Songs [I.] and [II.] from La route du Tchad. Jean Dybowski. Paris. 1893. pp. 198-9.
Songs [III.]-[VII.] from Aus West-Afrika. Hermann Soyaux. Leipzig. 1879.
Song [VIII.] from Einige Notizen über Bonny. Göttingen. 1848.
Song [IX.] from A Narrative of the Expedition ... to the River Niger. London. 1848.
A great deal might be said about the general character of these songs, e.g. the simplicity and brevity of the phrases, and the fondness for triple measure.
But I pass on to consider three very interesting examples of Jamaican music which, thanks to my friend Mr. N.W. Thomas, I have found recorded in 1688 in Sir Hans Sloane's Voyage to Jamaica. "Upon one of the Festivals where a great many of the Negro Musicians were gathered together," he writes, "I desired Mr. Baptiste, the best musician there, to take the words they sung and set them to Musick which follows."
Angola Song.
