Foundations of Pragmatics: the Primacy of Language in African Music Theory, Practice and Education

Abstract

Language, an important possession by man, is intricately woven with human thinking. Music theory, practice and performance are strongly linked to language and linguistic expressions. This bond forms the basis of meaningful communication between the musician and his audience. This paper analytically surveys the fundamental kinship between music and language globally. It however pays particular attention to the primacy of language in African music with special focus on the following core areas of interest:

• Language and Music in Africa
• Dynamic Conceptions of Language in African Musical Art/ Perrformance
• Communication and Instrumentation
• Language, Music and Emotions

A look at pragmatics is deemed necessary. Its knowledge enables one to interpret or decode the sound qualities and patterns peculiar to a society‟s cultural phonic preferences. This is quite imperative because pragmatics is the culminating point in the encoding and decoding process of the instrumental language. It is hoped that this paper would draw our attention more to the beauty and good characteristics of our own music, and arouse our research instincts towards its intellectual repackaging, for global appreciation and consumption, to the benefit of Africa.