Through the website, Samro will use the I Am Transcription Project to translate African works into international music notation.
Chairperson of the organisation, Nicholas Maweni, said it was often feared that in preserving culture, many may need to interpret long-held beliefs, and in doing so run the risk of being misunderstood.
“Imagine international superstars performing on mbila, uhadi, or isitolotolo [instruments]. How wonderful would it be if the great amahubo aseNdlunkulu, the traditional songs of the Zulu people, were taught in South Korean schools?”
The project, which has been developed by a small team within the Samro Foundation over the past three years, supported by the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, has worked with more than 30 music specialists to transcribe the indigenous music of the South African people.
“Have you ever considered learning to play the !Xuma, a San braced mouth-bow? The team communicated with associated archives and artists around the country, and together they slowly and carefully captured the sounds of our musical legacy and transcribed them into sheet music,” said Maweni.
“We drew on former president Thabo Mbeki’s famed words in his 1996 I am an African speech. Quoting from this speech, the I Am project ‘rejoices in the diversity of our people and creates the space for all of us voluntarily to define ourselves as one people’.”
The public will be able to browse works transcribed to sheet-music that will be free for download from the site www.iamtranscriptions.org.
“We have been honoured to have the opportunity to transport our music from the dusty archives of musicologists and the fading memories of our peoples, and to place it online, acknowledging it as an art form worthy of international recognition,” said project officer Nandipha Mnyani.
“We have all learnt so much. From the wonderful stories behind the music to the struggles of performers to the restrictions of Western music notation, which is our musical alphabet.”
Mnyani said the project was just the beginning of a pan-African dream.
“We encourage all those who have documented or will be documenting indigenous African music to inform the I Am Project of their efforts with the mission to grow the open database.”