Mandingoes (New York, 1870), 31
J. Büttikofer: Reisebilder aus Liberia, ii (Leiden, 1890), 334ff
H.H. Johnston: Liberia (London, 1906)
D. Westermann: Die Kpelle: ein Negerstamm in Liberia (Göttingen, 1921), 34, 47, 286
M.J. Herskovits: ‘Kru Proverbs’, Journal of American Folklore, xliii (1930), esp. 259, 269 [transcr. by G. Herzog of two Kru melodies]
R.P. Strong, ed.: The African Republic of Liberia and the Belgian Congo, i (Cambridge, MA, 1930), 64ff, 90
P. Germann: ‘Musik’, Die Völkerstämme im Norden von Liberia (Leipzig, 1933), 62
G. Herzog: ‘Speech-Melody and Primitive Music’, MQ, xx (1934), 452–66
G. Herzog: ‘Drum-Signaling in a West African Tribe’, Word, i (1945), 217
G. Schwab: ‘Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland’, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, xxxi (1947), 149, 270
G. Herzog: ‘Canon in West African Xylophone Melodies’, JAMS, ii (1949), 196–7
G.W. Harley: ‘Masks as Agents of Social Control in Northeast Liberia’, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, xxxii/2 (1950), 3–41
P.L. Okie: Folk Music of Liberia, FE 4465 (1954) [disc notes]
H. and U. Himmelheber: Die Dan: ein Bauernvolk im westafrikanischen Urwald (Stuttgart, 1958)
W.L. d’Azevedo: ‘Some Historical Problems in the Delineation of a Central West Atlantic Region’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, xcvi (1962), 512
A.N. von Ballmoos: ‘Liberian Music’, Liberian Research Association Journal, iii/2 (1970), 30
B.T. Moore: ‘Categories of Traditional Liberian Songs’, Liberian Studies Journal, ii (1970), 117
R.M. and V.L. Stone: Music of the Kpelle of Liberia, FE 4385 (1970) [disc notes]
H. Zemp: Musique Dan: la musique dans la pensée et la vie sociale d’une société africaine (Paris, 1971)
A.N. von Ballmoos: The Role of Folksongs in Liberian Society (diss., Indiana U., 1975)
R.M. Stone: Let the Inside be Sweet: the Interpretation of Music Events among the Kpelle of Liberia (Bloomington, IN, 1982)
R.M. Stone: Dried Millet Breaking: Time, Words, and Song in the Woi Epic of the Kpelle (Bloomington, IN, 1988)
R.M. Stone: ‘Travelling Home: Music, Politics, and the Commemoration of a Life’, Five Windows on Africa (Bloomington, IN, 2000) [CD ROM]