ANALYSIS OF THE MISSA LUBA Presented by Doris Anna McDaniel To fulfill the thesis ...

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ANALYSIS OF THE MISSA -LUBA
Presented by
Doris Anna McDaniel
To fulfill the thesis requirement for the degree of
Master of Arts
Department of Theory
Thesis Director: Dr. Robert Gauldin
Eastman School of Music
of the
University of Rochester
January 8, 1973

ABSTRACT
The Missa Luba is an African setting of the Mass sung
in Latin. The purpose of this thesis is to produce a musical
analysis of the piece and a transcription of the percussion
accompanimental improvisations since they are not included in
the published score. A complete, corrected score may be found
at the end of this volume. A background of information on
African music is presented preceding the analysis as a basis
of comparison.
Elements of both pure African style and Western influence
are evident in the Missa Luba. The open-ended forms, scale
types, melodic contours, choral textures, accompaniment,
adherence to tempo, and duple metric organization heard in
the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Agnus Dei movements are typically
African. There are hints of outside influence in each of
these movements, but the Sanctus shows much more Westernization.
It could reasonably be called a Western piece with a few
African traits.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
. . .
LIST OF FIGURES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • iv
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1
. .
CHAPTER II. PRELIMINARY MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 3
Terminology... • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 3
Melody Types • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4
Seales . . . . . . . . . . • . • . . • . . 11
Rhythm • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 12
Choral Texture • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 16
Choral Style • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 19
Singing Style • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 20
Text Setting • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 22
Form . . . . . . . . . . • • . . • . . • . 2 3
Use of Instruments • • • • • • • • • • • • 25
CHAPTER III. ANALYSIS 28
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Kyrie . . . . . . . . . . • • . . • . . . • . 28
Gloria • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 36
Credo • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 51
Sane tus • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 68
Ag nus Dei • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 78
CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSIONS 88
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
. . .
APPENDIX A. TEXT OF THE ORDINARY OF THE MASS 91
APPENDIX B. MAP OF AFRICA, SHOWING ZAIRE REPUBLIC • 97
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BIBLIOGRAPHY 98
CORRECTED SCORE
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
Page
1 • African "Rondo-like" form • • • .• • • • • • • • .• • • 24
. 2. African "Sequence-like" form • • • • • • • • • • 24
3. Diagram of the form of the Kyrie • • • • • • • • • • 29
4. High tom-tom improvisations in Kyrie • • • • • • • • 34
5. Diagram of the form of the Gloria • • • • .• • • • • • 38
6. Melodic cells which occur in the Gloria • • .• .• • • 40
7. Order of melodic cells in the Gloria • • • • • • 40
8. Choral textures in the first section of the Glor.ia • 43
9. Diagram of textures in second section of Gloria .• .• 44
10. Diagram of textures in fourth sec. tion of Glo.r ia • . 45
11 • Table of melismas in the Gloria • • • • • • • • 45
12. High tom-tom improvisations in Gloria • .• • • • • • • 48
13. Diagram of the form of the Credo • • • • • • • • • 52
14. Melodic cells which occur in the Credo • • • • • • • 57
15. Order of melodic cells in Credo • • • • • • • • • • 57
16. Separation of text phrases in Cre.d o • • • • • • • • • 60
17. Table of melismas in the Credo • • • • • • • • • • 61
18. Percussion texture variations in the Credo • • • • • 63
19. High tom-tom improvisations in Credo • • • • • • • • 64
20. Low tom-tom improvisations in Credo • • • .• • • • • • 66
21. Diagram of the form of the Sanctus • • • • • • .• • 70
22. Table of melismas in the Sanctus • • • • • • • .• . • 74
23. Diagram of the form of the Agnus Dei • • • • • • 79
24. Formal divisions as related to the text, Ag nus Dei . 83
25. Low tom-tom patterns according to form, Ag nus. Dei • 85
26. High tom-tom improvisations in Agnus Dei • • • • • 86
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Before proceeding with the musical aspects of this
project, it is appropriate to present background information.
This information will include the geographic location and
the history of the choir, Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin,
credited with creating the Missa Luba.
This singing group is part of the Baluba tribe which
spreads through south central Africa. At the time the Missa
Luba was first performed, the area in which these people live
1
was a colony, the Belgian Congo. Members of the choir were
students at Kamina Central School, Katanga Province, in east
2
central Belgian Congo.
