Music TheoryPrint

MU

Music of the Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo is an African nation with close musical ties to its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo's homegrown pop music, soukous, is

National music#

The national anthem of the Republic of the Congo is La Congolaise. It was adopted upon independence in 1959, replaced in 1969 by but reinstated in 1991. The words were written by Jacques Tondra and Georges Kibanghi, the music was composed by Jean Royer and Joseph Spadilière.

Traditional music#

Folk instruments in the Republic of the Congo include the xylophone and mvet. The mvet is a kind of zither-harp, similar to styles found elsewhere in both Africa and Asia. The mvet is made of a long tube with one or two gourds acting as resonators https://web.archive.org/web/20060426211735/http://aainnovators.com/CMS/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=483 .

Soukous#

Though soukous has become much more closely associated with the popular music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, early in the style’s evolution both the local scenes of Kinshasa and Brazzaville played a very important role. In these cities, American style orchestras (called soukous, or kirikiri or kasongo) played rumba (a kind of Cuban music) influenced by traditional music and jazz. Soukous arose from this fusion of styles, popularized as dance music by a number of different orchestras in the 1950s and 60s.

Sources#

  • Kubik, Gerhard: “Mvet”, in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Ed. by Stanley Sadie). macmillan Publishers, London 1981
  • Bender, Wolfgang: “Sweet Mother - Moderne afrikanische Musik”, 1985, Trickster Verlag, München. (in German language)
  • Audio clips: Traditional music of the Republic of the Congo. Musée d’ethnographie de Genève. Accessed 25 November 2010.
  • Afropop Country - Congo music
  • Living Encyclopedia of Global African Music