Survey of African Music

by Karlton E. Hester, editor

This book surveys issues involving the development of traditional and modern African music from antiquity into the modern era. It examines some of the historical context in which African music evolved throughout the entire continent, and connects to African life and culture through discussing stylistic elements of African music and its musicians. The relationship between Africa and aspects of other world cultures is also examined in order to understand some of the musical issues and relationships involved.

Survey of African Music includes:

• An exploration of Ancient African Civilization.
• An examination of the aesthetics of traditional African music.
• A comparative look of African music and musicians by cultures and regions.

Karlton E. Hester, Ph.D. began his career as a composer and recording artist in Los Angeles, where he worked as a studio musician and music educator. Hester specializes in premeditated, spontaneous, and electro-acoustic composition, which range from numerous solo cycles for various woodwinds to chamber configurations, music videos, and electro-acoustic symphonic works written in an eclectic array of styles. He has been the recipient of composer fellowships, grants, and commissions from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Council of the Arts, Arts International, ASCAP, the William Grant Still Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, amongst others. Hester served as the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies at Cornell University from 1991—2001 and is currently Director of "Jazz" Studies at the University of California in Santa Cruz, founding director of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band and Hesterian Musicism.

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