In September, 1953, Father Guido Haazen, O.F.M., was
appointed Director of Kamina Central School. A few weeks
before Christmas that year, he formed a singing group of about
3
fifty schoolboys, ages 9 to 14, to prepare some traditional
1
on June 30, 1960, the Belgian Congo gained its indepen-
dence and became the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville). On
October 27, 1971, the name was changed to Zaire Republic (see
map, Appendix B).
2
christopher Pavlakis, 11A Boys Choir in the Congo, 11 The
School Musician, XXXII, No. 2 (1960), p. 46.
3Ray Van Steen, notes on record jacket (- --- Missa
Luba, Philips PCC-606).
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4
songs for the approaching holiday. This choir was well-
received, and the boys continued to perform together for
special occasions after Christmas had passed.
With the help of the Commission of the District of
Kamina, Father Haazen prepared an illustrated album of the
choir and forwarded it to King Baudouin of Belgium in 1955.
About a year later Father Haazen received an official notice
from the Royal Court of Belgium, authorizing him to use Les
Troubadours du .!iQ.i Baudouin as an honorary title for his
5
choir.
Sometime between 1956 and 1958 the President of the
Catholic Missions Pavilion for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair,
Mgr. Guffens, S. J., visited Kamina and requested an audition
of the Troubadours. The audition resulted in an invitation
6
to perform in Belgium. In 1958 the choir made a concert tour
7
of Europe, performing in Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Since
the Missa Luba was created in 1957, it is highly probable that
the mass was set especially for performance on the 1958 concert
tour.
4
Pavlakis, loc. cit.
5Ibid., p. 47.
6
Ibid.
7
van Steen, loc. cit.
CHAPTER II
PRELIMINARY MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS
African music is an entirely different idiom from Western
music, and it should be considered according to its own values
and characteristics. The use of terms and systems established
in Western music in the analysis of African music is invalid
for the most part. Every effort should be made to deal with
African music in its own right and aesthetic.
Terminolog:z
In an attempt to set up a frame of reference, several
familiar terms should be redefined and several new terms
require explanation. In discussing African scales, the term
"diatonic" is used to describe scales of any length in which
all intervals approximate half or whole steps. The majority
of the time, such a scale consists of diatonic major and/or
minor seconds. Thus a scale of four tones, as well as scales
of five, six, seven, eight, or more tones, may be described
as diatonic if it consists of stepwise intervals. Scales of
any length which include larger intervals as well as stepwise
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motion will be termed "chasmatonic.
1
Rose Brandel, The Music of Central Africa, an Ethno-
musicological Study (The Hague:- Nijhoff, 1961), p. 18.
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Ex. 1. Illustration of diatonic and chasmatonic scales.
A specific type of chasmatonic scale is the African penta-
tonic scale. The pentatonic scale in this idiom is defined as
2
an octave divided into five segments, either equal or unequal.
There are many types of African pentatonic scales, just as
there are many ways of dividing the octave into five interval-
segments.
Ex. 2. Two African pentatonic scales.
II ()
I~
~0
(j 0 0 no 1\
o-e- 0 0-e-
Melody
There are two large general categories of African melody,
and Curt Sachs has coined appropriate terms for them: patho-
genic and logogenic. Pathogenic and logogenic melody types
are not mutually exclusive by tribe, geographic location, or
3
individual musical composition. • Songs exist in which formal
sections or elements of texture are delineated by the two
different melodic types.
2
curt Sachs, The Wellsprings of Music (New York: McGraw-
Hill, Inc., 1965),p. 152.
3 Ibid • , p • 51 •
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Pathogenic melody is the more frequent of the two.4
Meaning literally "passion-born," this melody type has a
consistently descending overall contour. At the end of the
phrase and the bottom of the melodic ranget a singer or
instrumentalist skips a large ascending interval, an octave
or greater, to begin the new phrase at the top of the melodic
range. The pathogenic melody type may have its origins in the
wild and violent scream-singing of Paleolithic times, "recalling
5
nearly inhuman shouts of joy or wails of rage." All examples
not footnoted in this chapter are the author's own.
Ex. 3. Illustration of pathogenic melody.
The more restrained of the two general categories is
logogenic or "word-born" melody. Many African languages,
especially those in the Bantu language family of central
Africa, are ~ languages in which vocalization affects
interpretation. That is, one word may have various different
meanings according to the differing pitch inflections of its
syllables. Some Bantu languages have as many as nine pitch
levels. In a logogenic melody, the melodic contour is based
on the pitch inflections of the text for the most part. Instru-
mental melodies in both pathogenic and logogenic categories are
merely settings of vocal melodies.
4
Ibid. • , p. 68.
5Ibid., p. 51.