Thursday, November 27th, 2014, 20.00
GERHARD KUBIK
Auditory illusions in African Music I Lecture I
Auditory illusions in African Music
Lecture
Far from laboratories the lecturer stumbled upon the so-called i.p. effect (inherent pattern effect) in
December 1959, in Kampala, Uganda, during lessons in amadinda xylophone playing. Amadinda music is
compose of interlocking tone-rows giving rise to a puzzle of criss-crossing melodic-rhythmic lines in
auditory perception, lines that no one has played as such. The effect is intentional and the result of
meticulous research in auditory perception by the ancient composers of the court music of the Kingdom
of Buganda (founded in the 14th century A.D.). Later it was also documented in other African musical
traditions. The effect is comparable to optical illusions as in some of Gaetano Kanizsa’s phantom
triangles and phantom rings. (Cf. Kubik: Theory of African Music, vol. 2 Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2010, pp. 107 - 130).
[Gerhard Kubik]
GERHARD KUBIK
Gerhard Kubik, Ph.D. 1971 University of Vienna, is a cultural anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and
psychoanalyst with a vast background in Africa, North and South America. He is the author of some 200
publications and several books including Africa and the Blues,
Mississippi Press 1999. He is affiliated
with the Oral Literature Research Programme, Chileka, Malawi, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
December 1959, in Kampala, Uganda, during lessons in amadinda xylophone playing. Amadinda music is
compose of interlocking tone-rows giving rise to a puzzle of criss-crossing melodic-rhythmic lines in
auditory perception, lines that no one has played as such. The effect is intentional and the result of
meticulous research in auditory perception by the ancient composers of the court music of the Kingdom
of Buganda (founded in the 14th century A.D.). Later it was also documented in other African musical
traditions. The effect is comparable to optical illusions as in some of Gaetano Kanizsa’s phantom
triangles and phantom rings. (Cf. Kubik: Theory of African Music, vol. 2 Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2010, pp. 107 - 130).
[Gerhard Kubik]
GERHARD KUBIK
Gerhard Kubik, Ph.D. 1971 University of Vienna, is a cultural anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and
psychoanalyst with a vast background in Africa, North and South America. He is the author of some 200
publications and several books including Africa and the Blues,
Mississippi Press 1999. He is affiliated
with the Oral Literature Research Programme, Chileka, Malawi, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
shut up and listen! 2014
Interdisziplinäres Festival für Musik und Klangkunst
