Comments on: I thought I had company (a Mawu dirge)

By: Bingo! Refinding the oldest specimen of Siwu — The Ideophone

Bingo! Refinding the oldest specimen of Siwu — The Ideophone — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:51:46 +0000

[...] concern about prejudices against traditional religion links back to my previous discussion of the decline of funeral dirges in [...]

By: Wednesday Round Up #63 « Neuroanthropology

Wednesday Round Up #63 « Neuroanthropology — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:22:26 +0000

[...] Dingemanse, I Thought I Had Company (A Mawu Dirge) and A Cultural Revival Ideophone brings some wonderful singing, translation and reflections on [...]

By: A cultural revival? — The Ideophone

A cultural revival? — The Ideophone — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:55:54 +0000

[...] closing paragraphs of my previous post were cited in several places (e.g. Culture Making, Far Outliers) as evidence of a cultural revival. [...]

By: Funereal Language Revival in Northern Ghana « Far Outliers

Funereal Language Revival in Northern Ghana « Far Outliers — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:29:22 +0000

[...] and Conservation seems an appropriate moment to note a recent post by Mark Dingemanse of The Ideophone about an encouraging bit of language revival in Siwu, spoken in the Volta region of Ghana: the [...]

By: Mark Dingemanse

Mark Dingemanse — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:12:57 +0000

Thanks Joel, most interesting! It's a pity the Kawu mission post wasn't manned by such industrious German missionaries as Zahn. The only trace I have found of the original music so far is a scathing description of the 'awful harmonies' of the native music by Herman Schosser, and an offhand remark by Friedrich Kruse (1911) that it would be 'quite interesting to record these dirges'. The use of traditional music in church contexts is much more recent in West-Africa (and still very limited); see for example the work of Paul Neeley.

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:17:58 +0000

What a wonderfully appropriate post to cap off the two plenary talks I attended today at the 1st International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation. You might be interested in the following book review (available on JSTOR, if you have access): Bradshaw, Joel. Review of Mission and music: Jabêm traditional music and the development of Lutheran hymnody, by Heinrich Zahn, trans. by Philip W. Holzknecht, ed. by Don Niles. 36:420–424 (1997).

By: Culture Making

Culture Making — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:31:34 +0000

[...] cultural fall and rise of the traditional funeral dirges performed in the Volta region of northern Ghana: brought low by Christianity and recording technology, brought back by the same. [...]

By: Four Stone Hearth 61 « Moore Groups blog

Four Stone Hearth 61 « Moore Groups blog — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:53:38 +0000

[...] at Ideophone describes a Mawu funeral dirge and notes [...]